Black Women Will Save Us

Abstract

This essay coalesces Gloria Ladson-Billings' culturally relevant pedagogy with bell hooks' and Patricia Hill Collins' Black feminist theory and pedagogy to teach undergraduate College English at a Historically Black College/University. The author explores assigning culturally relevant texts, engaging peer partnering/peer review, and using writing assignments to allow students to shift from a subjected position to the subject position. In this essay, the author also includes detailed assignment descriptions and a sample student submission as evidence of how assigning culturally relevant assessments might appear in the classroom. The essay closes with a brief reimagination of the classroom in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which now privileges an increased awareness of student's mental health and wellness.