New Lenses

A lot has happened since my first trip to India in 2009. I've lived in Hawaii, run a few ultra relays around the U.S., gone back to school (again), moved into my own house, and found my dream job as an 8th grade teacher. Throughout the past four years, the themes of pedagogy, social justice, and adventure have guided my decisions, and led to opportunities and experiences that still make me shake my head with grateful disbelief. 

Once again I have the opportunity to travel to Bangalore with Dr. Anu Taranath and her students from the University of Washington. As a class we spent Spring Quarter reading beautiful literature and challenging theory, and exploring ideas of travel, identity, post-colonialism, ethnography, gender, resources -- by the end of the quarter, it seemed like we'd covered everything and nothing. And now, we're ready to travel, right? 

This year I am going into this trip not only as an assistant, but as an educator. The way I think about teaching and learning has changed since 2009. I have a classroom to come back to in September, and as I learn as a student, I am simultaneously filtering this knowledge through the lens of a teacher. Even working with the UW students in the spring, I found many links between Dr. Taranath's university-level pedagogy, and the pedagogy that happens in my 8th grade classroom every day. This is the type of continuing education I dream about.

I am excited to go on this exact same, entirely different trip to Bangalore. 

-Amy

This is a list of the books we read in our pre-departure class during spring quarter. I highly recommend Story-Wallah, edited by Shyam Selvadurai. It has the absolute BEST introduction to a book I have ever read. It's worth checking out just for the experience of that intro. Of course, the short stories are magnificent too.

• Story-Wallah:Short Fiction From South Asian Writers ed. Shyam Selvadurai
• Why Loiter: Women & Risk on Mumbai Streets by Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan, and Shilpa Ranade
• Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route by Saidiya Hartman
• Beginning Postcolonialism: by John McLeod
• Cast Me Out If You Will: Stories and Memoir by Lalithambika Antherjanam