The Women and Crime in Herstory Class That Everyone's Talking About!

In 2022 I launched a one-of-a-kind crime class that centers females: women, and girls of many kinds - forgotten in the annals of the American "criminal" past.

I was aiming towards the beginning to recenter females in our everyday thinking of the past and the future still evolving.  As I thought more deeply I realized that I was forging toward telling HER/HIS story in fact while the STORY itself and WHOSE story I and others have and will continue to tell in and the future took even greater shape in my mind amid thinking about where the students could and would soon go/grow with the coming future I began setting into motion.

                      

                      So late in 2022, right?

I was quite bold when the course went live for students to register with a description like this: 

All in all, the course title "Women and Crime in the Evolution of American History" is what seems to continue to draw considerably high student attention (and well maybe also a couple of cross-listings too: African American Studies, American Culture Studies among others) amid quite a growing global interest in crime/criminality/policing/justice, and medicine.

Admittedly, I was nervous beyond belief when I put the course proposal in, and even more in 2022 as I stepped into new and quite uncharted territory. I truly began fusing two worlds - the study of women/girls and the study of crime - which until then had not been brought together, and the excitement of interest absolutely soared!

With and as that class, like all of my courses developed during my time at my university, a unique community was formed that in time then really mattered, fall 2022! 

Students showed up excited, pumped to be there, even sometimes bringing friends! We had a lot of fun! Even more as a lively class we just gelled! --- We all came together rather quickly coming to get one another because we were able to come forge new ties --- to learn, to grow together, be blown by moments, feel heartbreak on a past not too far gone, and to sit together on the edge of our seats taking in together - for the first time - some old but intriguing female based movie from decades before that may have been a major hit that we couldn't imagine ever being released now. 

We loved it most because it was #Herstory!

A Vital Movement Is Happening 

Just a year later in 2023, that same kind of new energy and new world of emerging curiosity on a female/herstoric past of communal future interest continues!  With what some mau equate equal heightened interest, a jam-packed class of even more students than before showed up tjis fall 2023, of a great many who truly reflect in every regard the mirror of the full globe! 

How awesome and affirming to see a similar energy, deep curiosity, and communal excitement surging again with even more students.

This second time around, I'm evolving as the world continues to do the same endlessly, and through it my approach to teaching and learning is and will become unprecedented. 

It has never been about tests, quizzes, and memorization for me. What a snoozer for any that still do that.

These new generations LOVE access, engagement, and by all means, well written stories!  

I just to do my best to continue to keep in mind there are continually growing different types of learners.

The Digital Divide Or Perhaps An Emerging New Connection

This fall my digital thinking has significantly expanded. Last year it was about making sure they know this and that woman/girl and this year/century ... THIS fall in 2023, it is more i my mind, what do they get to tangibly learn and use in the future as the demand for new skillsets emerge amid the landscape of the new digital future. 

Even more, as AI and the rise of making sure personal engagement and depths of learning are incorporated in the 2020s college classroom, digital analysis is now among the required assignments this Fall2023 class; the Show Me x 2 Digital Analysis Project. 

As a globe, amid the rise of AI and the future of higher education discourses are ever ongoing,  we are and should all be creatively encouraged to think about the boundaries of human intelligence, while staying mindful in and of the assumption that the algorithms are not programmed to care deeply if at all about women/girls anywhere (how and/or if they lived in any century or decade); the programs of AI reflect their global (most likely male designers) MOST who never took such a course; this one is THE only one on the world of its female centered kind!

Who knows maybe several future tech companies will offer a certificate for such AI integrated learning integration to center and make intentional the programmatic learning of the full spectrum of women/girls in #Herstory; from the global multi optics, rather than the old, one white way only! 

 The future, of course, remains to be seen. 

To break the discomfort of the never before questions, and new probes overdue, the long goal has been activating boundaries of new knowledge still buried, not as easily to pull out, on or off line.

My students this fall 2023 will go much further to empower the future on the future need of herstorical memory. Just stay tuned!

Earlier this year amid International Women's History Month, a question was rightfully posed to the world, 

"Can you imagine if toddlers were raised by 20-year-old men? That is what is happening in the world." 

From the Archives to the Classroom 

This summer catapulted my own book research as I went on a second murder mystery tour developed off my book. Because of the summer work, I was able to come for the first time directly from the archives back into the classroom with a direct understanding of the macro and the micro herstory I am and will look to continue to empower a great many about this fall. 

So it all, just worked out together as this fall I try even more to get students access to the past through archives on and offline and also to find their voice anywhere they want!

In truth, this fall these students have caught me at a different place in my career and also while working on my next book connected to women and crime. 

I choose most in 2023 engaging digital heritage that Missouri is leading the nation by showing the incredible ways students can engage the local and national past. While also bringing into focus a commercialized center with the Missouri State Penitentiary (MSP), and learning about crimes women/ girls allegedly committed across America,  that we should have never forgotten about, while lastly reminding what empowerment can look like through legacy-making. 

The Unlimited Power of Teaching Through Empowerment

The future is and will always be best served through empowerment. 

Giving to the world through knowledge, here and for the coming future empowering without what is and or may not come back has always been a hallmark of academia. However, this fall, the microphone will be louder in new and kn new and unexpected ways set most to embolden deeper learning across the globe and even more across generations about women/girls in herstory. 

Why else would I start with an episode of all things, Columbo, 6th season important episode on the first day of class showing gender and crime in full 1970s motion! :)

Stay tuned to hear most what students are learning this fall 2023 at least about what crimes some women/girls allegedly committed that we should've never forgotten and or learned much about earlier in our educations. 

It really is never too late to go deep and go beyond the superficial scroll. 

In short, stay tuned for even more nuanced empowerment about the #Herstory of women/girls and crime like never before.

No script needed, just digging up her story amid his story like never before!!

More soon,

Dr. Mustakeem