ברנדון וויליאם אפשטיין, דוקטורנט בהנחיית ד"ר גילי הרטל וד"ר תומסו מילני

ברנדון וויליאם אפשטיין, דוקטורנט בהנחיית ד"ר גילי הרטל וד"ר תומסו מילני (מאוניברסיטת פנסילבניה). ברנדון הוא מורה לצרפתית ואנגלית בבית ספר. ברנדון מספר על עבודת המחקר שלו: "My work explores the intersections and interactions of linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, queer studies, education (additional languages, curriculum, pedagogy, policy), citizenship, and multilingualism. Most specifically I look at how Israeli queer youth discursively construct communities, ideologies, and identities about their agency, nationality, sexuality, and education. I ask queer Israeli youth questions such as: what does it mean to be queer? What does it mean to be Israeli? What does it mean to be queer and Israeli? Do you see yourself within the English curriculum used in your classroom? Do you see yourself within your mother tongue(s), albeit Hebrew or otherwise? The goal in rending their narratives is to queer the current, ineffective pedagogies and curriculum used in Israeli schools. In doing so, youth voices actively posit themselves as powerful and knowledgeable. This flips heteronormative, additional language education standards from a top-down, institutionalized approach to a bottom-up approach. Herein youth voices act as critical and reflective thinkers who problematize their hybrid identities juxtaposed to a more global network. Through their narratives and my own teaching practices, I queer the power dynamic of the classroom. No longer do I as the teacher serve as a gatekeeper to knowledge and language. My students instead are collaborators and arbiters of their own language learning journeys and identities. Furthermore, these queer pedagogies include exploring and analyzing oral narratives through interviews as well as written and visual narratives via social media thereby dismantling the idea of what is Israeli, what is local, and what sexually and linguistically constitutes a citizen. The Gender Studies Program for me is an academic home. I really enjoy the freedom the faculty allow me and the interdisciplinarity that is encouraged and welcomed. Because the program is so small, I feel that I get a much more personal and personalized experience than I would outside of the University and/or outside of Israel. That is why I chose to study in the Gender Studies program instead of accepting an offer I had from a well-known, highly ranked institution in the United States. In some ways, the program is the epitome of “the little engine that could”; despite its size it continues to chug along the tracks making a name for itself through faculty and student publications, personal and widespread connections within our given fields, and a brilliant support system throughout all stages of research and learning. The program feels much warmer and caring about who I am as a scholar and person than many others I have researched or heard about”. https://biu.academia.edu/BrandonWilliamEpstein https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3607-0225 https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-epstein-msed-ma-2607aa48/ Publications: Epstein, B. W. (In press). “English as the gay comfort zone” of hybrid youth identities. In B. Svendsen and R. Jonsson (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook on Language and Youth Culture. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. Epstein, B. W. (2023). Review of “Comer, J. (2022). Discourses of Global Queer Mobility and the Mediatization of Equality. London: Routledge”. Journal of Language and Sexuality, 12(1), 140-143. Pascar, L., David, Y., Hartal, G., & Epstein, B. W. (2022). Queer safe spaces and communication. In I. West (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Queer Studies and Communication. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.ORE_COM-01197.R1