Sonic Memory and the Curriculum of Refusal: Black Educational Hauntings and Futurity

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Past and future of (material not just symbolic) decoloniality in curriculum

Abstract

This paper positions Black educational memory and intergenerational trauma as foundational to curriculum studies in the anti-Black educational system of America. Framed by Afropessimism and rooted in sonic memory, this project positions Beyoncé’s Act II: Cowboy Carter, American Requiem and Amen specifically, as texts that function as both curricular artifacts and modes of cultural critique. Drawing from narrative interviews with secondary Black secondary students, this project weaves Black cultural analysis and critical listening to examine how Black students remember schooling in anti-Black contexts an utilize those educational hauntings to reimagine educational futures. This paper culminates in a de/colonial and healing-centered curriculum framework grounded in Afropessimism and in tension with Black futurity and freedom dreaming.

Author

• Ja'Corie A. Maxwell, University of Oklahoma