Relief

I live in Ohio. In the spring, Governor DeWine signed SB1 into law, making it much harder for me to exist as a cultural studies scholar in Ohio. You can look up the details if you’d like, but it is a bill aimed at removing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from public colleges and universities across the state.

Since then, I have been concerned about what that would mean for the Cultural Diversity course I teach. The professor who is in charge of the course had encouraged me to use my own expertise to add to the course, meaning I was allowed to bring disability, Deaf Culture, and Queer culture into the course, as well as further emphasizing the roles gender and class play in this country, especially as they exist intersectionally with those other identities and race.

Today we met to discuss the course for the fall. He has revised the textbook he wrote for the course so it abides by the law. But, he still encouraged me to bring in those other aspects into the course, making sure to use them in addition to the topics of race and ethnicity as discussed in the book.

Massive sigh of relief.

Now I am simply waiting for the college to officially assign me as instructor for that class so I can have access to the online component and see what the textbook looks like now. We talked about a lot of different things that could, and should, be brought into the course, including the role of the environment in people’s identities and using Hamilton to talk about race in the US both then and now. Because, let’s face it, Alexander Hamilton was white by our definition today, but back then he was still an immigrant.

I am really looking forward to seeing how I can bring myself into this course and make it the best Cultural Literacy course I can.