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LiteracyStudies@OSU.

Collaborate

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For information about posting a call for collaborators please contact Julia Voss at voss.58@osu.edu.

Graduate Students' Community-based Literacies: Creatively Connecting the Literacy Work We Do

Call for collaborators:

I'm interested in putting together an interactive workshop that examines the challenges and possibilities of connecting community-based literacy projects with literacy work within the academy.
  • What are the structural and ideological forces that keep community literacy separate from the academy?
  • How can we conduct ethical research on community literacy projects without simply turning our community literacy experiences into objects of academic study?
  • How can community literacy projects inform our research and pedagogy, and vice versa?
For example, a graduate student in English composition, I make zines and facilitate zine-making workshops focused on femme identities within queer communities. I often experience these rich engagements with literacy as relatively separate from my academic life. I'd like to connect the two, but am wary: for a range of reasons, I don't want to turn my queer femme community and our zine-making experiences into a research project.

This workshop, then, will explore creative ways to make connections that enliven both areas of literacy work. I welcome responses from graduate students in any discipline who grapple with questions about connecting community-based literacy to the academy. I can be reached at pamelavh@sfsu.edu.

Teaching Literacy Studies in the Undergraduate Classroom

Call for Collaborators:

I'm interested in putting together a workshop focused on teaching literacy studies in the undergraduate classroom, across disciplines. My discipline is Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy Studies, so I typically teach undergraduate composition classes. I have some experience teaching academic texts like Deborah Brandt's Literacy in American Lives and an excerpt from Harvey J. Graff's The Literacy Myth, along with creative texts like Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran, Sapphire's Push, and Frederick Douglass' slave narratives. I've also used primary texts including advertisements, political speeches, radio essays, and the National Endowment for the Arts' 2004 report titled Reading at Risk in my writing classes.

My idea for this workshop is unrefined at this stage, though I'm hoping to make it interactive, thought-provoking, and practical, with useful take-aways for those interested in teaching literacy studies or incorporating some examination of literacy into their classrooms. I'm looking for 2-3 collaborators, especially from disciplines other than Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy. Perhaps you have some experience using literacy studies (in its many forms) in an undergraduate classroom, or you're just interested in doing so in the future. Contact me at bradbury.18@osu.edu to collaborate on a pedagogy workshop!

Teaching Literacy and Promoting Social Change: The Curriculum & Community of the McNair Scholars ProgramFILLED

Call for Collaborator:

Two former McNair Scholars seek a third to form a panel that will investigate how the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaurate Achievement Program promotes a "literacy" of graduate school among low-income/first generation and/or underrepresented groups. The McNair Scholars Program strives to increase attainment of PhD degrees by students from underrepresented segments of society through involvement (as undergraduates) in research and other scholarly activities. Sue Webb, PhD student in Michigan State University's Graduate Program in Rhetoric & Writing, and Karin Hooks, PhD student in American Literature at Ohio State University, seek a third graduate scholar (from any field) to engage in the following questions:
  • How does being a McNair scholar impact undergraduate students' chances of success in completing a graduate degree?
  • In what ways does being part of the McNair learning community inform/change the "literacy level" of undergraduate students and prepare them for a successful transition to graduate school?
  • Does the McNair Scholars Program work to promote the literacy myth, that a particular type of literacy will help a person or group achieve social mobility or economic success, and if so, how?
Webb's research includes personal narrative, in-depth interviews with other McNair Scholars, and information collected from McNair staff. Hooks investigates the Middle Tennessee McNair Program, detailing the results of an on-line survey that asks current and former McNair scholars to evaluate their McNair experiences.

We welcome responses from collaborators who have participated in McNair (which is one of eight federally-funded TRIO programs) or any other program designed to encourage students from underrepresented groups to pursue doctoral work. Scholars interested in participating in the proposed panel or seeking clarification if/how their own research might intersect with the proposed panel may contact either Webb (webbsuza@msu.edu) or Hooks (hooks.28@osu.edu).