Statement of Diversity

More than ever before issues of diversity are at the forefront of the classroom: how we interact with students from diverse backgrounds, what kind of materials we include/how do we expand upon the canon, and what are we doing to provide a safe environment for historically marginalized voices within and without of the classroom. My responsibility as the teacher is to provide an environment where my students have their scopes of understanding broadened. In order to speak towards this responsibility, I try to bring in a variety of different readings and videos to express a variety of perspectives and topics. Whereas the traditional canon shouldn’t be overlooked, I also try to find works that can add new voices, new experiences to that canon. For example, when teaching short stories, I usually include work by authors like John Updike, Ernest Hemingway, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Alice Walker, but I also like to add work by more contemporary authors outside of the canon, oftentimes authors from minorities or traditionally marginalized groups of people; most recently I’ve included work from Ken Liu, Preeti Chhibber, Shveta Thakrar, Kevin Young, and Elissa Washuta. I find that including a variety of work that extends the canon is extremely important because it allows students who come from a variety of backgrounds to realize that their voice–in writing, as well as in the classroom—can be, and should be heard. In addition to diversifying the literature we read, I also rely heavily on classroom discussion in order to contextualize the significance of the work we read. I also try to get my students to engage with their own backgrounds, while at the same time embracing the backgrounds of others by asking questions, referencing reading, and contextualizing their experiences. Lastly, as a way of increasing diversity and discussion in the classroom, I try to highlight differences between genres and to point out that not all work fits nicely into specific genres. Genre, I explain, is about figuring out how to read a text and where to place it in our world views. However, our world is not a binary—either, or—experience. And neither is genre. As we explore hybridity within genre, it allows for new ideas, new understanding, new voices to be expressed in individualized and diversified ways. As we come to understand how genre is constructed, we come to realize that our experiences, our heritage, is significant and important to our identity and how we are heard.