Teaching Through Testimony

a special issue of

Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy

How are "truths" and "facts" produced and used? Testimony comes in many
forms – autobiography, memoir, poetry, personal narrative, oral history,
primary source material, historical documents, eyewitness accounts, and
individual experiences. Using testimony as a pedagogical tool raises such
questions as: How does one define subjectivity and objectivity? Who has the
authority to speak and who is silenced? How do we theorize and analyze
"experience"? What is the relationship between different experiences of
trauma, both personal and historical? What is the role of community in the
creation and validation of narratives of witness? What are the ethics of
testimony? How are testimonial narratives mediated and represented?

The editors of Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and
Pedagogy seek articles (3,000 – 8,000 words) and media reviews (books, film,
video, performance, art, music, etc. – 1,000 to 3,000 words) examining
approaches to teaching testimony in a variety of contexts: creative writing,
oral history, women's and gender studies, anthropology, literature, history,
psychology, sociology, art, photography, geography, religion, environmental
studies, philosophy, working-class studies, ethnic studies, cultural
studies, and others. Multidisciplinary approaches that focus on--or
include--discussions of non-Western cultures are especially encouraged.
Autobiographical criticism, narrative scholarship, photo-essays, and
experimental work are welcome.

Topics might include, but are not limited to:
How teaching through testimony can be implemented at all levels, K-12 and
higher education.
How teaching through testimony can be relevant to progressive education.
Hybrid genres: from confessional criticism to the lyric essay.
How teaching through testimony relates to topics such as war, genocide,
domestic abuse, conflict resolution, poverty, racism, citizenship and civil
rights.
Teaching through testimony in non-academic spaces such prisons, shelters,
homes for youth at risk, etc.
How to incorporate trauma theory and theory of witness into the syllabus.

Send two hard copies to: Jacqueline Ellis and Edvige Giunta, Editors,
Transformations, New Jersey City University, Grossnickle Hall Room 303, 2039
Kennedy Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ 07305 OR email submissions and inquiries
to: transformations_at_njcu.edu. Email submissions should be sent as
attachments in MS Word or Rich Text format. For submission guidelines go to
www.njcu.edu/assoc/transformations. DEADLINE: 15 November 2004.

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Received on Mon Mar 29 2004 - 01:27:48 EST