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Autumn Greetings

Welcome to the worlds of LiteracyStudies@OSU. This is the 7th year since we began as a working group of the Humanities Institute in 2004-2005. I take special pleasure in sharing our 2011-2012 year’s major events with you.

We have an exciting and wide-ranging set of programs for the year, embracing old and new themes in literacy studies. They include literacy in science (with visiting lecture by Jon Miller, University of Michigan) in Autumn; the social construction of school failure and success for struggling readers and writers (with visiting lecture by Curt Dudley-Marling, Boston College) in Winter; and narratives of health and illness (with visiting lecture by Arthur Frank, University of Calgary), cosponsored with Project Narrative and Disability Studies in Spring. Our public programs will elaborate those themes and questions.

In addition, the Graduate Interdisciplinary Seminar in Literacy Studies plans a full schedule, as does the History of the Book group. We plan to inaugurate an annual lecture on the History of the Book in Spring 2012.

For Autumn and Winter Quarters, I will be on Faculty Professional Leave, a research sabbatical, working on a social history of interdisciplinarity, of which literacy studies is one part.

I am delighted to say that my esteemed colleague and Professor of English and Disabilities Studies, Brenda Brueggemann, will serve as interim program director. A major force intellectually, administratively, and personally, Brenda’s contributions to literacy studies, rhetoric and composition, disability studies, and women’s studies are widely recognized internationally and nationally as well as at Ohio State. Her writings include Lend Me Your Ear: Rhetorical Constructions of Deafness (1999) and Deaf Subjects: Between Identities and Places (2008); personal essays and articles on pedagogy, qualitative research, literacy, rhetoric, deaf and disability studies; and co-editor and contributor to several volumes. She is co-editor of Disability Studies Quarterly. She has served as co-chair of the Modern Language Association Committee on Disability Issues in the Profession. For these and other efforts, OSU presented her with a Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award in 2001.

LiteracyStudies@OSU is very fortunate to have Brenda Brueggemann as its interim head.

I also want to welcome the following colleagues to the LiteracyStudies@OSU Advisory Group: Melanie Bales (Dance); James R. Bartholomew (History); Jonathan Burgoyne (Spanish and Portuguese); Earle Holland (University Research Communication); Motomu Ibaraki (Earth Science); Blaine Lilly (Engineering); and Michael McCluskey (Communication: Journalism), and James Sanders III (Art Education).



Harvey J. Graff
Autumn 2011

Upcoming Events and Activities

Our aim during 2011-2012 is to maintain LiteracyStudies@OSU?s established programs, activities, and relationships while continuing to expand awareness and participation across OSU and beyond. This will be accomplished in part through programming that calls further attention to questions of literacy and opportunities for collaboration between and across the arts, sciences, and professions.

Lecture Series

The LiteracyStudies@OSU lecture series has made OSU the place for both accomplished and emerging scholars to present major studies or preview works-in-progress.

FALL 2011: JON D. MILLER on October 27

Building on the successes of the forum on Literacy in Science this past winter, LiteracyStudies@OSU invited Jon Miller (University of Michigan) to visit OSU this fall. Miller pioneered the definition and measurement of scientific literacy, and is known widely for his studies of the public perception of science. He is Director of the International Center for the Advancement of Scientific Literacy at the University of Michigan. His publications include Citizenship in an Age of Science (1980); The American People and Science Policy (1983); Public Perceptions of Science and Technology (1997); and Biomedical Communications (2001).

WINTER 2012: Curt Dudley-Marling on February 9

As an outgrowth of shared interests with Disability Studies as well as Teaching & Learning, LiteracyStudies@OSU has invited Curt Dudley-Marling (Boston College). A former elementary and special education teacher, Dudley-Marling is Professor in the Lynch School of Education. His interests range from the social construction of school failure and success to struggling readers and writers. His books include Who Owns Learning? (1994); Readers and Writers with a Difference (1996); Living with Uncertainty (1997); A Family Affair (2000); The Fate of Progressive Language (2001); A Classroom Teacher's Guide to Struggling Readers (2004; 2009); and The Myth of the Normal Curve (2010).

SPRING 2012: Arthur W. Frank on April 17

Building on the cross-disciplinary relationship of literacy studies to narrative studies, disability studies, and folklore studies and our mutual interests in the intersections between qualitative research in the humanities and in the social sciences, we invited Arthur Frank, Professor of Sociology at the University of Calgary. Frank is known widely for his work on narratives of illness, bioethics, and health care. His books include At the Will of the Body (1991; 2002); The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics (1995); The Renewal of Generosity: Illness, Medicine, and How to Live (2004); and Letting Stories Breathe: A Socio-Narratology (2010).

PUBLIC Program Series

LiteracyStudies@OSU sponsors programs, generally one a quarter, on topics of wide interest and contemporary relevance. These public programs are organized and moderated by members of the program’s advisory group as a way to further explore their research goals and interests as well as to bring colleagues from different areas together to discuss and develop opportunities.

Fall 2011: Literacy in Science, a faculty workshop organized by the new Literacy and Science working group (see “Study Groups” below) and led by invited speaker JON Miller (University of Michigan). Miller has tracked scientific literacy for more than 30 years. The U.S. public’s knowledge of science is generally higher than in other developed nations in part, says Miller, because this is the only major country where most colleges and universities require students to study science. Yet, according to Miller, the pace of advances in the sciences indicates that access to science information is an ongoing necessity. The aim of the workshop is to explore ways to extend scientific literacy both within and beyond higher education.

Winter 2012: Literacy and Cognition, a forum involving colleagues across campus whose research and interests concern the relationship of neurocognition to literacy in general and reading in particular. The goal is to assess the implications for literacy studies and related fields of recent popular works in cognitive studies (and the scholarly work behind them) that attempt to explain the cognitive origins, bases, and processes of reading.

Spring 2012: Literacy in the Performing Arts. The spring program will explore the roles and relationships of literacy in the performing arts, from artistic creation, design, staging, and performance to audience expectations, evaluations, and response.

STUDY GROUPS

The reading, discussion, and working groups connect faculty, staff, and students from across the College of the Arts and Sciences and the professional schools. We invite you to participate.

Book History

The History of the Book group formed in 2005. The group of faculty, staff, and graduate students meets 2-3 times per quarter. Their interests include the social, economic, and cultural history of authorship, editing, printing, publishing, media, book art, book trade, periodicals, newspapers, ephemera, copyright, censorship, literary agents, libraries, literary criticism, canon formation, literacy, literary education, translation studies and multiculturalism, reading habits, and reader response. Contact Jonathan Burgoyne, burgoyne.10@osu.edu.

NEW Literacy and Science Working Group

LiteracyStudies@OSU is organizing a Literacy and Science working group led by DAVID HAURY (Teaching & Learning: Science Education), JONATHAN BUEHL (English: Science and Technical Writing), and EARLE HOLLAND (University Research Communication) of colleagues across campus, whose interests include science literacy, science education, and science communication. We anticipate that the group will meet regularly to discuss and develop opportunities, and would welcome your participation. Contact Harvey Graff, graff.40@osu.edu.

GradSem in Literacy Studies

The Interdisciplinary Seminar in Literacy Studies for graduate students, or GradSem, formed in 2005. The group meets monthly on the first Friday for lunch and a student-organized program about some aspect of research within the field of literacy studies. The co-chairs for 2011-2012 are Ph.D. students are Cate St. Pierre (English/RCL), Rachael Riggs-Leyva (Dance/Labanotation), CASSIE PATTERSON (English/Folklore), and KRISTA BRYSON (English/RCL). The topic for the GradSem on September 24 takes its cue from the most fundamental of questions:

What is Literacy? New and returning graduate students are invited to explore definitions and applications of literacy and learn about literacy studies. Contact Cate St. Pierre, st-pierre.2@osu.edu.

NEW Literacy in Appalachia

GradGroup

GradGroups is a new LiteracyStudies@OSU initiative aimed at supporting the academic pursuits of students with a shared research interest. The first such group focuses on literacy in Appalachia. We anticipate that the group will meet regularly to discuss relevant scholarship, programs of study, and research and professionalization opportunities. Contact KRISTA BRYSON, bryson.53@osu.edu.

If you would like to propose and help organize a study group around a particular research interest, contact Harvey Graff, graff.40@osu.edu.