Radical Pedagogy / Praxis

If a classroom can be sanctuary for a fearful mind, then let it be sanctuary. If a classroom can be home for a lonesome soul, then let it be home. If a classroom can be nourishment for a hungry mouth, then let it nourish, and if a classroom can be flame for an unruly heart, then let it scorch. As an educator invested in deeply rigorous intellectual labor, I approach the undergraduate classroom as an intimate community of scholars and a space of unbound critical inquiry and self-reflection. Each of my courses underpins the literary and cultural productions of the Global South with the theoretical contributions of both canonical and rising scholars, artists, and activists, introducing to my students conceptual frameworks often reserved for the graduate-level seminar. In honor of the teachings of beloved mentor Mr. Steve, I place faith in the rapacious capacities of my students and provide them with a space to think, play, and imagine an elsewhere/otherwise.

  • My teaching goals appear as four overlapping aspirations:

    1. The nourishment of community, accessibility, and well-being;

    2. The establishment of exceptional academic standards;

    3. The grounding of course materials in students’ lived experiences;

    4. The exposure of students to a diverse range of materials, genres, methodologies, perspectives, and skills.

    • California Community College Internship Program (CCCIP) (2024-2025)

    • Graduate Scholars Program (University of California, Irvine, 2023)

    • 16th Annual Feminist Theory Workshop (Duke University, 2023)

    • Summer Teaching Apprenticeship Program (University of California, Irvine, June 2022)

    • Return to In-Person Instruction Certificate Program (University of California, Irvine, 2021)

    • Committee on Climate Council (University of California, Irvine, 2020-2021)

    • Remote Learning Certificate Program (University of California, Irvine, 2020)

    • Virtual Graduate Student Summer Residency (National Humanities Center, 2020)

    • Humanities Pedagogical Certificate Program (University of California, Irvine, 2018)

    • Instructor of Record (University of California, Irvine)

      • CL 9: “Monsters and Monstrosity” (Summer 2022, Winter 2025)

    • Teaching Associate/Lead Instructor (University of California, Irvine)

      • WR 50: Critical Reading and Rhetoric (Fall 2019, Winter 2020, Spring 2020, Summer 2020)

      • WR 60: Argument and Research (Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Summer 2021, Summer 2022, Fall 2024, Spring 2025)

    • Teaching Assistant (University of California, Irvine)

      • CL 10: Contagion (Liron Mor, Fall 2020)

      • CL 60A: World Literatures in Dialogue (Jane Newman, Fall 2021)

      • GSS 50A: Gender and Feminism in Everyday Life (Jennifer Terry, Winter 2022)

      • HIST 12: History of Horror (James Robertson, Spring 2022)

    • Writing Lab Instructor (University of California, Irvine)

      • UNI 84: Bridges to Success (Summer 2020)

    • English Literature Instructor (Albayan Bilingual School, 2016-2018)

    • Teaching Assistant (Kuwait University, 2013-2015)

    • English Language Instructor (Jabriya Secondary School for Girls, 2012-2013)

    • Visual Art 2

      • “Monsters and Monstrosity: An Introduction,” The Downtown School, May 2024

    • CL 150: Modernity as Dissensus in Middle Eastern Literature

      • “Modern Iraqi War Literature,” University of California, Irvine, Winter 2023

    • HIST 12: History of Horror

      • “Gender Anxieties: The Male Gaze,” University of California, Irvine, Spring 2022

    • HIST 12: History of Horror

      • “The Abject,” University of California, Irvine, Spring 2022

    • “Global Petrofiction”

    • “Posthumanism and Multispecies Worlds”

    • “Eco-Criticism and Indigenous Ecologies”

    • “Migrant Writings of the Arab World”

    • “Queerness in Arab/ic Film and Literature”

    • “Arabfuturism”

What Students Are Saying:

“This instructor can improve as a teacher if given a stable, full time position in the department. There is no other lacking areas in her teaching.”

— Anonymous

“She teaches with passion, with easy to understand methods even if the concept is very difficult to digest in general. She engages with the students and really brings out the best answers from people - makes you think and connect with the world around you, not just the things mentioned in class.”

— Anonymous

“This course was extremely fascinating from start to end and was so engaging, I learned so much about each week's themes as well as about myself!”

— Anonymous

“Danah has created a community within the students - which is a skill of a great teacher - not many people can make me feel sad leaving a class and having to not see these people again.”

— Anonymous

  • "What the beyond of teaching is really about is not finishing oneself, not passing, not completing; it’s about allowing subjectivity to be unlawfully overcome by others, a radical passion and passivity such that one becomes unfit for subjection."

    Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study

  • "The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy."

    bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom

  • “The context for hope is radical uncertainty; anything could happen, and whether we act or not has everything to do with it.”

    Andreas Malm, How to Blow Up a Pipeline

  • "Trust your anger. It is a demand for love."

    Natalie Diaz, “Isn’t the Air Also a Body, Moving?”