Attraversiamo: Crossing over thresholds of knowledge for public good
By Reema Faris
As part of 911吃瓜 GSWS's Traveling Speakers Series, Reema Faris visited Prince George to speak at an International Women鈥檚 Day (March 8, 2026) event organized by the Faculty Association of the College of New Caledonia.
In her 2006 blockbuster memoir, , Elizabeth Gilbert introduces the Italian word attraversiamo, let鈥檚 cross over. She uses it in the sense of a leap of faith, of jumping into the next phase of one鈥檚 life, of taking risks even when the outcome is uncertain. In Gilbert鈥檚 case, after her year of travel and self-exploration, it鈥檚 about crossing over into a new intimate relationship.
There are other ways to think about attraversiamo, too, especially in relation to different boundaries and thresholds.
For example, consider the role of a scholar, an academic, a researcher.
How does one cross over from the fortress of academia into the world of every day?
To make the knowledge one fosters into applications, practices, and insights that allow others to live their lives with more understanding, more awareness, and 鈥� ultimately for me and how I see the world 鈥� with more empathy?
I have found myself grappling with this question more often since beginning my PhD journey in 2016. Initially, my approach to academia was to immerse myself in my studies with the notion of developing my skills, my knowledge, and my expertise.
What I鈥檝e grown to realize 鈥� not that I wasn鈥檛 aware of this before 鈥� but what I鈥檝e grown to realize in a more embodied sense than as a passing thought is that prioritizing one鈥檚 own learning to become the expert on a subject with the expectation of then regurgitating that knowledge or those insights from a stage or a podium is a very myopic view of learning.
Perhaps the dilemma is mitigated in sciences or health sciences where outcomes, debates, and hypotheses are more tangible. However, it鈥檚 a real conundrum in the social sciences and humanities, in the appreciation of art, literature, history, philosophy, and so on, in disciplines which appear to many as esoteric and niche, and perhaps even irrelevant.
"There are other ways to think about attraversiamo, too, especially in relation to different boundaries and thresholds."
But the social sciences and humanities are integral to understanding the world around us, to developing critical thinking skills, and that鈥檚 why I鈥檓 grateful for every opportunity I have to share my learning with others and to learn from those who may or may not be involved in the academic world. To cross over into different spaces and places, to have conversations about issues that have a direct bearing on people鈥檚 lives. Of demonstrating why thinking about ideas is not an exercise in futility. It is foundational to our humanity and shared existence.
My home department at 911吃瓜 (911吃瓜), Gender, Sexuality, and Women鈥檚 Studies (GSWS), offers a community outreach program called the Traveling Speakers Series (Series). The Series, which started in 1990, sends a member of the GSWS group, whether faculty, associate faculty, or a graduate student, to communities within British Columbia (BC) and outside the Lower Mainland, to speak to various audiences, including women鈥檚 groups and community colleges.
Through the program I鈥檝e had the great fortune to visit Haida Gwaii, Vernon, Nelson, and Prince George in-person. The latter for two years in a row! Both my visits to Prince George were because of invitations from the Faculty Association of the
In 2025, I spoke to the folks in Prince George about women readers and happily-ever-after narratives, which is primarily a discussion about romance fiction. It鈥檚 about taking the conversation about the genre beyond rationalizing it as escapism and entertainment and looking at the implications of hegemonic narratives that prescribe and proscribe what makes a person鈥檚 life complete and meaningful.
For my 2026 visit, I focused on the history of women and reading and argued that women鈥檚 reading is more important than ever in this era of misinformation and disinformation. An era where differences of opinion become a lever for those in power, along with a raft of other public personas and parties, to weaponize into politically polarizing and radicalizing views.
The venue for both public events was Books & Company on 3rd Avenue in Prince George. It is an amazing bookstore and a key community hub. In the year between my two presentations, the store has added a coffee shop on the premises and that has made it even more inviting as a space to gather, to celebrate reading, and to just be.
"In being ambitious, women and girls refuse society鈥檚 attempt to cast them as lesser than and claim the right to say they are more than what society expects them to be."
As part of my presentation, I shared a quote from a book I was using with students during the spring 2026 semester. The course is called Feminist Currents and it鈥檚 one that I organize around the theme of rants, polemics, and manifestos. For the course, the students and I were working with Mona Eltahawy鈥檚 2019 The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls; a book that the author explicitly tells us is a manifesto. The quote I shared with the Prince George audience comes from Eltahawy鈥檚 chapter on ambition in which she describes ambition as a quality or characteristic that women and girls leverage to reclaim their right to say they are more than. In being ambitious, women and girls refuse society鈥檚 attempt to cast them as lesser than and claim the right to say they are more than what society expects them to be.
Eltahawy says that through ambition women take control of their own experiences and she writes: 鈥淗eaven forbid other women see 鈥� i.e., get ideas 鈥� that we too can be the star, not just of a hit television show or a movie franchise but simply of our own lives鈥� (p. 95). The big picture issue then is the question of where we get our ideas from and how such ideas help us understand ourselves, our personal situations, and the world around us. It鈥檚 also about reclaiming agency over our lives and reading is one of the places where people get their ideas from about what鈥檚 right and wrong, what鈥檚 just and unjust, what鈥檚 acceptable and what鈥檚 not. It鈥檚 a lens through which to view the world and to question why things are as they are and not simply to accept them as is.
"Using the metaphor of eating and food also helps to explain the many ongoing attempts we see to ban books based on ideological grounds."
There was a time when books and print culture were new technologies, the smartphones of their era and like with any technology, thinking about the impact of these technologies intrigued people and scared those in authority. Folks feared the impact reading would have on women because women were seen as more vulnerable and more in need of protection. To help explain this, I use the metaphor of eating, which is one that I鈥檝e come across during my studies. With our diet, we eat to make sure our body works well. With reading, you take words and ideas into your body, and these ingested words and ideas have an impact on your physical being as well as your thinking and your view of the world. But access to diets, the reading diet for our minds and the food diet for our bodies, is variable and manifests in practice as measures of control and expressions of privilege.
Using the metaphor of eating and food also helps to explain the many ongoing attempts we see to ban books based on ideological grounds. To control reading diets. When viewed this way, we can understand that banning books is a fear of ideas. And while I believe in literacy as liberatory, it can also be oppressive. With power and control, one can deny access to books one fears and conversely promote texts that support a particular world view no matter how authoritarian it may be. Being told what is good for us to read is a blatant attempt to control our imaginations, to forestall our ability to develop our own ideas, to divide and isolate us from others, and to claim our consent and enforce our conformity with the systems, structures, and institutions that may not in fact have our best interests at heart.
"Opportunities such as the GSWS travelling speaker series and other initiatives that foster dialogue and conversation are critical to avoid crossing over into a void and instead cross over into a promising world of care, empathy, and understanding based on the co-creation and sharing of what we know and what we have learned."
However, this is not only about academics, scholars, and researchers crossing over and out into the world, but also about creating the space for the world to cross into our learning spaces. That exchange is what will help universities safeguard their relevance in a dynamic manner. And that鈥檚 why I鈥檓 appalled about the budget cuts that are prevalent in higher education, whether in the Lower Mainland or in Prince George. Provincial under-funding, federal government manipulation of immigration policy, the increase in administrative ranks rather than staff or faculty numbers, along with the growth of artificial intelligence and technology, are all factors that not only put the university at risk, but which threaten the very core of learning.
As people focus more and more on absorbing online content (even if that is reading text) or creating online content, we are prioritizing watching over knowing, and the ability to scroll rather than investing in the hard work of learning. I see this as a threat to building empathy and the individual consciousness needed for each person to contribute to the struggle for justice around the world and for everyone. Opportunities such as the GSWS travelling speaker series and other initiatives that foster dialogue and conversation are critical to avoid crossing over into a void and instead cross over into a promising world of care, empathy, and understanding based on the co-creation and sharing of what we know and what we have learned. And to never stop doing so and always being ready to explore the next set of questions.
"Let鈥檚 traverse boundaries between places of learning and our communities for mutual benefit."
So, to academics, scholars, and researchers everywhere I say attraversiamo.
Let鈥檚 foster back and forth exchanges beyond the strict confines of academic conferences and university classrooms.
Let鈥檚 broaden conversations and dialogue beyond our own circles, beyond those who exist in the same spaces as us and who are engaged in the same pursuits.
Let鈥檚 traverse boundaries between places of learning and our communities for mutual benefit.
Let鈥檚 step out and let鈥檚 invite in.
Attraversiamo with intent, for individual joy and collective gain.
Let鈥檚 go. Andiamo!
Reema Faris (she/her) has worked as a sessional instructor and limited-term lecturer for the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women鈥檚 Studies at 911吃瓜, where she received her PhD in 2024. She is co-editor, with Amanda Watson, of Feminist Dream Labs. Practices for Caring Through Crises (UBC Press, 2026).
For more information about the GSWS Traveling Speakers鈥� Series or to book a speaker, please contact Roberta at gswsmgr@sfu.ca