Webinar: April 5, 2021 | 9 AM – 11:30 AM
Please note: This session will not be recorded and available for viewing after the event. Please login using the following credentials to view over Zoom: NETID@tennessee.edu.
American society seems to be getting more polarized and more violent, but teachers—at every level—feel more trepidation than confidence about addressing issues that are even slightly controversial. This workshop empowers teachers to develop strategies that allow them to be proactive rather than reactive, to operate from a clear affirmative stance rather than respond only when a nasty incident forces the issue. Based on Dr. Mitchell’s expertise regarding how violence functions and the purpose of all forms of violence (from hate speech to physical attacks), this workshop emphasizes philosophical approaches teachers can adopt and offers concrete practices that put theory into motion. Instructors will leave with conceptual frameworks they can use to assess the strategies they are currently using in the classroom, but they will also be able to use the frameworks to develop additional strategies. As important, instructors will leave the session with activities they can immediately take into the classroom.
Users will need to login via their UT-affiliated Zoom accounts to access this meeting.
Speaker: Dr. Koritha Mitchell
Koritha Mitchell is an award-winning author, cultural critic, and professional development expert. Her first book, Living with Lynching, won awards from the American Theatre and Drama Society and from the Society for the Study of American Women Writers. Her second monograph, From Slave Cabins to the White House: Homemade Citizenship in African American Culture, appeared in August 2020 and was named a Best Book of 2020 by Ms. Magazine. She is also editor of the Broadview Edition of Frances E.W. Harper’s 1892 novel Iola Leroy, and her scholarly articles include “James Baldwin, Performance Theorist, Sings the Blues for Mister Charlie,” published by American Quarterly, and “Love in Action,” which appeared in Callaloo and draws parallels between lynching and violence against LGBTQ communities.
Mitchell has been invited to offer guidance to scholars at every stage of their careers by various types of institutions, including the Ford Foundation, the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), the New Jersey Department of Education, Vanderbilt University, Michigan State University, the College of Wooster, and Princeton University. In addition to serving as external reviewer for tenure dossiers, she has chaired committees to select the winners of fellowships, essay awards, and book awards. In 2014, Mitchell lectured at the Library of Congress, and in 2018, she was named Undergraduate Professor of the Year by Ohio State University’s English Undergraduate Organization. On Twitter, she’s @ProfKori.