Student-centered, “embodied inter-referencing” as antiracist and anticolonial pedagogy

Abstract

This article reflects on an experimental pedagogical approach I developed in a Japanese literature course that examines sex, gender, and sexuality in response to institutional and epistemic racism that exist in university in Canada and in the specific context of the COVID-19 pandemic when the number of anti-Asian hate crimes rose at an enormous rate in the city where my university is situated. Building on the intellectual movements of “Asia as method” and “diaspora as method” my project attempts to move beyond the convention of studying Asian culture by referencing western theory, knowledge, and experience. More specifically, I developed an assignment called Peer- Engaged Embodied Reflection Journal where students discuss what they learned from Japanese literature by referencing their own, local experiences and engage in peer interactions in small groups. In this article, I discuss the effectiveness of my pedagogical approach based on the classroom study conducted in the fall of 2020 and the spring of 2021, semi-structured interviews with teaching assistants (TAs), and my own teaching experience. Based on my qualitative analysis of student engagement with the assignment as well as TAs’ and my grading experiences, I conclude that recentring student experience and peer engagement produces meaningful sites for decolonial and antiracist pedagogy while teaching Japanese modern literature in a Canadian institutional context.