Something I thought about:
- How do we make inclusion the default expectation in a classroom and move beyond tokenism? A big part for me has been to diversify the course reading list as much as possible and to pull craft examples from a wide range of authors, so while we might read and discuss Black experience in Baldwin, we’re studying how he created an unreliable narrator and the ways he shows both the narrator’s perspective and the wider world. We read poets ranging from Andrew Marvell to Chen Chen.
- I also thought about being the only PoC in the department and how that affects my ability to create an inclusive class space.
Something I did:
- Wrap up my course for the semester — we had guest author Marieke Nijkamp visit for our final session.
- Finish the first ever course lit mag.
- Wrap up this year’s Writing Awards (I launched this in 2018, so this was the third year!).
Something I read:
- I started World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil when it came out late summer and then set it down to focus on getting through the semester. Now that the term is over, I’m back to fun reading :)
