Daydreaming Beyond Binaries
MISSION
Beyond Marginality
Beyond Marginality began as a daydream. In a world shaped and confined by compounding oppressions, what can those of us relegated to the margins do but dream?
Through syllabi, mentorship, program design, curiosity, feminist friendship, leadership as a DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) educator, and community commitments, I came to learn that daydreaming lay at the foundation of action.
Beyond Marginality is a promise - a creative hub focused on seeing us beyond assigned marginality, honoring the ways in which we’ve survived, created, loved, and learned despite the presumed deficits associated with our socio-political identities. An amalgamation of equity and inclusion praxis, transnational Black feminist promises, curiosity, and creative expression, Beyond Marginality is my vehicle in working collaboratively in hopes of cultivating experiences beyond the confines of the proverbial margins.
Kristian Contreras
YOUR DEI ALCHEMIST
Hi, I’m Kristian and I’m a feminist diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) alchemist. I galvanize principles of transnational Black feminist solidarities and equity and inclusion in my work of facilitating tangible realities rooted in our collective liberation.
I’m invested in shedding assigned marginality in building feminist futures in the classroom and beyond. Beyond Marginality is a creative hub that is grounded in Black feminist fire and ancestral & communal blueprints to support feminist-led organizational project management, storytelling projects, and social justice education initiatives, with the goal of transforming feminist daydreams into liberatory realities.
As founder and lead consultant at Beyond Marginality, I draw on over a decade of expertise as a former higher education administrator, qualitative researcher, and skill as an equity and inclusion educator, to work with/alongside organizations to advance their missions towards equity and liberation. In this work, I utilize my executive functioning skills, flexibility, and creative approach to problem solving and program management to amplify the work of my partners and collaborators.
WORK SEEN IN
The Impact
Beyond Marginality is the vehicle through which radical collaboration and Black feminist blue prints give way to possibility. I love working with folks looking to develop anti-racist curricula, facilitate discussions on equity and inclusion, find new pathways to building community spaces, engage in feminist world-making together, and more!
The Services
Interdiscplinary Liberatory Education
DEI CONSULTING
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS & WORKSHOPS
CREATIVE CURATION
& CONTENT CREATION
On The Blog
Free Palestine.
These last few days have left me with more questions than answers and deepened my commitment to thinking, living, and creating beyond binaries. What we are witnessing with the escalation of violence in historic Palestine moves beyond “conflict” and reductive colonial logics. This violence is rooted in 75+ years of an (illegal) Israeli military enforced occupied apartheid state and over 16 years of Palestine existing as an open-air prison. I have grappled with the right words, the right resources, and how I understand solidarity and accountability beyond identity politics.
I am sitting at the seat of empire as a documented citizen of the United States of America and live on unceded land shepherded by the Tigua Pueblo peoples – right on the border of the United States of America and Mexico. The dehumanization and criminalization of immigrants along this border feels echoed in the nonchalant admission from Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that Palestinians are “human animals”, and the normative framing of whose lives are grievable – who we deem innocent and the communities who are disposable. There are no clean equations for human rights and what one’s right to liberation looks like. There are no clean and neutral definitions that make “condemning violence” simple.
Today I became a doctor and I am SO proud of myself - all that I survived, created, achieved, and let go in a journey that took so much from me. Without my people, I would not have made it to my final graduation stage. To my people, I love you:
Explore this collection of resources meant to nurture our mental health and wellness needs. The university works to disappear and exploit Black women intellectuals and I want us to survive the journey in one piece and in peace.
*It's important to note that the design and intention of this thread, originally developed for the Our Sistren's Garden Discord, is not meant to operate in place of mental health professionals and/or services.
This thread on the Our Sistren's Garden serves as a place to share anything "audio" that you keep on repeat or listen to as a reminder of who you are in spite of American academia's commitment to keeping us at the figurative bottom. Maybe its Tina Turner's entire discography (a personal fave), a podcast you love, spoken word, or something in between - share your soundtrack to this season of our lives as emerging scholars!
Please enjoy our playlist, Soundtrack to the Season - a compilation of songs that got us, the sistren of the study, through the journey when we needed inspiration, a pick me up, or an invitation to dance it out.
The Our Sistren's Garden's #communityIRL thread acts as ahub to share/discuss community resources in real life and on the web - organizations and groups may offer services or a place for support as Black women navigating this chapter of life. The degree and the process are only one component of the full lives we're meant to lead - so grow your community!
A collection of funding opportunities that I've compiled over the course of my doctoral journey. This feels especially important considering how challenging it is when we don't receive full-funding and trying to be well can sometimes feel impossible when we are not paid living wages. Have suggestions? Holler at me here!
