This collaboratively written article follows the 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 explore our shared and individual experiences interpreting, understanding, and applying theory through reading with Katherine McKittrick. Reading together was healing because it 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. 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 did our identities matter in relation to theory and reading theory? How does (did) Blackwomanness matter in the (this) classroom? We explore the tensions and joy of acquiring knowledge through reading together as scholars.
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