Listen. Laugh. React. Respond.
We invite you into this interactive collage of graduate student literacy narratives. Each narrative opens up some aspect of grad literacy through a multiplicity of mediums (i.e. click on the one to the right), each from current students as well as faculty in different tracks within English Studies, including creative writing, literature, professional writing, second language studies, and rhetoric and composition. Media decisions were made by contributors, and we honor their wishes here by including audio, video, and text files. Feel free to wander through this collage; skip stories, "rewind" and hear them again, respond to what you've heard, and experience more stories at the DALN.
We invite you into this interactive collage of graduate student literacy narratives. Each narrative opens up some aspect of grad literacy through a multiplicity of mediums (i.e. click on the one to the right), each from current students as well as faculty in different tracks within English Studies, including creative writing, literature, professional writing, second language studies, and rhetoric and composition. Media decisions were made by contributors, and we honor their wishes here by including audio, video, and text files. Feel free to wander through this collage; skip stories, "rewind" and hear them again, respond to what you've heard, and experience more stories at the DALN.
In the set of four videos that follow, we feature some of the very first data we recorded as we began research into the literacy practices of our colleagues. Though we attempted to approach these conversations as interviewers, we inevitably got involved--responded to the familiar thoughts and habits of our interviewees. It was the importance of this affective connection that in part led us to value "doing talk" and to collecting and responding to the literacy narratives of our communities.
Click on the images below to hear or read a few more "raw" narratives.
Such "raw" interactions as we've facilitated here and at the DALN can transform static archives into more responsible, shared spaces. The narratives we captured emerged from a multiplicity of disciplinary positions--including faculty reflections on time spent in graduate school. In addition to current graduate students' voices, in other words, we want to hear about the experiences of individuals who have since graduated and obtained jobs as scholars, writers, administrators, and instructors in our field.
We wish to emphasize again that literacy learning in the context of graduate programs affects many, including people other than graduate students themselves, in various ways. Part of the power we experienced in collecting these narratives was in hearing our own mentors, senior colleagues, and full time faculty reflect upon the trials, tribulations, and successes of their own experience learning the languages of the academy. In this way, we encourage administrators, faculty, instructors, and of course, other graduate students to take the time to interact with these stories, not only by reading/listening to them, but by recording your own reactions and responses in a narrative of your own. Video, audio, text, and image-based narratives can be uploaded to the DALN in a matter of minutes; they'll appear alongside other similar narratives if tagged with the key phrase, "graduate literacy practices"--adding your voice to the conversation.
We wish to emphasize again that literacy learning in the context of graduate programs affects many, including people other than graduate students themselves, in various ways. Part of the power we experienced in collecting these narratives was in hearing our own mentors, senior colleagues, and full time faculty reflect upon the trials, tribulations, and successes of their own experience learning the languages of the academy. In this way, we encourage administrators, faculty, instructors, and of course, other graduate students to take the time to interact with these stories, not only by reading/listening to them, but by recording your own reactions and responses in a narrative of your own. Video, audio, text, and image-based narratives can be uploaded to the DALN in a matter of minutes; they'll appear alongside other similar narratives if tagged with the key phrase, "graduate literacy practices"--adding your voice to the conversation.
In the next section, we share an edited film-version of this collection that was first screened at the 2011 Conference on College Composition and Communication. We use this film as an example of response-ability to shared literacy experiences and interactions in the field of Rhetoric & Composition.
Next Page >>