The genesis of “Beyond Empire” comes from a personal place. As a first-generation American of Trinidadian immigrants, who came to the US amidst Trinidad’s independence from the UK, Stephen Bailey finds that it is imperative to trace these stories. The central questions of the course ask, “What is it to move beyond empire? How do people understand themselves in a new context? How do you reacquire or reinvent yourself?” What underlies the curriculum is the belief that through investing in the literary worlds of other cultures, students can be world scholars and compassionate readers.
Stephen emphasizes reading a breadth of literary styles like poetry, fiction, non-fiction, etc. to think critically about how language is used. With challenging material from authors and playwrights like Tayeb Salih and Lynn Nottage, Stephen asks for courage from both his students and himself; the courage to ask hard questions and to listen to different voices and opinions. “That is where true inquiry begins!”
BURNT SUGAR
AVNI DOSHI ’01 BURNT SUGAR Hamish Hamilton, July 2020 Originally published in India under the title Girl in White Cotton, Avni Doshi’s debut novel, Burnt Sugar, has been short-listed for the Booker Prize, the leading literary award in the English-speaking world. It...
A BULLDOG’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY
Doesn’t it seem like we can’t talk about anything these days without it getting political? Everything is so fraught. You’re either on our side or their side. You’re either liberal or you’re conservative. Democrat or Republican. Black lives or Blue lives. These...
HOW CAN SCHOOLS CULTIVATE CARING AND A COMMITMENT TO JUSTICE IN CHILDREN?
DR. RICHARD WEISSBOURD, FACULTY DIRECTOR & SENIOR LECTURER Richard Weissbourd is a Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he co-directs the Human Development and Psychology Program, and the Kennedy School of Government. His work focuses...
Exploring Rhythm and Melody in Early Childhood
In this age of Zoom, it is perhaps the greatest sadness for music teachers to not be able to hear their classes sing as a group. Technical sound lags and a platform geared towards projecting one voice at a time combine to make sing-alongs frustrating and...
The Rights of Spring in Preschool-3
In Preschool-3, one part of our distance learning program has been the fun-and-learn sharing of the marvels of faunal and floral transformations that unfold in forests and woodlands in spring. We began with a look at trees and how they burst from bare twigs and...
That’s “ARRAY”zing!
Through the distance learning process, the first graders have been working diligently in their math groups. Their creativity truly sparked during our multiplication unit of study. The first graders are familiar with the idea of grouping items to make them easier to...
StringJam Virtual Concert
Virtual Field Trip to Neon Art Studio
“Happy” at D-E!
