Welcome!
Hello Colleagues and welcome back to spring 2017!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to immerse yourself in all things literacy theory. I’ve tried to create a much tighter course plan than is typical for me. As many of you know, I’m a big believer in lots of student choice: learning should be learner driven, of course. But as I designed this grad class, I realized that I needed to work more precisely through the discussions in the field. We’ll engage in conversations about literacy and its proposed connections to cognition, economics, schooling, and even happiness. We’ll start with a small, pilot study, then read discussions focused on “the great divide,” move to new literacy studies, and think about future directions in new media and literacy research.
I’m hoping you will come to our first class session on January 25th having read one, short text: John Szwed’s “The Ethnography of Literacy.”
Also, you’ll need to order this book from your favorite bookstore: The Rise of Writing: Redefining Mass Literacy by Deborah Brandt (Cambridge University Press 2014). The remaining readings will be available as pdf or links.
I look forward to working together! Email me with any pre-course questions.
Kim