Decolonizing the Classroom Panel I

Event description

  • Academic events
  • Campus life
  • Free
  • Inclusion
  • Professional and career development

What does it mean to decolonize the classroom? This two-panel series provides a variety of perspectives and methods, highlighting different approaches and rationales. Following Steven Mintz “Decolonizing the Academy” in Inside Higher Ed, the panels explore fundamental questions: is this an additive process, or are we rethinking fundamental structures? Does this change how knowledge is produced, validated and disseminated? And in practical terms, what does decolonizing look like in the classroom, including standard survey and historical period classes? Please join us for this open and democratic dialogue. 

This is a hybrid event of Institute for Humanities Research

  • For in-person attendees, food will be provided.
  • For online attendees, Zoom link will be provided before the event.

 

Speakers:

Stephen Toth is Professor of Modern European history and Associate Dean at New College of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at Arizona State University. His research examines the history of incarceration, most particularly the evolution of the prison in theory and practice, in modern France and the Francophone world. He is the author of Beyond Papillon: The French Overseas Penal Colonies (University of Nebraska Press) and Mettray: A History of France’s Most Venerated Carceral Institution (Cornell University Press). He has been the recipient of research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Philosophical Society. Toth has also worked as a consultant to the Australian government on its application for the inclusion of its convict sites on the UNESCO World Heritage list and he has appeared as an expert commentator in a National Geographic documentary on the history of Vietnam’s Con Dao island prison system.

Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez is the Associate Dean of Inclusion and Student Success for the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts. She is also an Associate Professor of English, based at the Poly campus, and teaches undergraduate courses on Chicanx and Indigenous literature, and film and culture in the southwest. At the graduate level, she teaches courses in the MA in Narrative Studies Program. Fonseca-Chávez is the author of three co-edited books and a monograph titled, "Colonial Legacies in Chicana/o Literature: Looking through the Kaleidoscope", published by University of Arizona Press in 2021. She is the co-editor of the BorderVisions book series with the University of Arizona press, and the co-director of the Following the Manito Trail project.  production.

Isaac Joslin grew up speaking French, first in Besançon, France, and later in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. With a background in French and Continental philosophy he earned his PhD in 2010 from the university of Minnesota, focusing on colonial and postcolonial francophone African literatures, cinemas, and cultures. He has travelled for research to Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Rwanda, and Burundi, and has taught a variety of courses on Francophone literatures and cultures. Currently Assistant Professor of French at Arizona State University, his research interests include Francophone African literatures and cinemas, aesthetics and theories of representation, theories of cultural hybridity, gender studies, youth and childhood studies, diaspora studies, Afrofuturism, and pedagogical approaches for teaching African literatures and cultures. He has published scholarly articles in The International Journal of Francophone StudiesContemporary French and Francophone StudiesAfrican Literature TodayThe French Review,Oeuvres et CritiquesNouvelles Études FrancophonesThe Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, and Critical African Studies. His recently published monograph, published by Ohio University Press (spring 2023) is entitled Afrofuturisms: Ecology, Humanity, and Francophone Cultural Expressions. 

Aside from his professional pursuits, teaching and researching in the areas of Francophone and African Studies, he enjoys travelling to different parts of the world, speaking French with his family, dabbling in creative writing and piano playing, as well as enjoying the outdoors.

Event contact

Victoria Day
602-543-3160
VictoriaDay@asu.edu
Date

Thursday, September 14, 2023


Time

12 p.m.1 p.m. (MST)

Location

RBH196, Institute for Humanities Research, Ross-Blakley Hall

Cost

Free