My academic and professional identity is shaped by lived experience, relational practice, and a sustained commitment to building communities that are responsive, inclusive, and humane. I come to my work as an interdisciplinary scholar, advocate, and mother, informed by years of navigating complex social, health, and educational systems—both personally and alongside others. These experiences have profoundly influenced how I understand knowledge, power, responsibility, and collective belonging, and they continue to shape how I approach scholarship and practice.
Grounded in feminist, intersectional, and decolonial frameworks, my approach centers lived experience as a legitimate and necessary form of knowledge and resists reductionist or deficit-based models. I attend closely to norms as they are produced and enforced within institutions, whose voices are recognized as expertise, and the ways community structures shape participation, belonging, and access.
Academically and professionally, my work focuses on intentional communities and community-building through interdisciplinary methods and writing-as-inquiry. I value collaboration, ethical reflexivity, and accountability to the communities and contexts within which knowledge is produced. I understand learning as ongoing and iterative rather than fixed or final, and I remain committed to work that bridges scholarship and practice while honouring the complexity of lived experience. This portfolio reflects that ongoing process and offers a window into how I think, learn, and work in service of building more just, responsive, and inclusive communities.
Candice Reich 