Toni Bell

What's Up with Docs Podcast

My teaching philosophy is grounded in radical inclusion, liberatory pedagogy, and the belief that education should be both transformational and actionable. I approach students as whole people—bringing in their lived experiences, cultural contexts, and aspirations—and I strive to co-create a learning environment that is rigorous, relevant, and rooted in justice.

Drawing from my background in visual anthropology, media impact, and social change, I encourage students to interrogate dominant narratives, critically engage with systems of power, and use media as a tool for cultural and political transformation. Whether I'm teaching graduate students, adult learners, or emerging scholars, I emphasize curiosity over compliance, dialogue over dogma, and collaboration over competition. My classrooms are spaces where questions are valued as much as answers, and where vulnerability and intellectual risk-taking are seen as essential parts of the learning process. I integrate trauma-informed and anti-colonial frameworks, allowing students to explore complex topics without retraumatization and to imagine new futures rooted in equity, care, and collective liberation. Ultimately, I teach to cultivate agency—not just academic skills—and to prepare students to navigate, disrupt, and reshape the world around them.

Drawing from my background in visual anthropology, media impact, and social change, I encourage students to interrogate dominant narratives, critically engage with systems of power, and use media as a tool for cultural and political transformation. Whether I'm teaching graduate students, adult learners, or emerging scholars, I emphasize curiosity over compliance, dialogue over dogma, and collaboration over competition.

My classrooms are spaces where questions are valued as much as answers, and where vulnerability and intellectual risk-taking are seen as essential parts of the learning process. I integrate trauma-informed and anti-colonial frameworks, allowing students to explore complex topics without retraumatization and to imagine new futures rooted in equity, care, and collective liberation. Ultimately, I teach to cultivate agency—not just academic skills—and to prepare students to navigate, disrupt, and reshape the world around them.

My classrooms are spaces where questions are valued as much as answers, and where vulnerability and intellectual risk-taking are seen as essential parts of the learning process. I integrate trauma-informed and anti-colonial frameworks, allowing students to explore complex topics without retraumatization and to imagine new futures rooted in equity, care, and collective liberation.

Ultimately, I teach to cultivate agency—not just academic skills—and to prepare students to navigate, disrupt, and reshape the world around them.

Ultimately, I teach to cultivate agency—not just academic skills—and to prepare students to navigate, disrupt, and reshape the world around them.

At the core of my professional practice is a commitment to liberation, relationship-building, and narrative justice. Whether I am designing an impact campaign, leading a classroom, conducting archival research, or advising on strategy, my approach is guided by the principles of radical collaboration, cultural accountability, and care-centered leadership.

I work from an intersectional, Black feminist framework that honors lived experience as data, community wisdom as expertise, and storytelling as a catalyst for transformation. I believe that ethical practice means not only being excellent at what I do, but also being deeply attuned to how my work affects others, especially those who have been historically marginalized or misrepresented. My practice is transdisciplinary by design, grounded in a blend of research, creative production, and structural analysis. I move fluidly between sectors—academia, media, nonprofit, and grassroots organizing—because real change happens in the spaces between, where silos break down and new models can emerge. Above all, I view my work as a form of service—to movements, to culture-makers, to students, and to the future we’re collectively shaping.

I work from an intersectional, Black feminist framework that honors lived experience as data, community wisdom as expertise, and storytelling as a catalyst for transformation. I believe that ethical practice means not only being excellent at what I do, but also being deeply attuned to how my work affects others, especially those who have been historically marginalized or misrepresented.

My practice is transdisciplinary by design, grounded in a blend of research, creative production, and structural analysis. I move fluidly between sectors—academia, media, nonprofit, and grassroots organizing—because real change happens in the spaces between, where silos break down and new models can emerge. Above all, I view my work as a form of service—to movements, to culture-makers, to students, and to the future we’re collectively shaping.

My practice is transdisciplinary by design, grounded in a blend of research, creative production, and structural analysis. I move fluidly between sectors—academia, media, nonprofit, and grassroots organizing—because real change happens in the spaces between, where silos break down and new models can emerge.

Above all, I view my work as a form of service—to movements, to culture-makers, to students, and to the future we’re collectively shaping.

Above all, I view my work as a form of service—to movements, to culture-makers, to students, and to the future we’re collectively shaping.

I entered this work because I believe stories can shift power. As someone shaped by the South, by Black feminist thought, and by a lifelong curiosity about how systems shape people—and how people push back—I’ve always been drawn to the intersections of narrative, justice, and transformation.

I didn’t choose just one professional area—I decided on the throughline: to work in the service of liberation. Whether in academia, impact producing, archival research, or community education, I’ve been guided by the question, “Whose story is being told, and who is being left out?” That question has led me to support filmmakers documenting incarceration and gender-based violence, to mentor students reclaiming their narratives, and to build tools that help communities organize and heal. I do this work because I want to contribute to something bigger than myself. I want to disrupt the extractive tendencies of media and research, and instead practice methods that are accountable, reciprocal, and rooted in care. I want to create spaces—on screen, on the page, and in person—where people feel seen, heard, and capable of imagining something freer.

I didn’t choose just one professional area—I decided on the throughline: to work in the service of liberation. Whether in academia, impact producing, archival research, or community education, I’ve been guided by the question, “Whose story is being told, and who is being left out?” That question has led me to support filmmakers documenting incarceration and gender-based violence, to mentor students reclaiming their narratives, and to build tools that help communities organize and heal.

I do this work because I want to contribute to something bigger than myself. I want to disrupt the extractive tendencies of media and research, and instead practice methods that are accountable, reciprocal, and rooted in care. I want to create spaces—on screen, on the page, and in person—where people feel seen, heard, and capable of imagining something freer.

I do this work because I want to contribute to something bigger than myself. I want to disrupt the extractive tendencies of media and research, and instead practice methods that are accountable, reciprocal, and rooted in care. I want to create spaces—on screen, on the page, and in person—where people feel seen, heard, and capable of imagining something freer.

Welcome. First things first—take a deep breath. You belong here.

Saybrook isn’t just another academic institution. It’s a space that asks you to show up fully—mind, body, spirit, history. You’re not just here to earn a degree; you’re here to become more of yourself, and that work can be just as uncomfortable as it is transformative. My advice? Don’t try to do this journey alone. Reach out. Build community. Talk to your professors, talk to your peers, talk to yourself—often. The questions you’re asking matter, even when they feel messy or unresolved. Also, protect your energy. Academia—even the kind with a soul—can drain you if you’re not rooted. Pace yourself. Rest when you need to—center joy and care at the heart of your process. Ultimately, let your work serve a greater purpose. Saybrook will give you tools, but your purpose—that’s yours to claim. Keep asking: Who am I doing this for? What kind of world am I helping build?

Saybrook isn’t just another academic institution. It’s a space that asks you to show up fully—mind, body, spirit, history. You’re not just here to earn a degree; you’re here to become more of yourself, and that work can be just as uncomfortable as it is transformative.

My advice? Don’t try to do this journey alone. Reach out. Build community. Talk to your professors, talk to your peers, talk to yourself—often. The questions you’re asking matter, even when they feel messy or unresolved. Also, protect your energy. Academia—even the kind with a soul—can drain you if you’re not rooted. Pace yourself. Rest when you need to—center joy and care at the heart of your process. Ultimately, let your work serve a greater purpose. Saybrook will give you tools, but your purpose—that’s yours to claim. Keep asking: Who am I doing this for? What kind of world am I helping build?

My advice? Don’t try to do this journey alone. Reach out. Build community. Talk to your professors, talk to your peers, talk to yourself—often. The questions you’re asking matter, even when they feel messy or unresolved.

Also, protect your energy. Academia—even the kind with a soul—can drain you if you’re not rooted. Pace yourself. Rest when you need to—center joy and care at the heart of your process. Ultimately, let your work serve a greater purpose. Saybrook will give you tools, but your purpose—that’s yours to claim. Keep asking: Who am I doing this for? What kind of world am I helping build?

Also, protect your energy. Academia—even the kind with a soul—can drain you if you’re not rooted. Pace yourself. Rest when you need to—center joy and care at the heart of your process.

Ultimately, let your work serve a greater purpose. Saybrook will give you tools, but your purpose—that’s yours to claim. Keep asking: Who am I doing this for? What kind of world am I helping build?

Ultimately, let your work serve a greater purpose. Saybrook will give you tools, but your purpose—that’s yours to claim. Keep asking: Who am I doing this for? What kind of world am I helping build?