The idea for this book grew out of a professional development opportunity I attended nearly four years ago. The Center for Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs ) hosted a conference at Pennsylvania State University for junior faculty working at MSIs. As a part of this experience, the cohort was introduced to visiting scholars and academic consultants that wanted to encourage innovative teaching and research practices to help junior faculty navigate the transition from graduate school to the profession. At one of these sessions, I was introduced to a representative from The Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE). They explained the importance of study abroad to future success of students and explained that fewer than 300,000 higher education students participate in study abroad opportunities annually. The percentage of minority students participating in these courses pales in comparison to white students. As a result, the company dedicated grant money to MSIs and faculty who would create courses that specifically targeted this unique part of the population. In 2017, I submitted a co-authored proposal and won the 2017 Generation Study Abroad Grant for a proposal to teach African American literature in Paris, France. That proposal foregrounded two writers from the African American expatriate tradition: Richard Wright and James Baldwin.
As I began preparing with my colleague for the class, I was surprised by how many courses were taught in Paris by CIEE and other study abroad companies about American authors. However, few of these courses emphasized the contributions of African American literary figures. As a result, we created our own framework and tools for the course, but I realized this absence of scholarship regarding teaching African American literature was a fruitful space to begin a conversation about the importance of travel within the literary tradition and an opportunity to create a new wave of scholarship regarding this aspect of the tradition.
Teaching African American Literature Through Experiential Praxis explores teaching African American literature with study abroad. Experiential Praxis is an umbrella term connected to John Deweyâs concept of experiential learning which he discussed in his 1938 book Experience and Education. This approach to learning involves student-centered activities that encourage student productivity outside of the classroom as a strategy for creating real world practical experience. I pair the idea of outside classroom instruction with the teaching of African American literature as a method for encouraging students to analyze the experiences of the writers that produced important works. Specifically, I emphasize the use of travel within the literature and within the lives of the writers of the tradition as a political strategy to challenge racism and social problems within the United States.
African American literature is uniquely connected to the lived experiences of African American people from slavery unto the present time. Included within this rich cultural tradition are slave narratives, migration narratives, and expatriate narratives. Slave narratives from Frederick Douglass to Harriet Jacobs consider the use of travel from enslaved territories and states to free states and Canada as a resistance strategy to the barbaric system of chattel slavery. While there are other resistance and rebellious impulses documented within this body of literature, the idea of moving from one space to another to actively change oneâs condition was a political statement about the methods fugitive slaves utilized to demonstrate agency over their circumstances.
Following the abolition of slavery and throughout the twentieth century, African Americans from the south relocated to the north and Midwest industrial centers searching for economic opportunity and social mobility during the Great Migration. While these quests might have secured them positions in factories after the transition from an agrarian economy to an industrial one, African Americans soon discovered that northern and Midwestern cities were still plagued by racist practices and again sought different locales to achieve their ultimate goal of freedom. The reality is that African Americans could not outrun racism, but their journeys evidence a continual resistance movement to the subordinate roles they were relegated too through racist practices in the United States. In fact, many fled to Europe to enrich themselves by visiting cultural centers and to advocate for the uplift and liberation of their communities back home. As a result of their trips abroad, they were granted the distance to critically analyze the troubling realities of the weight of racism on their lives. This distance afforded them the space to critique and politically agitate for restoration of an America that lived up to its ideals. Thus, travel within the African American literary tradition should be seen as a revolutionary tool for action.
One way to teach students about this revolutionary impulse within the African American literary tradition is to explore the locations that allowed writers to critically agitate for civil rights by following in the footsteps of writers or characters within these works. This book includes an exploration of teaching various texts from the African American literary canon from Antebellum literature to the Contemporary period in various European countries. The goal is to model exercises, assessments, and pedagogical strategies that can be adopted in teaching African American literature in the United States and abroad. By incorporating travel, from field studies that visit domestic locations to study abroad courses that venture to international locales, incorporating cocurricular activities and events should support the robust teaching that already occurs in traditional academic settings.
This book includes eight chapters and an appendix with sample assignment sheets for assessments. In Chap. 2, Teaching Travel Skills with Rudolph Fisherâs âCity of Refuge,â I explore teaching Rudolph Fisherâs short story âCity of Refugeâ to teach travel skills. The chapter examines Solomon Gillisâ journey from North Carolina to Harlem as a cautionary tale of a figure who exposes himself to dangers while traveling by trusting strangers and not following his instincts. Through an exploration of Gillisâ mistakes, I inform faculty members embarking on study abroad courses how to teach their students practical travel strategies using literature from the African American literary tradition.
In Chap. 3, âFrederick Douglassâ Didactic Travel in My Bondage and My Freedom ,â I investigate teaching Frederick Douglassâ second autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom through a study abroad course to Ireland. I argue that teaching My Bondage and My Freedom in Ireland opens up a discussion for Douglassâ antislavery travels after he achieves freedom in his initial slave narrative. I argue that he extends his quest for freedom through his antislavery travels to Ireland and Great Britain. Thus, by teaching Douglass by following his freedom trail in Ireland, students are introduced to the need for an ongoing fight to secure the freedom of African Americans even after slavery is abolished.
In Chap. 4, âBooker T. Washington and Experiential Pedagogy,â I pair excerpts from Booker T. Washingtonâs autobiographies Up from Slavery with My GreaterEducation as a strategy for teaching study abroad in Denmark. By analyzing Washingtonâs works, I argue that a foundational component of his pedagogical style is the incorporation of experiential praxis. For Washington, hands on learning rivals the importance of classroom-based instruction for encouraging student development.
In Chap. 5, âWhere I Can Be Myself: Helga Craneâs Quest for Home in Quicksand ,â I advocate applying Homi Bhabhaâs concept of the âunhomeâ to teaching Nella Larsenâs novel Quicksand in a study abroad course to Copenhagen, Denmark. The chapter connects Helga Craneâs biracial identity to her feeling of âunhomeâ as the catalyst for her journey from the south, to Chicago, to Harlem, to Copenhagen, and ultimately the United States again. Finally, the text exposes how travel does not fully offer solutions for characters struggling with racism in the United States and foreshadows the difficulties later writers experience trying to navigate Americaâs complex racial milieu.
In Chap. 6, âTeaching Social Protest Literature with Richard Wright and James Baldwin in Paris ,â I propose teaching Richard Wrightâs and James Baldwinâs competing ideas concerning social protest as a thematic approach to a study abroad course in Paris. This chapter models how to scaffold writing assignments to encourage inquiry regarding the usage of social protest in Post Renaissance literature. Finally, this chapter suggests cocurricular activities and events to pair with Wrightâs and Baldwinâs literature in Paris.
Chapter 7, âWhen the Lesson Plan Fails: Reflecting on Teaching Lynn Nottageâs Play Las Meninas in Paris,â chronicles my experience developing lesson plans and assessments for a study abroad course teaching Lynn Nottageâs play Las Meninas in Paris. Overall, the chapter explores various obstacles to a successful study abroad course including student behavioral issues, problems working with study abroad companies, and unexpected challenges that arise while away such as terrorist activity or natural disasters. The chapter ends with a proposal for inquiry-based instruction in study abroad courses versus site seeing expeditions.
Finally, I conclude with Chap. 8, âWriting Reflections for Study Abroad Classes.â The chapter considers the connection between low stake reflecti...