CFP – Pedagogies of Dissent

American Studies Association Annual Meeting Chicago November 9th-12th Roundtable

Dissenting Documents: a Roundtable on Teaching with Special Collections

How can teaching from the archives help educators and students engage histories of activism, dissent, and social and cultural movements? What is the role of cultural heritage institutions in preserving and promoting access to histories of activism? How might special collections serve as sites for radical, feminist, or activist pedagogical models? How have cultural heritage institutions remained attentive to their roles in the production of historical knowledge and what gaps, absences, silences exist here? How have educators teaching within special collections remained attentive to these gaps and silences? What opportunities does the archive afford us when building our syllabi? How can our pedagogy engage the archives and encourage our students to cultivate the ability to evaluate sources? What pedagogical strategies have educators employed when teaching from the archives and how have these strategies engaged questions of social justice?

This roundtable brings together archivists, instructional librarians, and faculty members who have all taught extensively using special collections materials. Have you developed a class that makes extensive use of archives on campus or in your communities? Have you worked to develop a digital archive with your students? What models or case studies might you present that can help us get at these questions at the intersection of archives, pedagogy, and dissent? What models or case studies were particularly effective and which failed?

Please submit a two-page cv, a brief bio, and an abstract of no more than 250 words outlining your work and a possible case study you’d discuss during a roundtable. Submissions are due to Andi Gustavson and Charlotte Nunes by January 15th. Please email to agustavson@utexas.edu and nunesc@lafayette.edu.

Roundtable participants will be notified by January 22nd.