Caitlin Gunn joins BBQ+ as Pedagogy Lab Director

We are delighted to share that Caitlin Gunn is joining The Center for Black, Brown, and Queer Studies (BBQ+) as director of the BBQ+ Pedagogy Lab.

In this capacity she will lead the development of equity-driven open educational resources (OER), connect with activists and grassroots organizations to plan and execute education advocacy event series, launch a Pedagogy Fellowship summer program, and build relationships with like-minded organizations and partners. Caitlin brings immense knowledge, creativity, and thoughtfulness into this work and we are absolutely thrilled.

Our Executive Director, Juanis Becerra, had the chance to virtually connect with Caitlin and ask her a few questions regarding her background, vision, and goals for the next year(s):

Tell us a bit more about your career background and the journey that has brought you to the BBQ+ Pedagogy Lab.

I went to Beloit College, a small liberal arts school in Wisconsin where I mainly studied humanities (specifically religious studies and gender studies). I appreciated the relationships I built with my peers and with the professors—I remember feeling smart for the first time, able to have complex and challenging conversations supported through theory. When I had the opportunity to become McNair Scholar, I fell in love with qualitative research. I went to the University of Minnesota for my PhD in Feminist Studies, and while I enjoyed learning and teaching there, I felt the constraints of being in a traditional institution. During my postdoc in humanities pedagogy at Harvard, I spent a lot of time thinking about how I could blend my interests in research, teaching, and consulting outside of the academy. When the position for Pedagogy Lab Director at BBQ+ opened up, I thought it was fate! There was a shared vision among different kinds of teachers, scholars, and thinkers for the kind of work they wanted to produce and support.

What does critical pedagogy mean to you? What do you think is the role of education in our collective futures?

I cut my teeth on bell hooks and Paulo Freire, so to me critical pedagogy has always meant a collaborative, liberating, and transgressive rehearsal of our lives, values, and futures. And while I have yet to see educational institutions and systems live up to that radical vision of what teaching and learning should be, it is still always my goal that education should bring about the liberation of the individual, the ability to empathize and inhabit the position of others, and ultimately strengthen the sense of connection and shared responsibility among people. Education is so often the site of mismanaged power and punitive authority figures, but in our futures, I see education as an accessible, life-affirming, exploratory, and empowering enterprise. And because I am a Black futurist, I believe this vision is a beautiful inevitability that we must continually struggle to achieve across generations. At BBQ+, I want to take on projects and ideas that support that future. 

Where do you hope to see the BBQ+ Pedagogy Lab in the next couple of years?

In a few years I’d like to see the Lab on the forefront of a changing pedagogical landscape—one which offers more time, money, and research to spend on advancing radical pedagogical approaches in K-12 settings, higher education, and community learning. This vision requires a breaking down of the status quo, specifically the idea that learning outside of academe is inherently less rigorous and valuable. At the moment, our intervention is in championing the Lab as a place where educators with different areas of focus and backgrounds can come with ideas that need support, ask questions they need answered in community, and have access to teachers, activists, and leaders with similar investments in education that liberates and frees the minds of students.

One of the things that I told the team at BBQ+ was that I don’t want to be another pile of resources for teachers to sift through. I want the Pedagogy Lab to be a place for conversation, exchange, and support. In short, I want the Lab to be a speculative laboratory where educators, activists, and leaders can come and experiment together and have a chance to visualize and co-create the kind of paths and futures they want for their teaching and students, and for education as a whole.

Do you have a piece of writing (book, poem, novel, article) that you keep returning to? 

When in times of stress, conflict, and pain (hello, 2020-21??) I often return to poetry to keep me grounded, both to read and to teach with! I return frequently to Nikki Giovanni, June Jordan, Maya Angelou and Audre Lorde for their wisdom and power, especially poems written during the Civil Rights Movement.

If you had to name three authors or artists that have changed you, who would they be and why? 

Octavia Butler, Janelle Monáe, and James Baldwin. All three, Black thinkers ahead of their time with a knack for prophecy.

Do you have a go-to activity when you want to have fun or log off from work? 

I’m big on television! Part of my dissertation was about cyborgs and Blackness in Star Trek and Westworld, and I think my next project is about Black politics of desirability on Catfish. So in my free time, I’m usually cozied up with TV and snacks.

What are some key elements of your self-care routine that keep you grounded?

I like to take plenty of naps, mind my business, and stay hydrated. That’s the trifecta.