SPRING ’23 POSSIBILITIES HUB
Coalitional Literacies: Strategies for Building Social Justice Initiatives Across Institutions
Synopsis
Coalitional literacies have always been critical to the development of social justice initiatives. Grounded in the work of Black Feminist activists, scholars, and practitioners, coalitions centralize community knowledge, strengths, and needs, and foreground intersectionality. We must interrogate the various frameworks through which we develop coalitions: especially critical when seeking to develop social justice initiatives that decenter Whiteness.
Hosts
Dr. Natasha N. Jones
Dr. Natasha N. Jones (she/her) is a technical communication scholar and co-author of the book Technical Communication after the Social Justice Turn: Building Coalitions for Action (Routledge). Her research interests include social justice, narrative, and technical communication pedagogy. She holds herself especially accountable to Black women and femmes and systemically marginalized communities. She strives to always center the narratives and experiences of those at the margins in her scholarship, her teaching, and her organizational engagements. She currently serves as the President for the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW). Outside of her academic work, she finds joy in poetry and plants and all things horror/sci-fi.
Dr. Laura Gonzales
Dr. Laura Gonzales (she/her) is a researcher, translator, and community activist who works to highlight the importance of multilingual communication in academic, community, and professional contexts. She is the author of Sites of Translation: What Multilinguals Can Teach Us About Digital Writing and Rhetoric (University of Michigan Press, 2018) and Designing Multilingual Experiences in Technical Communication (Utah State University Press). Dr. Gonzales provides consultation to government agencies, non-profit organizations, businesses, and academic institutions on fostering language justice in collaboration with multilingual communities.
Dr. Victor Del Hierro
Dr. Victor Del Hierro (he/him/his) is an assistant professor at the University of Florida. Originally from CD. Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, USA borderlands, he researches and teaches at the intersection of Hip Hop, Digital Rhetoric, and Technical Communication. Dr. Del Hierro’s research focuses on the community building power of the Hip Hop DJ. He has also led multiple literacies programs with Latinx youth centered on storytelling and technology. Dr. Del Hierro also serves as the parliamentarian for the executive council for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).