What does it mean to be a human being standing in front of a classroom, performing?
How do the things that happen inside our classrooms affect our lives outside the classroom? How does our teaching practice participate in, affect, and even shape, public discourse?
What is an activist classroom and why should we strive to create one?
The Activist Classroom is a teaching commons populated by a diverse community of curators, contributors, and readers.
We understand pedagogy to be a process, an always-shifting practice that requires regular thinking through and tending; we recognize teachers to be committed, creative professionals, but also imperfect human beings who likewise need regular care, tending, and support.
Our content includes accessible, free, and above all honest responses to the challenges and joys of teaching.
History and Approach
The site began in 2013 as a blog about pedagogy and performance, written by theatre scholar Kim Solga. Today, the AC retains its core emphasis on the active, inherently theatrical elements of teaching practice.
We understand post-secondary teaching as an essential form of public performance, in which teachers and students work together to figure out the script, devise a better plot, and work through the challenges that collaborative knowledge-making inevitably creates.
Aims and Content
Our goal is to provide a wide range of tools and possible solutions for supporting teaching practice, and to advance our understanding about what teaching accomplishes in and beyond our classrooms today. We welcome contributions in a variety of formats and lengths, from short essays and interviews, to videos, to memes and gifs.
Kim Solga: Founder
I am a university professor based in the Department of English and Writing Studies at Western University, Canada. I teach on the Theatre Studies major and minor programs, which I helped to develop in 2013-14.
I live a feminist life – which for me means doing everything I can to promote true gender equity and a decolonizing ethos both inside and outside the classroom. For me, teaching is scholarly impact, and my students are my favourite collaborators.
(Hear Kim speak about her teaching practice in this short video.)
Kelsey Blair- Curator
I am a theatre and performance researcher and teacher, children’s book author, community-based artist, and sport activist who is currently undertaking Social Sciences and Humanities-funded post doctoral research at McGill University in Montreal.
Like my research – which uses concepts from theatre and performance to think across cultural domains and academic disciplines – my teaching practice takes place in a range of places from university classrooms to community theatre centres to basketball courts. I view my teaching, in all its forms, as a form of connection and activism.
The Activist Classroom 