At the end of her award winning
novel, Beloved, Toni Morrison repeats the
refrain “This was not a story to pass on” after she has already
told it. Through her writing Morrison speaks truth to power about
the experiences of African Americans in the United States. Her work
provides a voice to the silenced and marginalized voices of people
of color. As a scholar interested in African American Rhetoric,
Critical Race Theory, Afrofeminism, and Digital Literacy/New Media
studies, I work to continue the tradition of telling the stories of
Blacks in the United States. My work explores the intersections of
race, class, gender, and sexuality in writing classrooms as well as
contemporary digital spaces. I’m currently a doctoral student in
the English department planning a dissertation on Afrodigital
Feminism and the subversive rhetoric of Black women. My writing and
research works to decenter dominant narratives and speak for
marginalized groups.
In my classroom, I seek to expose my students to alternative
writing spaces and promote a democratic space that encourages
critical approaches to language and writing. Students must be
prepared to fully participate in a democratic society, which
includes critically approaching and challenging the language of the
world in which they must live. Students in my classroom feel free
to be creative and practice multiple, nontraditional modes of
expression. The purpose of the composition classroom and the
University system as whole is to promote freedom of speech and
thought for all students. This is grounded in Keith Gilyard’s
belief in a “deep democracy” as outlined in his bookComposition
and Cornel Westwhere he argues that, “Composition can
contribute primarily to what we may call adeep democracyby
fostering critical inspections of language. Much of the daily
interaction for all of us is instantiated through language; thus,
language is a key analytic category for anyone proposing social
change” (Gilyard 3). Writing as a free democratic practice is
critical to my pedagogy and my continued research in African
American Rhetoric and Critical Race and Afrofeminist theory. My
writing will pass the story on, and I encourage my students to pass
their stories on as well.
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