People
Faculty
Helane Adams Androne
Titles
- Associate Professor of English
- Affiliate for Black World Studies
- Affiliate for Women’s Studies
- Member, Latino/a Studies Committee
Education
- Ph.D., English, University of Washington, 2002
- M.A.T., English, University of Washington
- B.A., Literature/Writing, University of California San Diego
Teaching Interests
- African American literature
- Latino literature
- Composition
Research Interests
- Ritual pedagogy
- African American and Chicana fiction
Selected Publications
- “Revised Memories and Colliding Identities: Absence and Presence in Morrison’s ‘Recitatif’ and Viramontes’s ‘Tears on My Pillow.’” MELUS: The Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi–Ethnic Literature of the United States 32.4 (Summer 2007).
- “Untamed Tongues: Reading Intersections Between Fiction by African American and Chicana Women.” Phoebe: An Interdisciplinary Journal 17.1 (2005): 35–57.
- “Critical Reading Outcomes and Literary Study in a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Literature Course.” Jeff Sommers, Helane Adams Androne, Ellenmarie Wahlrab, and Angela Sneider. MountainRise 3.1 (2006). http://mountainrise.wcu.edu/archive/vol3no1/html/sommers.htm
- “Costa Rican Americans,” “Cuban Studies,” “Ohio,” “Inter–latino Relations,” “Guadalupanismo,” “Proposition 187,” “Panamanian Americans,” and “Spiritual Plan of Aztlan” in Encyclopedia Latina: History, Culture, Society in the United States. Stavans, Ilan, Editor. Amherst: Grolier Publishers, 2004. (four volume set)
- “Powers From the Deep: Ethnic Cultural Memory and Wholeness Theory in Fiction by African American and Chicana Women.” Diss. University of Washington, 2002.
- “Reflections on Beauty.” (poetry) Ujamaa Magazine Fall 1994–Winter 1995: 38.
Grants and Awards
- 2007 Miami University Middletown Excellence in Teaching Award Nominee
- 2007 Miami University Outstanding Professor Award from Oxford student government
- CELT Grant for Alumni Teaching Scholars Project Grant
- CELT mini-grant for Assessment Project Grant
- Communicating Across the Curriculum Grant
- Faculty Development Program Learning Enrichment Fund Grant
- New Faculty Research Grant
- Ethnicity Conference Grant
- Presidential Recognition of Service, Preparing Future Faculty Program, 2004
- Presidential Recognition of Service, Faculty Learning Community on Assessment, 2003
Work in Progress
Ritual Pedagogy: Cultural Foundations for Teaching Writing and Reading
Literature.
This article is the first chapter of a book manuscript on the use of ritual in the classroom. In this article, Dr. Androne describes the application of ritual to writing as process–oriented; it combines storytelling, reflective writing, peer exchange, analysis, performance, and assessment. She discusses the development of a ritual classroom, how the space must become a space in which students experience content holistically. A ritual philosophy in a classroom necessarily finds students in a rite of passage of public and personal importance that places instructors as guides along the student’s journey. All activities that occur in a ritual classroom must be based on the idea that what is being taught is interpretive (applying critical thinking paradigms), performative (creatively interpreting, rehearsing, and expressing publicly and privately), and applicable (establishing skills that are of use outside classroom spaces). Once students understand ritual as a familiar concept, it is a short jump to their understanding of birth, death, and transformation as a paradigm for analysis. Dr. Androne describes how ritual assists us in discussing how a birth, death, and transformation paradigm can invite creativity in writing, help to overcome writer’s block, and to think more critically about texts. She describes specific activities that make use of the ritual paradigm of birth, death, and transformation, and speaks in detail about the application of that activity to the classroom, alone or as part of a larger philosophy. She also provides student responses as examples from her own classroom experiences. Dr. Androne concludes by discussing ritual as a timely and interdisciplinary subject being used to enhance the study of many different subjects, from women’s detective fiction to performance studies.