Dis-Figuring the Past in History Education: Transgression and the Abject in a Curriculum of the Grotesque

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Readings of Embodiment across/within curriculum

Abstract

This paper theorizes various effects of the grotesque as an expressive mode visible in K-12 history education curriculum. The paper examines two case studies of instruction in high school history courses in the United States, calling attention to how grotesque expressions of America in history curriculum implicate teachers and students in confronting issues of transgression and otherness. To theorize this curriculum of the grotesque operating in history education, an understanding of how transgression and abjection work to construct grotesque expressions is offered. This allows history educators to push up against the limits of historical empathy and perspective-taking that currently dominate curricular discussions in the fields of history education, social studies education, and curriculum theory.

Author

• Mark Helmsing, George Mason University