The CEA Forum (College English Association, Texas Digital Library - TDL E-Journals)
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To Be a Co-Worker in the Kingdom of Culture
No full textIn 1903, in the introduction to his ground-breaking, seminal work, The Souls of Black Folks, W.E. B. Du Bois calls for a vision of our country in which African Americans can become “co-worker[s] in the kingdom of culture.†In this article I make the case that the use of a novel like Gods Go Begging by Alfredo Vea can help us better understand what is required in implementing Inclusive Excellence, an initiative of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, that takes us a little farther down the road toward Du Bois’ vision
Indigenous-Centered Pedagogies: Strategies for Teaching Native American Literature and Culture
No full textAs a reflection on pedagogy, this essay seeks to provide strategic tools for teaching Native American literature and culture to non-native students. My teaching philosophy is informed by the indigenous-centered, decolonial methodologies as defined by Devon Mihesuah who calls for “indigenizing†the academy by challenging the status quo and debating the controversial issues that adversely affect the lives and representations of Native Americans (Indigenizing the Academy, 2004). I argue that an indigenous-centered pedagogy and multidisciplinary approach gives students the opportunity to critically examine those instances of cultural tourism and popular media stereotypes that continue to perpetuate gross misconceptions about American Indian identity and culture. In addition, I highlight the ongoing challenges that instructors face when teaching students to “unlearn†Eurocentric histories and dominant national narratives. I have taught Native American Studies courses to a wide range of students from multiple backgrounds and thus, this essay will be based on the various experiences I have had in the classroom at five different institutions in the past eight years (i.e. Ivy League, small liberal arts college, state college, and university)
Launching Curricular Reform in First-Year Composition: Navigating the Terrain between Buy-in and Burnout
No full textRecently, I was attempting to describe my duties as a first-year composition director (often referred to as a WPA, or writing program administrator) to a colleague in another department. In order to describe the diverse, varied—and often chaotic—nature of my work, I was trying to think of apt metaphors which would best capture my experience. It struck me that many of the metaphors I kept coming back to had to do with fire. For example, WPAs often attempt to “light fires†under instructors to encourage them to revise or improve their pedagogy and classroom performance. Equally, WPAs are often asked to put out fires, like when an upset student comes to us to complain about an instructor, or a campus administrator tells us we need to (often immediately) develop a plan to increase the pass rate in our first-year courses. Ultimately, at the risk of stretching this metaphor too far, all of this playing with fire can leave a WPA burning the candle at both ends. This potential “burnout†too often prevents otherwise talented WPAs from enjoying their work and creating meaningful change in the composition programs they’re charged to develop and oversee
Step-Dame Study\u27s Purpose: Early Modern Literature and Critical Thinking
No full textGiven what seems a constant barrage of criticism aimed at the academy from politicians and the public—and the great concern for buzz words like accountability and transparency—it has become fairly routine to see a defense of the humanities in opinion pieces in Inside Higher Education, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, and even CNN.com. The pieces range from defending the intrinsic worth of the humanities to defending the concrete skills that we teach, like critical thinking and writing. Most of these arguments seem to imply that it’s one way or the other; the defenders who argue for the former tend to see the pragmatic conversation as sullying the aesthetics of our disciplines, while the defenders arguing for the latter see the lack of discussion of anything other than marketable skills as pie-in-the-sky idealism
A Conspicuous Gap in Cultural Studies: Popular Music in the English Studies Classroom
No full textThe question we ask most often—on one level or another—about a literary text is, “What does it mean?†Generalizing rather wildly, I would argue that when popular music was first brought into English studies classrooms during the 1960s (on vinyl LP records), it was treated as a living, contemporary, and (especially) “relevant†kind of verse that happened to be set to a melody. That is, the song lyrics of Dylan, Simon, Mitchell, and Lennon were treated as a form of literature to be mimeographed in aniline purple ink, published in anthologies, and given the honorary distinction of being discussed right alongside good old Coleridge and Auden. Musical style and form were briefly noted but almost always subordinated to analysis of the lyrics. In short, the songs were colonized as verse. The key questions raised about that verse were What statement is being made? What does it mean
An Introduction to the Work (and Play) of Writing Studies Research Methods through Micro Study
No full textThis article addresses the benefits and challenges involved with assigning small-scale research projects in one research methods class as means of introducing new(er) researchers to the work and rewards of empirical writing research. The following discussion does not claim to offer examples of cutting-edge methodological work. That is not our goal here; rather, the purpose of this article is to further Rebecca Rickly’s call for increased curricular attention to empirical field research (“Messy Contexts: Research as a Rhetorical Situationâ€) by offering three case studies—micro studies. Completed as part of a graduate methods class, the studies illustrate the emerging researchers’ research experiences with conducting small-scale, “practice†observational inquiry. Our claim, then, is simple: we tend to forget how thoroughly we have already been enculturated as rhetoric and composition researchers—we tend, that is, to be unaware of the depth and complexity of our own literacies once they become second nature to us. But what may very well seem obvious to established researchers, whether it be the questions posed, the methods used, or the findings reported, are only obvious to those of us who have already had at least one (and likely many) such enculturating experiences. The authors—three student participants and the course instructor of the same graduate methods seminar—narrate critical, self-reflective, self-selected micro studies in order to examine how students of writing researchers came to identify and employ methods and methodologies as a way of “learning and using†writing studies research. The studies, which include a survey of first-year college students on their transition from high school to college; an examination of the actions, sounds, and voices the researcher observed in the hallway of a researcher’s office building in her participant observation of “work in action;†and a textual analysis of Works Cited pages of College Composition and Communication serve as examples of the very real benefits of—and the need for—practical, hands-on experience enacting observational research methods and methodologies
Between Universalizing and Othering: Developing an Ethics of Reading in the Multicultural American Literature Classroom
No full textThis essay seeks to explore some of the common challenges facing teachers of multicultural American literature, particularly in the general education classroom. More specifically, I address two typical student responses to this body of literature: the tendency to see the literature as entirely foreign and the tendency to universalize or to identify in a facile way with the text. Drawing on recent pedagogy theory, I argue that teachers of multicultural American literature need to be much more deliberate in our efforts to help students develop other, more productive ways of engaging multiethnic texts. In particular, I explore the implications of whiteness studies and what Tina Chen has called an “ethics of knowledge†for the multicultural American literature classroom. Finally, I discuss several specific texts with an eye to pedagogical strategies that help students both to see and to avoid the twin pitfalls of universalizing and othering. In my experience, foregrounding some of the theoretical and ethical questions raised by the study of multicultural American literature in a (predominantly white) university classroom can help to make students more self-conscious, ethical readers, with a much clearer sense of their own positionality in relation to textual others
Beyond the Narrative Mode in the Composition Classroom: Embracing a Return to the Personal Essay
No full textKnoblauch and Brannon might suggest I pry loose the grip that ancient rhetorical tradition has on my modern classroom, but I’m not convinced I can so easily abandon the ancient rhetoricians. Learning to embrace the different, more creative, and less frequently acknowledged elements of this tradition may be the way for me to go instead. The ancient art of rhetoric recognizes and celebrates the ambiguity of language; rhetoric speculates about the world and invites others to make their own speculations. The essays we assign our students to write, such as the narrative essay, however, discourage ambiguity and speculation. They force students to write about what they already know about their lives or the world around them. Composition instructors should turn, instead, to the personal essay via the father of the form, Michel de Montaigne. Montaigne’s example encourages students to explore their lives and only attempt to make sense of them. Unlike the stiff narrative essay encouraged by modes-based readers, the personal essay is invigorated by creativity, spontaneity, and personal discovery. If we yearn for our students to experience writing in this light, we need to create a space in our classrooms that allows for Aristotle’s art of wondering and encourages Plato’s motley of ideas. We need to promote students’ ruminations about life, rather than privilege their explaining of it, in a space that allows for vulnerability and contradictions along their paths to discovery
Food for Thought: Crossing Disciplinary and Campus Borders with Integrated Pedagogy
No full textLike many academics, I have multiple roles on my campus. In addition to being an English professor who specializes in first-year composition, I am also the academic director of the Illinois College Connections (ICC) First-Year Experience program. ICC is an integrated program that includes a discipline specific first-year seminar; a common convocation program connected to an annual theme; a summer reading and writing program centered on a common text; a dinner for all first-year students at the President’s home on campus; Success Strategy Sessions on time management, wellness, writing, information literacy, and careers/graduate school; and a day of community service. As faculty and administrator, I serve dual spaces on my campus
