(Dis)orienting laughter
pp. 97-101
in: Sarah Travis, Amelia M. Kraehe, Emily J. Hood, Tyson E. Lewis (eds), Pedagogies in the flesh, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
In this chapter, Travis describes an account of a racialized experience in an elementary school art classroom. Using the concept of (dis)orientation as theorized by Sara Ahmed (Queer Phenomenology, 2006), Travis describes an experience teaching with the work of African American artist Faith Ringgold. In response to the reading by African American actress Ruby Dee of Ringgold's children's book, Tar Beach, a group of white students responded with (dis)orienting laughter. Travis describes the experience of this insidiously hostile laughter and considers the ways in which this embodied response functions as a microaggression that is both orienting and disorienting.