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This quarter I am teaching one of my favorite classes at Stanford, PWR 2: Not Part but Whole: Writing Mixed Race Identity. It's a class that I would have loved to take when I was an undergraduate student myself, a time when I was coming to terms with my own multiracial identity while pursuing an English major and developing a passion for academic research and writing. I am deeply grateful to be in the position now to teach an undergraduate course on academic research and writing within the context of the ever-growing field of critical mixed race studies. In my PWR 2 course, students have the opportunity to explore what it means to navigate multiple converging social identities (whether based in language, culture, ethnicity, religion, or geography), while practicing critical skills like scholarly research, reading, writing, and public speaking. During class yesterday, May 18th, we had the great fortune of being visited by a guest speaker who is uniquely positioned to discuss these themes with students: Ingrid Hu Dahl, the author of Sun Shining on Morning Snow, a memoir that explores her life experiences as a queer, mixed race Asian American woman. I met Ingrid at the 2026 Critical Mixed Race Studies Association Conference in February of this year, where we presented together on a panel (to read more about that experience, click here). Not only is Ingrid a published author who writes beautifully about the liminal experiences of being queer and mixed race, she also has a robust career as a public speaking consultant. During her visit to my class, Ingrid led students in a discussion about her memoir (which is a great example of rhetoric about multiracial identity in the wild) and facilitated a workshop on public speaking, which included one-on-one coaching with a few volunteer students. It was quite inspiring to watch my students' oral delivery and presentation skills transform under Ingrid's dedicated tutelage. I am grateful that Ingrid was able to make time for us, and I hope she will come speak to my students again during future iterations of this class! Comments are closed.
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