Week 1#FeministAcademia
Once upon a time, there was a land known as the Academic Zoo, where creatures from all walks of life came together to share knowledge and shape the world. On the surface, it appeared to be a paradise—a lively environment brimming with animals pursuing their dreams. Beneath the surface, however, cracks were easily visible.
The lions roared the loudest, hunting for their prey and claiming their ideas were the only ones worth hearing. The peacocks displayed their feathers, dazzling others into silence. The cheetahs raced to publish first, leaving the tortoises and snails struggling to keep up. Meanwhile, the spiders’ webs were torn down, dismissed as irrelevant, even as they held the zoo together.
The zookeepers insisted: “This is how it has always been. To thrive here, you must adapt, compete, and prove yourself better than the rest.” However, many animals noticed that despite all their efforts to do so, they felt isolated, unseen, and exhausted. The kangaroo struggled to care for her joey while contributing to the zoo. The penguins shivered in an environment not suited for them. The frogs croaked in unison, but their voices were dismissed as mere noise. The fire ants worked tirelessly, yet their contributions to the zoo were never acknowledged.
One day, the owl – renowned for her wisdom – gathered all the animals together. “We were not meant to live like this,” she said. “This zoo was designed to keep us apart, to make us compete, to force us to conform, but what if we used our strengths differently? What if we created a place where all of us could thrive, not just the loudest and fastest?”
The animals began to dream together. The spiders wove webs to connect every corner of the zoo. The elephants shared their memories and experiences, ensuring that no one’s contributions were overlooked. The kangaroos demonstrated how care could be passed on. The beavers built bridges, the fire ants dismantled barriers, and the frogs sang until their voices echoed across and beyond the zoo.
Piece by piece, the academic zoo began to transform. It became a place where collectiveness mattered more than competition, where care and inclusion were fundamental building blocks of its foundation, and where every creature – regardless of size, speed, background, or strength – had a role to play.
The animals named this new vision Positive Academia, and they pledged to build it together. They understood that the zoo could only truly thrive by celebrating all its inhabitants and working to dismantle the walls that had separated them.
Moral – Positive Academia reimagines the academic structures we inhabit, the ways we live our academic lives, and creates academic spaces where everyone can contribute, belong, and thrive.
