Doing feminist difference differently: intersectional pedagogical practices in the context of the neoliberal diversity regime |
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| Authors: | Sandra Smele Rehanna Siew-Sarju Elena Chou Patricia Breton Nicole Bernhardt |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Sociology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada;2. Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada;3. Department of Political Science, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada |
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| Abstract: | At present there is a small, albeit growing, body of literature on pedagogical strategies and reflections which addresses the ways educators attempt to challenge the effects of neoliberalism on higher education. In this article, we reflect upon our pedagogical practices in higher education in this moment of neoliberal transformation wherein, as Sirma Bilge notes, intersectionality is being ‘undone’ in academic feminism. As graduate students teaching in Toronto, Canada, we describe how our commitment to social justice pedagogy works against this ‘undoing’ of intersectionality by embracing vulnerability, discomfort and the possibility of conflict in classrooms that do not simply accommodate, celebrate or include difference. Given that neoliberal renderings of diversity obscure and reinforce unequal relations of power, we demonstrate how we attend to these power relations, particularly racism which is salient to our teaching context, by employing intersectionality as a pedagogical practice and a political intervention to advance social justice. |
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| Keywords: | Social justice pedagogy intersectionality neoliberalism diversity anti-racist feminism |
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