Samples and summary of faculty scholarly activities - St. John Fisher ...

and general election interesting and frustrating when I would hear a
variety of people (both in my professional and personal life) claim “Wow, we
have really overcome racism and genderism now that Barack and Hillary can
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Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner, Michelle Erklenz-Watts and Jim Wood 227
run for president.” Not that having a man of color and a woman as potential
presidential candidates was not historical and exciting, but it seems like no real
treat that it took 500 years of white male domination for such a possibility to
occur, and that even with Obama as president we still have far more work to
achieve relative to race; thus to that extent the Obama presidency represents no
“overcoming” of isms for the United States just more movement in the right
direction coupled with a continued necessity for more forward movement.
Important to note is that I have strictly taught the graduate version of this
course. I desire to push past awareness of “isms” and their consequences, and
more toward an action based pedagogy that asks, “Now that you know, what you
must do?” Given my orientation to the course I tend to present candidates with
a spectrum of reading throughout the course, fiction as well as non-fiction, book
length as well as article length, in order to reinforce what candidates may already
think they know, but more importantly to expose candidates to both theoretical
and pragmatic orientations, through a depth and breadth of scholarship, that
will help candidates work through developing a theoretical toolkit to assist them
in their journey to taking socially just community-based action. Assignments in
the course are structured so that candidates have the opportunity to experience
the reality of isms within the communities they live, drawing to candidates’
attention the way community resources often work against citizens based on
race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, etc.
Jim says: Is the “reality of isms” grounded in a theoretical ism construction
framework as well? If so, this is one more way that we claim to
know. By establishing the “reality” of isms, we are stating that we know
that isms exist locally and, I presume, everywhere. Is that right?
Candidates, for example, are asked to approach several local movie theaters
as someone with impaired hearing and request services, perform grocery shopping
using the metric of 3 feet 5 inches for purchasing to experience the struggles
that grocery stores present for little people, to explore the way race, gender, class,
and sexuality are portrayed in commercials, and to use public transportation to
move among three separate locations in both the urban and suburban areas of
Rochester, exposing the way in which public transportation in the Rochester
area forces extended waits in between buses for transfers, offers a limited and
confusing schedule, and exposes those who use the bus to weather elements
that can put their health in jeopardy (extreme heat, rain, snow, ice) while waiting
for buses. A surface goal of these assignments is for candidates to experience,
hopefully with a different lens that viewed before, what they may take for granted
such as shopping, watching TV and movies, listening to the radio, and moving
around the community. A deeper goal however relates to a belief about action.
If candidates experience in vivo the “isms” that prevent equity from being the
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228 What’s Knowledge Got to Do with It?
operating practice of the United States, candidates may be motivated and called
to action, challenging the both their participation in the reification of isms, and
challenging the community resources and agencies that not only reify isms but
who at times stand to profit from the reification of isms. At minimum candidates
can no longer pretend that privileges extended to them as predominately white