Sharing the illumination: Audre Lorde's pedagogies of difference.

Abstract

This essay explores how Audre Lorde's work as a professor can help contemporary educators teach students about difference and power. Drawing from my new book Open Admissions, it focuses on two particular facets of her teaching: first, the ways Lorde centered students' ideas to generate collective investment in courses and allow them to learn from one another, and second, how she combined both a public and private pedagogy to help them address the injustice they were studying. I conclude with a brief discussion of how Lorde's work has shaped my own approach to classrooms.