New book "Renegades" positions Dubsmash and TikTok as culturally relevant pedagogy

Cover of “Renegades: Digital Dance Cultures from Dubsmash to TikTok”
The book argues that social media platforms such as Dubsmash and TikTok serve as a fundamental space to fashion contemporary youth identity.

Educator Trevor Boffone has published a new book, “Renegades: Digital Dance Cultures from Dubsmash to TikTok” (Oxford University Press, 2021). Building on his work using Dubsmash and TikTok to connect with his students at Bellaire High School in Houston, Texas, “Renegades” offers an introduction to the world of social media dance apps while highlighting how these platforms can be used as a form of culturally responsive teaching.

“Renegades” interrogates the roles that Dubsmash, TikTok, and hip hop music and dance play in youth identity formation in the United States. Boffone uses his classroom as a space to explore how hip hop culture–principally music and dance–is used to construct and perform identity and maintain a growing urban youth subculture. Teenagers privilege their cultural and individual identities through the use of performance strategies that reinforce notions of community and social media interconnectedness in the digital age. The book argues that social media platforms such as Dubsmash and TikTok serve as a fundamental space to fashion contemporary youth identity.

Boffone weaves in his teaching experience throughout the book, explicitly in later chapters, offering a blueprint for anti-racist community building through dance. As apps like Dubsmash and TikTok have grown in popularity with students in the United States, their uses as tools for culturally responsive teaching have also increased. Boffone’s work is a testament to this phenomenon.

Interested readers can purchase copies of “Renegades: Digital Dance Cultures from Dubsmash to TikTok” from Oxford University Press. The book is priced at $29.99 for paperback and $19.99 for ebook. Discount code AAFLYG6 is good for 30% off.