Overview

Early college classrooms provide essential opportunities for students to grapple and contend with the racial geographies that shape their lives. Based on a mixed methods study of students’ writing in a first-year-writing course themed around racial identities and language varieties at St. John’s University, Mapping Racial Literacies shows college student writing that directly confronts lived experiences of segregation—and, overwhelmingly, of resegregation.   This textual ethnography embeds early college students’ writing in deep historical and theoretical contexts and looks for new ways that their writing contributes to and reshapes contemporary understandings of how US and global citizens are thinking about race. The book is a teaching narrative, tracing a teaching journey that considers student writing not only in the moments it is assigned but also in continual revisions of the course, making it a useful tool in helping college-age students see, explore, and articulate the role of race in determining their life experiences and opportunities.   Sophie Bell’s work narrates the experiences of a white teacher making mistakes in teaching about race and moving forward through those mistakes, considering that process valuable and, in fact, necessary. Providing a model for future scholars on how to carve out a pedagogically responsive identity as a teacher, Mapping Racial Literacies contributes to the scholarship on race and writing pedagogy and encourages teachers of early college classes to bring these issues front and center on the page, in the classroom, and on campus.  

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9781646421091

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Reviews

Mapping Racial Literacies is a thoughtful contribution to writing and race studies as it not only gives readers a look into what scholarship about teaching looks like, but it also helps bring out how important it is to connect racial literacy to language. . . . ...It's a must read for graduate students, faculty, and any person who is interested in the work of antiracism. --Teachers College Record

“Mapping Racial Literacies is a thoughtful contribution to writing and race studies as it not only gives readers a look into what scholarship about teaching looks like, but it also helps bring out how important it is to connect racial literacy to language. . . . ...It’s a must read for graduate students, faculty, and any person who is interested in the work of antiracism.” —Teachers College Record “This book introduces the importance of teaching racial literacy, considerations to take in doing so, and an inside look at discussing race in the college classroom.” —CHOICE “Bell’s text not only demonstrates the importance of lower division courses aiming for greater importance in students’ lives, but also the idea that lower division courses, such as FYW, can better assist students in understanding their place in the world and the university itself.” —Community Literacy Journal

Mapping Racial Literacies is a thoughtful contribution to writing and race studies as it not only gives readers a look into what scholarship about teaching looks like, but it also helps bring out how important it is to connect racial literacy to language. . . . ...It's a must read for graduate students, faculty, and any person who is interested in the work of antiracism. --Teachers College Record This book introduces the importance of teaching racial literacy, considerations to take in doing so, and an inside look at discussing race in the college classroom. --CHOICE Bell's text not only demonstrates the importance of lower division courses aiming for greater importance in students' lives, but also the idea that lower division courses, such as FYW, can better assist students in understanding their place in the world and the university itself. --Community Literacy Journal

"""Mapping Racial Literacies is a thoughtful contribution to writing and race studies as it not only gives readers a look into what scholarship about teaching looks like, but it also helps bring out how important it is to connect racial literacy to language. . . . ...It's a must read for graduate students, faculty, and any person who is interested in the work of antiracism."" --Teachers College Record ""This book introduces the importance of teaching racial literacy, considerations to take in doing so, and an inside look at discussing race in the college classroom."" --CHOICE ""Bell's text not only demonstrates the importance of lower division courses aiming for greater importance in students' lives, but also the idea that lower division courses, such as FYW, can better assist students in understanding their place in the world and the university itself."" --Community Literacy Journal"

Author Information

Sophie R. Bell is professor in the Institute for Core Studies at St. John’s University in Queens, New York. She studies and teaches in rhetoric and composition, culturally sustaining pedagogies, literacy and education, American literatures, and race, ethnicity, and culture. Her first-year-writing classes focus on writing’s potential to build connections across social differences.  

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