Tara L. Conley (Ed.D '16) (Photo: Courtesy )
Alumna (Ed.D '16) grew up in Elyria, Ohio, five miles and across a bridge from Lorain, the childhood home of the late, much celebrated novelist Toni Morrison. In for 鈥淐ityLab,鈥� Conley, an assistant professor in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University, asserts that Donald Trump鈥檚 presidency has changed their shared world from diverse working-class communities that Morrison called 鈥渘either plantation nor ghetto鈥� 鈥� and where, in Conley鈥檚 words racism 鈥渨asn鈥檛 talked about so much as it was quietly experienced鈥� 鈥� to one where, in her view, the Trump banners on white lawns signify a more overt divide.
Ultimately, Conley writes, 鈥淭oni Morrison鈥檚 greatest influence on me is not so much written or spoken as it is a whisper to remember that home is strange and borders are everywhere鈥ven though she鈥檚 gone, I feel her presence, more visceral than ever. She, like my mother, reminds me what borders cause me to forget: that belonging exists between familiar and unfamiliar places, and crossing is damn painful.鈥�
Read on the City Lab website.