Difficult Subjects

Difficult Subjects: Insights and Strategies for Teaching about Race, Sexuality and Gender is a collection of essays from scholars across disciplines, institutions, and ranks that offers diverse and multi-faceted approaches to teaching about subjects that prove both challenging and often uncomfortable for both the professor and the student. It encourages college educators to engage in forms of practice that do not pretend that teachers and students are unaffected by world events and incidents that highlight social inequalities. Readers will find the collected essays useful for identifying new approaches to taking on the “difficult subjects” of race, gender, and sexuality. The book will also serve as inspiration for academics who believe that their area of study does not allow for such pedagogical inquiries to also teach in ways that address difficult subjects. Contributors to this volume span a range of disciplines from criminal justice to gender studies to organic chemistry, and demonstrate the productive possibilities that can emerge in college classrooms when faculty consider “identity” as constitutive of rather than divorced from their academic disciplines.Discussions of race, gender, and sexuality are always hot-button issues in the college classroom, whether they emerge in response to a national event or tragedy or constitute the content of the class over a semester-long term. Even seasoned professors who specialize in these areas find it difficult to talk about identity politics in a room full of students. And many professors for whom issues of racial, and sexual identity is not a primary concern find it even more challenging to raise these issues with students. Offering reflections and practical guidance, the book accounts for a range of challenges facing college educators, and encourages faculty to teach with courage and conviction, especially when it feels as though the world around us is crashing down upon our students and ourselves.

Badia Ahad-Legardy is Associate Professor of English at Loyola University Chicago, where she was recently named “Master Teacher” by the College of Arts and Sciences. In addition to her scholarly pursuits, Professor Ahad is the Director of Training and Master Coach for the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD). Since 2011, she has organized monthly guest expert webinars and multi-week courses for the professional development of university administrators, faculty members, and advanced graduate students. OiYan A. Poon is an assistant professor of Higher Education Leadership at Colorado State University. A nationally recognized scholar on the racial politics of college access, affirmative action, and Asian Americans, OiYan received a 2014 Emerging Scholar award from the American College Personnel Association and was a featured keynote speaker at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education in 2013. Dr. Poon currently serves on the editorial board for the Journal of College Student Development, Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity, and as a reviewer for the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Amerasia Journal, and the Journal of Asian American Studies. Lori D. Patton, Ph.D. is Department Chair of Educational Studies and Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs in the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University. Patton is known for scholarship on critical race theory, diversity initiatives on college campuses, Black women and girls in educational and social contexts, and college student development. The author of over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and other academic publications, she has received national awards for her scholarship including being ranked among the top 200 educators in the US. She is frequently sought for expertise on education topics.