Theses Doctoral

#HSfeminism as Resistance: Black and Latina Feminist Pedagogies In and Beyond the High School English Classroom

Jiménez, Ileana

This feminist article dissertation (FAD), creates a series of interventions on the dearth of research on the teaching of women of color feminist theories in the high school English classroom as curriculum, pedagogy, and activism. In writing this series of articles on teaching Black and Latina feminist theories at the high school level, I interrupt the assumption that intersectional feminist pedagogies, curriculum, and activism only take place in college and graduate level courses in women’s and gender studies, trans and queer studies, ethnic studies, and even English and comparative literature courses.

More specifically, my research counter-narrates my experience teaching Black and Latina feminisms at a predominantly white independent school while working alongside my students as they engage in reading women of color feminisms; oppositional online writing; and school-based activism. My research questions are driven by these commitments and by my interest in exploring how my students take up reading and writing with theory.

Across each article in my FAD, I call upon the larger field of English education to recognize intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989, 1991) and women of color feminisms (Lorde, 1984; Moraga & Anzaldúa, 1981) as an integral curricular, pedagogical, and political stance we must take within the teaching of high school English as well as in English teacher education at large. In each article, I illustrate how I taught not only women of color feminisms through an oppositional (Collins, 2009); intersectional (Crenshaw, 1989, 1991); and coalitional (Cruz, 2019) stance, but also how my students read and apply these theories to themselves and to the issues they care about most using oppositional, intersectional, and coalitional stances as well.

The first article is titled, “The Future of English is Feminist”; the second article is titled, “Resisting ‘pretty privilege’: Afro-Latinx trans digital activism and Black feminism in the English classroom”; and the third article is titled, “Black girl #MeToo activism: ‘Complaint as feminist pedagogy’ resisting racist-sexism at school.”

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More About This Work

Academic Units
English Education
Thesis Advisors
Sealey-Ruiz, Yolanda
Caraballo, Limarys
Degree
Ph.D., Columbia University
Published Here
July 10, 2024