Department of English
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University of Arkansas
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Community Literacies Collaboratory
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On May 6th, the Brown Chair in English Literacy Initiative launched a new center, the Community Literacies Collaboratory. That international virtual event introduced attendees to the CLC’s website.
One of the initial programs that the CLC is hosting is The Literacy Exchange, through which community literacy facilitators can offer workshops on “literacy research
methods and methodology, writing workshops and presentations on applied literacies
programs, as well as trainings on incorporating various kinds of literature into K-12
classrooms, creating after-school youth literacy programs and doing adult literacy
work.”
The Literacy Exchange, in conjunction with the Fayetteville Public Library, has already
offered two workshops, “Planning Writing Projects” and “Contemplative Writing,” which
were led by Beth Godbee, founder of Heart-Head-Hands: Everyday Living for Justice.
Another program being offered is the Possibilities Hub, through which the Community Literacies Collaboratory funds “seminars, reading groups
or a series of talks that explore a topic through and/or about literacy to expand
individual and communal capacity to understand what literacy work can be and do today.”
The first Possibilities Hub seminar, “Abolitionist Study Group: Literacies Toward
Freedom,” took place this past spring as part of the Brown Chair’s programming for
the 2022 National African American Read-In. Seminar participants discussed topics
including the history of prisons and policing in the U.S., reform and/vs. abolition,
queer and Black feminist approaches to abolition, disability justice, carceral connections
between psych wards and nursing facilities, and abolition in practice.
A third CLC-sponsored program is Outside-the-Box, which “invites community literacies workers to write thought-provoking, accessible,
brief policy memos, reports or essays on a timely issue within literacy learning and
practice.” These texts will be used to inform the public on how to develop or enhance
literacy-focused activities “across a wide range of contexts.” Those whose texts are
accepted for publication will be compensated for their work.
The Community Literacies Collaboratory will also, on Oct. 27-29, hold its first biennial
symposium, “Tracing the Stream: The Geographies of Black Feminist Literacies, Rhetorics, and
Pedagogies.” Co-convened with Carmen Kynard, the Lillian Radford Chair of Rhetoric and Composition
and a professor of English at Texas Christian University, the symposium “will (re)consider
challenging and necessary questions about what it means (or could mean) to study,
teach and activate the Black feminist literacies and rhetorical tradition in 2022
and beyond.”
The symposium will be held in conjunction with a graduate seminar that Professor Eric Darnell Pritchard, the Brown Chair in English Literacy for the University of Arkansas, is offering in
Fall 2022.
Finally, the CRC will be calling for grant proposals twice a year: Sept. 30th and
Feb. 28th. More details on how to apply will be provided on the website by the end
of the summer.
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The Literacy Exchange |
Possibilities Hub |
Biennial Symposium |
