The Praxis Lab
PUBLICATIONS
2022
Abstract: In this article, I advance settler colonial theory (SCT) as a critical framework for antiracist and anticolonial family scholarship. Rather than a historical event, SCT describes settlement as a persistent and violent structure. SCT uniquely connects racialization to Indigenous erasure, anti-Blackness, anti-immigrant exclusion, and the ascendancy of Whiteness through intersectional analyses of belonging and otherness. In my discussion, I position the family as a key mechanism of settler colonialism, moving between the historical and contemporary phenomena of family formation and family separation in the United States. Weaving together tenets of SCT and the family, I provide a critical case analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic and its colonial leanings. To conclude, I discuss the unique possibilities that emerge when family scientists utilize SCT to disrupt the structural power of the settler, contributing to the critical transformation of the family sciences.
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Jordan, L. S. (2022). Integrating qualitative inquiry and critical whiteness in psychology research methods courses. Teaching of Psychology, Advanced online. https://doi.org/10.1177/00986283211056
Abstract: This paper merges two neglected components within the psychological sciences broadly and research methods courses specifically: Critical whiteness and qualitative methodologies. Statement of the Problem. In psychology programs, regardless of discipline, research courses remain one area where issues of race and racism, such as critical whiteness, are deemphasized. Similarly, methods courses rarely integrate qualitative inquiry and critical theory. Literature Review. First, I briefly review the relevant literature on the state of qualitative research in psychology. I then discuss critical whiteness, contextualizing the idea of whiteness, before moving into a review of the current research on whiteness in psychology. Teaching Implications. I present three experiential learning activities that further students’ skill development in qualitative methods while learning about three specific aspects of whiteness. Practicing observations, photovoice, and qualitative coding, students can reflect on the pervasiveness of white culture, colorblind racism, and racial microaggressions. Conclusion. The activities described in this article provide instructors one avenue to engage various aspects of whiteness and qualitative methods, phenomena routinely overlooked in graduate training.
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Jordan, L. S., & Dykes, D. (2022). “If You Don’t Fight Like Hell, You’re Not Going to Have a Country”: An Intersectional Settler Colonial Analysis of Trump’s “Save America” Speech and Other Messages of (Non) belonging. Cultural Studies↔ Critical Methodologies. Advanced online: https://doi.org/10.1177/153270862210939
​Abstract: Donald Trump turned the presidency into a live-action reality television series comprising a chaotic blend of televised and tweeted intrigue. The nation’s collective anxiety coalesced in a nationalistic, authoritarian denouement on January 6, 2021. During Trump’s speech at the Save American Rally, he returned to familiar themes, telling the story of a ravaged America and his role as its victimized hero. As Trump concluded his speech urging supporters to “fight like hell,” rioters assailed the U.S. capitol revealing the violence of colonial invasion. To understand and, thus, respond to the insurrection, we must first recognize the dominant structures that create the conditions of its perpetration and excusal. This intersectional analysis addresses the colonial impulse for violent exclusion through the interpretive framework of settler colonialism. Examining four interlocking themes, we incorporate historical and contemporary popular culture rhetorical devices to triangulate our findings. We illustrate how social identity and settler colonialism occur in popular culture at the intersections of American, Christian nationalism, racialization, hetero-genderism, and ableism. Overall, our analysis explores how Trump prepared his base through years of cultural manipulation, promoting a populist, White vision of the world with Trump symbolic of its savior. To subvert these exploitations, we must participate in their deconstruction to destabilize the power of colonial institutions.
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2021
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Abstract: The multifaceted context of Aotearoa / New Zealand offers insight into the negotiation of cultural discourses in mental health. There, bicultural practice has emerged as a theoretically rights-based delivery of culturally responsive and aligned therapies. Bicultural practices invite clinicians into spaces between Indigenous and Westernized knowing to negotiate and innovate methods of healing. In this article, we present findings from a qualitative study based on one year of ethnographic fieldwork. Drawing on negotiated spaces theory and critical interactionism, we report results of a situational analysis of interviews conducted with 30 service providers working within the bicultural mental health system. Through iterative map-making, we chart the discursive positions taken in the negotiated spaces between Indigenous and Western lifeworlds. In total, we identified five major positions of negotiated practices within the institutionalized discourses that constitute bicultural mental health. Findings indicate that negotiations from Westernized systems of care have been, at best, superficial and that monoculturalism continues to dominate within the bicultural framework. Implications are made for genuine engagement in the negotiated spaces, so treatment has resonance for clients living in multi-cultural, yet Western-dominant societies.
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Jordan, L. S., Anderson, L. A., & Hall, J. N. (2021). Sowing the seeds: Sociocultural resistance in the psychological sciences. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. Advance online https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000462
Abstract: Objective: This article problematizes the use of resilience as a psychological and developmental indication of well-being. We base our argument on the possibility that resilience theories internalize responsibility for survival within the individual, and that survival is dependent on the ability to assimilate to injustice. Resistance, on the other hand, represents acts of intentional, active, and often collective survival which can expose and oppose social injustice. Method: Bringing together transdisciplinary scholarship on resistance, we propose a conceptual framework of sociocultural resistance. This framework seeks to forward studies of health that acknowledge the complexity of relationships, culture, and power constitutive of the human condition. Results: We provide examples of sociocultural resistance in the psychological and developmental sciences and suggest the use of diverse theory and methods in the study of resistance. Conclusions: Resistance research is a timely, necessary, and critical turning point in the social sciences with the potential to change unjust systems and promote a nuanced view of health.
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Jordan, L. S., Walsdorf, A. A., Roche, K. M., Falusi, O. O. (2021). “I am affected in all ways…”: A phenomenographic analysis of the effects of media reports of family separations at the border. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. Advance online https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000416
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Jordan, L., S., (2021). Belonging and otherness: The violability and complicity of settler colonial sexual violence. Women & Therapy. Advanced online. https://doi.org/10.1080/02703149.2021.1961434
Abstract: In this article, I problematize sexual violence as a gendered and raced tool of colonial dominance. Though the theoretical framework of settler colonialism, I demonstrate how colonialism in the United States influences current discourse and policy around sexual violence. First, I explore the ways that colonialism positions women as victims and chattel of men. Secondly, I consider why White women who are positioned thusly lean into the male dominance which disenfranchises them, thereby further disenfranchising other-embodied persons. Moving between a historical and contemporary review, I merge empirical and anecdotal evidence to make clear that sexual violence is the rule, not the exception. To conclude, liberation focused therapy and digital feminism is discussed for therapists who wish to confront the colonial forces that obfuscate the conditions under which sexual violence is produced.
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Boe, J, & Jordan, L.S., Ellis, E. (2021). #ThemToo?: Exclusionary discourse in the #MeToo era. Women & Therapy.
Abstract: Trans women experience sexual violence at alarming rates; however, due to societal cisnormativity, people often remain unaware of such rates. As digital feminist movements, such as #MeToo, gain momentum, this moment represents an opportune time to illuminate how trans exclusionary discourses may exist in feminist movements. Using transfeminist theory as an analytic tool, we discuss how the #MeToo movement may displace trans women’s bodies allowing for further violence to occur. Through disrupting the phallus as the “source” of sexual violence, we hope to reduce the assumption that trans women are sexual predators. In this call to action, we invite clinicians to take a stance to end transgender oppression and advocate for transformative change.
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Roche, K., Walsdorf, A., Jordan, L. S., & Falusi, O.O. (2021). The contemporary anti-immigrant environment and Latinx adolescents’ future orientations: A phenomenographic content analysis. Journal of Child and Family Studies. Advanced online doi: 10.1007/s10826-021-02015-0
2020
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Walsdorf, A. A., Jordan, L. S., McGeorge, C. R., & Caughy, M. O. (2020). White supremacy and the web of family science: Implications of the missing spider. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 12(1), 64-79.
Abstract. Family science is at the forefront of understanding the multiple and interconnected risk and protective factors (e.g., poverty vs. wealth, racism and discrimination, privilege) that affect families and the contexts in which they live. In this article, we use the metaphor of spider and web to suggest that family science theorizing is missing an integral piece of the puzzle—the designer of the contexts that have become the field's object of study and intervention (Krieger, 1994). Who or what is this designer? Recognizing that the answer is necessarily complex, we propose a metaphorical spider of insidious influence: White supremacy. Pairing understandings garnered from decades of critical theorizing with a review of the family science literature, we hypothesize about the web of causation and interrogate this culprit. Finally, we offer implications for the consciousness and intentional addition of White supremacy to family science theorizing and methods.
2019
Jordan, L.S., Seponski, D. S., & Armes, S. A. (2019). ‘Oh, it is a special gift you give to me…’: A phenomenological analysis of counsellors in Cambodia. Asia Pacific Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 10(2), 146-158. doi:10.1080/21507686.2019.1629470
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Boe, J., Jordan, L. S. (2019). A look back to move forward: Expanding queer potentiality in family science. Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis, 8(2). doi: 10.31274/jctp.8204
2018
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Jordan, L.S. (2018). “My mind kept creeping back… this relationship can’t last”: Developing self-awareness of monogamous bias. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 30(2), 109-127. doi: 10.1080/08952833.2018.1430459
Jordan, L.S., & Seponski, D. (2018). “Being a therapist doesn’t exclude you from real life”: Family therapist’s beliefs and barriers to political action. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 44(1), 19-31. doi: 10.1111/jmft.12244
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Jordan, L.S., & Seponski, D. (2018). Public participation: Moving beyond the four walls of therapy. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 44(1), 5-18. doi: 10.1111/jmft.12240
Seponski, D., Jordan, L.S., (2018). Cross-cultural supervision in international settings: Experiences of foreign supervisors and native supervisees in Cambodia. The Journal of Family Therapy, 40(2), 247-264. doi: 10.1111/1467-6427.12157
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2017
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Jordan, L. S., Grogan, C., Muruthi, B., & Bermúdez, J. M. (2017). Polyamory: Experiences of power from without, from within, and in between. Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy, 16(1), 1-19.
Richardson, S. Jordan, L.S. (2017). Qualitative inquiry of sibling relationships: reinforcement of disability devaluation through the exclusion of voices. Disability & Society, 32(10), 1534-1554. doi: 10.1080/09687599.2017.1351330
Bermúdez, J. M., Muruthi, B. A., & Jordan, L. S. (2016). Decolonizing research methods for family science: Creating space at the center. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 8(2), 192-206.
Abrams-Muruthi, B.A., Nasis, T., Jordan, L.S., Grogan, C., Mckoy, M., & Farnham, F., (2015). Collaborative therapy approach: Implications for working with Afro-Caribbean families coping with infidelity. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 34(3), 26-43.