“Funny All Her Life”:
Race, Place, and the Coming-Out Narrative in Getting Mother’s Body
* Note: I use “he/him/his” pronouns to refer to Dill, as prompted by his interest in being referred to as “Mr. Dill Smiles.”
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Portfolio for smalina
Web Papers and Events
"Dill's Been Funny All Her Life": Race, Place, and the Coming-Out Narrative in Getting Mother's Body
December 16, 2016 - 07:22
November 10, 2016 - 19:53
“Anachronistic Encounters”:
Cross-Temporal Touch and the Expansive Present in Beloved
Introduction
October 3, 2016 - 20:16
Curing the Sick Ghost:
Beloved, Illness, and Crip Futurity
“It’s clear that we’re inescapably haunted by the disability to come.”
- Robert McRuer
September 25, 2016 - 23:53
As early as the 16th century, anthropologists and artists alike brought a colonial agenda to the images they produced of the Khoikhoi people, whom they labeled “Hottentots.” While the Khoikhoi people were initially constructed through visual representations as naked, animalistic savages in need of guardianship, European artists faced the “dilemma” of representing the “Hottentot” in a manner that effectively displayed a lack of civilization without simultaneously presenting innocence. This proved particularly difficult as artists displaced the Khoikhoi people in Western, Christian artistic frameworks, which, in forcibly assimilating them, inherently implied humanity. By the 1720s, the “Hottentot” image had shifted to that of laziness and stupidity, through the introduction of the pipe in visual depictions.
May 11, 2016 - 16:45
Dis/appears (2016)
Permanent marker and chest binders on clothesline
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Words of transgender, genderqueer, non-binary, gender fluid, and gender nonconforming individuals with autism, included in piece:
“Mama, I think that I am half boy and half girl.”
“I need clothes in every color.”
“It makes me want to scream sometimes.”
“I’m not meant to be squeezed in that box. I’m beside it. I’m in-between and I’m comfortable being in-between.”
April 11, 2016 - 20:29
“Meet Them Where They Are”:
Listening to Unlearn, Learning to Listen
Collaborative Posts
Africans on Stage
09/25/2016 - 23:53
Friday Lesson Plan 11/20 (collaborative!)
11/18/2015 - 11:08
Friday Lesson Plans 10/9
10/08/2015 - 23:37
Reaerch Proposal Fleshed Out
10/04/2015 - 14:55
Monday, October 5: Schedule for Skyping with Sheila
09/28/2015 - 18:03
Collaborative Research Proposal
09/21/2015 - 10:59
Postings
Race Journal #3: Language Education and Anxious Authority
09/20/2016 - 20:14
Tags: Education, Tiny nalgene
Building a Platform
08/31/2016 - 17:08
Link to Course Portfolio and Final Paper
05/09/2016 - 16:07
Access at the Exhibition
04/18/2016 - 20:02
Audience Engagement as Performance Accessibility
04/10/2016 - 11:56
Comments
Reflections
Our placement at CCW was, by far, the most meaningful part of this course for me, and the site of my most profound learning experiences. I usually struggle to situate myself in placements for classes, grappling with what it really means to have a “real life example” of the theories brought up in class. I hate feeling like I have to study people, to seek out which theories apply to which people I meet. For some reason--maybe because we spent very little time studying institutions like CCW, and maybe because we structured our time at the center around unique and complex projects unrelated to the course’s topic itself--I didn’t find myself having to face this struggle at all. With the BioArt project, the tree project, and working together in the woodshop to make boxes, I felt like my time at CCW was completely authentic. I looked forward to going every week, and knew that I could interact with all of the artists as people, not fearing I would reduce them to test subjects for my academic pursuits.
Unpacking the Educator/Therapist Dichotomy
In thinking about my time in the prison this semester—whether through reflections like these or when asked about the experience by friends—I constantly return to this memory. I wrote this post on November 14th, in response to what happened in book group that Friday:
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Book group yesterday felt discombobulating, frustrating, and important. I found myself torn between my frustration that we weren't completing the lesson plan as effectively as we had hoped, and my strong desire to give the emotions in the room the space they deserved.
Academically, I am typically resistant to change. I have always had trouble revising my writing, feeling either that it would take too much effort to re-work it or that it simply wasn’t necessary. Rather than reaching towards new subjects and sub-topics within courses, I tend to dig deeper into subjects in which I am already well-versed, confident, and comfortable. Coming from an elementary school and a high school where reflection was a constant process and a large part of how I was evaluated, I learned to reach toward the personal during these reflective exercises, rather than examining how I had grown in the more traditional, academic sense. It was far easier for me to speak to the way studying justice and dissent as an 8th grader made me feel, and how it helped me better understand my own identity, rather than to reflect on my gained/changed skills or writing process, subjects that never garnered much critique throughout my education.