Full Description
What does it mean to live a life of beauty and liberation? In an era marked by divisive debates over curriculum, justice, and inclusion in education, this book calls us to return to a fundamental question: our shared humanity.
This book is an integrative work weaving together the lived experiences of educators, critical pedagogy, aesthetic theories, sublimity, creativity, and feminist philosophies of social justice and antiracism. It advances our understanding of oppression by applying aesthetic frameworks to analyze, discuss, and dismantle dehumanizing systems.
Aimed at educators, higher education faculty, and interdisciplinary scholars, this book bridges theory and practice. It provides actionable strategies for creating classrooms that encourage critical thinking, creative expression, and sustained engagement with liberatory principles. Examining how beauty and sublimity influence our understanding of justice and oppression, this book offers a fresh perspective on fostering transformative learning environments.
Beauty has much to teach us about liberation. This text invites readers to explore the complexities of oppression while uncovering how education can leverage beauty and aesthetics to cultivate resilience, courage, and solidarity. For those committed to aligning educational practices with justice and human flourishing, this book offers both inspiration and a roadmap for change.
Contents
List of Figures
Introduction
1 What Is Beauty?
2 Why Aesthetics in Education
3 Beauty Alone Will Not Save Us
4 Development and Research Scope of the APTL
5 Avoiding the Quick Fix Paradox
6 Framework and Book Structure
1 Unpacking Oppression
1 Oppression as a Transformative Apparatus
2 Oppression Is Trauma
3 Wasting Time & Energy
2 Experiences
1 Aesthetic Experiences: The Gateway to Understanding
3 Encounters
1 Encounters and Education
2 Aesthetic Schema and Perception
3 The Power of Exposure
4 Oops, All Trauma!
5 Let the Teachers Teach! Teach the Teachers!
6 Encounter in Community
4 Reckoning with Ugliness
1 Dehumanization as Ugliness
2 Return to Sender: A Cycle of Ugliness
3 The Aesthetic Value of Language
4 Ugliness as Transformation
5 Envisioning the Sublime
1 A Brief Not So Enlightened History of the Sublime
2 A Fork in the Road to Action
3 Internalized Inferiority
4 We All Deserve Safety
5 Freedom Dreaming and Sublimity
6 Art of Action
1 Artful Action
2 Processing and Redirecting Emotions
3 Creativity and Courage
4 Strategies for Resisting Oppression
5 Can't Stop, Won't Stop: Avoiding Burnout
6 Navigating Resistance to Action
Epilogue: Words of Light for Dark Days
1 The Journey We've Taken Together
References
Index
