ABSTRACT
The academy attempts to force us to teach and conduct research as if there is no meeting place among our personal, professional, and communal identities. The narrow expectations of many academic departments push faculty to divide, order, and disconnect these identities and place a priority on professional identity over personal or communal. Rather than detach and compartmentalize our identities, we might think of how the trenza 1 brings together strands of hair and weaves them in such a way that the strands come together to create something new, something that cannot exist without each of its parts. The trenza is something that is whole and complete, and yet, it is something that can only exist if the separate parts are woven together. Like the trenza, when we are able to weave together our personal, professional, and communal identities we are often stronger and more complete. At the same time, weaving together these and many other identities is fraught with complexity, tensions, and obstacles.
