Critical theory, critical culture, & postmodern humanism
In a nutshell: After a year of blogging, it turns out my blog is really about critical thinking, critical theory, critical pedagogy, and critical culture—not pedagogy per se. Hence, a new name for a new direction. This blog you are Continue reading Goodbye Pedagogishness, hello Criticality
In a nutshell: I’m reading a fabulous essay on critical race theory in classical studies by Shelley P. Haley of Hamilton College, and you should read it, too. In 2009, Fortress Press published Prejudice and Christian Beginnings: Investigating Race, Gender, Continue reading Fascinating Chapter on Critical Race and Classics
In a nutshell: My classroom full of black, brown, East Asian, South Asian, orthodox Jewish, Muslim, female, and gay male students, very few of whom are well spoken for by the White Male Christian Subject of Culture, have a very Continue reading The End of Western Civilization
In a nutshell: As we think about the transformative potential of aesthetic experience, the capacity for aesthetic self-transformation, and any pedagogy based on these convictions, we need to consider the role of the imagination as a concept once highly valued, Continue reading Revaluing the Imagination
In a nutshell: An old Saturday Night Live sketch helps me teach my classical mythology students about the double life of Eros as mythological god and philosophical concept in Plato’s Symposium. Part of my approach to classical mythology involves creating Continue reading Eros is a floor wax AND a dessert topping
In a nutshell: The musical number “A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down” from the film Mary Poppins helps students understand the Horatian principle of pleasure and didacticism in literature. We generally credit the Roman poet Horace (65-8 Continue reading The Mary Poppins Theory of Storytelling