What is the genre of “memoir,” and what makes an “American memoir”? This interactive event will include lecture and conversation with Dr. Jennifer McFarlane Harris, WCC Executive Director for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA), and Dr. Andrea Romero, English and Latine Studies Professor and Faculty Coordinator for IDEA at WCC.

Dr. McFarlane Harris will speak on the genre, trajectory and themes of American autobiographical writing, from Anne Bradstreet and Ben Franklin to James Baldwin and Javier Zamora. Dr. Romero will follow with explanation of the subgenre cajitas, or “little boxes,” which are vignettes in the vein of Sandra Cisneros. These cultural storytelling artifacts become teaching tools in the English composition and literature classroom, where students create cajitas that anchor their identities in lived experiences, memories, and guiding beliefs. Serving as a foundation for authentic storytelling in multiple languages, cajitas reflect students’ voices and journeys, even to publication in the Whatcom WRITES anthology!

We will close with audience discussion of narrative techniques for first-person writing on family and migration.

Dr. Jennifer McFarlane Harris is Executive Director for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) at WCC. A cultural studies educator with a strong commitment to inclusive excellence, Dr. McFarlane Harris uses her interdisciplinary background in English, Gender Studies, and Multiethnic Literature to draw audiences into conversation. Her scholarship examines the role of divinity in spiritual autobiography and poetry by Black women, as well as constructions of mixed-race identity in literature, film, and Western art music. She is coeditor of the anthology Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers and Theologies of the Afterlife: A Step Closer to Heaven (Routledge, 2021).

Dr. Andrea Romero is a tenured Professor of English at WCC, where she teaches English Composition and Latine Studies. With over 24 years of experience in higher education, her work emphasizes culturally responsive pedagogy and student-centered literacy practices. Her essay “Write from the Heart (Escribe desde el Corazón): Connect Lived Experiences to First-Year Writing Curriculum” appears in the journal Teaching English in the Two-Year College (May 2024). Born and raised in El Paso, Texas, in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands, Dr. Romero brings a place-based perspective to her academic work.

Location: Whatcom Community College, Heiner 208, 231 W Kellogg Rd, Bellingham

Registration is required to reserve your spot.