Critical Making

Critical Making is my mantra in term of creating multimodal projects that student to process historical ideas in both traditional written analysis and more access creative modes. From audio documentaries to infographics, I've been willing to integrate other modes of communication to the history classroom.  Our baseline is always written work, but beyond that, the demonstration of comprehension can, in my opinion, be impactful for students as they try to communicate with a public audience.

This should not be a shock. I spend a good amount of time giving talks and attempting to engage the public with history.  So, the idea that student as co-creative can use the classroom as a platform for exploring history make sense. To support that process, I experiment and make stuff up.  This piece...AFRICAN /ARRIVALS was something I came up with as I was working on Plantation and Whip (another story). If I'm honest, P&W and other pieces like it are about the emotional pull in all history.  A critical essay on the slave trade of any length could transmit the story of when Africans arrived. Given the push to obscure the nature of slavery by some people, this was me thinking through that in a more cutting way.  Funny, not funny. 0_o'