Of Parallels and Intersections: Adrienne Rich's Pedagogy of Location

This chapter shows how Adrienne Rich’s early experiences teaching in the SEEK educational opportunity program inspired her pedagogy of location: ways of teaching students to use their lived experiences as points of entry into broader material conditions and questions of power. While Rich’s journey as an educator began at elite institutions, SEEK introduced her to “activist teaching methods” that she would continue developing throughout her life at institutions such as Douglass College, San Jose State University, and Stanford University. This chapter also illustrates how Rich’s development as a radical feminist was influenced by her time at City College. More specifically, it shows how teaching basic writing to working-class students of color, advocating for open admissions, and collaborating with Black women teacher-poets helped her see beyond second-wave feminism’s celebrations of sisterhood to develop an intersectional politics.