Chapter 2: What Comes First – The Topic or the Method?: Why Pedagogy Must Take Center Stage

This chapter follows the proposal, planning, implementation, and subsequent reflection on an interdisciplinary, team-taught seminar on gender-based violence in a humanities college of a medium-sized private university. A retrospective analysis provides a lens through which to evaluate the tension between progressive thinking and progressive pedagogy. Expert knowledge and feminist texts do not make a pedagogy trauma-informed nor radical. In a reverse of hierarchy and patriarchy, Skibba posits that facilitating agency, sharing vulnerability, and prioritizing emotional intelligence are key in engaging with students such that their learning and growth move beyond the confines the classroom, university, and job preparation.