According to the author's website, Danica McKellar's first book is meant to serve as a resource for middle school girls to help them understand math concepts that are commonly confusing. This review will explore McKellar's use of mathematical contexts for presenting mathematical content and consider how these contexts may or may not limit the ways…

In the 2012 essay, "The Girls from Compton Go to College," the authors analyzed how growing up in Compton, California, impacted their identity development as scholars, teachers, and activists. In this article, the authors build on their previous work, utilizing a similar reflexive process to delve more deeply into how cultural capital…

In 2009, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire's (UWEC) women's studies program offered its first iteration of the faculty-led international immersion course Women's Lives and Experiences in Nicaragua. This program was created and initially led by Dr. Rose-Marie Avin, a faculty member in the economics department and an affiliate member of both…

La Casa de los Colores (the House of Colors) is a feminist organization dedicated to defending human rights, particularly those of the LGBTQ+ community in León, Nicaragua. In 2016 Helen Alfaro, Yova Briones, Ani Guerrero, and Tannia Rizo Lazo, four members of La Casa's leadership team, "Las Coloras," were invited to speak about…

Herein, Leland Spencer provides a review of four book selections while reflecting on paradoxes regularly faced by feminist teachers (and scholars, activists, and thinkers). The books include: (1) Bradley, Harriet. "Gender." Cambridge: Polity, 2012. Print; (2) Murphy, Michael J., and Elizabeth N. Ribarsky, eds. "Activities for…

Cara Hoffman's work enacts George Orwell's imperative to "pay attention to the obvious" (an idea that several sympathetic characters repeat in her 2011 novel "So Much Pretty"), probing aspects of twenty-first century life in the United States that have become so accepted as to be unremarkable, such as epidemic levels of…

For feminist literary critics and teachers writing about and teaching literature "after feminism," the path is potentially treacherous. Feminist literary criticism, if it is applied too narrowly and used to reject complex literary texts that do not uphold an imagined feminist standard of "positive images" of women, can end up undermining other…

Discusses difficulties of overcoming classism, racism, and sexism in the classroom. Addresses hostile reactions by white male students, silencing and marginalization, and the "inappropriate other"--a minority or female in the traditionally white male role of professor. Stresses that gender and race are inseparable parts of identity,…

Discusses relationships among technology, women, and education. Presents three views of the computer's future: (1) the robot as superior human; (2) the cyborg; and (3) the human-computer dyad. Discusses effects that the computer has had upon work and school, particularly for women and at risk and nonliterate students. (SG)

Discusses the trend toward increased teaching of gay and lesbian literature. Explores the barriers of heterocentrism, homophobia, ignorance, and guilt that stand in the way of such instruction. Argues that scholars must open the canons of every discipline so that all students can find reflections of their own images. (SG)

Contends that there are far more terms associated with war and conflict than terms about peace in the English language. Asserts that this circumstance is both a product of and a contribution to national values. Recommends using more emotional words and speech to talk about peace. (CFR)

Discusses the benefits of marking sexual identities (as heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual) in the classroom, exposing students' hetero-normativity, and alerting them to ways in which seemingly "personal" lives are shaped by the political. Relates the authors' classroom experiences in trying to illustrate the socially-constructed aspects of…

Discusses using Donna Haraway's concept of affinity and affinity politics as a foundation for structuring collaborative pedagogy and feminist syllabi. Outlines the goals and assumptions of affinity-based pedagogy, and relates classroom experiences that illustrate its functioning. Notes the lessons that both students and teachers have taken away…

Addresses feminist pedagogical issues concerning whether the instructional methods and content of self-defense courses truly result in the empowerment of women in response to violence against them. Reviews research on the utility of learning resistance techniques, lists recommendations for self-defense teaching methods, and outlines a sample…

The author's partner Jay died on May 23, 2006. It was sudden and unexpected--he was 31, the author was 30. Her grief was prolonged and agonizing, and she has since learned that doctors refer to her condition as "complicated grief." Truly, she is not sure how she survived the first year after Jay's death. She certainly was not convinced she wanted…