Trans*+ing Classrooms and Schools: The Pedagogy of Refusal as Mediator for Learning
sj Miller, Ph.D.
Deputy Director, Center for Research on Equity in Teacher Education | Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools
Research Associate Professor | New York University | Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Description
Under the current proposed federal policy changes in Washington DC, threats against the transgender community are currently poised to sanction different forms of structural violence that will include economic, material, and social consequences. These far-reaching consequences will legalize discrimination in schooling practices and have detrimental impacts on the psycho-social-emotional and academic lives for ALL transgender youth. Such changes not only endanger transgender students’ lives but in put in place policies that condone ridicule and exclusion.
This talk addresses these concerns and puts into practice how trans*+ is a neo-mediator for literacy learning and (un)learning across policies, practices and beliefs. It is a term with multiple facets—as a noun, prefix, verb, adverb, or adjective—and anchored to transgender identities. This presentation focuses on how its many uses can be embedded in classroom curriculum, pedagogy, and policy and how its spatialization can disrupt oppressive narratives while simultaneously reshaping, reframing, and recognizing identity expansiveness in and across different contexts. A hope for this work is that such shifts lead to (a)gender identity self-determination and justice.
sj Miller, Ph.D., a transdisciplinary award-winning teacher/writer/activist/scholar, is Deputy Director of The Center for Research on Equity in Teacher Education at the NYU Metro Center and Research Associate Faculty in NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. sj has a combined 22 years of teaching secondary English Language Arts, and undergraduate/graduate courses in Literacy, and Urban/English Teacher Education. sj has written and published over forty articles in peer-reviewed journals, over twenty book chapters, six books, and presented widely in state, national, and international conferences on a variety of topics including anti-bullying pedagogy, challenging the gender binary and LGBTQIA topics, and disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline. 
sj is Advisor for The National Council Teachers of English LGBT Issues in Academic Studies Committee, GLSEN’s Educator Advisory Committee, consultant for the College Board, and senior advisor working with teachers about transgender Issues for PBS. sj is co-editor of two book series, Social Justice Across Contexts in Education and, Queering Teacher Education Across Context and UNESCO representative for the United States to develop Education for Peace and Sustainable Development in India with the Mohathma Gandhi Institute. sj recently appeared in a feature documentary on CBS, Gender: The Space Between and is a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post, CBS, and PBS and was awarded the 2017 AERA Exemplary Research Award for Teaching, Affirming, and Recognizing Trans and Gender Creative Youth: A Queer Literacy Framework.
Date: 15th December 2017
Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Room: Room 502, Social Sciences Building (24)