Approaches To Teaching The Works Of Octavia E Butler

Octavia E. Butler's works of science fiction invite readers to consider the structures of power in society and to ask what it means to be human. Butler addresses social justice issues such as poverty, racism, and violence against women and connects the history of slavery in the United States with speculation on a biologically altered future world. The first section of this volume, "Materials," lists secondary sources and interviews with Butler and suggests texts that instructors might pair with her works. Essays in the second section, "Approaches," situate Butler in science fiction, modernism, and Afrofuturism and provide interdisciplinary approaches from political science, philosophy, art, and digital humanities. The contributors present strategies for teaching Butler in literature courses as well as courses designed for adult learners, preservice teachers, and students at historically black colleges and universities.

Octavia E. Butler is widely recognized today as one of the most important figures in contemporary science fiction. Bringing together leading and emerging scholars and covering Butler's complete works from the bestselling novel Kindred, to her short stories and major novel sequences Patternmaster, Xenogenesis and The Parables, this is the most comprehensive Companion to Butler scholarship available today. The Bloomsbury Handbook to Octavia E. Butler covers the full range of contemporary scholarly themes and approaches to the author's work, including: · Cyborgs and the posthuman · Race and African American history · Afrofuturism · Gender and sexuality · New perspectives from Religious Studies, the Environmental Humanities and Disability Studies · New discoveries from the Butler archives at the Huntington Library The book includes a comprehensive bibliography of works by Butler and secondary scholarship on her work as well as an afterword by the novelist Tananarive Due.

This book explores the ways in which Butler’s protagonists experience Rites of Passage and are on a quest for justice. The author posits that through liminality, they engage in psychological, physical, and social transformations that increase their empowerment.

Luminescent Threads celebrates Octavia E. Butler, a pioneer of the science fiction genre who paved the way for future African American writers and other writers of colour. Original essays and letters sourced and curated for this collection explore Butler’s depiction of power relationships, her complex treatment of race and identity, and her impact on feminism and women in Science Fiction. Follow the luminescent threads that connect Octavia E. Butler and her body of work to the many readers and writers who have found inspiration in her words, and the complex universes she created.

This book offers insight into the ways students enrolled in European classrooms in higher education come to understand American experience through its literary fiction, which for decades has been a key component of English department offerings and American Studies curricula across the continent and in Great Britain and Ireland. The essays provide an understanding of how post-World War II American writers, some already elevated to ‘canonical status’ and some not, are represented in European university classrooms and why they have been chosen for inclusion in coursework. The book will be of interest to scholars and teachers of American literature and American studies, and to students in American literature and American studies courses.

Structurally innovative and culturally expansive, the works of Karen Tei Yamashita invite readers to rethink conventional paradigms of genres and national traditions. Her novels, plays, and other texts refashion forms like the immigrant tale, the postmodern novel, magical realism, apocalyptic literature, and the picaresque and suggest new transnational, hemispheric, and global frameworks for interpreting Asian American literature. Addressing courses in American studies, contemporary fiction, environmental humanities, and literary theory, the essays in this volume are written by undergraduate and graduate instructors from across the United States and around the globe. Part 1, "Materials," outlines Yamashita's novels and other texts, key works of criticism and theory, and resources for Asian American and Asian Brazilian literature and culture. Part 2, "Approaches," provides options for exploring Yamashita's works through teaching historical debates, outlining principles of environmental justice, mapping geographic boundaries to highlight power dynamics, and drawing personal connections to the texts. Additionally, an essay by Yamashita describes her own approaches to teaching creative writing.

This essential guide addresses the expanding, multifaceted role of college and university academic leaders. The new edition of the Resource Handbook for Academic Deans, one of the most important offerings to the academic community by the American Conference of Academic Deans, is written by and for academic leaders to address the expanding, multifaceted role of college and university administrators. Each chapter explores a topic related to how higher education leaders are influenced by national events, local partnerships, or on-campus collaborations. Among the topics covered are: • understanding educational policy at the national level • working with leaders from department heads to provosts • engaging with external partners • leading collaborative change at small colleges and universities • shifting toward student-centered campuses • making data-informed decisions • embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion • managing and balancing salaries • building effective leadership teams and mentoring future leaders • holding difficult conversations • returning to the faculty after leadership Providing helpful advice that can be studied in short chapters and inspiring content based on personal experience, the forty-three authors in this volume hold positions from department chairs to presidents at four-year and community colleges across the country. Written during the COVID-19 pandemic and amid calls for greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education, each chapter offers perceptive insights from experienced leaders who serve a broad range of institutional types.