In the Margins We Write Back: An Epistolary Praxis for Critical Race Feminista Quantitative Ethnography

This article introduces Critical Race Feminista Quantitative Ethnography (CRFQE), a methodological framework that brings together Critical Race Feminisms, epistolary praxis, Quantitative Ethnography (QE), and Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) in an intentional conversation. Engaging an epistolary praxis with Ida B. Wells-Barnett, the article traces how Women of Color feminist epistemologies challenge the presumed neutrality of quantitative methods and offer alternative forms of knowledge production through computational modeling. Using pláticas~testimonios from Dominican undergraduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic, the study demonstrates how ENA can visualize the epistemic structures of lived experience. Collective and individual ENA models reveal how socio-economic and academic unpreparedness, emotional trauma, familial love, community resilience and advocacy, and familial degree aspirations co-occur as interconnected conditions rather than discrete events. In writing back to Wells-Barnett, I argue that writing from the margins is imperative for Critical Race Feminista quantitative work.