Call for Proposals for a Special Issue of Composition Forum: “Promoting Social Justice for Multilingual Writers on College Campuses”

Posted by – July 8, 2019

Guest editors: Brooke Schreiber, Baruch College, CUNY; Eunjeong Lee, Queens College, CUNY; Jennifer Johnson, Stanford University; Norah Fahim, Stanford University

cfspecialissue2020@gmail.com

Deadline for proposals: September 15, 2019

The fight for linguistic equity in writing education in the U.S. has a long and complex history. From the statement on “Students’ Rights to Their Own Language” (SRTOL) in 1974, to Asao Inoue’s recent CCCC Chair’s address calling out White language supremacy, the efforts to achieve justice for language minoritized students have been fraught with tension and conflict. At the core of this conflict is a fundamental question: in a world where English-only ideology and a deficit perspective towards language minoritized students still dominate (e.g., Lee, 2017), how we best serve our linguistically diverse students and promote pluralism in the writing classroom? In the current sociopolitical climate, where we see racist attitudes and acts linked with monolingual and monocultural bias in the daily news cycle, discussion and enactment of anti-racist praxis are more important than ever. And in order to bring about social justice for multilingual students, we must shift the conversations to ones that recognize multilinguals’ unique competencies in moving across languages and cultures (Canagarajah, 2013; You 2016).

In this special issue, we focus on how we as educators can work towards social justice for multilingual students through classroom practices, campus-wide advocacy, and administrative choices. We invite proposals for articles (print-based or multimedia) that address issues such as:

  • Initiating discussions of linguistic racism and promoting language plurality in dominant monolingual and/or white institutional spaces
  • Understanding the range of multilingual student backgrounds (i.e., international visa holders, immigrant/gen 1.5 students, refugees) and their experiences at our institutions
  • Developing pedagogical practices (rhetorical grammar, cross-cultural communication activities) that create spaces for multilingual students to negotiate language standards
  • Supporting writing faculty across the disciplines to enact anti-racist and translingual pedagogies
  • Implementing writing center policies and practices to support multilingual students
  • Using course options and placement practices to advocate for students

We also seek proposals for two Program Profiles, which might address various aspects of writing programs, including first-­‐year composition, WAC/WID, student support programs, teacher training, professional writing, and/or writing centers. We are particularly interested in profiles of programs which have developed innovative structures or curriculum for reaching out to, placing, assessing, or otherwise supporting multilingual student populations.

Proposal Submission Guidelines

Due date: September 15th, 2019

Length of proposals: an abstract of no more than 500 words and a tentative title

Proposals should be submitted to: cfspecialissue2020@gmail.com

For any questions, please contact:Eunjeong Lee at eunjeong.lee@qc.cuny.edu

Notification of acceptance: October 7th

  • Category: CFP
  • Comments Closed

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