{"id":213462,"date":"2026-05-06T11:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/?p=213462"},"modified":"2026-05-06T11:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:22:07","slug":"mariah-ayscues-journey-through-community-care-and-liberation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/2026\/05\/06\/mariah-ayscues-journey-through-community-care-and-liberation\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariah Ayscue\u2019s Journey Through Community, Care and Liberation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mariah Olivia Ayscue (he\/king) didn\u2019t just choose Montclair State University\u2014he found community here first.<\/p>\n

Before even applying, Ayscue attended a Gender, Sexuality, and Women\u2019s Studies <\/a>(GSWS) Zine launch party on campus. \u201cThe community was beautiful,\u201d he recalls. Already immersed in creative and activist spaces as a Black Indigenous, 2-Spirit, transgender, intersex, disabled, spoken word poet, singer and community organizer, he was drawn not only to what students were learning, but how they expressed it.<\/p>\n

That connection shaped his academic path. As a GSWS major and participant in the Native American and Indigenous Studies<\/a> (NAIS) summer field school, Ayscue built an experience rooted in both intellectual exploration and lived identity. Midway through his time at Montclair, an email about the NAIS field school sparked something deeper. \u201cAt the time, I didn\u2019t know there was a NAIS program,\u201d he says\u2014but once accepted, the experience became transformative.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe summer field school program changed my life,\u201d Ayscue shares. Through it, he reconnected with relatives from the Ramapough Munsee Lenape Nation, relationships impacted by generations of enslavement and displacement. \u201cEveryone in the field school was hungered for truth and justice, loving, genuine, passionate, and excited to work together.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the classroom, that same sense of depth and connection carried through. Courses like Feminist Theory in Transnational Context<\/a> with Dr. Monica Taylor gave him space to explore anti-colonial care work across his identities, while also learning alongside peers. \u201cBoth GSWS and NAIS communities went above and beyond the ordinary classroom structure,\u201d he says. \u201cThey allowed us to be human.\u201d<\/p>\n

That emphasis on humanity\u2014on learning as something embodied, communal and deeply personal\u2014became central to Ayscue\u2019s academic and creative work. Faculty mentors like Taylor and Dr. Mark Clatterbuck helped shape that journey, grounding his work in intersectionality while fostering space for both joy and grief. \u201cThey know what it means to both build community and be active participants within it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Outside the classroom, Ayscue extended that commitment through leadership roles as a GSWS Head Intern and NAIS Club event coordinator. Still, he points back to the field school as the experience he\u2019s most proud of, alongside his research on anti-colonial care work.<\/p>\n

As he looks ahead to pursuing a Master of Divinity at Union Theological Seminary, Ayscue remains focused on continuing that work\u2014centering embodied theology, radical access and collective liberation.<\/p>\n

His understanding of success is still evolving. \u201cI\u2019m still finding what success means outside of capitalistic expectations,\u201d he reflects. \u201cI just want to do what I love. And do it well.\u201d<\/p>\n

For students following a similar path, his message is direct and deeply personal: trust your own knowledge. \u201cDo not put your own intelligence into question,\u201d he says. \u201cYour wisdom is valuable. Stay curious. And keep learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story is part of a series celebrating College of Humanities and Social Sciences Graduates.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Gender, Sexuality, and Women\u2019s Studies major and NAIS field school participant, Ayscue reflects on identity, scholarship and the power of being fully human.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":213463,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23,42,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-80_gender-sexuality-and-women-s-studies","category-7_homepage-news-and-events","category-native-american-and-indigenous-studies","category-student-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213462"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213466,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213462\/revisions\/213466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}