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is Assistant Professor of Higher Education at Iowa State University. He studies graduate students' learning and achievement, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM fields. He also examines the institutional policies and practices that influence students' educational and workforce pathways. His research, writing, and teaching and advising directly relate to his personal journey as a collegiate student leader, emerging scholar, and the decision to pursue a faculty career. Mr. Alade S McKen, Iowa State UniversityAlade Shola McKen, M.S. Ed., is a first-year doctoral student and graduate assistant in the School of Education at Iowa State University. Alade received his B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Binghamton University, and his M.S. Ed. in Higher Education Administration from Baruch College, School of Public Affairs. Alade has worked in higher education for over 10 years. He also volunteers through a number of non-profit organizations and community partnerships. Alade examines the social foundations of education and culture within society. He is interested in researching diverse issues faced by African American students in higher education

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I would first like to give thanks to GOD, Olódùmarè, Ọlọ ́run, to whom the Yoruba people of West Africa recognize as the lord of creation of the universe and everything inside it.Mojuba (I give thee praises) to Olorun, Olofin, Eleda, Ori, Gbogbo Orisha, Irunmoles, Egungun, Mojuba gbogbo iku n'belese olodumare ibaye orun. Mojuba Ina-fire, Mojuba Eferere, wind and air, Mojuba Omi-water, Mojuba Aiye-earth. I give praise to the universe. I give praise to mother earth. I give praise to all of nature and its beings. I give praise to all my guiding spirits. I give praise to my ancestors. I give praise to all those who came before me. I give praise to my elders. I praise all those who have cared for me, protected me, guided me, and loved me.I praise my Great Grand Parents, who embodied a vision to create and sustain a family that would do amazing things. I give praises to my Grandfather, who came to this country as a migrant from Jamaica with a dream to provide for his family. My Grandmother continues to provide me with strength, hope, and desire to continue to do better each day. It is the foundation of my mother, who traveled to Africa at the age of 16 who sought after African cultural practices through various initiation rites embracing the African worldview. It is also with the Strength and wisdom of my father, who traveled the world with his friend, Uncle Robert Nesta Marley as a Wailer embracing the Rasta revolution. I thank you all for my breath, and I thank you for my body. I thank you for my journey. Thank you to those who brought me into the world to embrace my spiritual journey through many intentions and rites of passage ceremony from Binghamton to Brooklyn, Harlem to Osogbo, Farmers Blvd to Freetown. One love to the brothers of Kappa Nu chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. and Joppa Lodge No. 55. To my family of Ile Omi Toki, Ile Oshun Lari, and Ile Oturupon Sokun, your prayers have led me down the spiritual path, and I will always be in debt to you all who allow me to embrace the true spirit of community. vii Thank you all for bringing to this path to follow the path in a deeper and meaningful way.Most importantly, my brothers and sisters, Ayoka, Ayele, Shoyinka, Shokanni, and Kwame, are my everything. To my #YSBW, #BSS, #LUCHA crew, thanks for making this moment true and reminding me to be my authentic self. Thank you for pushing me above and beyond to my committee members, especially

Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis has traditionally published interviews with individuals who have strong connections to our special issue topics. We believe that interviews are important ways to contribute to the conversation surrounding critical issues in social justice. This interview features Dr. Ginetta Candelario, whose recent visit to Iowa State University offered the opportunity for the editorial team to discuss her research and interests in Latinx Studies. Q. What drives you to do work surrounding Dominican history, activism, identity, and society? Where did it start for you and why is this work so important to you? Then, last part of that question, what's the most rewarding part of your work about Latinx populations? These answers could become a book. Like all academics, we end up studying ourselves; that's really what we all do. I think that's the case even for natural scientists, that if you explore fully enough their biography you come to find that there's usually some kind of biographical relationship between their intellectual pursuits and their professional pursuits and their life story. It's usually more obvious for humanists and social scientists, but nonetheless I think it's true fairly universally. In my case, it's not so much as what as who, which was my mother. My mother began her experience in the US not as an immigrant but as an exile. She was a political exile of the Trujillo regime and at some point, returned to the DR after I was born, with me as a baby, and then immigrated and became an immigrant into US society in the early '70s and remained in the United States, as I said in my talk last night, altogether for 53 years. She came as a 22-yearold, so really the bulk of her life was lived primarily in the US. But part of the experience of entering the United states in 1960, in fact the anniversary of her entry, October 10th, is coming up next week, was that she left a society that not only was a dictatorship, but it was a particularly closed society. Again, one of the things I mentioned in my talk last night was that in 1960 when she came there were fewer than 10,000 Dominicans outside of the Dominican Republic, period, anywhere in the world outside the DR, which is astounding when you consider that there were 4 million Dominicans at the time. That containment was part of the process of the dictatorship. That meant that it was a total institution. Orlando Patterson saw that the media, the school system, public