Announcing Spring 2014 Speaker Series: Literacies of Contemporary Civic Life

Leave a reply

Any Colorado-local (or Colorado-Adjacent folks): please join us!

The Colorado State University Department of English is pleased to announce the upcoming speaker series: “The Literacies of Contemporary Civic Life.” Throughout the spring semester the department will host nationally recognized literacies-based researchers and educators to discuss how literacy and youth civic participation intersect from varying, interdisciplinary perspectives. I’m thrilled to be able to put this event together with some of the most powerful scholars doing necessary literacies research.

The speakers will be presenting their work and engaging in dialogue from 5:30-6:30, followed by a brief reception. These events are free and open to the public. All of the speakers will be presenting at the CSU campus in Clark A 205.

The speakers and dates for this series are as follows:

  • 2/11: Buffy Hamilton – School Librarian, Norcross High School, Atlanta, GA; 2011 Library Journal Mover and Shaker.
  • 2/18: Mark Gomez, Patricia Hanson, & Katie Rainge-Briggs – School designers and educators from the Schools for Community Action, Los Angeles, CA.
  • 3/4: Marcelle Haddix – Assistant Professor, Syracuse University School of Education, NY.
  • 3/11: Patrick Camangian – Assistant Professor, University of San Francisco and teacher at Mandela High School, Oakland, CA.
  • 4/22: Linda Christensen – Instructor and Director of the Oregon Writing Project, Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling & Rethinking Schools Editorial Board member, Portland, OR.

Buffy’s talk next Tuesday is going to be awesome! Here’s the title and description:

Buffy Hamilton – 2/11 – Metanarratives of Literacy Practices:  Libraries as Sponsors of Literacies
How might libraries deconstruct the ideas and power relations that influence the ways they reinforce and distribute specific literacies and literacy practices to better understand their role as sponsors of literacy in their communities in a more nuanced and robust way?  By using Deborah Brandt’s concept of sponsors of literacy, libraries can situate and contextualize their work to frame their work as co-learners in a participatory community of learning who can collaboratively construct the possibilities of print, digital, information, and new literacies – rather than being a paternalistic sponsor that deliberately and/or unintentionally marginalizes the experiences and literacy histories of the people libraries serve.
Buffy’s an awesome speaker and I hope you will be able to join us for the first of five great events this semester. If you have any additional questions please email me. Thank you, I look forward to welcoming you at CSU!

 

Leave a Reply