Poch@ Pop Review in Rhetoric Society Quarterly

My book reviewed by Romeo García

In issue 4 of Volume 45 of Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Romeo García of Syracuse University provides a thoughtful, well-referenced mediation on my book Reclaiming Poch@ Pop: Examining the Rhetoric of Cultural Deficiency. García articulates questions and exigencies about decolonial work that inform his discussion of chapters in the monograph.

If you have access to Rhetoric Society Quarterly, you can see it here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02773945.2015.1061862

Chapter in Collection on Teaching Latino/a Lit

Latino/a Literature in the Classroom: Twenty-first-century Approaches to Teaching

From the description:

In one of the most rapidly growing areas of literary study, this volume provides the first comprehensive guide to teaching Latino/a literature in all variety of learning environments. Essays by internationally renowned scholars offer an array of approaches and methods to the teaching of the novel, short story, plays, poetry, autobiography, testimonial, comic book, children and young adult literature, film, performance art, and multi-media digital texts, among others. The essays provide conceptual vocabularies and tools to help teachers design courses that pay attention to:

• Issues of form across a range of storytelling media
• Issues of content such as theme and character
• Issues of historical periods, linguistic communities, and regions
• Issues of institutional classroom settings

The volume innovatively adds to and complicates the broader humanities curriculum by offering new possibilities for pedagogical practice.

Reclaiming Poch@ Pop in Chapman Magazine

On Diversity and Writing
A couple months back, I was interviewed by Chapman Magazine about my book Reclaiming Poch@ Pop. I earned my MFA in creative writing and MA in English at Chapman University in Orange, California (deep behind the 'orange curtain'), and where I came to appreciate fellow pocho Chapman-grad Gustavo Arellano for his insightful barbs in the OC Weekly. It was great to be recognized by an institution where I'm an alumnus.

I tried to shout out as many of the professors at Chapman who influenced my research trajectory, but there's never enough space to mention everyone. I don't think Mark Axelrod made it in there even though he was the first to give me a shot as a TA in his upper-division grad course. His course on Borges and Cortazar also was the inspiration for my travels to Buenos Aires. Brian Glaser intellectually challenged and demonstrated saintly patience. And no one can discount James Blaylock's contribution to the writing program there at Chapman, where he's an inspiration as a prolific writer and steadfast educator.

Read the full story here:
https://blogs.chapman.edu/magazine/2015/06/19/focus-on-diversity/

From the Academia de Cruz archives:

 (Gustavo Arellano and I)

(At the Borges Cultural Center in Buenos Aires)

Computers and Writing 2015 Storify

Here's the Storify I put together from the Computers and Writing conference that I attended with Julia Voss and presented on a roundtable Trish Serviss and six LEAD students who discussed their experiences using iPads in first year writing and beyond. Highlights included the Social Justice workshop, discussion of document design, the keynote by a Native American poet, as well as plenty of meta-discussions of Twitter in relation to knowledge, identity and activism.

(Trish Serviss, Aliyah, Tiffany, Vivian, Brian, Jessica, Sean and I)

Computers and Writing 2015

Technoliteracy In(ter)ventions

On May 30, I will be presenting with several undergraduate students from the LEAD first generation college student program here at Santa Clara University, along with Trish Serviss on the iPad Pilot program that took place here from 2012-2015. The title of our panel is “Intervention and Access: FYC Outcomes, iPads and Underrepresented Students.” Trish and I will introduce the school, program and reflect on our own experiences, and the students have put together their own multimodal composition to document their thoughts as well as interviews with other students and staff in LEAD.

For a study on the iPad Pilot from the Innovation in Teaching Committee at SCU: https://cruznmedina.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/2013-14_collaborative_report.pdf

The above study provides interesting statistical data on the use of iPads for different tasks, including communication with professors, reading and writing, and organization.
From the study:

Comparison with non-LEAD 1^st generation students:

•       Comparison group: “LEAD scholars were much more likely to strongly agree (on a 4-point scale) that educational technology had benefited their learning experience” (Bachen, Culter, & Elrod, 2014, p.8)

Below is the video reflection I composed after teaching in the pilot from 2013-2014.

Multimodal Writing, Eloquentia Perfecta & Digital Possibilities

How Compose? Why Compose? Roundtable

                                                           (Me, Bruno, John, and Julia)

Yesterday, I presented as a part of a roundtable on composing with multimodal and digital platforms. Bruno Ruviaro from the Music dept presented on his podcast assignment, Julia Voss from English discussed multimodality as the production of physical texts with the emphasis on connecting meaning across modalities. And, one of my former students John Flynn talked about his experience blogging and the need for individual voice online. The roundtable was facilitated by Simone Billings and Tricia Serviss as a part of a generous grant by the Bannan Institute at Santa Clara University.

With respect to the institutional context, I referenced writing scholars at Jesuit institutions who discussed multimodal and digital writing with regard to eloquential perfecta. One such article "From Classto Community: EP 2.0 and the New Media Legacy of Jesuit Education" by Allen Brizee Jenn Fishman advocated for technology quoting John O'Malley who said, "Ignatius and others took great care to demonstrate how print might 'aid Jesuits in their ministry'" (O'Malley qtd in Brizee and Fishman 31). I also used time lapse video that students used on an assignment to study and reflect on their own writing process. 

 

Some of the discussion that followed pointed out the interconnectivity between text and video modes of communication, especially where academics rely on the ethos of their scholarship to serve as public intellectuals in talking head capacities. The recent controversy over Michael Eric Dyson's takedown essay about Cornel West provided a timely example of how the traditional essay 'technology' serves as the primary medium in the debate even though both scholars are frequently featured on radio and television.

 Video created by John Flynn for my Introduction to Writing Studies & Digital Publication course:

My Storify on CCCC 2015 #4C15

Here's the archive of tweets that I cultivated from the CCCC 2015. Highlights included Adam Banks' opening session talk on the need to promote the essay to emeritus status, cite more inclusively and diversely, and taking flight.

See the video of Dr. Banks' talk:

(With my Santa Clara University colleagues: Julia Voss, Simone Billings, Tricia Serviss, & I)

My Response Essay with Aja Martinez to SB 1070 Article

Arizona as 'Home Place'
In issue 4.2 of Present Tense: A Journal of Rhetoric in Society, Aja Martinez and I have a response essay to an article published in the 4.1 issue of Present Tense called "Economic Globalization and the “Given Situation”: JanBrewer’s Use of SB 1070 as an Effective Rhetorical Response to the Politics ofImmigration." In our response, Aja and I advocate for more critical engagement with the lived experiences of people affected by this and other dehumanizing Arizona policy. We do so as a call for ethical consideration of Arizona's historical context that has a long tradition of anti-Latin@ laws and legislative action.

(http://www.presenttensejournal.org)

Here is the link to our article "Contexts of Lived Realities in SB 1070 Arizona: A Responseto Asenas and Johnson’s “Economic Globalization and the ‘Given Situation.’” We take the opportunity to speak about the tradition of anti-Latin@ policy; however, we also address the culture of police (over)enforcement, as in the case of Dr. Ersula Ore.

Counterstory
In addition to complicating and problematizing Arizona as a 'given situation,' Aja includes a counterstory that originated from her recent experiences in Tucson while visiting family. When dropping off her father at the place he's worked for decades, the security guard asked Aja and her father if they were both "U.S. Citizens" [or 'illegals']. Aja writes:

When and how did this security gate become a border checkpoint? What was it about me that prompted this question? Why do I feel so ashamed? Why was my dad so numb?

Link for the article pdf.

(Aja Martinez from Present Tense site)