Teaching at the Crossroads : Cultures and Critical Perspectives in Literature by Women of Color

"We can fight back and counter the multi-directional attacks on multicultural education in literary studies by creating responsible, sound, and cohesive pedagogy. Controversies come with the academic territory, but if we allow the conflicts to overwhelm the objectives of our teaching, we pave the way for multiculturalism to be merely a passing "fad" rather than a permanent foundation for liberal education. We need to get beyond internal "us" versus "them" rhetorics of hate to have any hope for our students to get beyond these mentalities in the real world beyond our classrooms."-from Teaching at the Crossroads This book offers college and high school teachers a useful set of strategies for teaching literature by women of color. Providing a comprehensive framework that connects criticism to pedagogy, author Laurie Grobman provides a much-needed practical guide for teachers who want to introduce their students to multiple literary traditions in a culturally sensitive and theoretically informed manner. Highly accessible and designed for practical use, Teaching at the Crossroads is an ideal book for teachers of American Literature, Women's Literature, Multicultural Literature, and World Literature. It is also ideal for English education courses that include training for diverse literatures by women. Includes sample class plans and discussion questions. Laurie Grobman received her Ph.D. in English from Lehigh University in 20 th Century American Literature/ Multicultural Literature. She has published criticism on the work of Sandra Cisneros, Judith Ortiz-Cofer, and Toni Morrison, among others, as well as theoretical work on pedagogical issues. Her work has appeared in MELUS, College English, and MAWA Review. She currently teaches at Penn State University, Berks-Lehigh Valley College.