Mara Lee Grayson – författare

In Antisemitism and the White Supremacist Imaginary: Conflations and Contradictions in Composition and Rhetoric, Mara Lee Grayson calls attention to the complicity of academic institutions and the discipline(s) of rhetoric, composition, and writing studies in the simultaneous perpetuation and denial of anti-Jewish racism. Despite the persistence of antisemitism and Christian hegemony in the United States and its academic institutions, and despite a growing body of antiracist and anti-oppressive scholarship, antisemitism remains largely unaddressed in disciplinary scholarship, curricula, and pedagogy. This book begins to fill that gap by exploring how the rhetoric through which Jewish identity is conceptualized and weaponized by the white supremacist imaginary essentializes Jewish identities and obscures the racist aims and character of antisemitism. Drawing upon rhetorical analysis, personal narrative, and original phenomenological research, Grayson highlights how deeply embedded antisemitic ideologies impact the lived experiences of Jewish teachers, students, and scholars, and perpetuate white supremacy. This book illuminates the experiential, rhetorical, historical, political, and racial dynamics of antisemitism, exposes the limitations of existing discourses of whiteness and (anti)racism, and gestures toward a future in which, through more nuanced and productive discourse, we can better support Jewish educators and students and better engage Jewish members of the discipline as accomplices in antiracism. "I take this book personally. Grayson’s theoretical framework, historical overview, personal anecdotes, and phenomenological research locate antisemitism nestled in the heart of the white supremacist imaginary. I felt such sadness, anger, and pain reading this book—recognizing myself as a Jew in its stark reflection—and yet her words also charge me, explicitly in my Jewishness, with the urgent need to join others in imagining a more just world through cooperative action and frank dialogue. It’s a powerful and vibrant contribution to our field."—Eli Goldblatt, Co-Author, with David Jolliffe, of Literacy as Conversation: Learning Networks in Urban and Rural Communities "In this timely and important monograph, Dr. Grayson adroitly explains the impact of antisemitism not only for rhetoric, composition, and writing scholars and students but also our contemporary moment. In lucid and engaging prose, she unpacks thousands of years of history and tropes, making this book a must-read for anyone engaged in antiracist work."—Janice W. Fernheimer, Zantker Professor of Jewish Studies, Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies, University of Kentucky

In Antisemitism and the White Supremacist Imaginary: Conflations and Contradictions in Composition and Rhetoric, Mara Lee Grayson calls attention to the complicity of academic institutions and the discipline(s) of rhetoric, composition, and writing studies in the simultaneous perpetuation and denial of anti-Jewish racism. Despite the persistence of antisemitism and Christian hegemony in the United States and its academic institutions, and despite a growing body of antiracist and anti-oppressive scholarship, antisemitism remains largely unaddressed in disciplinary scholarship, curricula, and pedagogy. This book begins to fill that gap by exploring how the rhetoric through which Jewish identity is conceptualized and weaponized by the white supremacist imaginary essentializes Jewish identities and obscures the racist aims and character of antisemitism. Drawing upon rhetorical analysis, personal narrative, and original phenomenological research, Grayson highlights how deeply embedded antisemitic ideologies impact the lived experiences of Jewish teachers, students, and scholars, and perpetuate white supremacy. This book illuminates the experiential, rhetorical, historical, political, and racial dynamics of antisemitism, exposes the limitations of existing discourses of whiteness and (anti)racism, and gestures toward a future in which, through more nuanced and productive discourse, we can better support Jewish educators and students and better engage Jewish members of the discipline as accomplices in antiracism. "I take this book personally. Grayson’s theoretical framework, historical overview, personal anecdotes, and phenomenological research locate antisemitism nestled in the heart of the white supremacist imaginary. I felt such sadness, anger, and pain reading this book—recognizing myself as a Jew in its stark reflection—and yet her words also charge me, explicitly in my Jewishness, with the urgent need to join others in imagining a more just world through cooperative action and frank dialogue. It’s a powerful and vibrant contribution to our field."—Eli Goldblatt, Co-Author, with David Jolliffe, of Literacy as Conversation: Learning Networks in Urban and Rural Communities "In this timely and important monograph, Dr. Grayson adroitly explains the impact of antisemitism not only for rhetoric, composition, and writing scholars and students but also our contemporary moment. In lucid and engaging prose, she unpacks thousands of years of history and tropes, making this book a must-read for anyone engaged in antiracist work."—Janice W. Fernheimer, Zantker Professor of Jewish Studies, Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies, University of Kentucky

Racial literacy, a collection of discursive and decoding skills that allow individuals to interrogate race and racism as well as representation and personal identity, is vital in a contemporary society that professes meritocracy and post-racialism yet where racism and racialism continue to give rise to fear, violence, and inequity. Because racial literacy requires individuals to develop a cache of discursive tools with which to critically read and respond to particular situations and broader societal practices as well as to investigate the rhetorical practices and power of racial ideology, there is no venue better fitted to the development of racial literacy than the college composition classroom. From the planning stages through the end of the semester, this book provides practical strategies for designing and implementing racial literacy curricula in the composition classroom and across the curriculum. Drawing upon an award-winning three-year ethnographic teacher research project, the author offers curricular suggestions and teacher resources instructors can use to increase student engagement, improve student writing, and help students harness the tools of racial literacy, including awareness of structural inequity and discursive modes with which to respond to social injustice.

Racial literacy, a collection of discursive and decoding skills that allow individuals to interrogate race and racism as well as representation and personal identity, is vital in a contemporary society that professes meritocracy and post-racialism yet where racism and racialism continue to give rise to fear, violence, and inequity. Because racial literacy requires individuals to develop a cache of discursive tools with which to critically read and respond to particular situations and broader societal practices as well as to investigate the rhetorical practices and power of racial ideology, there is no venue better fitted to the development of racial literacy than the college composition classroom. From the planning stages through the end of the semester, this book provides practical strategies for designing and implementing racial literacy curricula in the composition classroom and across the curriculum. Drawing upon an award-winning three-year ethnographic teacher research project, the author offers curricular suggestions and teacher resources instructors can use to increase student engagement, improve student writing, and help students harness the tools of racial literacy, including awareness of structural inequity and discursive modes with which to respond to social injustice.

To generate opportunities for transformative learning, educators must create learning environments that help students feel safe and encourage them to grapple with potentially difficult material. The trigger warning, a brief statement information students of potential distressing or re-traumatizing content, has been offered as a way to do just that, but this practice is neither as effective nor as equitable as it may seem. Intentionally or indirectly, the trigger warning limits the extent to which students are encouraged to engage in transformative critical conversations and reinforces the culture of silence that prevails in many educational spaces. Emerging as a response to trauma amid an educational environment that professes student-responsiveness and celebrates diversity yet perpetuates the marginalization of many of the bodies in the classroom, the trigger warning is not the problem – but it is not the solution either. What does this mean for the faculty members teaching this new generation of college students? And the teachers who find this generation’s younger siblings in their high school classrooms? Drawing upon original research, Mara Lee Grayson tracks the rise of the trigger warning within historical and contemporary educational contexts; explores its potentialities, limitations, and abuses as praxis; and offers curricular suggestions for high school and college instructors seeking to implement equitable, antiracist pedagogies that simultaneously encourage students’ well-being, provoke intellectual and emotional growth, and challenge the cultures of silence that maintain inequity on school campuses.

To generate opportunities for transformative learning, educators must create learning environments that help students feel safe and encourage them to grapple with potentially difficult material. The trigger warning, a brief statement information students of potential distressing or re-traumatizing content, has been offered as a way to do just that, but this practice is neither as effective nor as equitable as it may seem. Intentionally or indirectly, the trigger warning limits the extent to which students are encouraged to engage in transformative critical conversations and reinforces the culture of silence that prevails in many educational spaces. Emerging as a response to trauma amid an educational environment that professes student-responsiveness and celebrates diversity yet perpetuates the marginalization of many of the bodies in the classroom, the trigger warning is not the problem – but it is not the solution either. What does this mean for the faculty members teaching this new generation of college students? And the teachers who find this generation’s younger siblings in their high school classrooms? Drawing upon original research, Mara Lee Grayson tracks the rise of the trigger warning within historical and contemporary educational contexts; explores its potentialities, limitations, and abuses as praxis; and offers curricular suggestions for high school and college instructors seeking to implement equitable, antiracist pedagogies that simultaneously encourage students’ well-being, provoke intellectual and emotional growth, and challenge the cultures of silence that maintain inequity on school campuses.

Challenging Antisemitism: Lessons from Literacy Classrooms provides theoretical framing and historical context for understanding contemporary antisemitism and offers teachers curricular ideas and practical strategies to address antisemitism and amplify Jewish voices in secondary and post-secondary literacy classrooms.

Challenging Antisemitism: Lessons from Literacy Classrooms provides theoretical framing and historical context for understanding contemporary antisemitism and offers teachers curricular ideas and practical strategies to address antisemitism and amplify Jewish voices in secondary and post-secondary literacy classrooms.