Soon after When They See Us began streaming on Netflix, I saw an article by Doug Criss on CNN’s website. The lead grabbed me right away: “I tried to watch ‘When They See Us,’” Criss declared. “I couldn’t even get past the trailer.” Criss attributed his feeling overcome to a cluster of related causes: “the …

Continue reading When They See Us, The Dark Fantastic and The Origin of Others: Why and How White People Need to Watch, Read, and Self-critically Reflect

“Office Hour” is a devastating play. But it’s a play whose questions about race, gender, and social class we should be willing to examine. This one-act drama—at Circle Theatre in Fort Worth through May 11—may resonate especially strongly with those of us who have already been “schooled” to think about intersectional identities in classrooms. And …

Continue reading An “Office Hour” Appointment to Keep

It’s springtime in academe. Walking across campus is less a shivering ordeal and more an opportunity to savor the warmer air, the seasonal blooms—and the lively, post-spring-break energy our students are bringing to the classroom. But this is also a season of anxiety for “contingent” faculty. For part-time adjuncts and short-term, contracted-for-a-year teachers, the stress …

Continue reading Supporting “Contingent” Colleagues in Higher Education: What Tenure-Stream Faculty Can Do

I’ve purposefully waited until after the US Thanksgiving weekend to draft this blogpost. I’ve been thinking, throughout the entire month of November, about what to say. After all, November is National Native American Heritage Month. As noted on a webpage describing the rightful goal of honoring Native peoples throughout November, the “Library of Congress, National …

Continue reading A Thanksgiving of/for Learning: National Native American Heritage Month

Here's a recent TWEET from Civil Rights icon John Lewis: John Lewis (@repjohnlewis) 10/26/18, 1:09 PM The right to vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool or instrument we have in a democratic society. Let nothing stand in your way to use it so that together we may build a …

Continue reading “We Are All Bound Up Together”: Embrace the Powerful Heritage of Frances E. W. Harper’s Women’s Suffrage Rhetoric

I am an educator whose work includes teaching about gender identities in action. I am struggling with how to help my students right now, and in the days ahead, as they respond to the ongoing controversy around Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and multiple women’s charges against him. The impact of this intense conflict—played out …

Continue reading Teaching about Gender Identities in the Context of the Kavanaugh Controversy

From “Eliza Harris” by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper With her step on the ice, and her arm on her child, The danger was fearful, the pathway was wild; But, aided by Heaven, she gained a free shore, Where the friends of humanity open’d their door. From Laura Tohe’s “Introduction: Letter to General Pratt” “Your quotation, …

Continue reading Taking Away the Children

I’d like to celebrate an archive of learning emerging from an energizing class I taught in spring 2018. I wish I could open up and read entries from the digital folders where I’ve filed their exciting texts. You’d find distinctive voices. Analyses grounded in thoughtful interviews and site visits. Careful re-readings of literary texts to …

Continue reading Celebrating an Archive of Students’ Writing to Learn

“Americans.” This single-word naming of a new exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) tellingly links up with a crucial claim staked out both by the museum’s very presence on the National Mall and by this exhibition. Specifically, the NMAI rightfully asserts, Native Americans are indeed “Americans,” people whose lives and social …

Continue reading “Americans” Exhibit at the NMAI