Associate Professor of Spanish and Women's Studies Susan Sanchez-Casal, Professor of Comparative Literature Nancy Rabinowitz, who directs the Kirkland Project, and Professor
of Biology Jinnie Garrett presented a panel at the American Association of
Colleges and Universities Diversity and Learning Conference. The goal of the
panel was to provide a model for other colleges for diversifying the curriculum and institutional structures at American colleges and universities.
The panel was titled "Multicultural Literacy/Excellence in the Liberal Arts: Transforming a Traditional Liberal Arts College." The panelists addressed the challenges and opportunities facing faculty committed to critical multicultural education at Hamilton College. They gave an overview and discussed the history of the programs of the Kirkland Project for the study of Gender, Society and Culture, but the main focus was on the implementation of the recently won Hewlett Pluralism and Unity Grant as an example of how to transform a predominantly white liberal arts college.
Sanchez Casal's paper discussed curriculum and pedagogy in the first-year seminar College 130, "Coming of Age in America: Narratives of Difference." She scrutinized how this course contributes to the diversification of institutional curricula at Hamilton, how it promotes the emergence of subjugated knowledges in the classroom, and she provided recommendations for adequate and effective pedagogical practices that take into account the epistemological significance of students' cultural identities.
