Flint, M., Adams, J., Dodd, K., Johnson, M., Simmons Lee, T., Mitchell, N., & Grinnage, D. (accepted). Dear theory and other stories: Dis/uncovering our relationship to theory through reading. International Review of Qualitative Research. Special Issue: Scholarly Reading Practices

This collaboratively written article follows narratives, memories, and reflections of six Black women and their professor, a white woman, as we read and grappled with theory in a qualitative research course. We take up reading as a practice “that relies on the dynamics of creating-narrating-listening-hearing-reading-and-sometimes-unhearing” and explore our shared and individual experiences interpreting, understanding, and applying theory through reading (McKittrick, 2021, p. 6). The process of grappling with theoretical texts and sharing stories inspired by the texts created a community, exploring new ways of knowledge-making, and dis/uncovering what we already know(knew). Reading together gave us a new language or affirmation of our world and viewpoint, helped us better understand the methodological implications of the theories we want to ground our work in, and helped us to advocate for ourselves more intentionally in our research direction. As McKittrick (2021) encourages, our reading, writing, and thinking practices are couched in our disobedience and refusal to accept what is given to us as knowledge and truth. Through this article, we ask: How do we grapple with texts through our reading practices? We further wonder, grounded in our identities as Black women and a white woman, How does (did) Blackwomanness matter in the (this) classroom? How did our identities matter in relation to theory and reading theory? Through our dialogue around these questions, we explore the tensions and joy of acquiring knowledge through collaborative exposure to new thinking through reading together as scholars.