newsletter

Upcoming Talks, Seminars, and Special Events

Friday, February 29, 2008 30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. ICRPH Knight House 104 E. 15th Ave Graduate Student Interdiciplinary Seminar On Literacy Studies: Cross-cultural Literacies, organized by Shawn Casey (English).

Thursday, March 6, 2008 4:00 P.M. ICRPH Knight House 104 E. 15th Ave The Ohio State University Lecture on Literacy Studies, featuring John Duffy (University of Notre Dame) on "Other Gods and Countries: Literacy, Rhetoric, and the Hmong of Laos."

Friday, March 28, 2008 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. ICRPH Knight House 104 E. 15th Ave Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Seminar on Literacy Studies: preview CCCCs Session: "Creating a Cross-Disciplinary Model for Collaboration: Literacy Studies @ The Ohio State University," with presentations by Harvey J. Graff, Kelly Bradbury, Michael Harker, and Kate White.

Thursday, April 17, 2008 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. ICRPH Knight House 104 E. 15th Ave Languages and Literacies, with presentations by Fritz Graf (Greek and Latin), Jim Unger (East Asian Languages and Literatures), Leslie Moore (Education and Human Ecology), and Elaine Richardson (Education and Human Ecology). Organized and moderated by Marcia Farr (Education).

Thursday, May 1, 2008 4:00 p.m. ICRPH Knight House 104 E. 15th Ave Guest Lecture: Heather Williams (History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) on African American Education in Slavery and Freedom.

Winter 2009 Ohio State University
The Annual Ohio State University Lecture on Literacy Studies, featuring Lesley Bartlett (Teachers College, Columbia University) on the Cultural Politics of Literacy in Brazil.

April 3 – 5, 2009 Ohio State University Expanding Literacy Studies, An International, Interdisciplinary Conference for Graduate Students, sponsored by LiteracyStudies@OSU.

Other Gods and Countries: Literacy, Rhetoric, and the Hmong of Laos

This March will inaugurate of The Ohio State University Lecture on Literacy Studies with a lecture by John Duffy, Associate Professor, Department of English and the Francis O'Malley Director of the University Writing Program at Notre Dame. Duffy's area of expertise is the historical development of literacy and rhetoric in cross-cultural contexts. He is the author of Writing from These Roots: The Historical Development of Literacy in a Hmong-American Community (University of Hawaii Press 2007), which documents the literacy development of the Hmong. Duffy is also the co-editor of The Rhetoric of Everyday Life (University of Wisconsin Press, 2003).

The Ohio State University Lecture on Literacy Studies is an opportunity for scholars to preview major studies and present significant new works. The series is supported with funding from the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences, matched by the College of Art, College of Biological Sciences, College of Dentistry, Department of Entomology, and the University Libraries.

Duffy's lecture on March 6 will focus on his work with Hmong in U.S. and Asia. Duffy will discuss the historical development of literacy of the Laotian Hmong, a people who came to the United States as refugees from the Vietnam War, and whose language had no widely accepted written form until one created by missionary-linguists was adopted by many Hmong in the late twentieth century. Consequently, the Hmong have long been considered an "oral" or "preliterate" people, terms that obscure more than they reveal but speak to the suppression of writing in Hmong culture throughout much of their history. Today, however, many Hmong around the world are literate in multiple languages and writing systems. For this reason, the Hmong provide a unique opportunity literacy development in a contemporary setting and to do so within the context of the political, economic, religious, military, and migratory upheavals classified broadly as "globalization."

Drawing on life-history interviews collected from Hmong refugees in a Wisconsin community, Duffy will examine the disparate forces that shaped Hmong literacy development in the twentieth century, including, in Laos, French colonialism, missionary Christianity, and the United States CIA, as well as, in the United States, public schooling, evangelical Christianity, ethnic self-help organizations, and media discourses about Hmong refugees. In relating the particulars of the Hmong story, the speaker asks broad questions, still urgent and unresolved, about the nature of literacy development: How do people learn to read and write? What are the forces that compel, sustain, deny, or redeem literacy? What processes are at work when a majority of people within a given culture, begins, for the first time in its history, to acquire and use written language? The speaker offers a theoretical perspective on such questions, one rooted in the symbolic interactions of peoples, cultures, and nations.

For more information about this event, contact literacystudies@osu.edu

History of the Book

Beth Quitslund from Ohio University (our first outside speaker!) spoke on The Book of Metrical Psalms by Sternhold and Hopkins, perhaps the biggest best seller in early modern England (there are, I believe, about 482 extant editions printed before 1642) on January 25.

The schedule for the rest of the term is as follows. Copies of the papers are circulated the week before the meetings. If you are interested in attending, contact me for copies of the papers.

Friday, February 15 3:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Jonathan Burgoyne, from the Spanish and Portuguese Department, will be discussing translation and translations of wisdom literature in medieval Castile.

Friday, February 29 3:30 - 5:30 p.m.
We'll have two presenters this day. Lindsay DiCuirci will be discussing her current research on 19th-century editions of Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana in the context of the Second Great Awakening and the publication of antiquarian tracts. Shawn Casey will be presenting his work on George Fisher's Young Man's Best Companion and mid-eighteenth-century letter writing manuals, practices, and representations.

The History of the Book group is open to all and welcomes work in a wide variety of fields. In the past several years we've discussed, among other topics:

• Jean Gershon and the circulation of tracts in fifteenth-century France
• English medieval romance compilations
• the publication of playbooks in Renaissance England
• Ben Franklin and job printing
• anonymous authorship in eighteenth-century British and American literature
• black women editors in the periodical press of nineteenth-century Ontario
• African Americans and print culture in nineteenth-century America
• Shakespeare in nineteenth-century American education curricula
• literacy in nineteenth-century and twentieth-century Japan
• graphic novels
• Japanese Manga

For more information about the History of the Book Reading and Discussion group, contact group moderator Alan Farmer.

- Alan Farmer

GIS in Literacy Studies-A Report

Winter Quarter officially marked the start of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Literacy Studies. The curriculum is broadly interdisciplinary, drawing from and seeking to contribute to research in the humanities, social sciences, arts, and education, but also the biological and physical sciences, health and medicine, law and professional areas.

To help raise awareness about the program, Graduate Assistant Lindsay DiCuirci contacted all of the instructors who are teaching courses this quarter that fulfill certain of the GIS requirements. DiCuirci and Graduate Assistant Shawn Casey followed up by visiting more than 10 classrooms to talk about the program with interested students.

The Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Literacy Studies requires 21 – 25 hours of coursework in 5 courses. At least 14 hours must come from outside the student's home graduate program. Ohio State's strengths in literacy studies range widely. Students should work with their faculty advisors and the GIS Advising Coordinators to determine how best to incorporate Literacy Studies into their program of study.

I. Core Courses 13 - 15 hours
The specialization includes 3 core courses. The first two core courses cover the foundations of literacy studies, the central questions, theories, approaches, methods, and history. The third core course provides an interdisciplinary perspective on particular forms of literacy and literacies and prepares students for their concentration. The Core Courses need not be taken sequentially. See below for a complete list of the Spring 2008 core course offerings.

A. First Core Course 5 Hours
English 750: Introduction to Graduate Studies in Literacy (Wi Qt).

B. Second Core Course 5 hours
English 884: Literacy Studies: Past and Present (Sp Qt); cross-listed as History 775.

C. Third Core Course 3 - 5 hours
Select one course from the following list.

Arts & Sciences 720: Scientific Literacy
Education T&L 803: Language and Society
Education T&L 804: Trends and Issues in Language, Literacy, and Culture
Education T&L 901: Changing Perspectives in Language, Literacy, and Culture
Education T&L 906: Language Learning across Cultures
English 789: Introduction to Graduate Studies in Digital Media
English 883: Studies in Literacy
Near Eastern Languages and Culture 648: Studies in Orality and Literacy

II. Elective Courses 8 - 10 hours
The areas in which students might concentrate their elective courses include reading; writing and digital media; language and culture; social, cultural, and historical studies; visual, spatial, arts and performance; science, technology, health, and medicine. See below for a complete list of the Spring 2008 elective course offerings. (Note: Third Core Courses may also count as electives.)

The GIS in Literacy Studies is open to all graduate and professional students at Ohio State. Students do not need to apply for enrollment.

Core Courses
Spring Quarter 2008

Arts&Sci (Arts & Sciences) New this Quarter 720 Scientific Literacy T R 1000-1148 Fisher*S, fisher.14@osu.edu

This course fulfills the "Third Core Course" requirement for the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Literacy Studies. This course explores nature of scientific literacy, scientific thought, roots of western science and technology, and the relationship between scientific and other forms of literacy.

English
883 Studies in Literacy (Cross-listed Arts & Sci 883)
08820-6 T R 0330-0518 DE 0245 Graff*H; graff.40@osu.edu
This course fulfills the "Third Core Course" requirement for the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Literacy Studies. The study and understanding of literacy has changed enormously in recent years. This course examines these currents and seeks to understand how a field of study is created. The course also goes beyond both of those projects to examine critically a number of the fundamentals of professional scholarly practices and in turn provide opportunities to practice and hone those abilities and their critical uses in preparation for the upcoming interdisciplinary conference in literacy studies for graduate and professional students. –Harvey J. Graff

884 Literacy Past and Present (Cross-listed as History 775)
08821-1 T R 0130-0318 DE 0245 Graff*H; graff.40@osu.edu
This course fulfills the "Second Core Course" requirement for the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Literacy Studies. Taking a historical approach, we will seek a general understanding of the history of literacy primarily but not exclusively in the West since classical antiquity but with an emphasis on the early modern and modern eras. At the same time, we examine critically literacy's contributions to the shaping of the modern world and the impacts on literacy from fundamental historical social changes. Among many topics, we will explore communications, language, family and demographic behavior, economic development, urbanization, institutions, literacy campaigns, both political and personal changes, and the uses of reading and writing. A new understanding of the place of literacy and literacies in social development is our overarching goal. –Harvey J. Graff

NELC (Near East Languages and Cultures)
648 Studies in Orality and Literature
12317-6 R 0230-0518 ML 0173 Mills*M; mills.186@osu.edu
This course fulfills the "Third Core Course" requirement for the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Literacy Studies. This course introduces the major theoretical trends concerned with literacy and oral communication and their interactions in global perspective, and then critiques those theories in the light of case material primarily from the Middle East. The course will equip students with an overview and critique of theories of literacy and of oral communication which is applicable worldwide. All readings are in English. Prereq: Permission of instructor. –Margaret Mills

Note: Third Core Courses may count as electives.

Elective Courses
Spring Quarter 2008

Dance
821 Labanotation
06105-3 M W F 0245-0415 HC 0270 SU 0150 Marion*S; marion.8@osu.edu

Design 570 Introduction to Image Graphics Techniques 11938-5 M W1130-0118 HC 0270 Tashfeen*A; tashfeen.2@osu.edu

573 Fundamentals of Multimedia Design
11939-1 T R1130-0118 HC 0346 Murnieks*A; murnieks.2@osu.edu

Educations T & L

665 Applied Linguistics for Teaching Reading/Language Arts
07986-9 M 0430-0648 RA 0200 Moore*L; moore.1817@osu.edu

864 Multicultural Literature for Children
08086-0 W 0430-0648 AP 0243 Tyson*C; tyson.4@osu.edu

925.56 Drama, Language Arts, Literature and Reading Education
08265-2 M 0430-0648 RA 0209 McGee*L; mcgee.148@osu.edu
08266-8 T 0430-0648 AP 0286 Richardson*E; richardson.486@osu.edu
The term African American Literacies encapsulates the sociocultural approaches to African American literacy education advanced by the various subfields including: sociolinguistics, rhetoric and composition, cultural studies, and New Literacy Studies. Research and pedagogy in this field focuses on students as knowledge-making language resources, whose histories, traditions, and discourse practices are central and complexly connected to cultural identities, social locations, and social practices. –Elaine Richardson
08267-3 R 0430-0648 AP 0243 Richardson*E; richardson.486@osu.edu
See section 08266-8 for the description.
08268-9 R 0700-0918P RA 0200 Wilkonson*I; wilkinson.70@osu.edu

English
570 Introduction to the History of English
08613-0 M W0130-0318 DE 0253 Redenbarger*W; redenbarger.2@osu.edu
This course analyzes the linguistic history of English from its origin among the Germanic dialects to the present day, studying the evolution of the English sound system, inflectional endings, word order, vocabulary, orthography and manuscript hands. The course focuses on three major 'snapshots': Old English, Middle English, and Early Modern English. Many of the linguistic phenomena which occurred during the evolution of English are but special cases of general linguistic principles and therefore also occurred in the history of other languages students have studied, e.g. German, Latin, French, and Spanish. –Wayne Redenbarger

572 Traditional Grammar Usage 08614-5 M W 0330-0518 DE 0253 Odlin*T; odlin.1@osu.edu

Medieval and Renaissance Studies
611 History of the Book Studies 13714-5 T R 0130-0318 UH 0051 King*J; king.2@osu.edu

Psychology
615 Psycholinguistics
18147-4 T 0130-0348 PS 0115 McKoon*G; mckoon.1@osu.edu
The goal of this course is to explore linguistic and psycholinguistic theories of how readers and listeners represent the meanings of words, sentences, and extended discourse, as well as the cognitive processes that underlie meaning comprehension. The current theoretical view, drawn from the large body of research that had accumulated by the 1990's, is that much of meaning comprehension is the result of passive, automatic, global memory retrieval processes. This view explains how readers assemble the propositions of individual sentences. It also describes how readers disentangle the various strands of larger discourses to yield coherent representations. An important aspect of contemporary theory is its broad application across circumstances of language use. The course should provide students with a firm understanding of psycholinguistic theories of meaning in discourse and how to go about investigating them. –Gail McKoon

617 Neural Network Models in Psychology
18148-0 M W 0130-0248 PS 0217 Myung*J; myung.1@osu.edu
This is an introductory course on neural network (brain-style) models in cognitive science. The course is intended for those who have no prior exposure to neural network modeling and emphasizes basic principles and properties of various neural network models. Specific topics to be covered include perceptron, backpropagation networks, Hopfield nets and self-organizing feature map. –Jay Myung

808 Survey of Behavioral Neuroscience III 18327-2 T R 1130-1248 PS 0115 Berntson*G; berntson.2@osu.edu

Women's Studies
540 Studies in Women of Color Writing Culture
20721-2 M W 0930-1118 UH 0066 Wanzo*R; wanzo.1@osu.edu

576 Women and Visual Cultures of Latin America
20724-9 M W 0130-0318 HA 0211 Tapia*R; tapia.14@osu.edu

Course Offerings are subject to change. Consult the Master Schedule for the most up-to-date informantion.

For more information about the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Literacy Studies, contact the advising coordinators Harvey J. Graff or Marcia Farr.

Expanding Literacy Studies: The Next Steps

Expanding Literacy Studies, An International, Interdisciplinary Conference for Graduate and Professional Students, sponsored by LiteracyStudies@OSU, will take place April 3-5, 2009 at OSU. The 18-month long planning and pedagogical process began last year. (You can read a report by clicking on Graduate Student Conference: A Report.)

We are now in the process of translating the name Expanding Literacy Studies and the visions associated with it into the practical aspects of a conference. As an example, this past month the communication committee developed and distributed a survey to collect data about disciplinary definitions and intellectual expectations that netted 97 respondents. The committee members also planned and facilitated a visual generative technique workshop on January 25 that was attended by 18.

We are calling this phase of the planning "Moving from Name to Next Steps," and we've set up a new discussion forum on Carmen to respond to the results of our vision and naming process, and contribute ideas for transforming the statements and big concepts from that process into concrete plans for the conference, including conference events and the call for papers and sessions.

Students from nine other universities have been participating in the planning:
Andrea Davis, Michigan State University; English: Rhetoric and Writing
Caroline Dadas, Miami University; English: Rhetoric and Composition
Gabrielle(Brie) Owen, University of Pittsburgh; English: Literature
Jennifer Pugh, Kent State University; Education: Teaching, Leadership, and Curriculum Studies
Jessica Despain, University of Iowa; English
Lauren Squires, University of Michigan; Linguistics
Maria Bibbs, University of Wisconsin–Madison; English: Composition and Rhetoric
Patrick Berry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; English: Writing Studies
Rebecca Wilson Lundin, Penn State; English: Composition and Rhetoric
These colleagues helped shape the vision for the conference, and we look forward with gratitude to their continued involvement.

Another step in translating our vision into reality is what we are calling a launch. We are planning an event to officially launch the conference, report on the plans, unveil the visual identity, release the calls for papers and other submissions, and hopefully announce the keynote speakers, as well—and perhaps most importantly, meet our colleagues. The communication with the nine committee members from other institutions has been through email, Carmen, and conference calls. We cannot wait to see what developments and ideas grow out of face-to-face meetings. The launch will be on April 25, 2008.

In the meantime, we continue to encourage graduate and professional students who are interested in literacy and literacy studies to consider joining us in the planning.

For more information, visit literacystudies.osu.edu or contact the Steering Committee co-chairs:
Vicki Daiello, Art Education; daiello.5@osu.edu
Michael Harker, English; harker.21@osu.edu
Caitlin Ryan, Education; ryan.943@osu.edu

- Michael Harker, Conference Steering Committee Co-Chair

Disciplined Interdisciplinarity

Graduate students from more than twenty departmental disciplines continue to meet monthly as the Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Seminar in Literacy Studies. Students interested in literacy from virtually any perspective are encouraged to attend these informal seminars as a way to explore the possibilities and establish contact with their peers in other fields. Lunch is provided. For more information, contact Kate White at white.1142@osu.edu.

CCCCs Preview: "Creating a Cross-Disciplinary Model for Collaboration"

"Creating a Cross-Disciplinary Model for Collaboration: Literacy Studies @ Ohio State University," a session on LiteracyStudies@OSU organized by Harvey J. Graff, Kelly Bradbury, Michael Harker, and Kate White is part of the program at the annual meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, in New Orleans, April, 2008.

The CCCC's 2008 Call for Papers challenges the profession to move explicitly in the direction of "Writing Realities, Changing Realities." The Call makes the high stakes and the needs for collective responsibility and joint action clear. There is much to appreciate in its spare terms. And there is much to debate and refashion constructively. Ranking high is the need to prepare ourselves and our students for critically important roles today and tomorrow, and root those responsibilities in a clear sense of our past and our imperatives for understanding that is critical and comparative.

The four presentations will highlight and explore the particulars of LiteracyStudies@OSU. Graduate students can preview the CCCC's session on March 28 during the monthly Graduate Interdisciplinary Seminar on Literacy Studies.

News Items and Announcements

Send relevant news items and announcements to literacystudies@osu.edu.

Locating Literacy Studies

LiteracyStudies@OSU
George Wells Knight House
104 E. 15th Ave
Columbus, OH 43201
PH: (614) 247-6539
FAX: (614) 247-6336
literacystudies@osu.edu.

LiteracyStudies@OSU: An Initiative

We are developing LiteracyStudies@OSU with the aim of fostering 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 and a sense of collaboration among different disciplinary clusters and their constituents, from the social and natural sciences to the arts and humanities, education, medicine, and law.

Executive Group
Harvey J. Graff, English; History graff.40@osu.edu
Steve Acker, TELR; Communications/Journalism acker.1@osu.edu
Mollie Blackburn, Education blackburn.99@osu.edu
Sandy Cornett, Health Sciences cornett.3@osu.edu
Marcia Farr, Education; English farr.18@osu.edu
Anne Fields, University Libraries fields.179@osu.edu
Henry Fields, Dentistry cornett.3@osu.edu
Susan Fisher, Biology fisher.14@osu.edu
Carolina Gill, Industrial, Interior, & Visual Comm. Design gill.175@osu.edu
Terry Gustafson, Chemistry gustafson@chemistry.ohio-state.edu
Kay Halasek, English halasek.1@osu.edu
Kay Bea Jones Architecture jones.76@osu.edu
Alan Kalish, Teaching & Learning Center kalish.3@osu.edu
Jeffery K. McKee, Anthropology mckee.95@osu.edu
Beverly Moss, English moss.1@osu.edu
Leslie Moore, Education moore.1817@osu.edu
Amy Pope-Harman, Pulmonary & Critical Care harman-1@medctr.osu.edu
Doug Post, Medicine doug.post@osumc.edu
Marcy Raymond, Principal, Metro High School raymond@themetroschool.com
Cindy Selfe, English selfe.2@osu.edu
Peter Shane, Law shane.29@osu.edu
Amy Shuman, English; Folklore shuman.1@osu.edu
David Staley, History; Goldberg Center staley.3@osu.edu
Kevin Tavin, Art Education tavin.1@osu.edu
Andy Thomas, Medicine thomas@osumc.edu
Lewis Ulman, Humanities; English ulman.1@osu.edu
Mindy Wright, Director, Community Partnerships in ASC wright.7@osu.edu

Shawn Casey, Doctoral Student, English casey.169@osu.edu
Lindsay Dicuirci, Doctoral Student, English dicuirci.2@osu.edu
Susan Hanson, Academic Program Coordinator, LiteracyStudies@OSU hanson.94@osu.edu
Edward Adelson, Executive Dean, ASC adelson.3@osu.edu
Randy Smith, Vice Provost smith.70@osu.edu
Chris Zacher, Director, ICRPH zacher.1@osu.edu