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Call for Proposals

Literacy Studies is a recent construct. At the same time, it addresses long-standing questions and concerns within and across disciplines. But what is literacy? Who is studying it? And how is it being studied? Literacy is traditionally defined as reading and writing. Contemporary constructs, however, include everything from cyber and health literacy to mathematical and visual literacy. The potential advance this broadened view might represent is complicated by historical myths about literacy, persistent fears about declines in literacy, and failure to connect literacy research across disciplines. Addressing the need for an expanded conversation about literacy that exceeds disciplinary boundaries, this conference is a space for graduate and professional students from all fields to ask questions, consider directions, examine representations, make connections, and share investigations of literacy, broadly defined. This conference aims to expand the dialogue and explore the landscape and intersections of literacy studies as a framework of critical investigation. This approach is meant to do the double work of expanding the field while critiquing the expansion. To that end, we invite proposals from graduate and professional students in ALL fields.

Possible Topics and Points Of Entry:

Presentation Guidelines Presentations must be accessible to interdisciplinary audiences.

Presentations should be engaging (and interactive when possible).

Presentations should address the conference theme and goals.

Conference Special Features:

• Keynote Panel with Harvey J. Graff: "Responses to The Literacy Myth: 30 Years Later"
  In honor of the 30th Anniversary of the publication of The Literacy Myth: Literacy and Social Structure in the Nineteenth Century, author Harvey J. Graff will respond to a panel of graduate students from various disciplines speaking about "the literacy myth." Harvey J. Graff is currently Ohio Eminent Scholar in Literacy Studies and Professor of English and History at The Ohio State University.
  
  
• Interactive Workshop by Participatory Design Pioneer Liz Sanders
  Senior Lecturer in the Department of Design at Ohio State and President of MakeTools (a design research firm), Liz Sanders is a pioneer in the use of participatory research methods for the design of products, systems, services, and spaces. Sanders speaks about and teaches human-centered design to students, clients, and colleagues around the world. She will lead conference participants in an interactive workshop about the future of literacy, as a reflection of and closure for the conference.
  
  
• Plenary Presentation by Shirley Brice Heath, author of Ways With Words
  Heath is a sociolinguist and anthropologist whose primary interests are oral and written language, youth development, racial relations, organizational learning, and the relationships among aesthetics, cognition, and human development. At the heart of Heath's research are the organizational structures and cultural values and behaviors that surround the learning and use of language. She is the author of the prize-winning book Ways With Words: Language, Life, and Work in Communities and Classrooms (1983) and co-editor of Identity and Inner-city Youth: Beyond Ethnicity and Gender (1993), as well as several other books and over 100 articles and book chapters. Heath is Professor at Large for the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University and Margery Bailey Professor Emerita at Stanford University.

Deadline:

We will begin reviewing conference proposals September 1, 2008. Proposals will not be accepted after October 15, 2008.

This conference is sponsored by Literacy Studies @ The Ohio State University.