Decentering the privileged white male experience
Regardless of your background, chances are that 70 to 90% of your academic reading has been based on the authorship of white academic men of privilege. Men who have rarely experienced the challenges - socio-economical, physical, emotional, other - of being a woman of color. It is therefore with great pleasure that I would like to introduce or re-introduce or re-frame the work of women of color.
There have always been "others" who have attempted to have their work introduced, shared, understood, or published since humans first made the attempts to communicate. Women / grandmothers are noted story tellers in many, many cultures and "the grandmother" "is often revered for her attempts and ability to share learning over generations. The >grandmother< who lived longer than the cultural lifespan of her era was the exception, as the challenges to women's health and longevity is often framed by both reproductive health and violence. Women who survive childbirth (or do not have children) are able to pass on knowledge (especially practical - like how to survive) to their children and their children's children. They are therefore often repositories for the culture(s) that they co-create.
Often western cultural biases would have us dismiss or erase this knowledge as useless or non-academic or otherwise simplistic and unrefined. The filter of sharing across generations and thru multiple circles of networked knowledge are thus reduced or dismissed by western ontology (ways of knowing) as not professional, or logical or rational, etcetera. As you will discover, in this and - most - of my other offered classes I am allergic to simple pre-programmed and pre-scripted ways of knowing. I want YOU - whoever you are - to explore many ways of knowing = researching, studying, reading, watching, observing "others" and their ways of interacting, creating and co-inhabiting the planet.
If you are not prepared to stretch and do something other than what you have always done - you are probably in the wrong class. For now, you need to know that I have studied with people of a variety of genders and with a variety of sexual passions. I choose work that I believe could or would excite your engagement, if you were given the chance, the choice to study and / or do something other than what you've always done. If you don't do the reading or watch the movies, it is your choice but also your loss to not learn a much wider realm of knowledge.
I don't do different for different's sake, or even for cultural diversity. I do it as a scholar of intercultural communication. I do it as someone who studied with Audre Lorde, as well as Everett Rogers. I do it with a knowledge that Rogers work is protected as the academic work of an extremely well-known and respected social scientist. On the other hand, I could share a very personal knowledge of Audre Lorde's work in her era and in a very white, stigmatized society that might either excite or scandalize you.
If I had published with Rogers, as I should have, I would have a more renowned scholarly career. If I published my work with Audre, it would be far more personal and self-revealing. Is it an either/or dichotomy - I hope not ! But, it is the path I attempt to navigate and negotiate in ALL that I do and assign.
