Any piece of writing is its own animal.

When I sit down to write, I write for everyone, knowing that not everyone will read or appreciate it.

Writing is recursive, as I keep coming back to it. It’s all in the p(re(writing)).

My work is infused with research, both internal and external, as well as the bones of my ancestors, poetical and blood.

I write from my corner, looking outward.

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Teaching

As an instructor, I strive to include the whole person and to assist students in discovering knowledge on their own terms. I encourage all students to express themselves and to participate in global and local communities through interdisciplinary learning in diverse and inclusive texts and activities. From this, they are primed to mindfully and collaboratively participate in the academy and in the world around them.

My pedagogy strives to move beyond the canon and call for a reconstruction of vocabularies. “The self is always the creation of a particular historical and cultural moment,” and in this difficult moment, I work to integrate that awareness into research and knowledge in the classroom.

In this particular difficult moment in America, it’s essential to bring discourse on race, gender, and orientation into the classroom so that students can engage with the context of source material and their own lives. Through student-centered collaborative learning and inquiry; recursive writing with deep questioning; and striving for equity and inclusion, my pedagogy encourages active, interdisciplinary analyses and critiques of canon, normativity, and environment.

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Diversity

We are all fighting the always-war against oppression and the always-war against capitalism, colonialism, and attendant white privilege. We must acknowledge our privileges—for me, whiteness, maleness, education, and a middle-class upbringing—while believing in everyone’s capacity to change and to lead. Despair is easy to fall into; it is harder to use privilege to help decenter privilege. Writing creates these opportunities for change and imagination, and I believe and practice through my writing and research in magical poetics that it can precipitate new meaning and make new options possible.

I embody what I teach and my research and creations all center around an ethos of action and opposition to oppression. Language shapes thought, which shapes culture, and so the classroom is a space of potential for change. Magic in poetry is the capacity for language to do something, and I believe that teaching poetry and creativity is teaching the option of a better future for all of us, beginning with the students.

Syllabus Sample Excerpt

Introduction to Film, University of Louisville, 2022

Course Description:
This course will introduce you to the global history of film, film terms, film analysis, film theory, and film techniques. We will examine the elements of film form and will investigate how these elements come together to create film aesthetics and the production of meaning. Students will develop an understanding of film’s international foundation, interconnectedness, and how the cultures of non-U.S. societies have influenced filmmaking and their audiences. We will pay close attention to the concept of genre and the evolution of genre within social contexts using narrative and experimental films.

This course is similar, in many ways, to a literary analysis course. You will learn how to talk about and how to analyze film in an intellectual way. This is not a film survey course; the goal is to provide you with a solid understanding of the basics of film art and aesthetics, not to cover every genre, time period, or important film. The films selected for this course were specifically chosen by the department and by your instructor to facilitate the understanding of film as an art form.

Course Objectives:
1. See and analyze more films!
2. Understand the technical and historical context of films to understand their intent,meaning, and impact on filmmaking and culture.
3. Break down the aesthetic tools of film production by learning film terms, theories,and concepts.
4. Begin to write and talk about films critically.
5. Nurture a welcoming environment to discuss and learn more about film.
6. Discuss difficult topics concerning film and culture to approach understanding.
7. Connect films and readings to your personal interests.

Partial Course Outline (subject to change by instructor): 

For more on any of the above extracts, contact me at robertericshoemaker@gmail.com