Dr. Julia Storberg-Walker, an Associate Professor in the Executive Leadership Program in GSEHD, and an Affiliate Faculty member of GW’s Global Women’s Institute, was recently interviewed by Community Engaged Scholarship (CES).
“I learn best when faced with a challenge.”
After leaving Deloitte in 1999, Dr. Storberg-Walker pursued her PhD in Human Resource Development “to better translate her business knowledge to serve nonprofit organizations.” Dr. Storberg-Walker noted that, even though she had extensive experience in business settings, she felt that she needed to become more learned in the “language of business consulting and organizing.” Dr. Storberg-Walker “never intended to be a faculty member;” initially, she “mainly focused on non profit consulting.” However, “as a professor,” Dr. Storberg-Walker “makes a larger impact” since she’s “able to collaborate with more people and disseminate her research more widely.”
“There are always recursive loops which help cultivate mutual partnerships.”
Dr. Storberg-Walker’s research as a feminist scholar has taken her across the globe, from Guatemala, Morocco, Korea, Jamaica, Belize, and India. From about 2007 to 2012, Dr. Storberg-Walker focused on gender inequities in a variety of international and domestic community settings. Starting around 2013, Dr. Storberg-Walker began to expand her feminist research “through the integration of critical race perspectives.” She believes in the power of critical, participative action research. Before conducting action research or providing consultation, Dr. Storberg-Walker meets with local community leaders who tell her what they need. In Belize, for example, after consulting with “the leaders of a very rural women’s mentorship program,” Dr. Storberg-Walker “created action-research intervention based on what the women said they needed.”
“...action oriented, always what the participants want…”
Currently, Dr. Storberg-Walker “is collaborating with an action-oriented group of emerging scholars (e.g., doctoral students or early career faculty) from Asia, India, and South America.” Scholars in the program “are awarded funds to attend an annual research conference.” The program “helps the scholars hone their skills as scholarly researchers,” and Dr. Storberg-Walker advises scholars on “the application and integration of collaborative autoethnographic methods.” During sessions, Dr. Storberg-Walker sees herself “as more of a coach; after scholars apply collaborative autoethnography in their daily practices as researchers,” she assists with “understanding the analysis and enhancing the method.”
“...feminist theorizing informs my everyday interactions, teaching, and research…”
While Dr. Storberg-Walker enhances her research through community involvement, inside the classroom or inside higher education, her integration of theory and practice creates more inclusive spaces and facilitates a broader commitment to access and equity. “In higher education,” Dr. Storberg-Walker reflected, “philosophy is separate from practice. Feminist theorizing can challenge this binary and presents an embodied philosophy that strives to decenter patriarchal knowledge and integrate feminist theorizing with everyday practices.” Further, “feminist theorizing offers a practical way of being in the world, as power imbalances are a real and ever present force.” In an effort to expose these power imbalances, “feminist theorizing privileges embodied experience and hidden stories.”
“If you aren’t at the table, you’re on the menu.” - Ann Richards
Dr. Storberg-Walker’s feminist theorizing and ongoing work enhances her “commitment to diversity and inclusion in all spaces” as she “reconceptualizes her relationship with power as a newly elected member of the Steering Committee of the GW faculty association (GWUFA).” Feminist theorizing “is just one of the pillars that undergird” Dr. Storberg-Walker’s work; “other pillars include critical race theory, critical whiteness theory, indigenous ontologies, and Quaker spirituality.” Dr. Storberg-Walker noted, “all of these theoretical perspectives contribute to relational ontology, honoring and understanding that we’re all interconnected--humans, plants, the land, water, and air.”
“...co-authoring to normalize co-creating...”
In an effort to decolonize higher education, Dr. Storberg-Walker discussed how our “head, hand, and heart all need to be activated for good.” In higher education, “heart activation is usually off limits,” but Dr. Storberg-Walker’s research and faculty involvement aim to change this. Pedagogically, Dr. Storberg-Walker “decenters Eurocentric ideas in her classes” and assigns “non-Western, indigenous, and antiracist texts” in an effort to normalize multiple intellectual ways of knowing and honor “hidden stories.” As a leader in her field, Dr. Storberg-Walker consistently and thoughtfully calls out “academic spaces and research that assume extractive and exploitive methods.” To bridge the integration of theory with classroom practices and everyday experiences, Dr. Storberg-Walker’s “teaching reinforces the four pillars of GSEHD’s Doctorate in Human and Organizational Learning and Executive Leadership Programs: e.g., learning, leadership, culture, and change,” as her students “practice team building and honor embodiment and intellectual knowledge by focusing on contemporary societal problems.” In addition to her research projects and curriculum development, Dr. Storberg-Walker is currently “co-authoring a chapter with scholars of color to further the decolonization of higher education.” “The text itself critically engages with the decolonization of higher education.”
“The more I trust my inner wisdom, the more power I have. The more power I have, the greater the impact I have. I wish I would have known this 40 years ago!!!”
Dr. Storberg-Walker credits “earlier moments of heightened cognitive dissonance” and what she calls “drops of grace,” random moments of intense and thoughtful introspection, as the catalysts for changing her life’s narrative. By following her inner voice, Dr. Storberg-Walker is opening to her dreams of serving non-profit organizations, co-creating a new reality of collaboration not competition, and cultivating quality relationships with others. “One year ago,” Dr. Storberg-Walker “never could have imagined publicly opposing the president of GW.” Now she is a recognized faculty leader in calling out decisions and actions of GW’s administration that diminish employee wellbeing and perpetuate inequalities. New leadership positions are arising from this increased public stance. Last summer, Dr. Storberg-Walker was elected to serve a two-year term on the Steering Committee of the GWUFA (George Washington University Faculty Association), and in December she was appointed to serve on the Faculty Senate.
Dr. Storberg-Walker strives “to be someone of justice and mercy... this is an ongoing quest” to integrate these two forces.
“I’m in the middle of my narrative, my life story, and I see myself as a cowcatcher for younger scholars.”
A cowcatcher clears the train tracks to allow the train to move forward unimpeded. Likewise, Dr. Storberg-Walker sees her role to ‘clear the tracks’ of barriers or obstacles that emerging scholars, eco-feminists, and critical race scholars might encounter as they move forward in their career. As Dr. Storberg-Walker reflected on the approaching the legacy phase of her career, her current work “anticipates the roadblocks and dilemmas younger scholars could face in their research” and sweeps them aside. In addition, Dr. Storberg-Walker “focuses on developing coaching programs, provides mentorship to young women, offers collaborative research projects and opportunities to young scholars, and uses her expertise to serve emerging scholars’ development.”
We are honored to have Dr. Storberg-Walker serve as a Nashman Affiliate faculty. To learn more about Nashman Affiliate Faculty and Faculty Learning Communities, click here. If you’re interested in designating your course as a Community Engaged Scholarship course, click here.
