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Articles 1 - 30 of 72
Full-Text Articles in Critical and Cultural Studies
Exploring Border Rhetoric, Resistance, And The American Dream: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' First House Address, Candice L. Ruh Phd, Cassandra Hightower
Exploring Border Rhetoric, Resistance, And The American Dream: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' First House Address, Candice L. Ruh Phd, Cassandra Hightower
Feminist Pedagogy
Border rhetoric can be a “muddy” topic for undergraduates, as borders are often taught as fixed, factual lines that divide places and people. However, from a communication perspective, borders are fluid, symbolic, and socially constructed. This difference between viewing borders as physical dividers versus rhetorical constructs creates a valuable opportunity for students to think critically about how meaning is shaped by borders of land, language, and identity. This original teaching activity uses Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ (D-NY) first House speech—the most-watched C-SPAN video within 12 hours of release (Gajanan, 2019)—as a central case. It invites students to analyze a key moment …
Exploring The Mental Health Impacts Of Dating Experiences For Racial And Ethnic Minorities At A Predominantly White Institution, Maya Sánchez, Mylina Garza, Emma Chung
Exploring The Mental Health Impacts Of Dating Experiences For Racial And Ethnic Minorities At A Predominantly White Institution, Maya Sánchez, Mylina Garza, Emma Chung
Communication Studies
The present study examined the mental health implications of racial and ethnic minorities’ dating experiences at a Predominantly White Institution (PWI). The authors conducted retrospective interviews with 20 minority-identifying college students that attend California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Three primary themes emerged from the conducted research. 1) Feeling excluded from racialized beauty standards threatens self-worth, 2) struggling to find romantic belonging limits emotional safety in relationships and navigating cultural differences in dating produces identity hyperawareness. This study also offers interesting theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, findings display the communication maintenance of identity to how romantic involvement impacts …
Motherly Love: A Critical Autoethnography On Identity Formation Through Mental Illness In Maternal Bonds, Ellie E. Monge
Motherly Love: A Critical Autoethnography On Identity Formation Through Mental Illness In Maternal Bonds, Ellie E. Monge
Communication Studies
This critical autoethnography is an examination of my personal narrative on how growing up with a mother with mental illness formed my identity as a woman, and as a daughter. I utilize the lens of communication scholarship to understand the effects that this interpersonal relationship had on communication patterns, and ideology. Through personal, and societal analysis the discourse adds to how gendered expectations of womanhood, motherhood, family communication patterns, and dominant mental health rhetoric shape identity for daughters raised in the absence of maternal stability. I implore Family Systems Theory, Family Communication Patterns Theory, Muted Group Theory, and scholarship on …
Embracing Uncertainty And Resisting Suspicion In The Faculty-Student Relationship, Natalia Rybas
Embracing Uncertainty And Resisting Suspicion In The Faculty-Student Relationship, Natalia Rybas
Feminist Pedagogy
This critical essay discusses the suspicion and distrust appearing when educators think that students can (mis)use generative AI tools. The essay argues that education is rife with relations of inequality, reminds us that technologies are never neutral, and explores using uncertainty as a method of resistance to suspicion about students. The suspicion grows from the relations embedded in higher education because power, privilege, and oppression shape the experience of teaching and learning. Technological innovations, such as AI, carry power relations embedded in their designs and assumed uses, making all participants of the learning process vulnerable and disrupting the process itself. …
Mentoring In The Undergraduate Classroom And Beyond: Creating A Feminist Praxis, Satarupa Dasgupta
Mentoring In The Undergraduate Classroom And Beyond: Creating A Feminist Praxis, Satarupa Dasgupta
Feminist Pedagogy
In the following critical commentary, it is discussed how mentoring--- in the classroom and in academia---can be a feminist practice that comprises an essential part of being a feminist educator. Mentorship encompasses a process in which the mentor disseminates knowledge as well as psychosocial support that are perceived by the mentee as essential for professional or personal development (Sedlacek et al., 2007). Mentorship has been specifically found to fulfill professional needs for women, while enhancing their self-worth and sense of competence, and providing instances of role modeling and social affirmation (Meschitti & Lawton Smith, 2017).
What Is “So Severe, Pervasive, And Objectively Offensive?”: Defining Sexual Harassment, Investigating Reporting Requirements, And Supporting Disclosures With Communicative Role-Playing, Lauren L. Buisker, Kylie Johnson
What Is “So Severe, Pervasive, And Objectively Offensive?”: Defining Sexual Harassment, Investigating Reporting Requirements, And Supporting Disclosures With Communicative Role-Playing, Lauren L. Buisker, Kylie Johnson
Feminist Pedagogy
Despite the pervasive reach of rape culture on college campuses, university sexual harassment trainings frequently fail to provide students with clear definitions of sexual violence, often avoid using intersectional frameworks to teach students about the topic, and obscure the bureaucratic complexities that inhibit survivors’ abilities to seek out appropriate resources when they experience sexual trauma. As such, this article outlines communication strategies for feminist instructors interested in improving their students’ understanding of sexual harassment, given that social science and humanities classrooms provide apt spaces for grappling with difficult topics and the way in which language constructs our reality. We propose …
Teaching #Metoo And #Blacklivesmatter Amid The Anti-Woke Moral Panic, Stephanie Medden
Teaching #Metoo And #Blacklivesmatter Amid The Anti-Woke Moral Panic, Stephanie Medden
Feminist Pedagogy
The introduction of over 100 anti-DEI bills across 30 states and President Trump’s signing of executive orders that target DEI programs demonstrate the backlash against the social, cultural, and political gains made by movements such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. “Anti-woke" sentiment presents challenges for educators preparing students to engage critically with certain histories, movements, and theories. This article explains current debates around what it means to be “woke”; provides strategies to teach about inequality across race, gender, class, and sexuality in this polarized environment; and imagines futures that uphold the ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Feminist Participatory Action Research And Service-Learning In The New Feminist Frontier, Megan A. Fletcher
Feminist Participatory Action Research And Service-Learning In The New Feminist Frontier, Megan A. Fletcher
Feminist Pedagogy
This critical commentary explores the tensions of embodying feminist pedagogy as both researcher and teacher. Drawing on the success of Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) in redesigning women's shelter intake procedures, I argue for integrating service-learning into the classroom. However, the effectiveness of both PAR and service-learning hinges on a strong foundation in feminist methodologies that prioritize equity, justice, and community care (Bowdon, Pigg, & Mansfield, 2014; Johnson & Flynn, 2021; Vergés Bosch, Freude, & Camps Calvet, 2021). Acknowledging past critiques of these approaches when lacking a feminist lens (Langhout & Gordon, 2021), I call for researchers and teachers to …
Exploring Dimensions Of Crystallized Identities, Candice L. Ruh
Exploring Dimensions Of Crystallized Identities, Candice L. Ruh
Feminist Pedagogy
For college students, learning about the components of identity can generate deeper knowledge about how personal and social identities differ, and how identities influence the way individuals experience socio-cultural systems and structures. The Exploring Dimensions of Crystallized Identities activity uses principles of self-reflexivity and dialogue to explore theoretical frameworks for practical application. This experiential activity is a facilitated dialogue driven by student involvement and is best suited for students in mid- to upper-level undergraduate courses. It encourages students to reflect on their and others’ identities, and to consider the social impacts of diversity in their lives.
Making Space For Our Own Rhythms, Lauren Mark Dr.
Making Space For Our Own Rhythms, Lauren Mark Dr.
Feminist Pedagogy
This original teaching activity invites students to investigate dominant influences on enacted daily rhythms to arrive at a clearer understanding of their own rhythms and those around them. Students are guided to somatically sense habitual rhythms and understand how habits of accent collectively form to hold us together. Through a two-part activity, involving large group interaction and paired observation, students explore degrees of releasing or withholding natural rhythmic impulses through concession to or freedom within group rhythms and when navigating online platforms. The aim is to explore desired emotional arcs of how experiences might unfold.
Creating And Re-Energizing Communities Of Meaning Throughout A Course, Nancy A. Heise, Anum Ahmed
Creating And Re-Energizing Communities Of Meaning Throughout A Course, Nancy A. Heise, Anum Ahmed
Feminist Pedagogy
We propose a feminist course approach wherein instructors build what Amie Macdonald (2002) called "communities of meaning" in their classrooms (p.120). Through an intentional focus on supporting students' 1) individual identities, 2) holistic well-being, and 3) epistemic "buy-in" to classroom content, students will connect more deeply not only to themselves and their classmates, but also to the course material. We suggest four community-building touchpoints as a starting point for instructors looking to integrate this course approach. We start with an activity to lessen awkwardness around first-day name pronunciation. We emphasize the importance of creating collaborative classroom expectations with students, and …
Conversations Before The Conversation: Readying Dissidence Through Norm-Setting, Ashley N. Watson
Conversations Before The Conversation: Readying Dissidence Through Norm-Setting, Ashley N. Watson
Feminist Pedagogy
How can educators speak truth to power in ways that decenter whiteness while supporting student learning across different levels of awareness? What does the right balance of challenge and support look like in today’s unpredictable college environment? These questions are drawn from my experience as a Black predoctoral fellow teaching “Intercultural Dialogue” at a traditionally white public liberal arts university in rural Minnesota. This paper—both a reflection and recommendations for practice—outlines my approach to co-constructing and scaffolding a conducive learning environment rooted in emancipatory pedagogy.
To Eat Or Not To Eat: Body Neutrality In The Context Of Educator Eating Disorders, Victoria Mcdermott, Nike Jacob
To Eat Or Not To Eat: Body Neutrality In The Context Of Educator Eating Disorders, Victoria Mcdermott, Nike Jacob
Feminist Pedagogy
Academia, like many other industries, polices its members through explicit and implicit systems of oppression: thinness, patriarchy, accessibility, and whiteness. Previous research has argued that professors who meet the criteria of current beauty standards (e.g., thinness, attractiveness) experience higher student evaluations, more opportunities for promotion, and better overall academic success than those in diverse body shapes and sizes. As a result, decoupling one's sense of self-worth from these expectations based in power can prove challenging. The present critical reflection and commentary explores the perceptions of two academics with histories of eating disorders (e.g., anorexia and binge-eating disorder), disordered eating, and …
Still Accounting For My Teacher’S Body: The Objective Body/Body As Objective In The Classroom/Classzoom, Leda M. Cooks, Jennifer A. Zenovich
Still Accounting For My Teacher’S Body: The Objective Body/Body As Objective In The Classroom/Classzoom, Leda M. Cooks, Jennifer A. Zenovich
Feminist Pedagogy
This critical commentary reflects on Cooks’ 2007 article, “Accounting for my Teacher’s Body: What can I teach/What can we learn?” by reconsidering power and body relations in light of the concept and pedagogy of body neutrality in the classroom in the 2023 COVID-19 era. The digital and physical classroom are spaces where the (embodied) body is never neutral. By extension, the body is never neutral anywhere regardless of the mindful body neutrality practices suggested by Pellizzer and Wade (2023). In this commentary, we first discuss how the teacher in physical and digital space communicates ideals of competence in performance of …
Reenvisioning Identities That Precede Us: “Body Acknowledgement” As Social Justice Practice Within A Communication Ethics Course Redesign, Wendy Kz Anderson, Ollivia Webster, Nicole Yang, Cass Bryant, Taylor Herr
Reenvisioning Identities That Precede Us: “Body Acknowledgement” As Social Justice Practice Within A Communication Ethics Course Redesign, Wendy Kz Anderson, Ollivia Webster, Nicole Yang, Cass Bryant, Taylor Herr
Feminist Pedagogy
We infuse this conversation of “body neutrality” through social justice responsiveness (compassion, equity, and accountability of body/presence privilege) by specifically attending to intersections of race, gender, and body mindset built into our identities. In reimagining the term “body-neutrality” through identity engagement, we introduce the term “body acknowledgment” as an active interpretative state. As a co-authored pedagogical “co-conspiring” for racial justice (Houdek and Ore, 2021, p. 92), we (instructor, teaching assistants, and previous students) offered a course redesign centering social justice strategies to address the following question: How can dialogue about intersectional communication work toward redesigning learning with difference and develop …
Exploring The Role Of Body Neutrality Perspectives In Feminist Pedagogy, Sydney E. Brammer
Exploring The Role Of Body Neutrality Perspectives In Feminist Pedagogy, Sydney E. Brammer
Feminist Pedagogy
No abstract provided.
The Affective Labor Of Cross-Disciplinary Communication Education: Enacting A Feminist Praxis, Kailin Regutti, Zane Austin Willard
The Affective Labor Of Cross-Disciplinary Communication Education: Enacting A Feminist Praxis, Kailin Regutti, Zane Austin Willard
Feminist Pedagogy
This critical commentary addresses the pedagogical experiences of being instructional assistants of communication in an engineering classroom at a Florida public university. In weaving together our experiences, we reflexively explore the affective labor and challenges of teaching interpersonal and intercultural communication concepts in a STEM environment while navigating restrictive state legislation and varying disciplinary perspectives and metatheoretical assumptions. We manage these dynamic tensions by adopting a feminist pedagogical praxis that works toward reimagining futures for STEM education—a future that helps students foster a critical consciousness and apply communication as a means of developing more equitable and just solutions across industries. …
Pedagogies Of Discomfort: Critical Lessons From Florida Feminist Professors, Aisha Durham Dr., Mahuya Pal Dr., Sonia Ivancic Dr.
Pedagogies Of Discomfort: Critical Lessons From Florida Feminist Professors, Aisha Durham Dr., Mahuya Pal Dr., Sonia Ivancic Dr.
Feminist Pedagogy
In a collaborative letter, Florida feminist faculty instructors describe pedagogies of discomfort devised by the state to empower an assumed alienated student decentered by difference and to disquiet a culturally responsive teacher who treats education as transformation and liberation rather than career-relevant job training. They recall classroom resistance strategies and tactics not only to speak to the policies of erasure in this moment, but also to speak to the precarious student who needs to feel cared for, honored, and acknowledged in their pursuit to learn and unlearn to be in community today. The political intent of discomfort is to divide …
Practicing Feminist Disability Pedagogy: Building Interdependence Through A Classroom Participation Menu, Kristen L. Cole
Practicing Feminist Disability Pedagogy: Building Interdependence Through A Classroom Participation Menu, Kristen L. Cole
Feminist Pedagogy
Following the lead of Parsloe & Smith (2022), this article explains and advocates possible modes of participation that consider the disabled, chronically ill, and systemically vulnerable students and faculty who are fighting to succeed in higher education. The way participation is measured in college classes is often ableist in nature; thus, it is important to unpack the ableist assumptions that undergird how we arrange and assess participation. Utilizing Knoll’s (2009) explication of interdependency as a practice of feminist disability pedagogy, this article offers a semester long activity called a participation menu, which provides a framework for distributing the responsibility of …
An Opportunity For Growth: Co-Constructing The Liberatory Classroom, Lakesha Anderson Ph.D.
An Opportunity For Growth: Co-Constructing The Liberatory Classroom, Lakesha Anderson Ph.D.
Feminist Pedagogy
The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly disrupted education, necessitating a reevaluation of teaching methodologies and priorities. This critical commentary offers feminist pedagogy as a framework for honoring students' pandemic educational experiences and creating liberatory learning environments. Feminist pedagogy, rooted in the vision of an inclusive and liberatory classroom, challenges normative ways of viewing the world and encourages engaged teaching and learning. My experience as the parent of a high school student with ADHD during the pandemic influenced my teaching practice as a college professor. Through this experience, I learned to treat students more equitably, incorporating new teaching strategies, embracing flexibility, and shifting …
Teaching Disability (Self-)Advocacy As We “Return To Normal”: Addressing Ableism In Higher Education, Sarah M. Parsloe
Teaching Disability (Self-)Advocacy As We “Return To Normal”: Addressing Ableism In Higher Education, Sarah M. Parsloe
Feminist Pedagogy
No abstract provided.
Carceral Liberalism: Feminist Voices Against State Violence, Andrea Michaels
Carceral Liberalism: Feminist Voices Against State Violence, Andrea Michaels
Feminist Pedagogy
The following book review of Shreerekha Pillai’s Carceral Liberalism: Feminist Voices against State Violence (2023) is an expansive and timely collection of essays on the carceral state in its implications for feminist educators. This review focuses on the connections and connectivity of two essays in the collection that attempt to address a minor examination of the person as political.
Interprofessional Collaboration As A Feminist Pedagogy: A Call For The Unsettling Of Care In Health Professions Education, Ivana Guarrasi, Rhonda Cornell, Sally Clemenson
Interprofessional Collaboration As A Feminist Pedagogy: A Call For The Unsettling Of Care In Health Professions Education, Ivana Guarrasi, Rhonda Cornell, Sally Clemenson
Feminist Pedagogy
No abstract provided.
Political Orientation And Its Effect On Engagement And Perception Of The Arts, Parker Robert Mckenzie
Political Orientation And Its Effect On Engagement And Perception Of The Arts, Parker Robert Mckenzie
Communication Studies
Utilizing the Symbolic Interactionism Theory (Gusfield, 2011), this study explored the relationship between political orientation and one’s engagement with and perception of art forms. The study utilized qualitative methods analysis to analyze similarities between participant responses. Findings from participants revealed the following themes: engagement with history leading to a more profound understanding of art, art causing real-life inspiration, and engagement with art leads to the formation of sub-cultures. Additionally, interviews revealed that people choose not to engage with certain art based on political orientation, people who consider themselves to be “spiritual” engaged with art differently, and many people’s perception of …
Tackling Networked Misogyny Through Graduate Curriculum Design, Carolyn M. Cunningham
Tackling Networked Misogyny Through Graduate Curriculum Design, Carolyn M. Cunningham
Feminist Pedagogy
This paper explores the importance of sharing feminist research through digital projects. One of the barriers of digital projects is the networked misogyny that graduate students face. This paper offers several strategies for addressing networked misogyny, including teaching about digital privacy, strategies for documenting harassment, collective engagement, and integrating trauma-informed pedagogy.
‘Hot Girl Teaching’ In A Faith-Based Environment, Niya Pickett Miller
‘Hot Girl Teaching’ In A Faith-Based Environment, Niya Pickett Miller
Feminist Pedagogy
There is much to learn from Megan Thee Stallion, the self-proclaimed “Hot Girl Coach.” However, her provocative lyrics and hyper-sexuality are challenging to interject into communication-themed classes at a predominantly white, faith-based university where many students come with an expectation for learning that resists mainstream trends and upholds conventional Christian values and conservative ideological ways of thinking about socio-political issues. This commentary offers a faith-based and feminist perspective about how including Black popular culture, and (more broadly) culturally diverse texts in predominately white, faith-based classrooms can work and why such centering does not contradict biblical principles.
A Hip Hop Dialogic: Exploring Hip Hop Feminism In The College Classroom, Makini Beck, Nickesia Gordon
A Hip Hop Dialogic: Exploring Hip Hop Feminism In The College Classroom, Makini Beck, Nickesia Gordon
Feminist Pedagogy
In this paper, we explore the use of Hip Hop feminist pedagogy in an undergraduate classroom. We discuss the ways an in-class deliberation activity can: 1) engage students in ethical argumentation and critical reasoning on Black and Latina women’s representations in Hip Hop music and culture; 2) invoke discussions about the sexual and racial politics inherent in Hip Hop, including the objectification, hyper-visualization and marginalization of Black and Latina women; and 3) prompt students to think about Black and Latina women’s resistance to dominant male discourses and the ways women participation in the music and culture can be identified as …
Digital Waves: Communicating Feminist Movements, Shauna M. Macdonald
Digital Waves: Communicating Feminist Movements, Shauna M. Macdonald
Feminist Pedagogy
Online learning provides opportunities for pedagogical growth and innovation. When tasked with teaching an undergraduate Gender and Communication class during a virtual semester (amid the COVID-19 pandemic), I sought ways to engage students through online technologies rather than working against or despite them. The Digital Waves (DW) assignment, one that asks students to research and then create digital representations of a particular “wave” of feminism, was one of several strategies I adopted; it quickly evolved into a favorite.
“Civil Dialogue” As Feminist Pedagogy: Engendering Material And Symbolic Movement, Sarah E. Jones
“Civil Dialogue” As Feminist Pedagogy: Engendering Material And Symbolic Movement, Sarah E. Jones
Feminist Pedagogy
In the United States, we are socialized to think in Western dualisms, and these patterns of communication characterize discussion of social issues. Consequently, discussion becomes debate and dominant approaches to inquiry are privileged over experience with persuasion being the end goal. Fostering agency, cultivating empathetic understanding, and facilitating critical thought are made more difficult—outcomes that are neither productive nor edifying in the college classroom. This original teaching activity resists hierarchical forms of debate in favor of visibility and solidarity in discussions of gendered violence. Grounded in principles of invitational rhetoric and provocation, the activity uses a “Civil Dialogue” format to …
Academic Spaces Of Possibility? A Proleptic Dialogue With Blackfeminism At The Center, Liliana Herakova, Lauren O. Babb, Kevin Roberge
Academic Spaces Of Possibility? A Proleptic Dialogue With Blackfeminism At The Center, Liliana Herakova, Lauren O. Babb, Kevin Roberge
Feminist Pedagogy
This critical commentary engages our experiences as co-educators in a “Black Feminist Thought and Expression” (BFTE) course, first-of-its-kind at our predominantly white institution in the U.S.. We imagine and provoke redefinitions of “classrooms” and “students” toward the liberatory dialogic learning bell hooks continues to inspire. We reflect on the potentials and perils of BFTE as pedagogical moves toward 1) becoming learners over and over again and 2) creating multiple different learning spaces, not confined to the physical classroom or to texts-as-usual. By bringing our beings together in both this essay and in BFTE, we re-member the dialogic pedagogy of love-as-action …