School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts

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Complete Issue Five.

My call for submissions for this special issue began with the unjoyful: an acknowledgement of global environmental collapse, political polarization, social breakdown, the threat of artificial intelligence eclipsing human thought…students who seem lonelier, more disengaged, dysregulated, and depressed than ever. I proceeded to pose the question: How can educators respond to this moment? I noted one reaction might be to throw our collective hands up in despair and retreat into cynical silence: “there’s nothing we can do; we tried, and we’re tired.” However, I asserted there is another way: joy-centred pedagogy. In his essay collection Inciting Joy, Ross Gay (2022) observed “joy is not separate from pain,” before he queried: “What if joy, instead of refuge or relief from heartbreak, is what effloresces from us when we help each other carry heartbreak?” Inspired by this wisdom, the concept of joy-centred pedagogy emerged during the development of a book I edited, Joy-Centered Pedagogy in Higher Education: Uplifting Teaching and Learning for All (Routledge, 2025). That publication articulated a necessary ‘next step’ beyond culturally-responsive and trauma-informed teaching to show ways learning spaces can allow students (and teachers) to feel seen and valued, as well as process trauma, by leveraging the healing and pro-social effects of joy. Therefore, when I was invited to edit this special issue, I asked educators to share the ways they are activating joy in their classrooms and other sites of learning to help students develop agency and purpose. Thus, this special issue richly continues an ongoing conversation.

This chapter lays the groundwork for joy-centered pedagogy by initially delineating problematic aspects of the Academy that deleteriously impact students, many of whom are also experiencing compounding other stressors. While recognizing existing pedagogical strategies developed to address these challenges, the author argues that they are insufficient without integrating joy as a fundamental catalyst. In defining joy-centered pedagogy, the chapter shows the ways joy can activate other pro-social emotions and effects (like experience-dependent neuroplasticity and resilience) and promote intrinsic motivation and student agency. By also naming the neuroscience of joy, the chapter advocates for the inclusion of meta-emotional learning alongside meta-cognitive endeavors.

Presented as a form of dialogue between teacher and student, this chapter delineates the intentional ‘hacking’ of a traditional discipline (rhetoric) in direct response to the disconcerting levels of student disconnection and depression expressed in the wake of the pandemic. By deliberately centering joy (in the form of analyzing, writing, and performing stand-up comedy), the instructor hoped to build classroom community and foster healing. After describing that course design process, the authorial voice shifts, and a former student from the class takes up the narrative, describing the transformational effects of joyful learning. In reflecting upon his past personal and educational experiences, Beharry calls back to the focus of second chapter. In discussing how his life trajectory changed after experiencing joy-informed pedagogy, he offers a testimonial to its effects.

This essay explores the intentio operis in the use of transatlantic bridges that are sometimes real, other times rhetorical, and others imaginary that Alberto Ruy Sánchez draws between his country and Morocco. It also looks at the representation of Moroccan space and women, arguing that Ruy Sánchez falls into exoticizing Orientalism with tints of colonial nostalgia, particularly when portraying Moroccan women. Finally, it explores how the author creates his own precursors through the quotes and literary references in his five novels. Presenting himself as a reader of Arab erotic literature and Sufi sacred texts, Ruy Sánchez suggests that he is rewriting classic literary texts, thus creating his own literary lineage and diachronically situating his work within a literary tradition that remains on the margins of Mexican national coordinates to approach, instead, the canon of Arabic literature. [Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: journal@transformativestudies.org Website: http://www.transformativestudies.org ©2023 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]