Poethics for Educational Transformation
ETMU Days 2023 (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)

Workshop Abstract:
This presentation uses poetry as a medium to explore the limits of standard academic language and practices, and offers a form through which to engage phenomenologies of institutional structures oriented towards systemic change. Drawing inspiration from the works of multimodal theorists and poets such as Gloria Anzaldúa, Maxine Greene, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, M. Jacqui Alexander, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, M. NourbeSe Philip, Sylvie Kandé, and Rachida Madani, the presentation will engage and inform structures of thought that often serve as barriers to educational transformation. The presentation will offer a reading of the author’s original poetry that centers themes of cognitive and systemic disruptions, and will include analysis and discussion of the implications of using poetry as an academic tool for institutional growth and awareness building. Poetry, a form of communication that is often left out of traditional academic discourse, nonetheless offers a medium through which the limits of academic language and practice can be interrogated, and unexamined hegemonic narratives can be brought to light. Academic modalities that center artistic practice call attention to entrenched patterns of communication, encourage movement across boundaries, and offer creative ways to engage problems of access, power, and political agency in educational spaces. Discussion will include practical applications for students, teachers, researchers, and administrators across varied educational contexts, and will explore the promise of authentic integration of artistic practice in formal academic settings.