Teaching with The Walking (Un)dead

The First Year Studies Inquiry course, The Monstrous Within and Without and the Undead introduced predominantly white students to concepts of difference and critical race theory in ways that avoided frustrating analytical roadblocks. This innovative course featured perspectives from four different disciplines (History, Philosophy, Music, Psychology) clustered together by theme, in this case the monstrous. As a cluster we focused on the ways that outsiders see the world, and how insiders alienate and ultimately absorb those who think, feel, or look differently. By focusing on vampires, and other undead monsters, students were able to examine the ways in which they have been indoctrinated into particularly American norms: how they see the world, how they evaluate and understand difference, how they react and deal with perceived differences, and how groups are assigned normative values that change over time. The courses also offered models of inclusive teaching by providing alternatives to traditional modes of minority content and ideas about difference without it being labeled or coded as such through a lens that, arguably, included everyone in the conversation.