About Me

Hello there!

Welcome to my blog. My name is Amanda, and I am a writer, teacher, and doctoral candidate at Duke University. I currently live in Durham, North Carolina. This blog is just one component of a larger pedagogical model I have developed that uses literature to teach students how to address unresolved trauma, facilitate internal transformation, and ultimately become more self- and socially-aware individuals. I wrote many of these blog posts as critical introductions to (Black) feminist critical and creative texts. I have used these critical introductions in my courses and reading groups to provide a common contextual foundation through which all students may begin to engage with a text deeply.

The texts for which I have written critical introductions have also been essential to my development as a queer Black feminist artist and intellectual who is deeply committed to forming bonds of intimate solidarity across many communities of women. The practice of reading, writing, and teaching about (queer) (Black) feminist genealogies has made evident to me the necessity of reflecting on my personal experiences and sharing them within the classroom. In sharing vulnerably of my process of self-transformation, I encourage my students to do the same. Within the creative and pedagogical philosophy I am developing through praxis, I have found that I must throw off the disciplinary yoke of shame in order to participate in a modeling of healthy relationships with my students. Within the classroom, I can use a combination of critical introductions, emotionally-reflective writing prompts, and strategic group work to teach my students that trust, compassion, genuineness, vulnerability, honest communication, mutual respect, and emotional intelligence should be non-negotiable components of every professional and personal relationship. Through evaluating the state of the relationships we maintain in our lives and with ourselves, my students and I are able to collectively imagine the contents and structure of a world in which all people feel loved, valued, heard, cared for, and seen.

If you would like to partake in this process of remaking the world and ourselves, please feel free to subscribe to this blog. Here, you'll be able to take a look at syllabi I have developed, keep abreast of events the collective is hosting, and click through playlists and poetry 'zines that my students publish collectively at the end of every semester. 

There is so much beautiful work to be done, inside and out. I'm looking forward to growing and thinking with you.

If you would like to request my services for a speaking event, panel, or poetry workshop, please email me at amandakbennett12@gmail.com. If you're interested in teaching my critical introductions on my blog or my short story, "Lay Your Head On My Pillow," please feel free to contact me via gmail.