A Technology-Aided Method for Healing Our Relational Ecosystem

Olga Estrada, M.A. and Isaiah Murray

Image from first slide of workshop slideshow. Words say, "A Technology-Aided Method for Healing Our Relational Ecosystem", presented by Isaiah Murray and Olga Estrada, M.A.

Links to Materials

Olga Estrada and Isaiah Murray first shared their Healing Our Relational Ecosystem Toolkit at the Unruly Bodies Pedagogy Conference on March 4, 2023 (see original conference session description). They have generously consented to publish their slides and toolkit here as OER.

These resources invite learners to reflect on their relational ecosystems — their connections to different people, institutions, and socio-cultural environments — and the impact these have on the participant’s path to healing and sense of well-being. With this new awareness, learners can focus on incremental actions to build a healthier relationship ecosystem in the classroom and the social world. By identifying the seemingly unshakeable oppression of white, hetero-patriarchal, ableist capitalism in their relationships, they can reframe and reinvent their community networks, aided by technology, and grounded in pleasure, healing, and the preservation of LGBTQIA+ BIPOC people.

In the three activities of the workshop and toolkit, learners will:

  1. Brainstorm affordances of common technologies

  2. Identify community superpowers

  3. Visualize their relationship landscapes

Authors

  • Olga A. Estrada (they/she), olga.estrada@utsa.edu, University of Texas San Antonio, Ph.D. Student, Department of Culture, Literacy, and Language

  • Isaiah D. Murray (He/Him), idm22@cornell.edu, Jacobs Technion-Cornell Tech, Dual Master of Science Degrees, Concentration in Urban Tech

A Technology-Aided Method for Healing Our Relational Ecosystem by Olga Estrada & Isaiah Murray is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Citation

Estrada, O., & Murray, I. (2023, March 4). A Technology-Aided Method for Healing Our Relationship Ecosystem [Workshop]. Unruly Bodies 2023 Pedagogy Conference.

Note: You are welcome and encouraged to use this resource for educational purposes only. In the case this representation of intellectual property is used for commercial use, please contact Olga Estrada or Isaiah Murray at olga.estrada@utsa.edu or isaiahmurray001@gmail.com.

Original Conference Session Description

The way we see, understand and interact with one another shapes our relational ecology and society at large. LGBTQIA+ BIPOC persons have suffered social alienation, loss, and grief across time and space. Intergenerational trauma resides in our bodies and psyches; we have been left with the trouble of undoing fear and pain. Reaching self-actualization is a process we have lent to institutions that govern our livelihoods — a process that we need to reclaim. Overcoming this hurt requires us to acknowledge our wounds and trust ourselves and one another to heal. From there, we are better equipped to confront the treacherous current reality that touts individualism, disembodiment, and the raid of self. Finding relief and peace requires us to rethink our relationships with each other and our institutions. 

As two first-generation, Queer, Chicanx/Afrofuturist educators who teach and learn from the margins, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and under a repressive, anti-erotic, white supremacist, cis- heteropatriarchal government and institutions, we were required to affirm our embodied knowledge and ingenuity to reinvent healing and brave spaces through technology.

This workshop will share pedagogical resources and concepts that learners can use for reflecting on their relationship landscape, accounting for emotional proximity, pain, and pleasure. Our personal tool allows learners to storytell how their connections to people, institutions, and socio-cultural environments impact their path to healing and a sense of well-being. Equipping learners with this capacity allows them to name the dynamics of their relationships, thinking about social identity, power, and privilege. Moreover, this helps learners identify which of their relationships are disempowering. With this new awareness, learners can focus on incremental actions to build a healthier relationship ecosystem in the classroom and the social world. Teaching individuals to identify the seemingly unshakeable oppression of white, hetero-patriarchal, ableist-capitalism in their relationships, they can reframe and reinvent their community networks, aided by technology, and grounded in pleasure, healing, and the preservation of LGBTQIA+ BIPOC people.