About Me

My name is Em Rabelais, I live in Chicago, and I use fae/femme/faer pronouns, but also occasionally she/her/hers pronouns. I am a white, disabled and immunocompromised, queer, non-binary, trans femme chainmaille artist, abolitionist health ethicist, problem-solver, story-teller, analyst, nurse, researcher, mentor, and disrupter and dismantler of whiteness and white supremacist feminisms in education, research, healthcare, corporate, and other settings. In case this word, ‘whiteness,’ is new to you:

Whiteness is a multi-level enactment of white supremacy—the prevailing white supremacist sociopolitical attention to what is (ab)normal about and (in)appropriate use of the body—that, while certainly placing the greatest harm on Black people, extends beyond race and ethnicity through its control of bodies and bodily autonomy (Rabelais & Walker, 2020).

In addition to whiteness as racist violence, I also address whiteness as ableist, transantagonistic, and transmisogynistic violence. My goals have been to support community members, students, workers, administrators, and others to make current practices accessible and without such violence in policies, protocols, ethics statements, ‘DEI’ materials, course syllabi, educational programs, and more. I’ve done this work with hospitals, academia, students, patients, researchers, educators, and others. To connect with me, send a message or visit me on Twitter or Instagram.