LES S O NS F R O M A G E N D E R S TU D I E S C L A S S R O O M
my peers define who I was. In their eyes, I
was “an oreo” or “black, but not really black.”
I have spent the past few years unlearn-
ing these internalized notions of myself by
creating and seeking spaces that approach
identity with nuance and care. I can honestly
say that taking an introductory women’s and
gender studies class my senior year of high
school is one of the best steps I took towards
unlearning such internalizations. For the first
time ever, I was part of an academic com-
munity that not only saw who I was, but re-
spected and centered experiences like mine.
This was made especially clear while reading
Chicana feminist and queer theorist Gloria
Anzaldúa’s “La conciencia de la mestiza/To-
wards a new consciousness” from her book,
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. In
the article, she rejects a solely dualistic way
of thinking, and instead, asks readers to em-
brace the ambiguity of bicultural and bira-
cial identities. While Anzaldua’s was one of
the more challenging articles we read that
semester because of style and structure, it
felt liberating to work through my confusion
in a supportive environment.
“For the first time ever, I was
part of an academic commu-
nity that not only saw who I
was, but respected and cen-
tered experiences like mine.”
class not only exposed me to a diversity of
authors and ideas, it also allowed me to con-
sider and express my ideas through writing
journal entries, creating videos, and leading
class discussions. This was integral to being
able to bring my whole self to the table. It let
me showcase different parts of myself and it
let those differences not be seen as deficits
in the academic classroom, but as strengths
and assets. In the words of Anzaldúa, I
learned that, “I am an act of kneading of unit-
ing and joining that not only has produced
both a creature of darkness and creature of
light, but also a creature that questions the
definitions of light and dark and gives them
new meanings.” 8
Discussions about identity are often vulner-
able places for students and teachers, which
is why it is necessary to establish and con-
tinually evaluate the community norms cre-
ated by each new class. Additionally, it is so
important that students can see themselves
in the material and authorship and process
the information in a variety of mediums. Our
Lesson #2: Give Students Windows
Tala Anderson, SFS ‘18
I arrived in Women and Gender Studies
(WGS) class with a passion for feminism but
little formal background knowledge on the
subject. From the moment I set foot in the
8. Anzaldúa, Gloria, Borderlands: the new mestiza = La frontera (San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute, 1987).
Continues on page 10
CSEE Connections
Summer 2019
Page 9