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OUR MISSION

Attitudes about race, impacted by our current political environment, have produced pedagogical challenges for professors in the humanities who teach subjects that involve discussions of racial difference. Through our website, we aim to help teacher-scholars discuss race and other charged topics in the college classroom.

Photo of Dr. Lauren S. Cardon

Dr. Cassander L. Smith

Dr. Lauren S. Cardon

SB 129, Teacher Anxiety, and Signposting

For educators at public institutions in the state of Alabama, October 1, 2024, is a significant day: SB 129  goes into effect.   SB 129...

Comfort is Overrated

In my previous blog post, I recounted a situation involving a colleague. During class, this colleague tried to navigate a situation in...

Should I use a trigger warning?

In my previous blog post, I described a student who walked out of my classroom in tears after viewing traumatic content. I referenced...

Engaging Traumatic Content

*Note: portions of this post (the content at the end) are taken from Inclusive College Classrooms: Teaching Methods for Diverse Learners,...

When Facts Aren't Facts

I was having coffee with a colleague a few days ago when she shared with me an especially tense moment that occurred in her early...

On "Unintentional" Microaggressions and Apologies

When I discuss the complex, sometimes confusing nature of microaggressions with students, I often begin with an anecdote of when I was...

Is Juan a Black Name?

I have the honor and great pleasure of teaching introductory courses in early African American literature at the University of Alabama....

Teaching Interventions: How Much Is Too Much?

I’ve often found myself in classes that require multiple teaching interventions in a single session. Because the literature I teach...

How NOT to Respond to Students

Among other things, I teach courses in early American literature. And I am always mindful to approach the literature from a multicultural...

The "Erasing History" Conversation

A few years ago I was teaching George Orwell’s 1984, a novel that always spurs students to make parallels to contemporary politics and...

Priming Students for Discussing Difficult Topics

“I feel like you shouldn’t be offended by that.” “I don’t see why that’s racist. I don’t even see color.” “This essay feels like reverse...

Navigating Unscripted Moments

It was Fall 2010. I was fresh out of graduate school, settling into a tenure-track job at a research university in the southern United...

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