Excessibility

As two fat, queer, and neurodivergent doctoral students, we exist in bodyminds that are constantly perceived to be “too much.” Through physical spaces, professional expectations, and interpersonal interactions, our bodyminds are policed for exceeding normative boundaries. Working within a school of education, our bodyminds face heightened scrutiny as our “excess” positions us outside the image of a good teacher and role model for young children (Davies, 2022; Schee & Gard, 2014). Using a blend of personal reflection and queer, disability, feminist, and fat studies scholarship, this article explores the knowledges our excessive bodyminds bring to our work within the field of education, and how we (em)body this excess as intentional educational praxis through our teaching and research. We consider questions like: How do we teach and practice expansiveness as educators? How do these practices rupture and exceed existing notions of respectability and inclusion? How do we sustain wholeness within institutions that demand we make ourselves smaller? Using our embodied and situated knowledges, we imagine ways in which this excess allows for more expansive and inclusive notions of justice in P-12 teacher education and beyond. We claim “excessibility” as an ongoing practice of imagination, expression, and interdependence that moves us closer to creating more liberatory spaces for all bodyminds.