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Politics of Identity in the Essay Tradition
Bernice M. Olivas
2.1
By making the politics of identity a site of active, aggressive inquiry in the writing classroom, we can reinforce and strengthen the ways composition and rhetoric already resists bigotry, othering, and prejudice. We live in a world where we just need to flip on a television or open our browser to see that we continue to face very real systemic racism, very real racial violence, very real cultural divides. Click here to continue reading.
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Essaying Tragedy
Ioanna Opidee
2.1
As we explored this idea of essaying through communal tragedy—a process distinct from engaging with individual tragedy—some students read their freewrites aloud. They shared stories of having known someone who died, or having known no one who died but having felt traumatized and confused nonetheless. It was early in the semester; students still carried a good deal of skepticism about this required first-year English course. That day, though, the perceived burden of the class seemed to physically lift, as students sat up a little higher, their gazes attentive and seemingly bewildered by this sudden display of relevance. Click here to continue reading.
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Teaching CNF Writing to College Students: A Snapshot of CNF Pedagogical Scholarship
Crystal N. Fodrey
2.1
My aim, then, in this bibliographic essay—as the first part of a bigger qualitative project on the teaching of CNF—is to look back so we can move forward with conversations regarding what and how we can and should teach college students at various levels about CNF writing in the future. I cover key texts on the teaching of CNF mostly found in well-known publications with high circulations—namely College English, Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, and Creative Nonfiction—and/or are written by major figures who champion CNF from a composition studies or creative writing standpoint. I place CNF pedagogical scholarship within a historical context and synthesize the rationales each published author explores in relation to why they teach CNF and/or what they emphasize with their students about the genre, exposing gaps and opening up spaces for innovation that contributors to Assay and elsewhere can continue to fill. I am guided by the notion that there is much we can learn from studying the various rationales for teaching CNF writing across creative writing and composition studies, the subject positions these CNF teachers assume in relation to their writing and teaching, and the teaching methodologies that these CNF teachers utilize. Click here to continue reading.
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Teaching Adventure, Exploration, and Risk
W. Scott Olsen
2.1
There is always a moment when everything turns.
I remember one afternoon, hiking the West Highland Way in Scotland with a group of my first-year students. The weather was very bad. The wind was strong and the rain got in every fold of our clothing. The rain turned to snow. Those of us with walking sticks used them to brace our steps when we crossed moving water. No one was saying very much. It was, in other words, a fantastic day. One student walked up next to me and matched my pace. “Now,” she said. “Now what?” I asked. She smiled at me. She was completely uncomfortable and completely happy. “Now I understand that book.” Click here to continue reading. |
Using CNF to Teach the Realities of Sexual Assault to First Responders:
An Annotated Bibliography
Christian Exoo & Sydney Fallone
2.1
We run an advocates program at a small liberal arts college in upstate New York. We are often a survivor’s first point of contact in the aftermath of a sexual assault, and we need to prepare our advocates for dealing with the realities of sexual assault. As advocates, we shepherd survivors through the process of dealing with police, medical personnel, and university administration in the aftermath of an attack. These systems are often distrustful and outright hostile to survivors. The academic literature provides a basis for answering the interrogations of police, medical personnel, and university administrators—why can’t she remember what happened to her? why didn’t s/he fight back or run away?—while the creative nonfiction allows our advocates-in-training to empathize with survivors and deal with the emotions that accompany providing direct service in the aftermath of a sexual assault. The pairing of the two deepens our advocates’ understanding of both sets of texts. Click here to continue reading.
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