New Horizons, New Explorations

Jason Matthew Buchanan

As scholars, educators, and teachers, every semester represents a new horizon. During my time at Hostos, I have seen this community strive to achieve many new goals, to constantly innovate and improve in order to make the college a better place for everyone. The rub, of course, is found in the reality that crossing any horizon is easier said than done. Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari describe the horizon as a movement of thought that is finicky; namely, the horizon “recedes when the subject advances,” but in many aspects “we are always and already on the absolute horizon” (38). What Delezue and Guattari suggest is that a horizon of knowledge not only seems to be just out of reach but also is a space that we always occupy as thinkers, requiring just one moment of inspiration to cross. New ideas about pedagogy, scholarship, and engagement require a lot of hard work to finally reach a moment of inspiration that, in hindsight, now appears so simple that we are often amazed we didn’t think of it sooner.

It is my hope that this issue of Touchstone represents moments where horizons are being crossed or at least identified—a horizon must be first located before it can be crossed. Touchstone is a journal where authors can try and cross the vistas of

knowledge, creativity, and practice. It is also space of communication where those at Hostos can express the range of work they do in an effort cross their personal horizons. Scott Stevens has argued that finding new registers to talk about scholarship and pedagogy is important as it brings in a diversity of conversations. For him, we find new ways to discuss scholarship and pedagogy when “we inhabit new relation- ships…and create new paradigms to reflect those new relations” (384). Touchstone, I hope, helps foster the new registers of teaching and scholarship here at Hostos. In this way, the journal can create new conversations and relationships that allow us, both collectively and individually, to reach new horizons as thinkers, teachers, and scholars.

The collection of articles published in this issue of Touchstone reflects a meditation on horizons, both personal and professional. Natasha Yannacañedo’s piece, “Fighter,” tells the story of her grandmother Louise and shows, in a touching narrative, how the legacies of family members both comfort and motivate us. In “Food for Thought: Using a Small-Bite Syllabus in an Online Course,” Jacqueline

M. DiSanto describes how rethinking syllabus design can help students in online classes build relationships with their colleagues and their professor. Damaris-Lo- is Yamoah Lang’s “Organ Donation Concerns and Myths: A Classroom-Based Research” analyzes how myths about organ donations play a crucial rule in the decision to not become a donor.

The distance between theory and practice is discussed in Etienne A. Kouakou’s article where he explains the need to create better avenues of collaboration between researchers and practitioners. In “Re-entry at Hostos Community College: Education + Community = Partnership for Success,” Sandy Figueroa explains how an encounter with a student resulted in a new horizon of pedagogy that was a better fit for the re-entry population at Hostos. Oded Naaman’s “Just Sign Here” is a creative piece that follows the emotional rollercoaster of Clark as he moves through life and love. Jennifer Tang’s insightful piece on Michael Powell’s film Peeping Tom analyzes how the film is a precursor to the modern day obsession with “selfies” and recordings.

In “Using a Capstone Course to Increase Standardized Test Scores and Predict Future Success in the RN –NCLEX Nursing Exam,” Edward King examines a pedagogical horizon that uses a new method for exam instruction in order to help better prepare nursing students at Hostos. The article by Ana Ozuna, Sarah L. Hoiland, and Nelson Nunez-Rodriguez is an engaging description of how their pi- lot courses bridge the gap across subjects and curricula, all around the topic of hair.

Finally, I would like to thank all those who have participated with Touchstone throughout the years. As the new Editor, I am indebted to all those who have previously served on the Editorial Board. I am particularly grateful for the work of Carl Grindley and Kim Sanabria, who were the Editors before me. Also, I would like to thank Anne Lovering Rounds, Diana Macri, and Lisa Tappeiner for their work on the editorial board. Going forward, I eagerly anticipate all the future submissions and learning about the new horizons here at Hostos.

Works Cited

Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. What is Philosophy? New York: Columbia UP, 1996.

Stevens, Scott. “The Better Part of Pedagogy.” Pedagogy 1.2 (2001): 373-85.