Interactive Presentation English
Telling Stories and Making Space
I confess. Minutes after becoming an American citizen I told a lie. On examining my “why,” I have come to realize that living in the liminal space of dual citizenship opens up spaces for learning about how to negotiate identity through geography and storytelling. Liminal spaces can be the in-between spaces not fully defined; not fully one or the other. Yet it is. Argentine scholar Walter Mignolo (2011) contend that we must tell our stories from those places in which we dwell. Hence as a Caribbean person, having lived on 3 continents and several islands, I invoke Afrikan-Caribbean vernacular practices to make home abroad. Storytelling plays a major for passing down knowledge, to teach, and make theories. Everybody and every body has stories, and different ones. Difference can be explored as and through stories at any level. Thus, in this presentation, I will share stories of how I make space for belonging for myself, and students through storytelling. My approach is interdisciplinary, drawing on ethnography, anthropology, literature, and cultural studies. I will invite the audience to consider how stories from the edge can be used to intervene in civil and academic conversations to bring visibility and voice to difference.
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Dr. Pauline Felicia Baird is a teacher, sister, scholar, author, dog person, and friend. Her guilty pleasure is walking and exploring street markets! Dr. Baird’s research interests include oral history, Caribbean women’s studies, and Caribbean culture. She began her teaching career over three decades ago in Guyana, her native country. She has taught at all levels of education in various countries, including Trinidad and Tobago, the USA, Palau, Guam, and Japan. Some of her published work appears in several academic journals. She has authored four books, one of which has won 2 international awards in 2020. Last year, she trained children to write, and this year she published her first child-authored book. Each week she tells cultural stories on YouTube and Facebook. She also writes a monthly column in a news magazine BuxtonFriendship Express where she tells “Wah dih story seh!”