{"id":96,"date":"2026-08-17T15:32:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/classof2030\/?p=96"},"modified":"2026-08-17T20:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T20:02:13","slug":"words-are-clay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/classof2030\/2026\/08\/17\/words-are-clay\/","title":{"rendered":"Words are Clay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hi!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My name is Rakhee and I am looking forward to meeting you! I am a TLC fellow, and I am also completing my PhD in Geography. I study development in Africa, and I also love making ceramics.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself.&#8221;- Octavia Butler<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I love making ceramics because the process reminds me to play! As a Zimbabwean who received a scholarship to pursue my doctorate in New York, I often placed a lot of pressure on myself to make the most of my blessings. Alas, the pressure often backfired! It took me a long time to learn that I read better, study better, and write better when I don\u2019t place so pressure on myself and instead allow my natural creativity and curiosity to guide me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I hope you remember that you are also here to play! Sometimes it takes hours and hours to make a ceramic piece, and at the end, I don&#8217;t like it, or maybe I love it and I break it. Making ceramics reminds me that we can always start again, and that if we play in the process, the outcome doesn&#8217;t matter so much yet can often end up even exceeding our own expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">One thing I am excited about this year..<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">..is teaching workshops on social science research methods. I love empowering students with tools to study and understand the world, and I am excited to see how you apply and develop the skills you learn to such a diverse range of fields and interests! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi! My name is Rakhee and I am looking forward to meeting you! I am a &hellip; <a title=\"Words are Clay\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/classof2030\/2026\/08\/17\/words-are-clay\/\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Words are Clay<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":97,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,16,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brooklyn-college","category-social-sciences","category-tlc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/classof2030\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/classof2030\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/classof2030\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/classof2030\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/classof2030\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/classof2030\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/classof2030\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/classof2030\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/classof2030\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/classof2030\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/classof2030\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}