PRUDENCE
LAYNE
TEACHER-SCHOLAR-MENTOR
My most valuable role as an educator lies in my ability and willingness to facilitate, share and promote learning so that light floods where darkness once prevailed.
TEACHING
William Arthur Ward points out, “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” I strive to go one step further, to be an excellent teacher, one who moves her students beyond inspiration to the transformative power of action. This journey has letd to many years of innovation, collaboration, experimentation, reflection, and deep engagement with students and faculty peers, I am an award-winning teacher, who has designed and taught more than twenty courses in North America, Africa, the Caribbean and Europe, in diverse formats and contexts, including online and study abroad. My teaching repertoire covers a broad range of disciplines and fields, including Black Studies, literature, General education, criminal justice, women's and gender studies, and more.
Click the TEACHING link to explore the courses I offer.
SCHOLARSHIP
The development of my teaching is directly connected to my research and scholarship. Like my teaching, the direction and scope of my research emerge from a deeply personal space, rooted in a sense of who I am and my upbringing as a Black woman. My research looks directly at the productions of difference in the literatures of the African diaspora to devise new frameworks of analysis for liminality within the experiences of travel, displacement, and exile. I focus my research efforts on the resistance strategies marginalized groups deploy to counter heterosexist, masculinist, and racist hegemonic discourses to control the subjectivity and agency of “the Other” and to delineate these others as transgressive. In the end, my research, like my teaching, must inspire action.
Click the SCHOLARSHIP link to learn more aout my publications and works in progress.
MENTORSHIP
My teaching extends beyond the classroom to the direct mentorship of students and facult & staff colleagues. Collaborating with and sharing my expertise allow me to develop best practices for teaching and research in and across disciplines. I have co-taught with faculty members from varied fields and my courses serve as a training ground for student researchers, student-teacher apprentices, and partners interested in improving their course design and delivery. I continue to serve as a professional development mentor for current and former students and colleagues, preparing letters of recommendations, guiding employment and career decisions, graduate & professional school, scholarship and fellowship applications. I supervise national and international academic internships,design workshops and lead discussions.
Click the MENTORSHIP link to learn more about how my mentorship has impacted the lives of faculty, staff and student colleagues.