The Spring Semester Started Today

The Spring semester at St. Olaf College started today, and I met the two classes I am going to teach: Post-colonial Literature and Folklore. I spent the time, as I always do on the first day, introducing myself, my teaching philosophy, and my expectations.

I stressed that I consider the classroom a special place, the only space for true, unfettered freedom of thought and expression. I do not believe such freedom exists anywhere else. Students should use this opportunity to the fullest extent possible, articulating their thoughts and perspectives, challenging, whenever possible, the thoughts and perspectives of fellow students and me.

I also began exploring the definitional and theoretical controversies around the concepts of "Post-colonial Literature" and "Folklore." In both classes, time seemed to fly so fast that I couldn't say everything I had wanted to say. I promised to continue this discourse on Wednesday, Insh'Allah.

I am happy to be back in the classroom, to be with students again, exploring issues together, in the kind of dialogic manner proposed by educators like Paulo Freire. I wish I could be as effective as Socrates and Jesus in provoking thoughts and challenging conventional wisdom or common sense, crossing boundaries and opening up new horizons of knowledge and understanding.

How I wish I could inspire all my students to be lifelong seekers of knowledge. I wish, through studying Literature and Folklore, humanistic disciplines both, that we could make ourselves better and better human beings.

Cultural Relations Summit for Minnesotans of African Descent

A number of people showed up today at the Golden Thyme Coffee shop in St. Paul, Minnesota, to be interviewed for a documentary on people of African descent in Minnesota.

The documentary will be shown at the Cultural Relations Summit for Minnesotans of African Descent, which is scheduled for June 28, 29, and 30. The Summit is being organized by the Minnesota Humanities Center and the Council on Black Minnesotans.

Some of the people who came for the interviews at the Golden Thyme appear in the photo. From left to right are Adebayo, Joseph Mbele, Tene Wells, Professor Mahmoud el-Kati, and Adrian Mack. Tene Wells worked hard to coordinate this project.