To begin, my intersectional identity as a cross-cultured, first-generation Yemeni American woman grounds my commitment to inclusive and culturally relevant pedagogy. These lived experiences—navigating academic spaces as an underrepresented scholar—continually shape how I imagine belonging and citizenship as shared, participatory practices. Because of this, I view learning as a collaborative process rooted in reflection, dialogue, and transformation. Drawing on feminist epistemologies and the work of Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Louise Dunlap, and Norman Fairclough, I invite students to examine how language, culture, and power shape our lived realities—and how we can collectively transform them.

 Building on these commitments, I strive to foster linguistic justice by testing the boundaries of academic writing and asking: Who gets to decide how we use language to communicate our needs? Drawing on Dan Melzer’s concept of “Understanding Discourse Communities,” I introduce students to the norms, expectations, and writing conventions that shape academic discourse. Melzer encourages students to recognize how discourse communities function—what kinds of language, tone, and forms are valued, and how these expectations define membership. However, when my students engage critically with these “academic norms,” they often ask, What if these conventions are not fair, inclusive, or representative of our varied linguistic repertoires? These questions open the door to rich discussions about power, access, and whose voices—and writing practices—are privileged in academia. 

Together, we test these boundaries by reimagining what academic writing can look like, recognizing poems, songs, and personal narratives as valid forms of knowledge and expression. When I ask students what they find to be the most accessible form of communication, they consistently name music and poetry. While academia does not always recognize poetry as legitimate knowledge, my students and I resist this notion by weaving poems into academic writing—meeting course outcomes while honoring students’ unique voices, languages, and perspectives. Through this process, we challenge narrow definitions of what it means to be “academic.” Students learn to write for different audiences and rhetorical contexts—personal, academic, and professional—drawing not only from scholarly sources but also from lived, linguistic, and familial knowledge. Ultimately, this practice embodies culturally responsive and inclusive education, and each time I invite students to participate, I am humbled and inspired by their resilience and the richness of their personal stories.

 At the start of each term, we extend this inquiry by “reading the word and the world,” as Freire describes—using reflective writing and critical questioning to connect personal experience to larger social structures. Guided by Dunlap’s Undoing the Silence, students identify internalized and systemic silences that limit expression and practice writing as a form of liberation. As our inquiry deepens, students undertake projects that focus on creativity, analysis, and advocacy. For example, in “Analyzing Language and Identity through Literature,” students engage with texts by Gloria Anzaldúa, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, and Lila Abu-Lughod, along with poems of their own choice, to explore how language and identity intersect and how writers challenge dominant narratives. Similarly, in the Music Video or Genre-Based Analysis, students apply Critical Discourse Analysis to hip-hop, spoken word, or digital media, examining how language, visuals, and symbols construct identity and reflect social values. Throughout these projects, students continually ask whose voices and writing conventions are represented—and whose have been erased—in media, literature, and education. In culmination, the Solidarity Project invites students to preserve oral histories or family narratives, positioning themselves as active truth-seekers and storytellers inspired by Howard Zinn’s call to recover silenced voices and stories omitted from official histories.

 Finally, assessment in my courses centers on reflection, process, and authentic communication. Students curate their learning in digital portfolios that document growth through multimodal and community-based projects such as podcasts, visual or hybrid essays, and critical reflections. In doing so, they demonstrate how their evolving awareness of language and power translates into action. Ultimately, teaching and assessment become reciprocal acts of inquiry: together, we cultivate critical consciousness, foster empathy, and utilize writing and dialogue as tools for collective liberation and transformation.