BEYOND SOIL AND BLOOD: CURRICULUM AS COMMUNITY BUILDING IN CONTEXTS OF PROFOUND HUMAN DIFFERENCE By LIESA SUZANNE GRIFFIN SMITH Bachelor of Arts English Literature The University of Tulsa Tulsa, Oklahoma 1990 Master of Education School Administration Northeastern State University Tahlequah, Oklahoma 2010 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May, 2019 BEYOND SOIL AND BLOOD: CURRICULUM AS COMMUNITY BUILDING IN CONTEXTS OF PROFOUND HUMAN DIFFERENCE Dissertation Approved: Dr. Hongyu Wang, Ph.D. Dissertation Adviser Dr. Tami Moore, Ph.D. Dr. Jon Smythe, Ph.D. Dr. Ed Harris, Ph.D. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have not traveled alone, and for that I am immensely grateful. My sister, Genyce, has told me again and again that I am writing the story that was given to me to tell, and that “what you know first stays with you” (MacLachlan, 1995, p. 20). These words have been a compass for me each time I have lost my way. And while this dissertation is about community, it is also a story that tells a good deal of who I am and who I am growing into. For this reason, it is easy for me to see that my life and my writing reflect the stamp of many whose lives are interwoven with mine. Thus, it is a great honor to recognize some of those who have cared for me, supported me, and encouraged me in my life and through the course of this writing project. I am grateful for those who first introduced me to community: my mother, Carolyn Griffin, Ed.D., and my father, Gene Griffin, J.D., who passed away prior to the completion of my dissertation. I am thankful as well for my resilient sisters who embody strength and dignity: Genyce Goodchild, Catherine Rutledge, and Elizabeth Griffin. Their living examples challenge me to raise my voice with courage. My love of learning has been nurtured by many teachers who made me visible to myself. I am grateful for Paula Sullivan, the first teacher who told me I could write; and for Dr. Allyson Watson, Ph.D., and Hongyu Wang, Ph.D., who helped me see the road that stretched out ahead of me and encouraged me to continue journeying. I have also been supported by friends and colleagues who have participated in this work as it has unfolded in my life, my thinking, and on the page. For their willingness to labor with me, to read and discuss ideas with me, I am thankful for Eric Doss, Jesse Stallings, Ellen McCoy, Ph.D., Cathy Bankston, PhD., and my sisters Elizabeth and Genyce. And I am beyond grateful for the generosity of spirit, friendship, care, and time shared with me by my dissertation sister, Naomi Kikue Najita Poindexter. Closest to the heart of this work are those who know me best and love me most. Over the course of my doctoral work, my four children have grown from little people into adults - gorgeous humans every one. They have been patient, sacrificial, generous, and the very best cheerleaders I could have ever dreamed possible. I have only BIG LOVE for Levi, Suzanna, Bella, and EmmaJoy. Thank you most of all to James Andrew Smith for your friendship and love, and for your resolve to see this work finished, even when I could not. You have made my life beautiful. iii Acknowledgements reflect the views of the author and are not endorsed by committee members or Oklahoma State University. Name: LIESA SUZANNE GRIFFIN SMITH Date of Degree: MAY, 2019 Title of Study: BEYOND SOIL AND BLOOD: CURRICULUM AS COMMUNITY BUILDING IN CONTEXTS OF PROFOUND HUMAN DIFFERENCE Major Field: CURRICULUM STUDIES Abstract: Our contemporary historical moment is characterized by social, political, economic, and educational complexities, as well as lived experiences of estrangement, isolation, insecurity, and distrust. Within this difficult context, conventional understandings of community which rely upon assimilation or exclusion are challenged and new imaginations of community building are needed to cultivate generative, nurturing, sustaining experiences of life together. My dissertation offers a theoretical exploration of the curriculum as a living ecosystem in which new conceptualizations of community building may emerge. Drawing upon poststructural feminism, autobiography, poetics, and aesthetics, I explore the complicated intersections of difference, embodiment, emergence, and relationality within the curriculum to reimagine the possibilities of building the other community, one inclusive of difference. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................1 Complicated Stories: Autobiography and Curriculum ............................................1 Fragmented Stories: The Poetic and the Possible ....................................................4 Remembered Stories: Dreaming of Community......................................................7 Stories of Loss..........................................................................................................9 Stories of Crisis and Trauma..................................................................................11 Stories of Those Not Like Us.................................................................................15 Dissertation Outline ...............................................................................................17 Summary ................................................................................................................25 II. THE STORY OF COMMUNITY ...........................................................................27 Knit Together as One Man.....................................................................................27 The Story of Community: Terra Nullius ...............................................................29 In the Beginning: An Autobiographical Story .......................................................33 Community: Metaphors of Soil and Blood ............................................................35 Challenging the Soil and Moving Beyond Blood ..................................................41 Communities In and Beyond Place ..................................................................42 Communities Beyond Blood ............................................................................45 An Intertwining Story ......................................................................................49 Fables and Ruptures: Stories of Dismemberment..................................................51 My Fable ..........................................................................................................51 Another Family Fable ......................................................................................54 Ruptures ...........................................................................................................57 Communities of Difference: Reinterpreting Togetherness ....................................58 One Last Fable .......................................................................................................62 III. THE POETICS OF DIFFERENCE .......................................................................65 Weaving as a Metaphor..........................................................................................65 Spider Woman and Penelope at the Loom.............................................................67 Poetics and Difference ...........................................................................................69 Poetics: Invitation, Imagination and Uncommon Spaces ................................71 v Chapter Page Difference: The Making of Our Own Strangers .........................................74 Stories of Eve: Created Difference .............................................................75 The Story of the Danaides: Socially Constructed Difference .....................77 The Poetics of Difference in Productions of Language and Story...................78 The Words of Women: Imagination, Storytelling and Pain ..................................81 Silenced Stories................................................................................................83 Words, Discourse and Buried Pain ..................................................................85 The Contested Discourse of Otherness and Strangeness .................................87 Of Fragmentation, Transformation and Interconnection .................................90 The Inner Stranger and Approaching an Invitation to Difference ...................95 The Problems of Hospitality ..................................................................................98 Inhospitable Hospitality: A Paradox ..............................................................102 The Hostess ....................................................................................................106 IV. THE WORKS OF THE BODY ...........................................................................110 But First, Curriculum ...........................................................................................110 Naming the Knots ................................................................................................114 To Be a Hostess....................................................................................................115 Problematic Embodiment.....................................................................................118 The Body of the Hostess ................................................................................119