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Abstract

This critical commentary engages our experiences as co-educators in a “Black Feminist Thought and Expression” (BFTE) course, first-of-its-kind at our predominantly white institution in the U.S.. We imagine and provoke redefinitions of “classrooms” and “students” toward the liberatory dialogic learning bell hooks continues to inspire. We reflect on the potentials and perils of BFTE as pedagogical moves toward 1) becoming learners over and over again and 2) creating multiple different learning spaces, not confined to the physical classroom or to texts-as-usual. By bringing our beings together in both this essay and in BFTE, we re-member the dialogic pedagogy of love-as-action hooks advocated for: involving the complexities of our unique positionalities, their impacts, and our shared commitments to each other and to learning rooted in both the intimate wisdom of the personal and in critical analysis of the social. As co-authors, we identify with divergent academic fields, genders, races, ages, nationalities, and institutional roles. Engaging our differences and coming together, we sought to “change our teaching practices, talk to one another, collaborate in a discussion that crosses boundaries and creates a space for intervention" (hooks, 1994, p. 141) to center BlackFeminism as knowledge, transformation, joy, and care.

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