Yanmei Jiang, Department of English

Black Feminist writer Audre Lorde writes: “When there is no connection at all between people, then anger is a way of bringing them closer together, of making contact.” In this presentation, I will discuss the possibility of creating a multi-perspective classroom through the use of anger as a pedagogical tool. I will first examine my experience of growing up as a teenager in China when I had to work through my anger caused by the discrepancy between the inculcation of the official doctrines and an increasing awareness of alternative perspectives. Then I will examine an emotionally charged scene in a freshman composition class at UWM and analyze the different expressions of anger in the classroom. Finally, I will discuss what I could have done to unite the class through the transformative power of anger, rather than turning it into a divisive force that hinders learning and understanding.