MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

In the age of #MeToo and many other movements that recognize the pain and ubiquitous nature of sexual assault, our students often seem to think that, since we have recognized and are “doing something about” rape culture, women’s issues have been gloriously aired and are on their way toward reparation. This pedagogical roundtable demonstrates how we expand our students’ awareness of womens’ rights by engaging in popular culture and pointing out the similarities in the issues women face and the novels that we read. By engaging in an open, round-table panel where we play songs for our audience and utilize a more question-based presentation style, we seek to model the feminist praxis of our classrooms.

Sarah Creel and Emily Dowd-Arrow will present on a little-known eighteenth-century author named Eliza Haywood in connection with the popular song, “Sweet But Psycho” by Ava Max. Using contemporary conversations about women and psychosis, as well as showing the music video for the song, Creel and Dowd-Arrow will show that it has many overtones of eighteenth-century culture as shown in the novels of Eliza Haywood.

In “Supporting a Feminist Pedagogical Praxis: Cardi B, Nicki Minaj and Teaching Fate and Faith,” Ann Gagne will show how literature survey courses disrupt the canonical paradigm in women’s literature survey courses where students may be encountering authors for the first time, or may put up gendered or structural defenses that prevent engagement with the text and socio-historical context. In this roundtable Gagne will introduce and propose a pedagogical framework used in her women’s literature B-level undergraduate survey course, highlighting how she uses popular women-identified rappers like Cardi B and Nicki Minaj and their work to help support understanding and application of the concepts of fate and faith.