Drawing on data gathered through a three-year autoethnography, A Delicate Dance couples the author’s experiences teaching multicultural education and learning to zydeco dance in order to explore semblances of intimacy across self and other. More specifically, the book looks at semblances of intimacy embodied on the dance floor and the implications such intimacy might have for thinking about curriculum and qualitative research. This lively narrative encourages readers to consider what it might mean to envision curriculum as an embodied locale – much like zydeco dancing – where the play of epistemological forces replaces technocratic force; and where students experience the relative weight of desire, fear, and knowledge, the reciprocal touch of self and other, and the mysterious momentum of the semblance of intimacy.

The Author: Laura M. Jewett earned her Ph.D. in curriculum theory from Louisiana State University, where she is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor. Her primary research interests are curriculum theory and qualitative research, and cultural studies. Current research projects include putting curriculum theory to post-Katrina practice exploring the educational experiences of displaced people living at Renaissance Village, the largest FEMA trailer park in the United States.