Abstract
This thesis grows out of my attempt to do embodied social justice work within a community partnership shaped by institutional timelines, expectations, and limitations. Working for a local literacy nonprofit, I developed a social justice–grounded heuristic for reviewing their creative-writing curriculum—drawing on Critical Disability Studies, Black Feminism, and anti-racist pedagogy. Along the way, I found myself navigating the disconnection between what I hoped this work could be—relational, slow, reciprocal—and what the structures around me made possible. Through narrative, reflection, and process documentation, I trace how embodiment showed up in moments of tension, discomfort, and misalignment. Rather than treating these moments as failures, I use them to think about what it actually looks and feels like to practice social justice within institutions not built for it. I offer these reflections for others trying to hold onto their values in community-engaged work, and to imagine more ethical, sustainable ways of doing research with others.