I is for Agency: Education, Social Justice, and Auto/Biographical Practices

Authors

  • Ricia Anne Chansky University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.
  • Edward Contreras Santiago University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.
  • Fernando Correa González University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.
  • Marci Denesiuk University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.
  • Jocelyn Géliga Vargas University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.
  • Catherine Mazak University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31892/rbpab2525-426X.2018.v3.n8.p416-440

Keywords:

Autobiography, Pedagogy, Teaching, Social justice, Puerto Rico, Disaster.

Abstract

In this polyphonic pedagogical essay, six members of the Department of English at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez discuss their incorporation of auto/biographical acts into course syllabi for the purpose of facilitating social justice in and through education. Drawing from disciplinarily diverse faculty members holding different contractual positions within the university, this essay demonstrates the widespread need for creating space for student voices as means of supporting agency on- and off-campus, especially in times of disaster, tragedy, and crisis.

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Author Biographies

Ricia Anne Chansky, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

Professor of literature at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. She is coeditor of the scholarly journal, a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, and editor of the new Routledge Auto/Biography Studies book series. She coedited The Routledge Auto/Biography Studies Reader and edited two volumes, Auto/Biography in the Americas: Relational Lives and Auto/Biography across the Americas: Transnational Themes in Life Writing. She has published on auto/biographical narratives in relation to diaspora and pedagogy, diaspora and gendered identity constructions, and visual culture and feminist rhetorics. She has forthcoming publications on disaster pedagogy, reading auto/biographical narratives in times of crisis, gendered identities in the Americas, and contested US national identities.

Edward Contreras Santiago, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

Instructor at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of South Florida in the field of Second Language Acquisition with Instructional Technology. His current line of research focuses on translanguaging practices and international Graduate Teaching Assistants’ language practices at the student and instructor level. In addition, he is the co-coordinator, with Dr. Rosita Rivera, of the Institute for the Teaching and Study of Language and Assessment (ITSLA), where he also serves as an instructor. Some of his research interests include: Second Language Acquisition, Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and Language Learning, Development of ESL, Test Preparation courses, and Service Learning.

Fernando Correa González, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

Master of Arts in English Education student and Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. His thesis focuses on Afro-Boricua poetry. He has been an instructor and tutor for four years. In addition to education, Correa González also works as a poet, filmmaker, and cultural organizer who has self-published over ten poetry books and collaborated in a variety of short film projects. After graduating from UPRM, he wishes to focus on his artistic projects while working as an educator.

Marci Denesiuk, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

MA in Creative Writing and English Literature from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Her published work has won awards and includes a book of short stories, The Far Away Home, as well as fiction and nonfiction contributions to anthologies and magazines. She currently teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez.

Jocelyn Géliga Vargas, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

B.A. in Communication from the University of Puerto Rico- Río Piedras (1989), an M.S. in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University (1991), and a Ph.D. in Communication from University of Massachusetts-Amherst (1999). Her recent publications in books and academic journals address oral history and life writing, Afro-Puerto Rican and Afro-diasporic identities, Caribbean cinema and collaborative/participatory research methodologies. Since 2006, she has been coordinating an Afro-Puerto Rican oral history project in western Puerto Rico, originally funded by the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) and the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at UPRM. She is currently the coordinator of the English Writing Center at UPRM and the co-coordinator of the CUA.

Catherine Mazak, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

Co-director of CeIBA and Professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez. She received her PhD in Critical Studies in the Teaching of English from Michigan State University and her M.A. in TESOL from the University of Arizona. She is the coeditor of two books, Translanguaging in Higher Education: Beyond Monolingual Ideologies and Spanish-English Codeswitching in the Caribbean and the US. She studies bilingualism in higher education using ethnographic and other qualitative research methods, researches practices of translanguaging.

References

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Published

2018-09-14

How to Cite

CHANSKY, R. A.; CONTRERAS SANTIAGO, E.; CORREA GONZÁLEZ, F.; DENESIUK, M.; GÉLIGA VARGAS, J.; MAZAK, C. I is for Agency: Education, Social Justice, and Auto/Biographical Practices. Revista Brasileira de Pesquisa (Auto)biográfica, [S. l.], v. 3, n. 8, p. 416–440, 2018. DOI: 10.31892/rbpab2525-426X.2018.v3.n8.p416-440. Disponível em: https://revistas.uneb.br/index.php/rbpab/article/view/5341. Acesso em: 21 nov. 2024.

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 8 (2018): Revista Brasileira de Pesquisa (Auto)biográfica

Section

Dossiê