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Winter 2005 Newsletter

Welcome to the Literacy Studies Working Group! This is our listserv’s inaugural posting.

As you may now be aware, we are developing a Literacy Studies Working Group with the aim of promoting a sense of collaboration among different disciplinary clusters and their constituents, from the social and natural sciences to the arts and humanities, medicine, and law. The Literacy Studies Working Group intends to foster a critical, cross-campus conversation and investigation into the nature of literacy, bringing historical, contextual, comparative, and critical perspectives and modes of understanding together to stimulate new institutional and intellectual relationships.

We included you among the initial subscribers to our listserv because you participated in one of our fall quarter programs, you were in communication with us, or your name has come to our attention as a colleague with an interest in literacy studies.

To add additional subscribers (or request removal), please contact Susan Hanson at hanson.94@osu.edu.

Because our current subscribers include faculty, administrators, and students, as well as colleagues from other institutions, our hope is that this forum will be used primarily for brief announcements and informational messages. In other words, since the messages will not be screened for content (this is not a managed list), we need to depend on each other for collegial participation.

Post messages to literacystudies@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu

We will set up “blogs” soon for longer and more complicated postings, as well as resources and discussion boards.

I’m very excited to preview our winter and spring quarter initiatives.

First, we are planning two public programs (at the Knight Humanities House): “Health Literacies” is tentatively scheduled for Thurs., Feb. 3 (or 10), 3:30-5:30, and "Visual Literacies Across the Campus" tentatively scheduled for Thurs., Mar., 10 (or 3), 3:30-5:30. Details will be announced in the weeks prior to those dates.

In spring quarter, we will host a visit to OSU by Mike Rose from UCLA whose most recent book is The Mind at Work: The Intelligence of American Workers (Viking, 2004). Rose has also written Possible Lives: The Promise of Public Education in America and Lives on the Boundary: The Struggles and Achievements of America’s Underprepared.

In addition, we are in the process of establishing a number of smaller, shared-interest groups that will explore themes ranging from “evolution of literacies” to “economies of literacies,” “domains of literacy,” “methodologies for studying literacy,” “literacy and learning,” and “literacy processes.” These interest groups were developed from the information provided by participants in the fall quarter events. We anticipate that these smaller gatherings will focus on discussion, readings, pedagogy, or other literacy-related matters. More information on the groups and their founding, as well as how to get in touch with organizers, is coming soon.

More soon!

Harvey J. Graff, on behalf of the Literacy Studies Working Group Executive Committee:

Harvey J. Graff, English & History graff.40@osu.edu
Steve Acker, School of Communication & TELR acker.1@osu.edu
Mollie Blackburn, Teaching & Learning, College of Education blackburn.99@osu.edu
Marcia Farr, Teaching & Learning, College of Education, & English farr.18@osu.edu
Anne Fields, University Libraries fields.179@osu.edu
Henry Fields, College of Dentistry fields.31@osu.edu
Susan Fisher, College of Biological Sciences fisher.14@osu.edu
Kay Bea Jones, School of Architecture jones.76@osu.edu
Alan Kalish, Faculty and TA Development, College of Education kalish.3@osu.edu
Beverly Moss, English, Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing moss.1@osu.edu
Stephen Pentak, College of the Arts pentak.1@osu.edu
Amy Shuman, English & Center for Folklore Studies shuman.1@osu.edu
Lewis Ulman, College of Humanities, Director of Technology ulman.1@osu.edu
Mindy Wright, Writing Workshop, College of Humanities, wright.7@osu.edu
Susan Hanson, Folklore, Graduate Assistant, hanson.94@osu.edu

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities, the College of Humanities, and the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences.