Dr. Colette Morrow

Director,
Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies,
Purdue University Northwest, USA

Short Bio: Colette Morrow is a Professor of English at Purdue University Northwest. Her specialization is Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She has had the enormous pleasure of visiting Pakistan and speaking at Pakistani Universities. She has served as the president of the National Women’s Studies Association which is the only nationwide academic professional association in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies in the US. Morrow is a senior Fulbright Scholar and has worked to develop Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies in universities in Eastern Europe and South Asia.

Keynote Topic: Hope Not Hate: Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb”

Hope is the dominant tone in Amanda Gorman’s poem, “The Hill We Climb,” which she wrote for and read at US President Biden’s inauguration in 2021. Resonating Langston Hughe’s poem, “Let America be America Again,” Gorman characterizes the US as a “nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished.” By unfinished she means the enslavement of Black people historically and ongoing manifestations of hatred that have surged recently, especially the increasingly successful Christian nationalist, white supremacist movement. Her vision of a complete nation is “a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions” where “mercy merges with might” to produce a “legacy of love” that will empower “our” children.” The poem eschews violence and division. It does not blame whites. It imagines a deliberate progression rather than a revolution. It does not contain any sexual references. Nor does it advocate illegal behavior. Yet recently a public school in Florida restricted children younger than about eleven years old (first-year middle school students) from accessing “The Hill We Climb.” Such bans, which are surging in the US, and “The Hill We Climb” was banned because it “indirectly” features “hate messages.” This “straw man” fallacy is a distinguishing mark of white supremacist rhetoric–colloquially called “flipping the narrative.” My presentation will employ an analysis of “The Hill We Climb” in order to expose the Christian nationalist, white supremacist rhetoric of book banning in the US.