ABSTRACT
Th e discourses of knowledge represent a hierarchy that classifi es theory as legitimate knowledge based on the sacred canons of objective truth, while lived experiences and everyday practices are supposedly devoid of theory. Th e narrow expectations and assumptions of neutrality and objectivity within academia have oft en pushed scholars to divide, order, and disconnect theory from praxis. Most oft en, scholars feel confi ned to teach and conduct research as if there is no meeting place between what we know and learn from our life experiences and what we know and learn from our formal education within the academy. Rather than detach and compartmentalize theory and praxis, many scholars of color and feminist scholars of color have called for theory to be informed by the lives of those it presumes to explain and understand. Th ey have insisted on “new kinds of theories” (Anzaldúa, 1990, p. xxv) that are not formed on “the classic detached, ivory tower model of scholarship…” (Wing, 2003, p. 6), but instead recognize the reciprocal relationship between theory and praxis.
