Participation Type
Paper
Session Title
Session 7.05 Education
Presentation #1 Title
Colloquial Sexuality: Teaching Writing in an Appalachian Composition Classroom
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
This paper will explore the roles of sexuality and gender identity in the Appalachian writing classroom. I will engage with literacy scholarship, place-based education research, and LGBTQ composition studies to identify and address specifically Appalachian problems. Using recent scholarship I will discuss the ways in which learning in Appalachia complicates establishing identity and authority as a writer because of extant sexuality-related fear or anxiety. Specifically through a close reading of the WVU Social Justice Policy I will reveal how problematic limited legal, and sometimes personal, protections for LGBTQ identities can be in Appalachian classrooms. This paper will conclude with ideas for enabling and supporting LGBTQ students in the writing classroom without outing or threatening emergent or discreet identity.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Gregory J. Tolliver is a graduate student of English literature and a teacher of first-year composition at West Virginia University.
Colloquial Sexuality: Teaching Writing in an Appalachian Composition Classroom
Corbly Hall 333
This paper will explore the roles of sexuality and gender identity in the Appalachian writing classroom. I will engage with literacy scholarship, place-based education research, and LGBTQ composition studies to identify and address specifically Appalachian problems. Using recent scholarship I will discuss the ways in which learning in Appalachia complicates establishing identity and authority as a writer because of extant sexuality-related fear or anxiety. Specifically through a close reading of the WVU Social Justice Policy I will reveal how problematic limited legal, and sometimes personal, protections for LGBTQ identities can be in Appalachian classrooms. This paper will conclude with ideas for enabling and supporting LGBTQ students in the writing classroom without outing or threatening emergent or discreet identity.