Mythopoesis and Meanderings 

When I began teaching, I was deeply committed to being physically in the classroom. I started off with the optimism that I would contribute to my students’ and colleagues’ excitement about the literary arts. I prefer the term literary arts because formal curriculum has a range of labels, depending on where one is positioned—English studies, literatures in English, English literature, English B, etc. Have I missed any? As a multilingual, Anglophone, Francophone, Caribbean person, these traditional labels ring false to me. Additionally, I think literary arts encapsulates the less-used terms such as orature and oral literatures. For context, my first language is English, and I have oral competency in French Lexical Creole (kwéyòl) and functional oral and written competency in Spanish and French.

I taught Literature, English, and Communications Studies at secondary and post-secondary levels, and I have spent some time behind the classroom scenes in various administrative roles. Regardless of where I find myself in the formal education setting (student, lecturer, department head, and now, an educational developer), I return to an unwavering commitment to the arts in both formal education and extra-curricular contexts. What that looks like has changed, and should continue to change. The arts canon should be flexible to include new values, ethics, themes, and forms. That flexibility requires spaces for ongoing dialogue about these inclusions.

Now, in my work with educators, faculty developers, academic leaders, and students, my commitment has expanded to cultivating learning environments that are inclusive, critically engaged, and deeply human. I believe in the importance of supporting individuals and institutions in reimagining teaching, curriculum, and educational development through the lenses of relational pedagogy, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and transformative practice. My work is grounded in the belief that meaningful teaching and learning experiences emerge through relationships, dialogue, inquiry, reflection, and a willingness to question what we’ve taken for granted.

If you’re curious about working together or simply want to talk teaching, research, or what it means to be human in the academy, then feel welcome to browse these pages and reach out. I’d love to hear from you.

In my posts, I think aloud about teaching, learning, scholarship, and the practices that sustain intellectual and relational life in higher education. These reflections are my own, shaped by experience, research, and dialogue.

©Galicia Blackman