Introduction Post

Hello, everyone.

My name is Rhys Churchwell, and I’m a second-year student majoring in creative writing. My pronouns are he/they, at least for the time being.

My primary passion is writing, and my dream is to become a half-decent novelist. To that end, I’ve chosen to take a broad variety of classes here at Knox to expand my horizons, especially when it comes to English, film, and history. There are things you can learn from studying works of fiction, of course, as well as they way that stories are produced, but there are also things which you can only learn from studying real-world history, at least in my experience. History tends to represent patterns of human behavior, and so studying those patterns can often lead to a better grasp on how people, cultures and nations will interact with one another, fictional or otherwise.

My history courses up until college were, to be blunt, rather infuriating. I sometimes feel as though I learned more about the American Revolution through the Hamilton musical than I did in any history class, which is frankly embarrassing, considering both the dramatic-fictionalization of Hamilton, and the fact that I’ve taken upwards of seven or eight different classes on early American history. None of those classes delved into Native American studies either, at least not beyond the brief mention of tragedy, which was quickly brushed over. Very few of my educators were willing or able to apply a colonial lens to American history, which resulted in the displacement and systemic eradication of Native cultures being rendered a mere footnote in the story of “brave colonial pioneers.” This is a pattern that repeated itself from first grade up until my senior year of high school, and so clearly the problem is systemic. Even when I had good-natured educators who were passionate about the subjects they were teaching, Native American history was never part of the curriculum, not even in classes that aimed at examining civil rights throughout American history.

I hope that by taking this course I can not only broaden my horizons in writing, but educate myself in a field of human history that was not only withheld from me, but actively censored throughout the entirety of my education. I hope to rectify the deficiencies in my knowledge, and deepen my understanding of colonialism as a force that continues to act on our world today.