Vanessa Marr

Lecturer

714D Pray Harrold

734-487-1177

vlmarr@gmail.com

Education

ABD, Communication Studies, Wayne State University
MLS, American Culture and Women's Studies, University of Michigan-Flint, 2004
BA, English and Feminist Rhetoric, Saginaw Valley State University, 2002

Interests and Expertise

Vanessa joined the Women's and Gender Studies Department in 2010 as a part-time lecturer. She is a doctoral candidate of Communication at Wayne State University. Her dissertation, "Growing 'Homeplace' in Critical Service-Learning: An Urban Womanist Pedagogy," examines the intersection of gender, race, class and space as it relates to Black women urban gardeners who collaborate with academic partners while resisting traditional service-learning narratives based on charity/deficit models that construct "at-risk" communities.

Her research and teaching interests include intersectionality and critical service-learning; Black feminist (womanist) and queer pedagogy; ecojustice education; urban grassroots activism; women of color in academia;  feminist ethnography and automethodology.

Curriculum Vitae

Publications and Presentations

"Teaching for Change: Notes from a Broke Queer Hustling Mama." In Sekile Nzinga-Johnson and Karen Craddock, eds. Laboring Positions: Black Women and Mothering in Academe. Bradford, Ontario: Demeter Press (forthcoming, 2013).

"In This Very Room: Womanist Pedagogy and the Creation of Sanctuaries." Paper presented at the National Communication Association 93rd Annual Convention, Chicago, 2007.

"Lessons from the Borderlands: Risky Writing and the Emergence of a Mestiza Negra." Paper presented at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Antonio, 2004.

Courses Taught

• WGST 202: Introduction to Gender and Sexuality