​"A  3rd University Is Possible"

​Anti-Racist/ Anti-Colonial Pedagogies… Beyond 2023 Performativities (A Graduate Course at TCU)

I.Introductions
Welcome to Fall 2023! We begin by getting to know one another:

• What is your name, pronouns, year?
• What are you studying?  What excites you most about it?
• Where are you in the process of your grad degree? What excites you most there?  What worries you?
• How do anti-racist/anti-colonial pedagogies work w/ what you are doing?

III. Name Game

III. Review & Discussion of Syllabus Workbook 
This year is a little different.  It's a workbook that we will be building across the semester, not a zine.

• Course materials will always be under the tab that matches title of this class: ​"A  3rd University Is Possible": ​Anti-Racist/ Anti-Colonial Pedagogies… Beyond 2023 Performativities (look for the name that matches that week of the syllabus workshop)​
• Make note of the site password!  Please do NOT give the password to anyone other than those in this classroom!
• Read the "Guide to the Anti-Racist Pedagogies Workbook & A Final Word about Appropriating Black Women’s Shit" (section 1) now
  
• Read "Opening Letter to Rhetoric-Composition PhD Students (And Anyone Else Who Wants this Tea)" (section 2) LATER at home
• Read "What It Be Like: Introduction to the Course, Its Contents, and Its Unapologetic Blackness" (section 3) now
• Read as much as you can of sections 4, section 5, and section 6 as you can for now.  
  

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Review of Your Homework

1. Design the Front Pocket and Spine of Your Binder
2. Read the entire Syllabus Workbook
3. Read the assigned pieces from Alexis Pauline Gumbs and Sylvia Wynter (click here)
4. Write a letter as described in the Course Calendar

IV. "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action" by Audre Lorde

• As a pedagogical principle, think about ways of introducing an assigned reading/topic/task so that students/communities have a way into it rather than meeting it cold (this is a school literacy and not always an authentic task). As a comp/writing teacher, there should never be a week where students aren't writing IN CLASS.  Not everything (in fact, not most things) should be graded or "polished." We call this WRITING TO LEARN in RC.
• Read the essay: Click here for PDF
• Take notes on ANY of the following (online or on the hardcopy): What questions do you have for/about Lorde? What resonated with you and why? Where did you experience cognitive closures and why?  Why do you suppose folx look to Lorde's work here as anti-racist teaching practice (Lorde began her teaching career as CUNY compositionist)?
• An Invitation to Storytelling: What experiences have you had that resonate with what Lorde is saying?  Can you tell it like a story? (Please note that every and any RR can be approached this way).
• Be prepared to share with colleagues 
• Please think of Lorde's essay when you read "The Shape of My Impact" by Alexis Pauline Gumbs for next week.  I have used Gumbs's essay in almost all of my classes since its 2012 publication.  It still feels relevant today. For a more recent banger by Gumbs, see "Heat Is Not a Metaphor" (click here).