The Craftivist Classroom: Embodied Approaches to CESL with Bordeamos por la Paz

Abstract

This article is a reflection on the potential of craftivist pedagogies to disrupt the neoliberal university model and work towards building international solidarity networks. It offers a case study centered on the incorporation of the craftivist collective Bordeamos por la Paz into two distinct US-based classrooms and disciplines: Art History and Latin American Studies. Part of a nationwide, yet grassroots movement in Mexico, Bordeamos works to memorialize victims of disappearance and violence through the collective creation of hand embroidered panels. Reflecting on the shared experience of crafting a community-engaged service-learning (CESL) curriculum with Bordeamos, we advocate for the ways these courses enabled a space of civic responsibility rooted in embodied knowledge and “being with” in order to resist replicating problematic power dynamics.

Keywords

• craftivism
• community-engaged service-learning (cesl)
• pedagogy