MSU English professors use film and comics to engage students in American history

<p>The conversation begins with their thoughts on a challenging time for racial tension on campus.<br> <br> “It has been a challenging year, but in some ways it's been a typical year in that these things continually happen, and it's not just at MSU,” says Wray. “I have to address it in class because my students are concerned about it and I'm concerned about it as well. But when my students are raising it on the tail of these various incidents, oftentimes what we're going to do in class that day goes out the window. <br> <br> “The classroom is one of the best places to discuss these issues with students because you build personal relationships with them.”<br> <br> “Some of the content of the courses I'm teaching right now intersects with these questions,” adds Chambliss. “Sometimes we're talking about them directly. Sometimes we are talking about them indirectly. It's a way for them to process. I'm always mindful of the fact that from the students of color perspective, this isn't necessarily a shock. Like it's not necessarily like, ‘Oh, I can't imagine how this happened.’ They can totally imagine how it happened. Having the discussions is a reflection of growth. Students of all colors see this as wrong.<br> <br> “And the struggle, I think, for the institution is to think through how are they going to respond to the real concerns that students of color have and make a culture where students of color don't have to worry about constantly being on guard around these thoughtless, insensitive, hurtful actions. It’s really interesting for us as educators to be trying to create a space where these conversations can happen and people of all colors feel OK about talking about this. I often say this in class. We're all here to learn and we're trying to build the capacity to be better people, right? To have the kind of society that we say we want.”<br> <br> Wray and Chambliss have creative approaches to teaching and telling stories of Black American history.<br> <br> “Every month is Black History Month to me,” Chambl