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graduate interdisciplinary specialization (GIS)

• Core Course Descriptions
• Elective Courses by Concentration
• Elective Courses by Department

The Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Literacy Studies requires 21 – 23 hours of coursework in 5 courses. At least 14 hours must come from outside the student’s home graduate program.

The principal goals and opportunities of this interdisciplinary specialization include

• Understanding literacy in its specific historical, social, cultural, political, and economic contexts
• Recognizing that the origins of literacy lie in language and the uses of language vary from context to context
• Exploring literacy’s place in cognition and communication, and in relation to other modes of communicative competence
• Studying acquisition, uses, practices, and consequences of literacy and literacies across age, gender, race, class, ethnicity, geography, and media
• Evaluating, critiquing, and redeveloping communication and understanding across different literacies
• Investigating the uses, abuses, complexity, and contradictions of literacy as a social practice
• Developing critical approaches to common assumptions about the importance, power, and centrality of literacy
• Distinguishing and evaluating the literacies of academic disciplines for their commonalities and differences
• Critiquing and redeveloping communication and understanding across different literacies
• Recognizing that literacy cannot be reduced to one definition, nor to one effect on people or societies

An interdisciplinary specialization in literacy studies will extend the educational and research experiences of any graduate student who wants to explore the roles and relevance of reading and writing. The program is designed to prepare students to pursue research that produces insights informed by multiple disciplines.

I. Core Courses 13 - 15 hours
The specialization includes 3 core courses. The first two core courses cover the foundations of literacy studies, including the central questions, theories, approaches, methods, and history. The third core course provides an interdisciplinary perspective. Students should choose their Third Core Course in consultation with their faculty advisers. Sample Syllabi.

1. First Core Course 5 hours
   
   ENGLISH 750 Introduction to Graduate Studies in Literacy U G 5 Sample Syllabus
   Basic issues in literacy research: the "great debates" about literacy - oral v. written, traditional v. modern - literacy's relationships with development, major approaches in interpreting literacy.
   
   
2. Second Core Course 5 hours
   
   ENGLISH 884 Literacy Studies: Past and Present U G 5 Sample Syllabus
   From the invention of alphabets to the electronic age: literacy's relationships with social, cultural, political, and economic changes; impacts and significance for individuals and collectives. Cross-listed as History 775.
   
   
   HISTORY 775 History of Literacy G 5
   From the invention of alphabets to the electronic age: literacy's relationships with social, cultural, political, and economic changes; impacts and significance for individuals and collectives. Sp Qtr. 2 2-hr cl. Prereq: Grad standing or permission of instructor. Cross-listed as English 884.
   
   
3. Third Core Course 3 - 5 hours (Additional hours may count toward electives)
   
   EDU T&L 901 Changing Perspectives in Language, Literacy, and Culture G 3
   Introductory seminar highlights interdisciplinary nature of studies in language, literacy, and culture and provides historical perspective for theoretical shifts that influence research and teaching. Prereq: Admission to LLC PhD program.
   
   
   ENGLISH 883 Studies in Literacy G 5
   Examination of the meanings of the term "literacy" and the historical, cognitive, social, economic, artistic, and political consequences of these definitions. Topics vary.
   
   
   EDU T&L 930 Literacy Research and Issues of Diversity in the Classroom G 3
   Examines literacy research and diversity issues (language and cultural factors) that influence classroom and school evaluations, instruments and instructional practices.
   
   
   ENGLISH 789 Introduction to Graduate Studies in Digital Media G 5
   Explores how scholars in English studies use computer technologies and multiple media to make meaning, represent and analyze information, teach, and conduct research.
   
   
   ARTS&SCI 720 Scientific Literacy G 5
   Explores nature of scientific literacy, scientific thought, roots of western science and technology and the relationship between scientific and other forms of literacy.
   
   
   ARTS&SCI 709 Health Literacy G 3
   Examines the issues and challenges of low health literacy, including research; development and testing of information in plain language; health communication techniques; and organizational approaches to meet these challenges. (Cross-listed as Allied Med 709, Med Col 710, Nursing 710, and Pharmacy 709)
   
   
   DESIGN Visual Literacy G 5 Under development
   
   
   ARCH Spatial Literacy G 5 Under development
   
   

II. Elective Courses 8 - 10 hours
Students are required to take 2 electives. The courses that satisfy this requirement are organized into four general groupings.

1. Language, Reading, and Writing Studies
2. Social, Cultural, Historical Studies
3. Science, Technology, Health and Medicine Studies
4. Visual, Spatial, Arts and Performance Studies

The first two groupings—Language, Reading, and Writing Studies, and Social, Cultural, Historical Studies—may be considered foundational both in their attention to the basics of literacy studies, especially with respect to language and history, theory and practice, and their relationship to compelling questions about reading and writing across different modes of communication, time, place, and other distinctions. They also underscore the significance of specific contexts for the acquisition, practice, and impact of literacy.

The third and fourth clusters—Science, Technology, Health and Medicine Studies, and Visual, Spatial, Arts and Performance Studies—move into newer domains for the exploration of literacy and raise significant issues about multiple literacies and, equally importantly, the relationships of “new” literacies to literacy’s foundations in familiar modes of reading and writing. Crossing these domains are enormously consequential matters of human understanding, expression, and communication across media and other domains.

Students may recognize a focus for their elective coursework from the following list of possibilities and then select courses for electives from those associated with that interest or direction. A second option is for students to develop a focus for their elective coursework in consultation with their faculty advisors that extends their main course of study or anticipates career goals. Sample Syllabi
One 500-level course may count toward the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Literacy Studies if it is taken outside the student’s home department.

The coordinating advisor for the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Literacy Studies must approve courses that are not listed here.