Abstract
The national decline in the humanities suggests not only a systemic shift but also a cultural shift that can be addressed locally in the classroom. Since the presidential election of 2016, there has been a rise in race-based hate speech. First-year writing students are very interested in this. In this environment, then, teaching with Critical Race Theory as a toolset to unpack the Serial podcast, with Walter Benjamin and Terry Eagleton when addressing the cost of education, and with Latinx theory in conjunction with The Hand That Feeds and A Better Life, for example, provides students with an introduction to the critical capabilities the humanities offers. Furthermore, it addresses the national spike in hate groups and the rise in racism, and can be applied to readings of popular culture the students consume. In this chapter, a pedagogical model is outlined in which students write in response to these topics and the corresponding theoretical approaches through rhetorical analysis, persuasive writing, and personal writing reflecting on privilege.
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Notes
- 1.
Matt Reed, “The Decline of Humanities Enrollments and the Decline of Pre-Law,” Inside HigherEd, (September 16, 2018), https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/decline-humanities-enrollments-and-decline-pre-law
- 2.
Scott Jaschik, “The Shrinking Humanities Major,” Inside HigherEd, (March 14, 2016), https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/03/14/study-shows-87-decline-humanities-bachelors-degrees-2-years
- 3.
AAUP, “Contingent Appointments and the Academic Profession,” AAUP, (2014) 183 https://www.aaup.org/report/contingent-appointments-and-academic-profession
- 4.
Lourdes Torres, “In the Contact Zone: Code-Switching Strategies by Latino/a Writers,” MELUS 32 no.1, (Spring 2007): 75–96.
- 5.
Ibid, 76.
- 6.
Ibid, 78.
- 7.
Paul Cooper, “Review of This Is How You Lose Her,” New Welsh Review 100, (Summer 2013), https://www.newwelshreview.com/article.php?id=547
- 8.
Gloria Ladson-Billings, “Just what is critical race theory and what’s it doing in a nice field like education?,” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 11:1, (1998): 7–24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/095183998236863
- 9.
Derrick Bell, “The Supreme Court, 1984 Term – Foreword: The Civil Rights Chronicles,” Harvard Law Review 4, (1985).
- 10.
Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, Second Edition. (New York: New York University Press, 2012), 44.
- 11.
Ibid, 45.
- 12.
Ibid, 48.
- 13.
Ibid, 49.
- 14.
Ibid, 51.
- 15.
Derrick A. Bell, Richard Delgado, and Jean Stefancic, The Derrick Bell Reader (New York: NYU Press, 2005), 74.
- 16.
Ibid, 120.
- 17.
Ibid, 10.
- 18.
Lynn Stephen, Transborder Lives: Indigenous Oaxacans in Mexico, California, and Oregon (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007).
- 19.
Michael Kearney, Reconceptualizing the Peasantry Anthropology in Global Perspective (Boulder: Westview Press, 1996), 118.
- 20.
Michael Kearney, “The Local and the Global: The Anthropology of Globalization and Transnationalism,” Annual Review of Anthropology 24 (1995): 553.
- 21.
Ibid, 553.
- 22.
Enrique Chagoya, The Illegal Alien’s Guide to Somewhere Over the Rainbow 2010, color lithograph and chine collé, 24.75″ × 40.75″, Collection of the Museum of Art, University of New Hampshire, purchased through the Edmund G. Miller Art Collection Fund, 2016.
- 23.
Gil Cuadros. City of God (San Francisco: City Lights, 1994).
- 24.
Ibid, 53.
- 25.
Ibid, 54.
- 26.
Ibid, 54.
- 27.
Adam Spires, “The Utopia/Dystopia of Latin America’s Margins: Writing Identity in Acadia and Aztlán,” Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes 33:65, (2008), 111 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08263663.2008.10816942
- 28.
Heidi Tworek, “The Real Reason the Humanities Are ‘in Crisis’,” The Atlantic (December 18, 2013), https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/the-real-reason-the-humanities-are-in-crisis/282441/
- 29.
Cary Nelson, “Keep Your Hands Off the ‘Fierce Humanities,’” The Chronicle of Higher Education (August 28, 2011), https://www.chronicle.com/article/Keep-Your-Hands-Off-the/128804
- 30.
Ken Anselment, “The Liberal Arts, and Why They Matter,” Post-Crescent Media (December 16, 2016), https://www.postcrescent.com/story/opinion/2016/12/16/liberal-arts-and-why-they-matter/95402814/
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Valdez, C. (2019). Critical Race Theory, Transborder Theory, and Code Switching in the Trump Years. In: Battista, C., Sande, M. (eds) Critical Theory and the Humanities in the Age of the Alt-Right. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18753-8_11
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