John T. Warren, PhD

I have a prospectus due tomorrow for performative pedagogy. Prior to today, I had wanted to write it based off of a model by Dr. John T. Warren, a respected professor of Speech Communication at SIU Carbondale. I don't know if Dr. Warren passed away last night or this morning, but, inevitably I learned of his passing, this morning before attempting to write my prospectus. Grappling with and through tears, I continue to see my project inspired by his work. My desire is to work from recognizing my positionalities in the classroom as a way to make connenctions and build alliances with marginalized students. As an anti-racist, white, queer, woman, it is important to me that my students of color, my queer students, my female students, my differently-abled bodied students, feel that at least some place on this campus validates their experiences and privileges their bodily experiences. It is also my attempt to educate other white people about their whiteness, to be accountable to the places I am privileged, to make others accountable.

As Dr. Warren writes, "The erasure of the body is always a violent act a signal that the body should be, must be controlled and denied. Any erasure is indeed violent, but as cultural politics enter the vividness of the violence becomes more pronounced"(92).

He writes extensively on our racist education system and how we have been trained to privilege certain epistemologies, while marginalizing others. I very much saw myself in his struggle to work with a female student of color on her writing, as it was not at a very "proficient" level. However, what he comes to realize through the writing of the piece, and talk about performative poetics, that really, it is the racist education system that priviileges writing practice as a way of knowing above other forms of demonstrating knowledge (like oral interpretation, public speaking/student comments, performances/using the body) that structures how people in dominant positions view valuable forms of knowledge and learning (wow, that seems like an extremely convoluted sentence. Good thing this is not what I am turning in!)

As Warren marks with red pen all over this woman's paper, he realizes that he is marking all over her body, her experience. He explores how in his dominant positions, his privilege, has enabled him to say perform in this one very rigid way, mainly through writing. I love writing, I think it is an amazing way to explore and relay ideas. But should we judge all people on the same standard of what "good writing" is. I hope not, because I would be failing right now!

Anyway, I am interested in examining how being queer and female in the classroom affects all my teaching interactions. As both a professor and a student my queerness places my body in a precarious position because I do not "look" queer, yet I do not perform heteronormativity either. As a person who teaches about "others" my "othered" identities ultimately come into play, my body can not be left outside the classroom. In the end, however, this project is not about me, but about creating relationships with other people/students who are marginalized. How does my marginalization connect me to those marginalized students, while keeping me, from connecting with other more resistant students often in positions of power/domination.

Warren concludes the piece, "Until we resist the desire for absence, thereby embracing various bodies in all their excesses, we will continue to reify a system that inherently serves a racist and destructive agenda."

John T. Warren was an inspiring man, and an amazing anti-racist whiteness scholar in my field. His work, which at times has actually brought me to physical tears (and continues to this evening) will be greatly missed. He was supposed to speak at the University of Denver tomorrow I believe, and I was looking forward to hearing him speak, and getting to meet with him in office hours. While that will no longer be a possibility, I will continue to respect and engage with his work in this class and in the future. Peace be with his family, colleagues, advisees, and any one else affiliated with him.