Stephanie Anne Shelton

🏳️‍🌈New article: "The Center Cannot Hold: Censorship and Queer(ing) Literacies in the Rural South" explores #queer #literacy #counterstrategies to resist #censorship & affirm #lgbtq+ people in #K12.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...
#academic #highered #research #PhDSky #AcademicSky #HigherEdSky

Love this! 🔥🎉❤️

THANK YOU for being a part of this wonderful community & conversation! 🎉❤️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

I am *doubtless* that I will enjoy, and I'm thrilled that you shared! Thank you! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🎉

Absolutely. Agency is sometimes found in small moments, brief actions, but it's there & it matters. What's the metaphor? The tiniest grains of sand can grind a massive, rumbling machine to a halt.

Thank you for being a part of this wonderful community conversation! 🎉🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

I *LOVE* this. Having the power to articulate our truths is WORLD CHANGING.

Empathy is so underrated and underappreciated. Centering it in and as teaching is POWERFUL.

Ooooo! Thanks for sharing! 🔥❤️

If there's ANYTHING that I have that might be useful to you, just email me at sashel@unc.edu, and I will HAPPILY send it. #Queer #Literacies

2/2 #Queer and #trans celebratory #literacies are possible. And, if they weren’t critically important, there wouldn’t be so many laws/policies/efforts trying to stop that work. Sending warm and caring thoughts to all.
🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🔥🎉❤️

1/2 It was my HONOR! THANK YOU @writinglit.bsky.social inglit, @kpsinedu.bsky.social, @carolinebr.bsky.social @nicolermisra.bsky.social ! And, thank you to all of the #educators, #researchers, #community #activists, #lawmakers, everyone who actively supports #LGBTQIA+ communities!

I love this!

YES. STRONG co-sign!

3/3 A6: Folder of resources: tinyurl.com/sheltonAERAL...

2/3 A6: #Queer and #trans affirming work is necessary & life-saving in education, and #literacies offer ways to do this work even within restrictive contexts. YOU CAN DO THIS WORK, and that work MATTERS more than EVER.

1/3 A6: I think the most important strategy is to understand that you *CAN* #queer #literacies, no matter #context. You *DO* have #agency to challenge taken-for-granted norms, to push for thinking in new, disruptive, potentially uncomfortable ways.

Comfort w/ discomfort can be absolutely TRANSFORMATIVE, for #literacies and beyond.

Absolutely agree. There's also wonderful scholarship on drag pedagogy that some might want to check out!

Yes. And, I promise you as one of those former #queer students, that they will always remember, and always love that you created those spaces.

Completely agree. 💯

Completely agree. And standardized testing (& enforcement of standardization) perpetuate this issue. But centering uncertainty & discomfort can be useful for teachers & students, and it ruptures many of the assumptions & mandates--without moving into explicitly "illegal" territory.

That's key, I think: whose discomfort? Marginalized students/teachers are perpetually uncomfortable. Centering discomfort reshapes classroom spaces & learning in ways that can be productive for all, in new and disruptive ways.

3/3 A5: Queering #literacies chapter: tinyurl.com/BritzmanQuee...
Examples of these efforts: tinyurl.com/DoBadStuff tinyurl.com/SheltonCommu...

2/3 A5: #Literacies that ask students “What makes you uncomfortable, unsure?” are generative & invite topics/discussions that veer outside of scripted curricula & censorship efforts.

1/3 A5: Reading for #discomfort means uncertainty & discomfort = opportunities to think critically about taken-for-granted norms & interrogate what we think we know & what we might *dare* to know. These practices work even in spaces where #queer and #trans affirming #curricula are prohibited.

1,000%. And, affirming #teachers are one of THE most valuable resources for #LGBTQ+ youth in this moment, and I freaking LOVE that educators continue to work/think/teach *around* and *through* these prohibitions/censorships/mandates.

The 85% convergence is always empowering & wonderful, but finding value in that 15% is such a key aspect of #queer #literacies.

THAT is EXACTLY it: #queer histories and #literacies always have been, always will be, and are just factually a part of our communities' fabrics.

YES. Queer(ing) has deep (and often unacknowledged) debts & connections to civil rights leaders & efforts. Given that it's Pride Month, it's a good time to remember that key figures in LGBTQ+ activism were/are people of color and/or trans people, such as Marsha P. Johnson.