College English Association 2019 New Orleans, LA Conference Presentation by Dr. Stacia Dunn Campbell

1. POST-COLONIAL
PEDAGOGIES
CEA Conference
28 March 2019
New Orleans
Stacia Dunn Campbell, Ph.D.
Writing Program Director
& Associate Professor of English
Texas Wesleyan University

2. LEARNING OUTCOMES
FOR TODAY’S SESSION:
• Apply to your courses postcolonial pedagogies of
“offering”
• Incorporate metaphors of binaries in class
discussion plans to question/deconstruct
colonizing mindsets
• Participate in an activity exploring applications
for your students

3. iGeneration – Our Freshmen
1946-64
Boomers
1965-79
Not easily
categorized
Gen X
1980-
1995/99
Millennials
First Net
Generation
Gen Y
1995/2000
to present
74M Americans
24% of
population
Most ethnically
diverse
1st Internet
generation
iGen
Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D. iGen: Why Today’s Super Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious,
More Tolerant, Less Happy—and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood. (2017).
Incredible talent
Facing challenges

4. 2018 Social Media, Social Life Infographic

5. Amy Cuddy’s Definition of Presence:
“the state of being
attuned to
and
able to
comfortably express
our true thoughts, feelings,
values, and potential”
(Presence 24).

6. Social psychology helps writing
instructors engage students to
ask themselves,
How do I
“claim social
space”
AS A WRITER?

7. RHETORIC helps
writing instructors
engage students
to ask themselves,
How do I “claim
rhetorical
space”/poses
AS A WRITER?

8. Can having student writers plan,
analyze, and reflect on presence
strengthen their sense of
authorship
and audience?
When we take INTENTIONAL moments
with students
TO BUILD A WRITING WORKSHOP as a
community, they think more critically
about ethos—credibility, “power poses”
within their papers for audience appeal,
and “presence”as composers.

9. Cuddy shares findings from a
study that had subjects hold the
“cobra” pose from yoga for only
60 seconds with resulting
increased testosterone,
decreased cortisol (“primed”).

10. Presenc
e
Social psychology
applied to
RHETORIC
to strengthen
STUDENT WRITINGPRESENCE
TOPOI
”PLACES” LOCATION

11. http://sassdunn.wixsite.com/pedagogypr
esence

12. Carol Johnson-Gerendas

13. ACCESS RESOURCES DURING THE
PRESENTATION!
See our website (cell, tablet,
laptop)
1) MEMOIR ASSIGNMENT
SHEET
2) SUMMARY-RESPONSE

14. Interesting and meaningful topics
selected by students--Avoid
plagiarism / tired topics
Built-in targeted grammar
support at beginning
of semester
Sequenced to
immediately
apply new
learning
Summary/Response
Memoir (Authenticity)
Multimedia Web-Based
Rhetorical Analysis
Report on Recent Pop
Culture Issue
Collaborative Essay &
Presentation
Website Portfolio
Presentation
Rational for Assignment
Sequence
Presence is about how
we show up (70-71).

15. EXPOSITION AS PRESENCE
■Embodied Identification
Discovery of Strengths, Values, Uniqueness
■Consubstantiation
Consideration of Audience, Collaboration, Care

16. Comp I: A first assignment that
explores PRESENCE, IDENTITY
& personal experience
■ The story you tell yourself
matters.
– Who you are at work/school
– Who you are with your family
– Who you are with your friends
– How you are health-wise
■ Cuddy says that being present is
“knowing” and “affirming” your
story AS WELL AS how you tell
your story to yourself (Cuddy 52).

17. AN IDENTITY-BASED FIRST
ASSIGNMENT IN COMP I
■ Identity
■ Impression Management
■ Imposter Syndrome
■ Narrative Identity
■ Authentic Self
Self-Affirmation Theory (“reminding ourselves about
what matters most to us and, by extension, who we
are” (47)
Owning our stories
is
standing
in our truth.
--Brené Brown, Own our history.
Change the story.
brenebrown.com
Students who were most worried [about negative social
judgments] benefited most from affirming their core values.
Cuddy, Presence, (p. 50)

18. BEFORE WRITING -- AFFIRMATIONS
Presence is the state of being attuned to and able to comfortably express our true
thoughts, feelings, values, and potential.
1) What three words best describe you as an person?
What is unique about you that leads to your happiest times and best performance?
2) How can you incorporate your uniqueness into your voice as a writer?
Reflect on a specific time--at school or at home--when you were acting in a way
that felt natural and right.
3) How can you repeat that behavior today as you approach your group work
and writing?
4) What are your three signature strengths and how can you use them today
as you formulate your memoir?
(Adapted from Cuddy p.46)

20. ADDITIONAL EXPOSITORY writing
assignments that allow students
to BUILD A SENSE OF PRESENCE
■ SUMMARY-RESPONSE EXERCISES & PAPER
Writing Reflection / Response Short Essay
After reading the excerpts from Amy Cuddy’s book, Presence, and completing the
exercises on the purple sheet, please reflect on how keeping your uniqueness, strengths,
and values in the forefront of your mind might influence how you approach writing.
How will the concept of being “authentic” and true to yourself (“keeping it real”) impact
the way you approach writing projects in the future.

21. Stacia Dunn Campbell

22. ACCESS RESOURCES DURING THE
PRESENTATION!
See our website (cell, tablet,
laptop)
access ASSIGNMENT SHEETS
for both the COMMENTARY
and REFUTATION projects

23. assignments that explore presence
(authorial)
■ Composition II with a focus on
ARGUMENT
Changing the HEURISTIC PROCESS
IN CLASS
&
DURING CLASS DISCUSSION
TO ALLOW STUDENTS
TO EMBODY
THEIR ROLES AS WRITERS,
ENACTING THE METAPHORS IN A
PLACE-BASED PEDAGOGY THAT

24. assignments that explore presence
(authorial)
■ Composition II with a focus on
ARGUMENT
■ two assignment examples
1) COMMENTARY
2) REFUTATION
Stylistic choices
that INVOKE self,
immediate “you,”
and larger public “you” in spatial metaphors

25. Have students come up with a metaphor
question for their SPATIAL understanding of
their role
What kind
of
SPATIAL DYNAMIC COULD I
CREATE TO REPRESENT
THIS TYPE OF ARGUMENT?
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

26. assignments that explore presence
(authorial)
■ Composition II with a focus
on ARGUMENT
[see assignment sheet PDF
in website within “Comp II” button]
Place-
and Role-Based
Metaphors for
COMMENTARY

27. Scaffolding VERBS to build
presence as a commentator:
represent, analyze, interpret,
PLACE, judge/critique
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed
under CC BY-SA

28. assignments that explore presence
(authorial)
■ Composition II with a focus
■ on ARGUMENT
[see assignment sheet PDF in website within
“Comp II” button]
Place-
and Role-Based
Metaphors for
REFUTATION

29. refutation

30. The presence / the pose / the
place / the position
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

31. Have students come up with a metaphor
for their SPATIAL understanding of their
role – Ask “where am I? (chora:
space/place)
– Where am I in relation to my
audience?”
– What are my surroundings?
(periechon)
– Ask “where am I standing?”
– Ask “what is my standpoint/ view
from this place?”
– How could I use triangulation?

32.  focusing question for
everyone in this room:
How can we track moments of
“presence” for student authors
exploring what it means to
“com/pose” and to use the
rhetoric of “co-location”
to create more moments in class
that make us feel “primed” (Cuddy
117) for communicating our authentic
selves.

33. ACCESS RESOURCES DURING THE
PRESENTATION!
See our website
(on your cell phone or tablet or
laptop)
Enter the “RESOURCES FOR
INSTRUCTORS” button
to access ideas for activities
you can customize for your

34. 1) What is ONE METAPHOR you can think of
TO USE IN DISCUSSING PRESENCE in writing
WITH YOUR STUDENTS this semester?
2) What IS ONE WAY you could
FOCUS MORE on PRESENCE during class THAT
WOULD HELP STUDENTS THINK ABOUT THEIR
WRITING OUTSIDE OF CLASS TIME?
3) What IS ONE ASSIGNMENT
YOU CURRENTLY USE that could be IMPROVED
with a metaphor of presence and/or activities focused on
PRESENCE?
Thankyou for being here!