Texas A&M-Commerce

Converging Literacies Center (CLiC)

White Paper May 2011

“Writing Democracy in the Engaged University”

Shannon Carter, Associate Professor of English

Department of Literature and Languages
Texas A&M-Commerce
([email protected])
http://www.shannoncarter.info

Executive Summary: Request the opportunity to establish Texas A&M-Commerce’s Converging Literacies Center
(CLiC) as an official research center within the Texas A&M University System.

Created in 2007, the Converging Literacies Center (CLiC) is an interdisciplinary, collaborative effort to promote a
better understanding of how texts and related literacy practices may develop, sustain, or even erode civic engagement
across local publics, especially among historically underrepresented groups. Pursuant to the Texas A&M University
System Policy for the “Creation of Centers and Institutes,” the current paper offers “a rationale for creating the entity,
its impact on the education and training of students, the sources and future expectations of financial support, the
governance and advisory structure, and the mechanisms for periodic review" (Policy 11.02.1). In 2008, Richard Selfe
(Ohio State University) served as outside consultant for CLiC, offering a series of recommendations based on his two-
day visit with stakeholders across the campus. White paper thus includes responses to key recommendations and
describes CLiC activities in its first four years, focusing in their impact.
CONTENTS 1. MISSION
The mission of the Converging Literacies Center (CLiC) is to promote a
1. M ISSION better understanding of how texts and related literacy practices may
2. O VERVIEW develop, sustain, or even erode civic engagement across local publics,
3. R ATIONALE especially among historically underrepresented groups. With a view
4. I MPACT toward promoting more robust public discussion, CLiC supports
5. F UNDING historical, theoretical, and empirical research on rhetoric and writing as
6. G OVERNANCE manifested in everyday local contexts and over time. CLiC is highly
7. M ECHANISMS FOR attentive to new media’s role in our increasingly literate lives, thus
P ERIODIC REVIEW projects emerging from and informing CLiC often engage new media as
both object of inquiry and the form through which these findings are
The engaged institution—one communicated. Likewise, CLiC develops educational and outreach
that is responsive, respectful of initiatives designed to address relevant civic issues.
its partners’ needs, accessible
and relatively neutral, while
successfully integrating
2. OVERVIEW
institutional service into research Established in 2007, the Converging Literacies Center (CLiC) is an
and teaching and finding interdisciplinary site for the study, teaching, and support of writing and
sufficient resources for the writers in everyday contexts. In that writing in 21st century contexts is
effort—does not create itself. increasingly digital, CLiC studies and supports writing with new
Bringing it into being requires media (sound, video, images) as much as it does more traditional
leadership and focus. forms of writing (print, alphabetic texts). In that extensive research in
literacy studies has revealed literacy practices as fundamentally place-
--“Returning to Our
based, people-oriented, and dynamic (Street 1991, 2003; Street and
Roots,” Kellogg
Commission on the Future Heath 2008; Gee 1989, 1999, 2003; Royster), CLiC attends to the
of State and Land-Grant everyday, local dimensions of writing and writers by promoting
Universities, 2001 research and preservation projects that document the ways in which
literacy has manifested itself across regions like Northeast Texas and
among populations like the ones Texas A&M-Commerce serves: at once
rural and increasingly urban (suburban), agricultural and increasingly
H ISTORY * technological, grounded in the local and shaped by the larger global
factors that likewise condition local publics across the nation. Poverty is
2007- Carter attends DMAC, Ohio common, wealth increasingly concentrated; local publics such as those
State University; CLiC is established across North Texas are (almost simultaneously) fluid and static,
2008-Dunbar-Odom attends DMAC, homogenous and diverse, integrated and segregated, conservative and
OSU, Outside Consultant visit (Selfe,
staunchly liberal (see O’Donald and Wilkison’s The Texas Left, 2010).
OSU), Partnership with CWPA
(MoU) to create National
Conversation on Writing database By leveraging existing resources, CLiC has taken a leadership role
(Gee Library), National Search for in “returning [Texas A&M-Commerce] to our roots” as an engaged
new Literacy Studies Scholar institution (Kellogg Commission, “Returning to Our Roots,” 2001).
(Adkins, PhD, U of Louisville) Established in 1889 in direct response to community need, A&M-C’s
2009-Writing with New Media 122-year history of providing local citizens with rhetorical training
(graduate course); CLiC begins first for civic engagement (Gold 2005, 2009) make it an ideal site for a
documentary; Commerce Week on research center like CLiC. Extended studies of literacy practices and
Writing; CLiC Talks est.
rhetorical training in Northeast Texas throughout the 20th and 21st
2010-Texas Historical Marker
(Mt.Moriah); Oral History Interviews; centuries have much to offer scholars, teachers, students, and policy
BWe (2009/2010 issue published); makers across the nation: about rural literacies (Donehower et. al.,
archival projects (national, local) 2007), about local literacies (Barton and Hamilton 1994, 1998; Heath
2011-CLiC Documentary (complete); 1983), about the “limits of the local” (Brandt and Clinton 2002), about
Writing Democracy conference; rhetorical instruction for historically underrepresented groups at non-
Kairos special issue on digital elite institutions (Gold; Hobbs), about community literacy (Long 2010;
scholarship by undergraduate Parks 2010; Goldblatt 2009; Flowers).
researchers
“To understand writing,” Charles Bazerman and Paul Prior insist, “we need to
*abbreviated list explore the practices that people engage in to produce texts as well as the ways that
writing practices gain their meanings and functions as dynamic elements of specific
cultural settings” (2). This is precisely what CLiC is attempting to do.
T HE F IRST F OUR Y EARS * 3. RATIONALE
CLiC works from the premise that literacy is “context-dependent, thus
1. Scholarship Published inextricably bound to everyday lives” (Carter, The Way Literacy Lives,
SUNY P, 2008). That interdependence means that literacy changes over
Two monographs (State time. As Deborah Brandt explains in her award-winning study Literacy
University of New York Press) in American Lives, “literacy abilities are nested in and sustained by
larger social and cultural activity” (Cambridge UP, 2001). In a very real
16 articles in highly competitive, sense, then, literacy itself may be understood as a cultural, “living,”
peer-reviewed journals socially mediated and reproduced activity with existing life spans. As
the research has shown, literacy standards haven’t just risen; what it
2. Scholarly Presentations means to be literate actually changes over time, and life spans of
particular literacy practices have become increasingly shorter amidst the
52 presentations at national incredible changes brought about by the rapid proliferation of
conferences technology in the 21st century (Selfe and Hawisher 2004). In other
words, literacy is more than a skill-set. Literacy may be productively
31 presentations at regional and understood as “living,” perhaps in an evolutionary sense. Literacy
local conferences responds to societal needs, and those needs change as our environments
change (Adkins 2011).
3. Additional Publications
Shifts like these demand The Local Matters
Five textbooks further study, and CLiC What the academic offers to his or her
Four issues of scholarly journal is appropriately local culture is the intellectual power of
(national, senior editor) positioned to support theoretical abstraction that derives from
Two Special Issues of scholarly an academic discipline. The locality, in
and promote toward this
journals (national, guest editor) return, offers to the academic the
end relevant research,
particularity, the concreteness, of lived
teaching, and service
4. Public Scholarship experience in time and place. The
activities.
language and thought of each academic
One documentary (complete) public life w[ill] both be recognized and
Economic conditions
One documentary (in progress) changed in a civic conversation”
impact writing practices
One digital installation (Bender, Intellect and Public Life, 145)
and rhetorical agency as
One Historical Marker well, thus CLiC research
One grant engages class politics (Dunbar-Odom, Defying the Odds, SUNY P,
14 video essays 2007). Nancy Welch has argued that when we “rhetoricize social class,”
11 websites and blogs we “shift our definition of [working] class from a focus on cultural
identity to a focus on one’s available means for exercising decision-
5. Grants Submitted (national) making power within and against privatization’s strict limits on public
rights and voice, including in the workplace” (Living Room 2008). For a
One NSF grant (unfunded) case in point, consider Sam Rayburn (this institution’s most famous
Two NEH grants (under review) alumnus) and the US Congressional District this congressman
One NEH grant (unfunded) represented between 1913 and 1961. Throughout much of the 20th
One Spencer Foundation grant century, rural conditions and poverty defined North Texas. Forever loyal
to the (white) farmers and small business owners who were his
6. Grants Funded and in process constituency, Rayburn was fond of saying: “I want my people out of the
mud and I want my people out of the dark.” Rayburn’s advocacy for
One Humanities Texas (funded) rural electrification helped bring power to the remote farms (Rural
One NEH grant (in process) Electrification Act, 1936). His first-hand accounts of the harsh, muddy
soils of the region helped justify the paving of multiple farm-to-market
7. Public Events (local) roads, vastly improving access and connectivity among farmers in
remote areas businesses in town. Though Rayburn was himself a long-
14 “CLiC Talks” time segregationist serving a conservative southern district widely
One Commerce Week on Writing, opposed to civil rights legislation, he was also a fiercely loyal democrat
including representing his constituency and his country in a rapidly changing
Seven interdisciplinary events world. As Speaker of the House, this mentor to LBJ was instrumental in
passing the most significant civil rights legislation since the
*abbreviated list Reconstruction: the Civil Rights Bill in 1957.
 It is in this sense that local rhetoric both connects—at time literally—
and separates us to/from one another and the rest of the nation/world. In
CLiC has been interdisciplinary, this respect, as well, CLiC is uniquely positioned to make significant
community-based, and contributions to campus, community, national, and scholarly
technology-driven since it was conversations about rhetoric and writing in a participatory
established in 2007. democracy.

P ARTNERS Models
In the last four years, CLiC has worked CLiC builds upon a long and expansive tradition of research centers in
closely with numerous individuals and rhetoric and writing studies, the vast majority of which “include both
programs.* quantitative and qualitative research methods, initiate collaborations
across disciplines, stud[y] diverse groups of writers, and examine
C AMPUS writing in both academic and nonacademic settings” (Gogan et. al., 340).
Gee Library (esp., Greg Mitchell,
Andrea Weddle, Adam Northam, Modeled after well-established research centers like the Writing in
Craig Wheeler) Digital Environments (WIDE) Initiative at Michigan State University
Instructional Technology (esp., Joe and the Center for Writing Studies at University of Illinois, our
Shipman and Michael proposed Center is concerned with supporting literacy learning and
Lewandowski) research into how such literacy development occurs. As A&M-
Media Services (esp., Mike Smith and Commerce differs from MSU and UIUC in both size and student
Jeremy Gomez) population, the research opportunities available at our proposed center
Technology Services (esp., Mike Cagle, necessarily differ as well. Indeed, other established research centers in
Chris Jones, and Jeff Faunce) rhetoric and writing studies, including the Digital Writing and
Art (esp., Vaughn Wascovich and Research Lab at the University of Texas-Austin (established in 1980),
Josie Durkin) draw their research opportunities from student populations most typical
RTV (John Mark Dempsey and Tony of these far more selective institutions and communities often far more
DeMars) urban than the ones A&M-Commerce serves.
KETR (Jerrod Knight)
W riting Center Conversely, CLiC draws upon the region and its many strengths to
W riting Programs extend our understanding of local literacies, “the diverse, daily forms
of reading and writing used by working class people” (Flower 18).
C OMMUNITY Increasingly, aspects of CLiC research are being recognized as even
Commerce Public Library more relevant to the national conversation about writing and writers than
Norris Community Center research on local publics at these more selective institutions. As Richard
Norris Community Club Selfe explains in his external review of CLiC in 2008, “research on
Mt. Moriah Temple Baptist Church your student population (diverse, mobile, slightly older than average,
(Commerce) often non-traditional, and one that frequently includes first-generation
Norris School college students) will resonate with a majority of colleges across the
Commerce Office of Cultural Affairs country” (See “Appendix: External Review”). After all, these are the
(COCA) students served by the vast majority of America’s community colleges
Corporation for Cultural and other institutions of higher learning. Richard Selfe directs another
Diversity(CCD), Greenville, TX key model for CLiC, the Center for the Study and Teaching of
Hunt County Historical Association Writing at the Ohio State University.
(Greenville, TX)
North Texas History Center In his external review, Selfe continues: “Judging from their past
Collin County Historical publications and my read of the national conversations around this topic,
Association (McKinney, TX) the research that emanates from CLiC has the potential to make
Plano African American Museum important national contributions” (“External Review,” 2008). In fact, it
already has.
N ATIONAL
National Consortium for Writing CLiC’s research focus is literacy as it “lives” in the lives of
Across Communities (NWAC) individuals and communities in the region Texas A&M-Commerce
Council of Writing Program serves (see Carter’s The Way Literacy Lives, SUNY P, 2008). In fact,
Administrators (CWPA) CLiC research has already yielded multiple presentations and
Council of Basic Writing (CBW) publications in highly competitive, national, peer-reviewed venues like
College Composition and Communication (Carter, September 2009),
*abbreviated list College English (Carter, July 2007), Kairos (Carter and Dunbar-Odom,
P UBLIC S CHOLARSHIP : M EDIA Fall 2009), Computers and Composition Online (Carter, Adkins, and
Dunbar-Odom, Fall 2010), Issues in Writing (Adkins, Fall 2010;
2009-2011: research, script, film, Dunbar-Odom, Forthcoming), Community Literacy Journal (Adkins,
produce, and screen CLiC’s first Fall 2010; Carter, Spring 2008) and the Journal of Basic Writing (Carter,
documentary, The Other Side Fall 2006). Carter and Dunbar-Odom have also published two scholarly
monographs directly informing and informed by CLiC (Carter’s The
Way Literacy Lives, SUNY P, 2008, and Dunbar-Odom’s Defying the
Odds, SUNY P, 2007). As Regional universities like A&M-
The Other Side of the Tracks (25
Commerce serve a large percentage of the US college population,
minutes). Luca Morazzano, Dir.
CLiC research is directly applicable to contexts beyond A&M-
Shannon Carter, Project
Supervisor. Produced by CLiC. Commerce.
Texas A&M-Commerce, 2011.
4. IMPACT
The First Five Years
Summary: A short history of one rural, In a systematic review of more than 50 past and present research centers
university town (Commerce, Texas) as in writing studies, the authors conclude that “[m]ost successful centers
experienced by long-time residents of the take at least five years to establish themselves as viable parts of their
Norris Community, the historically institutional cultures” (Gogan et. al., 341). At the beginning of its fifth
segregated neighborhood located “on the year, it seems CLiC done just that--becoming a “viable part of [the]
other side of the tracks.” What is most university culture,” despite any reliable funding source or reassigned
unique about the documentary and the time for participating faculty.
lives it chronicles is the levels of civic
engagement these individuals reveal and,
by example, encourage in the film’s In that time, more than 16 scholarly articles, two scholarly books, and 52
audience. Residents featured helped national conference presentations have emerged from CLiC research.
establish the Norris Community Club, an CLiC-affiliated faculty have submitted more than 20 external and
activist group established in 1973 in internal grants totaling more than four million dollars and developed
partnership with several university significant partnerships across the disciplines, the community, and the
students to create a “direct line of nation.
communication” between the Commerce
City Council and African American IMPACT: Public Scholarship
citizens. Over the next 20 years, NCC
CLiC “brings academics into public space and public relationships in
helped bring about significant change
across the city, including millions of
order to facilitate knowledge, discovery, learning, and action relevant to
dollars in grants to rebuilt the Norris civic issues and problems” (76), which is how SJ Peters defines public
Community’s physical plant, long scholarship. Indeed, CLiC research, teaching, and outreach activities
neglected by city officials. inspire, sustain, and support public scholarship, which Peters insists
“embraces a democratic politics that is highly interactive, reciprocal, and
developmental (“Reconstructing Civic Professionalism,” 2003).

For the
documentary The
Other Side of the
Tracks, PhD
students Laura Di
Ferrante and
Luca Morazzano
“Membership Card, Norris Community (Texas A&M-
Club,” circa 1975. Northeast Texas Commerce), film
Digital Collections. Gee Library, Texas local activist and
A&M-Commerce. In partnership with current president
CLiC and through Gee Library’s three- of the Commerce
year grant (HeirLoom Project), university chapter of
archives concerning minority populations NAACP speaking
in region have exploded in both size and Figure 1: Billy Reed, Norris Community (5/3/2010) on the complexity
recurrent use. of race relations in
this southern
university town (Commerce, Texas). Luca Morazzano is the
documentary’s director and creative lead and a CLiC research assistant.
P UBLIC S CHOLARSHIP : E VENTS

CLiC has organized multiple public

events, bringing together local publics to
explore together historical agency among
historically underrepresented groups.

October 2009*: “Coming Together: On

the History and the Future of the Norris
Community” (Gee Library)

February
2010*:
“Celebrating Harry Turner, Norris Community, Commerce, Texas (2/11)
Black History In this excerpt from the documentary The Other Side of the Tracks, local
Month” historian, leader, and long-time Norris Community resident illustrates the
(Commerce persistance of segregation through a variety of public spaces.
Public Library)
CLiC provides research and creative opportunities for faculty, graduate,
and undergraduate students across the disciplines, largely through
May 2010*: projects that support and engage the surrounding community in public
“Commerce Writes: the Norris scholarship. CLiC graduate students have worked with CLiC faculty to
Community” (Hall of Languages) leverage existing campus resources to support research and relevant
outreach.
February 21, 2011*: “Premiere, Norris
Community Screening and Panel” (Part Activities have included
researching, scripting, Public scholarship “brings
of the monthly “CLiC Talks” series) academics into public space and
filming, producing, and
screening CLiC’s first public relationships in order to
February 18, 2011: “Rural Activism,” major documentary and facilitate knowledge, discovery,
Waco, Texas (Part of a panel presentation learning, and action relevant to civic
beginning research on a
for the East Texas Historical Society) issues and problems. [. . .] It
second; producing more
embraces a democratic politics that is
than 14 video essays for
highly interactive, reciprocal, and
national audiences;
March 7-11, 2011: The Other Side of the developmental.”
Tracks airs on KETV, twice each day securing a grant from
--Peters, “Reconstructing Civic
(proceeded by interview with Luca Humanities Texas that Professionalism” (2003)
Morazzano) brought four Humanities
Texas exhibitions to the
area; creating and
March 10, 2011*: Scott Harvey Show, maintaining more than 10 websites and blogs; and coordinating and
KETR (documentary) promoting countless public events.

The First Documentary (2009-2011)

March 11, 2011*: Panel, Norris
Community Club student and local
activists (Writing Democracy conference,
March 9-11)

March 11, 2011*: Award ceremony,

Ivory Moore receives Writing Democracy
Award, followed by screening of
documentary (March 11, 2011)

*Event featured local African American

leadership and drew audiences from
across the campus and community.
P UBLIC S CHOLARSHIP : O UTREACH For CLiC’s first documentary (The Other Side of the Track), CLiC
research assistant and PhD student Luca Morazzano served as creative
CLiC coordinated efforts toward the first lead, working closely with Project Supervisor Shannon Carter and
Texas Historical Marker to be installed regular collaborator Jim Conrad (PhD, History) to communicate to the
at an African American church in
general public a narrative unfolding in Carter and Conrad’s oral history
Hunt County.
interviews and the archival research most directly related to Carter’s
book project on activist rhetoric and rhetorical constructions of race in
Northeast Texas immediately following integration.

The documentary that emerged is a 25-minute portrait of one rural,

university town (Commerce, Texas) as experienced by long-time
residents of the Norris Community, the historically segregated
neighborhood located “on the other side of the tracks.” What is most
unique about the documentary and the lives it chronicles is the levels of
civic engagement these individuals reveal and, by example, encourage in
Mt. Moriah Temple Baptist Church, the film’s audience. This is the “public scholarship” CLiC has
Dedication Ceremony (4/26/2011) attempted to create by making Carter’s research findings and
Video at http://vimeo.com/23179511 conclusions widely available and drawing local attention to the key
narratives emerging from her research. For this documentary,
Morazzano and Carter spent more than 18 months meeting together in
the Norris Community-- Morazzano dragging across town a bulky
camera borrowed from Media Services to take part in countless follow-
up interviews with locals and collect footage from tours of the Norris
School (empty for some years), the oldest African-American church in
town, the Norris Community Club (established in 1973), and the
original, segregated cemetery. To create the script and plan follow-up
interviews, Morazzano also reviewed hours and hours of oral histories
CLiC graduate research assistant (and Carter had collected with historian and archivist Jim Conrad in research
PhD student) JP Sloop worked closely for her current book project described above.
with Mt. Moriah Church historian Harry
Turner and CLiC director Dr. Shannon
Carter to generate the historical narrative
required by the Texas Historical
Commission. Hunt County Historical
Commission Chair and regular
collaborator Dr. Jim Conrad guided the
research and writing team through THC
requirements and Carter worked closely
with Turner to ensure the desires of
church leadership and community were
addressed throughout the process.

Carter has begun working with Turner,

Ivory Moore, and other leaders in the
Norris Community to install a second
Texas Historical Marker in the Norris
Community, this time at the Norris
School.

Norris Community Club membership is

also working closely with Carter and
others to obtain grants in support of local
training center.

Recognitions for The Other Side of the Tracks: Selected, Texas Black
Film Festival (Screened, Dallas, Texas, February 24, 2011).
P UBLIC S CHOLARSHIP : M EDIA Public scholarship has been defined as “scholarship that addresses
important civic issues while simultaneously producing knowledge
2011-2013: research, script, film, that meets high academic standards” (Bridger and Alter, “The
produce, and screen CLiC’s second Engaged University,” 2006). It is just this sort of “public scholarship”
documentary, Welcome to that CLiC hopes to encourage, support, and promote, especially as it
Greenville: Signs of Change informs our understanding of writing and writers in a participatory
democracy.
Summary: Brings together rigorous
archival research with historic New knowledge emerging from Carter’s research and related
photographs and contemporary collaborations is thus disseminated as both “public scholarship” (in the
interviews to tell a story of race form of CLiC documentaries, for example) and more traditional
relations in one rural Texas town with academic scholarship.
a troubled past. If the humanities are
the stories, ideas, and language we use Morazzano’s work with The Other Side of the Tracks reveals extreme
to make sense of our lives and the competence as filmmaker and storyteller, offering a technically slick
word we share, “Welcome to and visually compelling portrait that community members, students,
Greenville” is most certainly rich in faculty, and researchers have all responded to with great enthusiasm.
humanities content. Our experience with this documentary also underscores the crucial
role research, preservation activities, and relationship building
The documentary begins and ends must play in the development of any public scholarship. These
with the installation of two signs, both
factors were crucial throughout and have yielded many additional
at the railroad station flanking the
opportunities for faculty, students, and researchers across a broad
main entrance to Downtown
spectrum of stakeholders.
Greenville.
Once funding is confirmed, CLiC will begin filming our second
The first, “Welcome to Greenville:
The Blackest Land. The Whitest documentary, Welcome to Greenville: Signs of Change. Texas A&M-
People,” was installed in 1921 and Commerce President Dan Jones and Provost Larry Lemanski have
removed nearly half a century later. already expressed their commitment to support this project with two
full-time research assistantships and funding for post-production
The second sign was installed in 2008,
at the same site where the previous The Second Documentary (2011-2013)
sign had hung for much of the
previous century.

The new sign reads “Welcome to

Greenville: We are Building an
Inclusive Community” and
represents a series of lobbying and
other educational efforts by the
Greenville’s Corporation for Cultural
Diversity.

Video documentary will explore the

complex ebb and flow of critical race
narratives at local levels, offering the
complex interplay of local and national
rhetoric surrounding this controversial
sign as a case in point. “Welcome to Greenville: The Blackest Land. The Whitest People.”
Controversial sign that hung at main entrance to Downtown Greenville
from 1921 until its high-profile removal nearly half a century later.

For CLiC’s first documentary, we brought to local, regional, and

national audiences a narrative local and campus press have described as
“forgotten” and “invisible” (East Texan, 3/2009, 2/2011; KETR,
3/2011). For CLiC’s second documentary, we have a unique
opportunity to feature an aspect of this region that is far from
forgotten or invisible: Greenville’s world famous and highly
IMPACT controversial sign, “Welcome to Greenville: The Blackest Land.
The Whitest People.”
In less than five years, with little
infrastructure and no reassigned What is missing from the public memory, however are the day-to-day
time for affiliated faculty or budget lives surrounding that sign and, especially, local and progressive efforts
for supplies or travel, CLiC has like those of the Corporation for Cultural Diversity.
grown into a campus and, indeed, a
national leader for interdisciplinary, CLiC has been invited to join the Corporation for Cultural
university-community partnerships Diversity in these efforts by educating the general public about the
embracing the affordances of the sign’s legacy and local efforts to, as the new sign explains, “build an
digital humanities. inclusive community.”
• Articles about CLiC are
frequently cited The documentary CLiC proposes brings together rigorous archival
• Presentations about CLiC are research with historic photographs and contemporary interviews to tell a
well attended story of race relations in one rural Texas town with a troubled past. If
• Public events organized by the humanities are the stories, ideas, and language we use to make sense
CLiC faculty and graduate of our lives and the word we share, “Welcome to Greenville” is most
students are well received and certainly rich in humanities content.
increasingly well attended
The narrative begins and ends with the installation of two signs, both at
the railroad station flanking the main entrance to Downtown Greenville.
The first, “Welcome to Greenville: Blackest Land. Whitest People,” was
installed in 1921 and removed nearly half a century later. Conversations
about the sign, its legacy, and its intent remain charged more than forty
years later, even after the installation of a very different sign, in 2008,
the result of extensive lobbying and fundraising by city leadership
through the Corporation for Cultural Diversity: “Welcome to
Greenville. We are Building an Inclusive Community.” The same
year, the portion of the major interstate running through Greenville was
S CHOLARLY P UBLICATIONS renamed “MLK Freeway.” Both signal formal connections with a
national project to improve race relations at local levels. Video
Books documentary will explore the complex ebb and flow of critical race
narratives at local levels, offering the complex interplay of local and
Carter, Shannon. The Way Literacy national rhetoric surrounding this controversial sign as a case in point.
Lives. Albany, NY: State University of
New York Press, 2008. Both documentaries draw directly from research, preservation, and
teaching activities CLiC promotes and supports, most clearly and
extensively from Gee Library’s HeirLoom Project (digitizing Northeast
Texas History), Jim Conrad’s decades-long commitment to preserving
and promoting local history, and Carter’s multi-year study concerning
activist rhetoric across rural, Northeast Texas, and the critical race
narratives local literacies enabled, sustained, and eventually began to
disrupt at the turn of the 21st century.

As a research center with a mission that includes extensive

Dunbar-Odom, Donna. Defying the
community outreach, CLiC has sponsored many opportunities to
Odds. Albany, NY: State University of
bring together local, regional, and even national audiences to discuss
New York Press, 2007.
the issues informing projects. The first documentary was, therefore,
the result of extensive collaboration among faculty researchers (Carter)
and university archivists (Conrad and Weddle) with founding members
of the Norris Community Club, an activist group established in 1973 in
to create a “direct line of communication” between the Commerce City
Council and African American citizens. Over the next 20 years, NCC
helped bring about significant change across the city, including millions
of dollars in grants to rebuilt the neighborhood’s physical plant, long
neglected by city officials.
S CHOLARLY P UBLICATIONS *

2012 (Forthcoming)

Shannon Carter and Jim Conrad,

“’In Possession of the Author’:
Ethical Implications for Archival
Research Beyond Formal Archives”
Composition, Communication, and
Communication (September 2012).
Forthcoming. Print.

Carter, Shannon and Deborah

Mutnick, Guest Editors. “Writing
Democracy.” Community Literacy
Journal (Special Issue). 7.1 (Fall
2012). Forthcoming. Print.
The Norris Community Club (Commerce, Texas), established in 1973 in
Donna Dunbar-Odom, “Local and partnership with several university students to create a “direct line of
Global: The Writing Class’s Vital communication” between the Commerce City Council and African
Role in Composing Citizens.” Issues in American citizens. Founding members and core activities are featured in
Writing. Forthcoming. Print. The Other Side of the Tracks, as well as Carter’s academic and additional
public scholarship activities.
Adkins, Tabetha. “Popular Culture as a
Sponsor of Literacy: Confronting the The second documentary, we hope, will likewise extend connections
CLASH! BOOM! POW! in the Basic across local publics in partnership with an established activist
Writing Classroom.” CLASH!: organization—this time, through the Corporation for Cultural Diversity
Superheroic Yet Sensible Strategies for representing local leadership across the City of Greenville.
Teaching Students the New Literacies
Despite the Status Quo. Eds. Sharon
Spencer and Sandra Vavra. Charlotte,
NC: Information Age Publishers.
Forthcoming. Print.

2011 (Forthcoming)

Carter, Shannon and Bump Halbritter,

Guest Editors. “(Re)mediating the
Conversation: Undergraduate
Research in Writing and Rhetoric.”
Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology,
and Pedagogy (Special Issue). 11.3
(2011). Forthcoming. Web.

Adkins, Tabetha. “The

(Un)Importance of a Preposition: The Corporation for Cultural Diversity (Greenville, Texas), established in
How We Define and Defend Writing 2000, “as part of the National League of Cities’ (NLC) Campaign to Promote
Center Work.” The Writing Lab Racial Justice” (CCD brochure). CCD Chair is Dan Perkins, a long-time
Newsletter. Spring 2011. Forthcoming. resident, lawyer, and city official (Greenville City Council)
Print.

---. “’The English Effect’ on Amish CLiC has been invited to submit a Humanities Texas media grant to help
Language and Literacy support the asset collection phase of this project, and we have thus far
Practices.” Community Literacy Journal participated in local meetings of the Corporation for Cultural Diversity
5.2, Spring 2011. Forthcoming. Print. and, most recently, a two-year workshop offered by CCD in partnership
with the Anti-Racism Team of North Texas entitled “The Realization of
Racism” (May 5, 2011). We expect the local, regional, and perhaps even
national impact of this short documentary will be significant.
S CHOLARLY P UBLICATIONS * IMPACT: Academic Scholarship
The publication record emerging from CLiC is impressive by most any
2010 measure. In addition to the many research projects currently in progress,
CLiC is directly affiliated with two published scholarly monographs
Carter, Shannon, Tabetha Adkins, and (Carter’s The Way Literacy Lives in 2008 and Dunbar-Odom’s Defying
Donna Dunbar-Odom. “The Activist the Odds in 2007), multiple articles, and two special issues of long-
Writing Center.” Computers and running, award-winning journals (Community Literacy Journal and
Composition Online. Fall (2010). Web. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy), and three
issues of the national, peer-reviewed journal BWe: Basic Writing e-
Carter, Shannon. “Writing About Journal, which is the official journal of the Council on Basic Writing,
Writing in Basic Writing.” BWe: Basic the national organization for basic writing professionals.
Writing e-Journal. (2009/2010): 151-
169. Web. Impact: Research Methods
A forthcoming article by Shannon Carter and Jim Conrad, for example,
Dunbar-Odom, Donna. “I Was Blind brings together a rhetorician with an archivist and cultural historian to
But Now I Read: Salvation Tropes in explore issues in research ethics emerging from their multi-year project
Literacy Narratives.” Reader. Winter documenting activist rhetoric before and after integration in a rural,
(2010): 121-128. Print. university community. Invited as part of College Composition and
Communication (CCC)’s upcoming special issue on research
Adkins, Tabetha. “’To Everyone Out methodologies, “’In Possession of the Author’: Ethical Implications
There in Budget Land’: The
for Archival Research Beyond Formal Archives” offers a useful
Narrative of Community in the
illustration of CLiC’s potential impact within the larger scholarly
International Amish Newspaper, The
conversations in rhetoric and writing studies. Throughout this
Budget.” Issues in Writing 18.1.
process, Carter’s focus has been rhetorical constructions of race and
Spring/Summer 2010. Print.
“progress” as revealed through relevant texts and the life histories of
2009 their writers. Conrad’s focus has been preservation of local African
American history, which certainly includes the data Carter’s research
Carter, Shannon and Donna Dunbar- has collected--most of which was previously unavailable through formal
Odom. “The Converging Literacies archives. Thus, both collect relevant oral histories together, securing
Center (CLiC): An Integrated Model relevant informal archives and the permissions of their owners to
for Writing Programs.” Kairos: A digitize these important materials and make them available to the public
Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and through the university’s Northeast Texas Digital Collections. This would
Pedagogy. Fall 2009. Web. not have been possible without extensive support through both Gee
Library (especially their three-year grant, the HeirLoom Project) and a
Carter, Shannon. “The Writing Center deep commitment to public scholarship. As their retrospective reveals,
Paradox: Talk About Legitimacy and IRB protocol often urges researchers to destroy or otherwise secure data
the Problem with Institutional collected in the field, making it inaccessible to future researchers.
Change.” College Composition and Archivists and organizations like the Oral History Association, however,
Communication (CCC) 61.1 (September are committed to preserving data collected according to the highest
2009). Print. ethical standards, making it available to future researchers and other
interested parties. Using their local research and preservation project as a
2008 case in point, the authors discuss the important disciplinary implications
for tending to the local, especially at sites where formal archives and
Carter, Shannon. “Hope, ‘Repair,’ and other reliable documents are hard to come by, arguing that ethical
the Complexities of Reciprocity: engagement with the local demands greater attention to public
Inmates Tutoring Inmates in a Total programming and preservation methods.
Institution.” Community Literacy Journal
2.2 (Spring 2008): 87-112. Print. This article is scheduled for publication in the September 2012 issue of
College Composition and Communication, the flagship journal in our
Adkins, Tabetha. “A Label Like Gucci, discipline.
Versace, or Birkenstock: Sex and the
City and Queer Identity” Televising Impact: Community Literacy
Queer Women. Ed. Rebecca CLiC promotes, supports, and studies community writing, which
Beirne. New York: Palgrave, Thomas Dean describes as particularly valuable because these projects
2008. 109-119. Print. “insist that writers get out into local communities to observe, listen,
interview, inquire, and act” (Writing and Community 273). The impact
S CHOLARLY P UBLICATIONS * of CLiC’s public scholarship serves as an obvious example of CLiC’s
role in community writing. Another example of the larger impact of
2008 research emerging from CLiC faculty may be the upcoming special issue
of the Community Literacy Journal entitled Writing Democracy, which
Adkins, Tabetha, Christopher will feature essays emerging from the recent conference CLiC helped
Alexander, Patrick Corbett, Debra coordinate on our campus last March (9-11, 2011). The conference
Journet, and Ryan Trauman. “Digital theme emerged from Carter’s extensive collaborations with Deborah
Mirrors: Multimodal Reflection in the Mutnick (Long-Island University) and will continue with a 2012
Composition Classroom.” Computers conference event in St. Louis, Missouri, and another in Brooklyn in
and Composition Online. Spring 2008. 2013.
Web.
The first event in this series, however, took place in Commerce, Texas,
2007 in 2011. Over 150 scholars, students, and community members
convened to explore existing and possible ways we can “write
Carter, Shannon. “Living Inside the democracy” in the United States. We heard from featured speakers John
Bible (Belt).” College English 69.6 (July Duffy (Notre Dame University), Michelle Hall Kells (University of New
2007): 572-595. Print. Mexico), Nancy Welch (University of Vermont), David Alton Jolliffe
(University of Arkansas at Fayetteville) Jerrold Hirsch (Truman State
Carter, Shannon. “Redefining Literacy University), Elenore Long (Arizona
as a Social Practice.” Journal of Basic State University), and David Gold
Writing 25.2 (Fall 2006): 94-125. Print. (University of Tennessee), as well as
many others from across the country
Editors’ Introductions at concurrent sessions. Inspired by
the Federal Writers’ Project in the
Carter, Shannon and Susan Bernstein. 1930s and calls for ethical discourse
“Writing Back.” BWe (2008). Web. responsive to local conditions and
global realities, conference
Carter, Shannon and Doug Downs, participants looked at place,
“First-Year Feature: Year Two.” history, local publics, and popular
First-Year Feature in Young Scholars in movements in an attempt to
Writing: Undergraduate Research in understand and promote
Writing and Rhetoric. 7 (2008). Print. democracy through research,
and YSW, Issue 8 (2009). Print. writing, and action. As part of the
project of writing a “new roadmap for
Carter, Shannon and Scott Halbritter. the cultural rediscovery of America”
“Digital Scholarship by as the Federal Writers did 75 years
Undergraduate Researchers: ago during the Great Depression, Writing Democracy is committed to
(Re)mediating the Conversation.” helping to create rhetorical space to combat what Welch terms “la lange
Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, de bois” (woolen language) of neoliberal policy. Together we decided
and Pedagogy (Summer 2011). Web. that our first task is to explore, discuss, and debate what Writing
Democracy looks like as we encounter the new realities of the 21st
W RITING D EMOCRACY century, including the unfolding disaster in Japan that hit on the final
Events day of our conference. As we sat in conference rooms in rural
Conference: Writing Democracy: A Commerce, Texas, bringing together local stories of change spurred by
Rhetoric of (T)here. Texas A&M- an alliance of students and community members “writing against”
Commerce. March 9-11. racism in the 1970s (the Norris Community), the global news of the
Conference: Writing Democracy: earthquake interceded through our smart phones and iPads. Confronted
Federal Writers Project 2.0. CCCC by an uncertain future threatened by environmental and economic crisis,
2012. St. Louis, Missouri. March we looked to our past, our present, and each other to imagine how we as
2012. scholars, students, and citizens can contribute to reinvigorating
democracy through research, writing, and local and global engagement.
Scholarly Publications
Conference Proceedings: Community In 2011, in response to the conversations emerging from Writing
Literacy Journal. Fall 2012. (Shannon Democracy and CLiC’s ongoing work with the community, Carter was
Carter and Deborah Mutnick, Guest invited to join the prestigious National Consortium of Writing Across
Editors) Communities. According to NCWAC’s Vision Statement, the “National
U NIQUE F EATURES * Consortium of Writing Across Communities represents a constellation
of stakeholders locally and nationally centered around educational
Following his External Review of principles and cultural practices that promote the generative (creative
CLiC in October 2008, Richard and life-sustaining) ecological relationships of language and literacy to
Selfe (Ohio State University) the maintenance and wellbeing of human communities” (Kells,
outlined the “unique features of the “Statement and Goals,” April 2011).
Converging Literacies Center (CLiC) at
Texas A&M-Commerce this way,
suggesting “they would be valuable to
any university and, in combination,
offer a unique approach to literacy
education and research for Texas
A&M—Commerce.

The project is
- interdisciplinary and invites
participation from across institutional
units.
- research based: it attends to external
research and scholarship but also plans
to build undergraduate, graduate, and
faculty research into Center activities
and curricula.
- committed to digital modalities: they
are planning to integrate multiple
modalities (starting with visual
communication and photography) into Keynote Speakers, Writing Democracy conference, March 9-11, 2011,
a pedagogy (First-year Composition) Commerce, Texas. (Left to right: Michelle Hall Kells, University of New
that is already carefully grounded in Mexico; John Duffy, University of Notre Dame; David Jolliffe, University of
rhetorical theory, argumentation, and Arkansas; Hugh Burns, Texas Woman’s University (Representative, Federation of
alphabetic writing. North Texas Area Universities), David Gold, University of Tennessee; Nancy
- interested in developing an outreach Welch, University of Vermont; Deborah Mutnick, Long Island University-
program and some service learning Brooklyn (Co-Organizer); Jerrold Hirsch, Truman State University
components as faculty are hired and
the Center is developed. CLiC, it seems, uniquely positioned to help lead these conversations,
especially as they manifest themselves across this region and
The long-range, slow-growth model throughout university communities hosting regional campuses like
for a center with this unique set of ours. The positive responses to the conversations taking place in
characteristics is quite unusual, and to Commerce March 2011 have been overwhelming, widespread, and
my knowledge, has been taken up only significant. Major scholars across the nation describe these events as
by large institutions like Ohio State representing a “seismic shift” (Parks) in the field; keynoter Jerrold
University, Stanford, University of Hirsch, a historian, described the conference as “the most stimulating”
Illinois, Champaign, and University of conference he’d ever attended. Indeed, the conference and the
Texas, Austin. Even in these elite conversations it encouraged helped put Commerce on the map.
institutions, only parts of this model
are in operation. In addition, they are Recognizing the significance of the event some months before it took
not focused on a student population place, noted community literacy scholar Steve Parks described it . . .
like that of Texas A&M—Commerce. . . . as a seminal moment in the creation of a disciplinary status of
(Selfe, 2008) community-based work in the field. My own argument would be that the
event could rival the importance of the Dartmouth Conference, which in
In the years since Selfe’s highly the early 1960’s set a trajectory of issues [that] framed the field of
favorable review, CLiC has Composition/Rhetoric for the next 50 years. At this moment, a similar
accomplished the vast majority of its seismic shift in the field seems to be emerging and by bringing together
core objectives. the primary researchers in community-based work, I believe the work
resulting from this event will have [a] significant and long-lasting
*“External Report” available in Appendix impact on the field. [. . . ] For the scholars fortunate enough to attend
this event, I believe they will not only participate in discussion that will
U NIQUE P ARNTERSHIPS * shape the field, but a program which will be studied by the field in the
years to come.
National Consortium of Writing
Across Communities Indeed, CLiC is ideally suited to provide regular opportunities for
“National Consortium of Writing conversations like these, if appropriately supported and funded. In
Across Communities represents a partnership with Gee Library and Media Service, for example, CLiC was
constellation of stakeholders locally able to make keynote addresses and other relevant conversations
and nationally centered around available to future researchers through the university’s YouTube channel
educational principles and cultural (LionsMedia) and, soon, within the Northeast Texas Digital Collections.
practices that promote the generative
(creative and life-sustaining) ecological As already noted, crucial to future conversations about this event will be
relationships of language and literacy the edited collection of scholarly essays drawn from presentations
to the maintenance and wellbeing of addressing the conference theme, to be published in September 2012 by
human communities. The NCWAC the award-winning Community Literacy Journal. For this collection, co-
seeks to guide curriculum editors Shannon Carter and Deborah Mutnick will draw together essays
development, stimulate resource- that explore tensions between rhetorical constructs like public and
sharing, support multi-modal private (Welch, Living Room, 2008), local and global (Gold, Rhetoric at
approaches to community arts, the Margins, 2008), here and there, us and them (Duffy, Writing From
cultivate networking, and promote These Roots, 2007). Articles for Writing Democracy: A Rhetoric of
research in language practices and (T)here foreground the practical, theoretical, methodological,
literacy education throughout the
pedagogical, and/or historical dimensions of our work at local levels--
nation to support local colleges and
especially with respect to the shifting dimensions of the local rhetorical
universities working to serve the
landscape in an increasingly global world.
vulnerable communities within their
spheres of influence” (Vision
The collection will be co-edited by Shannon Carter and Deborah
Statement, March 2011)
Mutnick and published in the Fall 2012 issue of the Community
NCWAC membership: Literacy Journal.
University of New Mexico (Michelle
Hall Kells) Founding Chapter of Impact: Undergraduate Research
NCWAC; University of Notre Dame Since the beginning, CLiC has led campus and national efforts to
(John Duffy); Auburn University promote, support, and guide undergraduate research, especially the
(Margaret Marshall & Kevin Roozen); scholarly publication of undergraduate research.
Arizona State (Elenore Long);
University of Washington (Anis Publication opportunities for undergraduates emerge from research
Bawarshi & Juan Guerra); Temple projects beginning in First-Year Writing (Eric Pleasant, Young Scholars
University (Eli Goldblatt); Syracuse in Writing: Undergraduate Research and Writing and Rhetoric, 2007) to
University (Steve Parks); Texas A&M digital scholarship composed by undergraduates (“(Re)mediating the
University (Valerie Balester); TAMU- Conversation: Undergraduate Research in Writing and Rhetoric, Kairos,
Commerce (Shannon Carter); forthcoming).
University of California, Santa Barbara
(Linda Adler-Kassner); Carnegie Writing, once relegated in the university to basic-skills courses, has
Mellon (Linda Flower); Colorado State developed over the past several decades into writing studies, a robust
University (Tobi Jacobi); University of interdiscipline that fuels centers of study, graduate programs, and
Arkansas (David Jolliffe); University of undergraduate majors. As part of this growth, undergraduate writing
Texas, El Paso (Carlos Salinas & Kate courses—from first-year to advanced composition, professional writing to
Mangelsdorf); University of Oklahoma rhetorical theory—are increasingly recognized as sites for launching
(Michelle Eodice); Georgia Tech undergraduate research on the nature of writing and writers’ processes
(Jacqueline Jones Royster); Ohio State and practices.
(Beverly Moss); Utah Community
Literacy & Writing Consortium --Downs and Feder, “Undergraduate Research on Writing” (CUR: Council on
(Tiffany Rousculp); University of Undergraduate Research Quarterly, 2010)
Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Chuck
Schuster); St. John’s University (New Last year, Conference on College Composition and Communication
York, Anne Geller); New York (CCCC)--the primary professional organization in writing studies--
University (Shondel Nero) begun investigating ways it can “foster a culture of undergraduate
research.” At this point, undergraduate research in the humanities is
*“Vision Statement” available in Appendix growing in prominence and frequency across the nation, and venues for
R ESEARCH Q UESTIONS the publication and circulation of undergraduate research are
increasingly significant.
Through CLiC, researchers work together
across the disciplines and in partnership [B]y "undergraduate research," we refer to the educational, comprehensive
with local citizens and community groups curricular and extracurricular movement that involves undergraduates as
to better understand and respond to apprentices, collaborators, and/or independent scholars in critical
questions like the following, especially as investigations that use fieldwork and other discipline-specific
they inform our understanding of writing methodologies under the sponsorship of one or more faculty mentors.
and writers in a participatory democracy:
–CCCC Task Force on Undergraduate Research, March 2011
What are the lived experiences of writers
across local publics like the region Texas In 2010, Shannon Carter was invited to join the CCCC Task Force on
A&M-Commerce serves? Undergraduate Research, which offered to the CCCC Executive Board
several significant recommendations regarding undergraduate research
How have local literacy practices shifted in writing studies. In 2011, that task force was officially constituted as a
over time and among the region’s CCCC Committee on Undergraduate Research. Again, Carter was
historically marginalized populations? invited to continue her work on that committee. Membership includes
key figures in undergraduate research in our field, including Joyce
How do everyday writers facilitate
Kinkaid, a graduate of our doctoral program and major figure in the
change in local contexts?
Council for Undergraduate Research and, often with Laurie Grobman,
How have historically underrepresented Penn State-Berks, co-author of several key publications on
groups garnered rhetorical agency among undergraduate research in the field, including Undergraduate Research
local publics? in English Studies (NCTE, 2010). Kinkaid is currently director of the
Center for Undergraduate Research at Utah State University. Additional
How has rhetorical education developed members include Doug Downs, Montana State University, Jenn
in response to community literacy needs Fishman, Marquette University, and Jane Greer, University of Missouri-
(formal and informal)? Kansas City.
How has rhetorical education responded
to local and global needs, particularly In 2007, Shannon Carter joined the Editorial Board for the national,
when local and global forces seem in long-running, peer-reviewed publication Young Scholars in Writing:
direct conflict? Undergraduate Research in Writing and Rhetoric and began, along with
Doug Downs, a recurring feature dedicated to original research produced
How has rhetorical education fostered (or by first-year students that would later be called “Spotlight on First
hindered) civic engagement across local Year Writing.” Texas A&M-Commerce is well represented in this key
publics? scholarly venue for undergraduate research. Published in the first issue
of YSW’s “Spotlight on First Year Writing” (2008) is first-year
What formal and informal sites of
student Eric Pleasant’s study of local literacies surrounding punk
rhetorical instruction have impacted
literacy practices across the region? music in 1980s Waco, Texas. Indeed, CLiC has contributed to YSW
since that inaugural issue, and first-year students across Texas A&M-
What are the material realities limiting Commerce’s Writing Program have continued to submit their original
and shaping our student’s acquisition of research to YSW. In 2011, the “Spotlight on First-Year Writing” feature
new literacies? published its fourth set of exemplary, peer-reviewed essays by first-year
researchers, within a journal that has been bringing exemplary research
What do these realities have to teach us by undergraduates to an international audience for more than a decade.
about literacy learning and literacy
education?
Undergraduate researchers in writing studies across our campus
How do digital literacies inform (and regularly present their work at local and regional conferences like South
challenge) traditional ones? Central Writing Centers Association, North Texas Writing Centers
Association, the Federation Rhetoric Symposium, the Mesquite
How are print-based, alphabetic texts Workshops, and EGAD. CLiC has worked hard to foster a culture of
absorbed by multimodal ones? undergraduate research across the disciplines, especially across the
First-Year Writing Program. The regular Celebrations of Student
What can we learn from all this about Writing are a key example of the significant research in which our
writing and the teaching of writing? undergraduates are regularly engaged.

Also important in this respect is the role research emerging from our
Writing Programs has played, especially through their contributions to
T EXTBOOKS the Writing About Writing (WAW) movement. A writing-about-writing
approach, Doug Downs and Elizabeth Wardle explain, “seeks . . . to
Dunbar-Odom, Donna. Working with improve students’ understanding of writing, rhetoric, language, and
Ideas. Reading, Writing, and Researching literacy in a course that is topically oriented to reading and writing as
Experience. Houghton Mifflin scholarly inquiry and encouraging more realistic understandings of
Company, 2000. writing” (CCC, 2007, 553). In the last few years, a WAW framework
has developed into a dominant research strand and approach in our
Foreman, Christy, Donna Dunbar- field’s top journals and classrooms across the country.
Odom, and Shannon Carter. Place
Matters. Southlake, TX: The Writing Programs at Texas A&M-Commerce have long been
Fountainhead P, 2008. recognized as exemplars of the WAW approach, producing multiple
textbooks and articles for a variety of scholarly contexts and
Carter, Shannon. Literacies in Context. contributing to national workshops promoting this approach. Indeed, the
Southlake, TX: Fountainhead P, version of WAW established at Texas A&M-Commerce has appeared in
2007. (Second edition, 2008) national publications ranging from the WPA-CompPile Research
Bibliographies (Rose’s “Campus Celebrations of Writing,” June 2010;
Adkins, Tabetha. Ethnography Inquiries Down’s “Writing-About-Writing Curriculum,” September 2010), Laurie
in Writing. Fountainhead P, 2010. Grobman’s “The Student Scholar” (in CCC, September 2010), Elizabeth
Wardle’s “Continuing the Dialogue” (in CCC, September 2008), and
---. The Writing Program at Texas A&M- Doug Downs and Wardle’s “What Can a Novice Contribute?” (in
Commerce. Fountainhead P, 2011. Undergraduate Research in English Studies, 2010). In a recent article
for the national journal BWe, Carter describes the version of WAW
pedagogy that originated at A&M-Commerce in 2004, one oriented
C ELEBRATION OF S TUDENT around students’ ethnographic studies of literacies (“Writing About
W RITING ( ESTABLISHED 2007) Writing in Basic Writing,” 2010). In it, Carter suggests a “writing-
about-writing approach (WAW) foregrounds research in writing and
In 2007, Texas A&M-Commerce related studies by asking students to read and discuss key research in the
began a tradition of campus-wide discipline and contribute to the scholarly conversation themselves”
celebrations of undergraduate (152). Indeed, this is a key reason WAW is a useful approach to a
research in English 102, the second program that values undergraduate research and why CLiC is
and final semester of the First-Year appropriately situated to support, encourage, and guide that
Writing sequence. research.

At the end of each term, researchers Writing-about-writing (WAW) curricula have students study and
come together to share the findings sometimes perform disciplinary research in writing studies in order to
from their field and archival research build procedural and declarative knowledge about and experience with
in literacy studies. writing with an eye toward maximizing transfer of knowledge from
writing courses to new writing situations. By helping students use writing
The CSW has turned into a studies scholarship to (re)construct knowledge about writing,
significant event across the campus writers, writing processes, discourse, textuality, and literacy, WAW
and surrounding community, drawing aligns a writing course’s object of study—writing—with its read and
praise from administrators and written content, the research of the field of writing studies.
faculty members from across the
disciplines and enthusiasm from --Downs, “Writing-About-Writing” (2010)
student participants.
In 2008, Carter was invited to join the initial Board of Consultants for
the international Writing About Writing Network (WAWN) based at the
University of Alberta, a term she will serve until 2012.

CLiC faculty have published five textbooks of direct consequence to

the national Writing About Writing movement. The first, Donna
Dunbar-Odom’s Working with Ideas (Houghton-Mifflin, 2000), laid
the groundwork for a significant writing program that led first-year
researchers through intellectually-rich and challenging assignment
sequences and relevant qualitative research. Assignment sequences
drawn from this important textbook and newer additions were
subsequently published by Fountainhead Press as well. In 2007,
C ELEBRATION OF S TUDENT Shannon Carter developed a textbook entitled Literacies in Context
W RITING (CSW) (Fountainhead Press, 2007; second edition 2008) that drew from this
“When integrated into writing model yet more directly situated First-Year Composition at within the
programs, campus celebrations have still-quite-new Writing About Writing framework. Tabetha Adkins
the potential to serve multiple significantly revamped that framework for greater attention to research
pedagogical goals. Programs at schools methods and ethics in a 2010 textbook entitled Ethnographic Inquiries
like Eastern Michigan University and in Writing (Fountainhead Press, 2010). In 2011, Adkins published The
Texas A&M-Commerce link their Writing Program at Texas A&M-Commerce (Fountainhead, 2011). With
celebrations of writing to their first- Donna Dunbar-Odom and Shannon Carter, Christy Foreman
year composition curricula; WPAs at published the textbook Place Matters in 2008. In 2004, Shannon Carter
these universities recommend basing developed a basic writing textbook that addresses multiple literacies in
campus events on students’ original context of developmental writing. In 2008, Pearson Publishers
ethnographic research. [. . .] Many approached Carter for the opportunity to pursue this textbook in a
sources note that such celebrations revision, Christy Foreman and Chandra Lewis-Qualls coauthored.
enable diverse student and faculty Feedback throughout this three-year process was encouraging, and the
constituencies to participate in a authors hope to return to this project soon.
shared activity, [noting that ] planning
and producing campus events and Impact: Writing with New Media
publications can foster programmatic The forthcoming special issue of Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric,
or departmental cohesiveness as Technology, and Pedagogy (Summer 2011) will bring together digital
multiple faculty members and the scholarship produced by undergraduates composing with new media.
students enrolled in their courses work Entitled “(Re)mediating the Conversation: Undergraduate Scholars in
toward a common end.”* Writing and Rhetoric” and guest edited by Shannon Carter and Bump
Halbritter (Michigan State University), this special issue invited
Worth Celebrating (Carter 2008) undergraduates and their instructors to join the scholarly conversation in
writing, rhetoric, and literacy studies through their own digital
contributions.

The collection was co-edited by Carter and Halbritter and will

appear August 2011, in the Summer 2011 issue of Kairos: A Journal
of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy.

“[T]his video documents Texas A&M-

Through CLiC, affiliated faculty have leveraged existing resources to
Commerce’s Celebration of Student introduce multimedia writing into our first-year writing program—
Writing. As Carter’s narration first as a required photo essay embedded in the existing assignment
describes, the celebration serves as the sequence described above and later to include options for presenting
culminating event for the university’s two- findings as video, audio, and other multimedia options. In 2008, based
semester composition sequence. The film on these successes and increasing energy surrounding new media
begins with footage from the actual composing on our campus, CLiC was able to secure funds to purchase
celebration, at which students display
equipment and, with the University Library and Writing Center, begin to
research findings gleaned from literacy
ethnographies. Students’ projects feature establish more systematic support for multimedia writing across the
multiple literacies, including faith-based university—including one-on-one support, equipment made available for
literacies, workplace literacies, gaming checkout at the Library, and workshops. By building CLiC alongside our
literacies, and academic literacies. Carter roles as administrators and status on the graduate faculty where we work
then provides an overview of the primarily with MA and PhD students, we have been able to help shape
composition curriculum that informs a departmental culture that embraces multimedia writing.
the celebration, explaining that its
emphasis on literacy ethnography
allows students to pursue original In 2009, Carter introduced into our program a graduate-level course
inquiry-based research while also called “Writing with New Media,” which has since been established as
cultivating transferable rhetorical part of the regular course rotation and helped produce an exciting culture
knowledge. (Rose 4). shift across our graduate program as greater numbers of our students
gain increasingly sophisticated experiences with new media—from the
Rose, Jeanne Marie. “Campus tools for composing to creative methods to rhetorical constraints (and
Celebrations of Student Writing” affordances) to creative rights. Student video created under Carter’s
WPA-CompPile Research Bibliographies, direction include Sylwester Zabielski’s “I Hate Writing,” a short film
June 2010. April 2011. that has since found its way into the curricula of writing programs across
C ELEBRATION OF S TUDENT the country and, as of March 2, 2011, been viewed nearly 5,000 times.
W RITING : C OMMENTS Sylwester created this video for the first iteration of Carter’s course.
Others produced in response to this first course, including the video
Following the first Celebration of poetry series “American Faces,” were published at the National
Student Writing in May 2007, project Conversation on Writing (“Spotlight On: New Media”). As project lead
leaders received high praise from a for much of the digital video featured at the National Conversation on
broad range of faculty and Writing portal, Carter also served as project supervisor for the featured
administrators. texts, including a video remix “Who Said, ‘Johnny Can’t Write’?” and
the introductory video “Calling all Writers” (www.ncow.org). For each,
From Hal Langford, Dean, College of Carter worked closely with CLiC research assistant, Luca Morazzano,
Business and Technology: the same graduate student who served as creative lead and director of
CLiC’s first documentary film, The Other Side, discussed above.
Please give my thanks to all who
participated in today’s celebration! It CLiC’s numerous achievements provide strong evidence of the
was incredible! I think that is one of participant’s enthusiastic willingness to work collaboratively with
the best ideas and execution of idea colleagues in the department and college. CLiC faculty and affiliated
that I have seen in writing and graduate students worked across the campus and in the community to
presentation. I would love for this to produce and support multimedia writing through relevant curricula,
become the standard! Congratulations! student support, published scholarship and creative activities, and
campus outreach (including video associated with our application for a
From Paul Zelhart, Professor of Texas Historical Marker for the oldest African American church in
Psychology and Former Commerce, which was awarded in 2011 and installed April 26, 2011).
Department Head CLiC has contributed substantially to our own department’s
vertical writing curricula, from first-year writing to the graduate
Yesterday’s Celebration of Student level. We do not have a writing major, but growing enthusiasm for
Writing was outstanding. I have been multimedia writing means our undergraduates and graduate students
a professor for 40 years and I have now have opportunities to engage with new media across our
never seen that kind of enthusiasm department, from courses in our well established Children’s and
expressed over a writing assignment in Adolescent Literature program (graduate and undergraduate levels) to
a required class. Having 240 students Film Studies (graduate program) to Speculative Fiction, Stylistics, and
proudly display their work is a Creative Writing courses taught by a senior colleague and fan studies
phenomenon. Beyond excellent scholar who took Carter’s graduate-level course (Writing with New
teaching and organization, I suspect Media) in Spring 2009 and now incorporates multimedia writing in all
your approach of using an
her courses (Robin Reid).
ethnographic study of a topic chosen
by the students is a major factor in the
Impact: Digital Humanities
success of this event.
CLiC’s research, teaching, and scholarly activities also bring
together archival research materials and those gathered in the field
From James Klein, Dean, College of
Arts and Sciences: with three traditions increasingly common in the Digital
Humanities: remixing, aggregation, and geomapping tools. Carter’s
As I walked around the Celebration of current work as teacher and scholar combines remix culture and primary
Writing yesterday I was amazed at the research in the humanities, a unique path previously unavailable to most
engagement of the students in their scholars, community members, and students. Carter has pursued this
topics . . . Great job - I haven’t seen path in undergraduate and graduate course design, in her own
that many students engaged in a multimedia writing, and through several grant applications, both internal
project, ever! and external and in partnership with colleagues across the disciplines,
for opportunities ranging from the National Science Foundation
From Mary Hendrix, then Associate (CreativeIT) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (Digital
Vice-President for Academic and Humanities grant) to media grants from Humanities Texas for a
Student Affairs, sent to campus documentary in progress, CLiC’s second, full-length documentary
administrators a week before the project engaging local publics.
CSW (emphasis mine):
In February, 2011, for example, Carter submitted an NEH Digital
Too often, we focus on the problems Humanities grant proposal to develop an interactive prototype that at
we have and not on the good once embraces remix culture and foregrounds the rigorous research and
things…and then there is a ray of hope. citation practices characteristic of traditional humanities scholarship.
The focus in the strategic plan on Project Team for this recent grant includes a number of the
interdisciplinary instruction and what collaborations described above, especially with Gee Library (Andrea
was learned from the System Federal Weddle), Instructional Technology (Michael Lewandowski), and Donna
Relations team on Friday make this Dunbar-Odom. As described in the proposal for Remixing Rural
event timely. [. . . ] Texas: Local Texts, Global Contexts: “This innovative approach to
the problem of access to primary source materials when
From Rick Miller, then Director of investigating isolated communities builds upon and extends current
the Student Center, describing the research, and includes use of a data source annotation tool
ongoing impact of CSW one week developed for prototype, building from open source options like
after event: Popcornjs.” Indeed, CLiC’s work with our campus Instructional
I just keep smiling when I think about Technology Department and the Library, especially our Special
CSW – the energy and enthusiasm Collections and the associated Northeast Texas Digital Collections, has
generated from faculty and students emerged as among the most significant collaborations in which this
about learning…What really gets me, is research center has yet engaged.
the second and third wave of
conversations about the day. People In Carter’s teaching, she now guides students in “remixing” local
are referencing “factoids” and the archives into digital media projects that begin in the Northeast
observations they picked up at the Texas Digital Collections and engage rigorous research methods and
event. Shannon – this is so cool for responsible citation practices. In her advanced undergraduate course,
you and your folks – please book the
for example, students begin with a photo essay (“Picturing Northeast
space early for next year so we can get
Texas”) that uses as its core content artifacts derived from the Northeast
it all in one place.
Texas Digital Collections to develop a digital narrative appropriate to
findings. Additional assignments include one informed by Scott
From Donna Dunbar-Odom,
McCloud that utilizes the popular software Comic Life (“Northeast
Director of English Graduate
Studies: Texas as Sequential Art”) and an audio essay utilizing Audacity
I want to second Shannon Carter's (“Listening to Northeast Texas”). The Spring 2011 iteration of the
enthusiastic praise for the teaching graduate-level course Writing with New Media now combines remix
assistants and our first-year students, culture with extensive training in archival research and additional
but I also want to heartily congratulate guidance in negotiating creative rights. Digital media projects produced
her for conceiving and orchestrating for this course organize themselves as digital scholarship in rhetoric and
such a wonderful event. It was composition that likewise begins or ends in the Northeast Texas Digital
refreshing to see student work Collections.
celebrated rather than complained
about, and the students I talked to Impact: Education and Training of Students
were able to speak with real authority “The developing curricula and intended research agenda of the
about the work they did. CLiC allows students to conduct research on rapidly converging
literacies in their culture and disciplines” (Selfe, CLiC Report, 2008)
From Bill Bolin, Associate Professor
of English: At its foundation, CLiC works from the assumption that appropriate
Please add my voice to the chorus of literacy teaching in this new context should yield rhetorical dexterity,
praise. The Celebration of Student “the ability to effectively read, understand, manipulate, and negotiate the
Writing was outstanding. The students cultural and linguistic codes of a new community of practice based on a
who participated were excited and relatively accurate assessment of another, more familiar one” (Carter,
eager to talk about their projects, and The Way Literacy Lives, 22).
this event was a great venue for them
to share their work with a live audience The research emerging from this framework has important implications
outside their classrooms. for teachers and students across the nation. As Selfe describes “CLiC’s
Unique Contributions” in his 2008 External Review, “Student and
From Mildred Pryer, Professor of faculty research will be important contributors to a national effort
Management: to provide some “anticipatory momentum” (Selfe, forthcoming) for
Your wonderful work helps all of us as those trying to make sense of the bewildering array of new media
we teach our respective courses. We literacies that seem to be influencing generations of “digital natives”
appreciate you and all the English and underserved populations alike. Research by your students and
professors who contributed to this on your student population will help anticipate how higher
effort. education can innovate teaching and learning experiences with new
communication technologies even as we re-apply long-held values to
C OMMERCE W EEK ON W RITING new cultural and communicative situations.”

News Release, Ashley Johnson, Certainly, CLiC’s many service functions are obvious. That service is
Texas A&M-Commerce (9/29/2009) local and national. In the past four years, CLiC has worked hard to make
writing visible on campus and in the community with recurring
Community Prepares for National Celebrations of Student Writing (culminating activity for our First-
Day on Writing Year Writing program), Celebration of Writing with New Media
(culminating activity for projects composed with new media), and the
Commerce, TEXAS- The Commerce Commerce Week on Writing. CLiC brings the campus and the
community will host a Week on community together to explore and celebrate writing.
Writing October 16-23, a celebration
of writing in all its forms that will Our graduate students are regular presenters at regional and national
coincide with the National Day on conferences. A few have published articles from this work, and several
Writing on October 20, and event more articles have been either accepted or in progress. Carter is working
sponsored by the National Council closely with graduate students on projects related to the grants proposals
for Teachers of English. listed above and other opportunities likely to yield presentation and
publication opportunities.
“People ask me, ‘why a week of
writing instead of just a day?’” said Several are working to integrate video and audio interviews into their
Dr. Shannon Carter, associate scholarship. Graduate student Sylwester Zabielski, for example, has had
professor of literature and languages a video accepted for publication in the journal Kairos. The article is co-
and director of the Converging authored by the well-published scholar Joe Janangelo of Loyola
Literacies Center (CLiC) at Texas University in Chicago and an undergraduate scholar at University of
A&M University-Commerce. “We Missouri-Kansas City (“Anatomy of an Article,” Kairos Summer 2011).
decided to devote an entire week to
writing because writing matters more Our graduate students are regular presenters CCCC, a national, highly
now, than ever. It’s in everything we competitive conference. At CCCC 2010, for example, graduate students
do from publishing memoirs and presented research emerging from Carter’s Spring 2010 course designed
writing grocery lists, to texting to prepare rhetoricians and literacy scholars to research writing and
friends and writing poetry.” writers in local contexts, particularly among marginalized populations.
To meet course goals, these MA and PhD students drew from a common
The Week of Writing will kick off research site located less than five miles from our classroom: the Norris
Friday Oct. 16, and will feature Community (see also CLiC documentary and Carter’s research agenda
events including open mic nights, described above).
film showings, panel discussions, and
writing seminars held on campus and In Carter’s CCCC 2011 presentation entitled “Tensions Across Local
throughout the community. Landscapes: Disciplinary Implications for Future Literacy Scholars and
According to Carter, the Week on Rhetoricians,” she describes that course and relevant disciplinary
Writing has already garnered interest implications. In a separate panel presentation entitled “Found in
throughout the Metroplex, including Translation: Forging Literate Identities in Marginalized
Garland ISD and the university’s Communities,” these MA and PhD students presented findings
satellite campuses in Mesquite, emerging from the “ethnographic and archival research methods” they
downtown Dallas, Midlothian, and used in that course “to investigate traditional and non-traditional literacy
Corsicana. practices in the Norris Community” (Session Description, CCCC 2011).
Research described “includes an investigation of textbooks used during
“The Commerce Week on Writing segregation years at the Norris School” (Sean Watson, “Distorted
isn’t about any single department or Identities: Explicating Textbook Narratives in Segregated School in
even A&M-Commerce,” Carter said. East Texas), “a look at the interactive literacy community of the oldest
“It is about all of us, on campus and African-American church in town” (Allyson Jones’ “’The Word
in the community. For this reason, Became Flesh’: Communal Literacy Practices at an African-
CLiC isn’t organizing these events; American Church in East Texas”), “a life-history account of one
we’re simply promoting them. I church member’s acquisition and use of digital literacies” (Sunchai
encourage everyone, from the Hacumpai’s “Digitizing ‘the Word’: New Media Ministry at an East
campus to the community, to set up Texas Church”), and “a discussion of the McNair Scholars Program,
an event and spread the word.” which provides a route for students from marginalized communities,
including the Norris Community, to pursue graduate studies” (Lami
C OMMERCE W EEK ON W RITING Adami’s “Advancing Literacy: Graduate School Experiences
Among Local Students and Graduates from Underrepresented
October 19, 2009 Groups”).
Halls of Poetry: A Reading of Creative
Writers (Literature and Languages) Graduate courses in our program have a long tradition of yielding
student publications, conference presentations, and even dissertations. In
October 20, 2009
2008, for example, Brandi Davis-Westmoreland (PhD, 2010) joined a
Writing Local History: A Panel of panel of graduate students presenting research resulting from their work
Experts (Gee Library) in Donna Dunbar-Odom’s course on family “sponsors” of literacy.
Westmoreland’s presentation served as the foundation for her
NCoW Theater: A Festival of Films and dissertation on family literacy programs, especially the Barbara Bush
Writing and Writers (CLiC) Foundation for Family Literacy (Dissertation Director, Shannon Carter).
JP Sloop also found his dissertation topic in that course and on that
Writer Center Open House/ Memoir panel.
Writing Workshop (Literature and
Languages, in Partnership with the Silver
At CCCC 2009, Shannon Carter co-presented with graduate student
Leos Guild)
Melinda Bobbitt (PhD student) on a project emerging from a Spring
October 21, 2009 2008 course called “Theory and Practice of Argumentative Discourse.”
Norris Community Project: Coming That presentation explored conservative and evangelical rhetoric
Together (CLiC, in Partnership with the alongside colleagues Donna Dunbar-Odom and Anne Geller (St. John’s
Norris Community Club) University) on a panel entitled “’But You Can’t Talk to Believers’:
Dialogue and Dissent in Three Graduate Classrooms.’” That panel
The President’s Table (KETV Studio) resulted in Dunbar-Odom’s 2010 publication in Reader (“I Was Blind
But Now I Read”) and an invitation to Carter and Bobbitt to submit their
Don’t Be Silent!, documentary, screening collaborative presentation as well (revision in progress).
(CLiC)
We expect CCCC 2012 will include a large number of Texas A&M-
October 22, 2009
Commerce graduate students as well. Proposals include a panel
“Literacy in the Lives of Three PhD emerging from Carter’s Spring 2011 graduate course (“Writing with
Students” (Literature and Languages) New Media: Remixing the Past”), described in the “Digital Humanities”
section of this White Paper. Entitled “New Media Technologies: Our
“On Being an Artist: Daily Affirmations Gateway to Remixing the Past,” this panel features multimodal texts
and Gang Violence (Art) remixed from local archival research that “begins or ends,” as the course
insisted it must, “in the Northeast Texas Digital Collections.” Projects
Creative Writing Workshop (Sigma Tau include Frank Alexander’s study of the literacy narratives “during the
Delta)
era of Jim Crow segregation by [students at the] St. Paul School of
“The Use of Video Making for Art
Neylandville, Texas-- a community of former slaves and descendants of
Making, Documentation, and Writing slaves,” Christina Grimsley’s investigation of local literacy practices
Purposes” (Art) historical northeast Texas situated “within Deborah Brandt’s theoretical
discussions of evolving literacy practices,” and Melissa Niven’s
Commerce Public Library Presents, extended study of “domestic literacies” over time as illustrated across
“Open Mic for Kids!” (Commerce Public the lifespan of the Home Economics Department at a rural teacher’s
Library) college (our institution). As they explain in their proposal, “[t]his panel
will discuss how remixing the archives led them into their
“No Experience Necessary: A 24-hour communities and provided them access to the histories of
Short Play Competition and Festival,
Workshop” (Theater)
underrepresented groups, and how these experiences can be
extended to the first-year composition classroom” (CCCC 2011).
Open Mic (Mayo Review) Also emerging from this course is an individual proposal by Stephen
Whitely entitled “Sundown Towns: The Living Rhetoric of Jim Crow.”

October 23, 2009 Well aligned with the university’s Strategic Plan, CLiC “provide[s]
No Experience Necessary: A 24-hour innovative, relevant and quality academic programs that meet
Short Play Festival” (Theater) student needs.” No other school with the same student demographic
and regional focus offers anything like CLiC; it is ready to serve as a
The Writing Center presents, Story “center of excellence . . . consistent with the University Mission and
Slam! (Literature and Languages) societal needs” (Strategic Plan 2007-2012).
CL IC T ALKS (S PEAKER S ERIES ) 5. FUNDING
Established in 2009, “CLiC Talks” is In less than five years, with little infrastructure and no reassigned time
a regular, interdisciplinary lecture for affiliated faculty or budget for supplies or travel, CLiC has grown
series dedicated to research, teaching, into a campus and, indeed, a national leader for interdisciplinary,
outreach, and creative activities most university-community partnerships embracing the affordances of the
consistent with CLiC’s mission: digital humanities.
texts and writers in everyday
contexts.* The growth has relied open the generosity of individuals and programs
across the campus and creative choices by CLiC affiliated faculty.
March 2009: Sergio Pizziconi, PhD,
University of Siena, Italy (Linguist) In 2008, for example, CLiC leveraged existing resources and partnered
with Texas A&M-Commerce’s Gee Library to establish their Digital
Collections of Northeast Texas as the official archive for the National
Conversation on Writing (NCoW), a Council of Writing Program
Administrators-Network for Media Action initiative to collect, preserve,
and archive oral histories and other artifacts documenting the literacy
experiences of everyday writers. Through this and extensive, more local
and community-based projects like the HeirLoom Project, rhetoric and
composition specialists on our campus have worked closely with the
library’s well-established archivists, oral historians, and growing digital
collections to study, document, and preserve artifacts and oral histories
informing text use and production in our participatory democracy. CLiC
April 2009: Josephine Durkin, Assistant may have provided the intellectual frame and mechanisms through
Professor of Art, Texas A&M-Commerce which participants have forged and sustained these important
(“Excerpts and Conversations”) connections; but without progressive, creative, and altogether
generous librarians and administrators like Gregg Mitchell, Andrea
Weddle, Adam Northam, and Craig Wheeler this work would have
been impossible.

Likewise important to CLiC’s operations have been established

partnerships with Instructional Technology. From the beginning, CLiC
activities have required extensive involvement from the generous and
talented IT staff members like Michael Lewandowski and Joe
Shipman. Examples are numerous, including their guidance and
November 2010: Sarah Dooley, Author, technology support in the production of two scholarly webtexts for the
Young Adult Fiction (West Virginia) national, peer-reviewed publications Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric,
Technology, and Pedagogy (Carter and Dunbar-Odom, Fall 2009) and
Computers and Composition Online (Carter, Adkins, and Dunbar-Odom,
Fall 2010). Lewandowski and Shipment helped us design, produce, test,
and load the digital interfaces for both of these scholarly webtexts and
countless, related projects. All of these accomplishments speak to the
IT’s expertise and willingness to support CLiC’s technology needs,
though we have thus far been unable to compensate them for their
significant and time consuming contributions—at least beyond
acknowledgements in our resulting publications and other multimedia
services.

No reliable funding source for CLiC has been made available, however.
With the establishment of CLiC as an official research center within
the Texas A&M University System, we are requesting a reliable
funding source in order to continue to impact the campus,
community, and national conversations about writing and writers.

Indeed, a reliable funding source is crucial, as External Reviewer

Richard Selfe explained in his 2008 report. “The quickest way to
*abbreviated list undermine the energy and commitment of the project leaders is for
April 2010: Hugh Burns, Professor of them to perceive that they are primarily responsible for technology
Rhetoric, Texas Woman’s University, in support and planning in addition to curriculum development,
Partnership with Gee Library (National research and scholarship having to do with new literacies.”
Library Week) We are inspired to see additional projects across the campus that are
now more directly contributing to new literacies across the curriculum,
including the recent Digi-Fair. However, project leaders are also
struggling to maintain “the energy and commitment” CLiC requires
while likewise keeping up with other teaching, research, and service
obligations.

With no reliable funding source for travel, equipment, reassigned time,

graduate research assistance, undergraduate research assistance, and
other relevant activities, it will be impossible to maintain the current
activity levels.

Additional opportunities have presented themselves in recent months

that seem ideally suited for CLiC, including the development of an
interdisciplinary MA offered in partnership with the Department of
Literature and Languages (Film Studies) and the Department of Mass
Communications (Radio Television).

October 2009: Michael Miller, Professor

of Art, Texas A&M-Commerce (“On
Being an Artist: Daily Affirmations and
Gang Violence”)

Gerald Duchovnay, Professor of English (pictured above), regularly teaches

courses toward Texas A&M-Commerce graduate-level Certificate in Film
Students. With CLiC co-founder and current Department Head Donna Dunbar-
Odom, Duchovnay is working with representatives from the Department of
Mass Communications (John Mark Dempsey, Head, and Tony DeMars,
Associate Professor of RTV and Director of KETV Studio)

Similiarly, we have begun conversations with the Department of

Political Science to establish a graduate-level Certificate in Writing
Democracy, which would include 18-hours of graduate-level
coursework in the Departments of Political Science and Literature and
Languages.
G RANTS S UBMITTED

D IGITAL H UMANITIES
Carter, Shannon (PI). “Remixing Rural
Texas: Local Texts, Global
Contexts. “ National Endowment
for the Humanities, Digital
Humanities Grant. February 2011.

Amount: $24,966
Status: Under Review

Attardo, Salvatore, Shannon Carter,

Donna Dunbar-Odom, and Sang
Suh. “The Map is the Territory: An
Integrated Platform for Archival
Aggregation and Distribution.”
National Science Foundation.
CreativeIT grant. October 2009.

Amount: $737,000
Status: Not Funded

Carter, Shannon and Donna Dunbar-

Odom. “Learning Through
Composing with new Media: An
Initiative to Establish the
Converging Literacies Center
(CLiC).” Federal Initiative for
2008 (FY 2009).
JoAnn DiGeorgio-Lutz, Department Head of Political Science, directs the
Amount: $1,000,000 Cambodia Project at Texas A&M University-Commerce, a service learning
program that raises global and cultural awareness of Cambodia through its
Status: Not Funded
diverse activities. In addition to her outreach and teaching efforts associated
with the Cambodia Project (including frequent student trips to Cambodia with
undergraduate and graduate student researchers), DiGeorgio-Lutz investigates
P UBLIC H UMANITIES international policy relations most relevant to CLiC’s mission, including PLO’s
Carter, Shannon, Project Director. Diaspora constituency, particularly Palestinian and Cambodian refugees. She is
Humanities Texas grant, working with Shannon Carter, Professor of English, and Donna Dunbar-Odom,
bringing Humanities Texas Head of the Department of Literature and Languages and Director of the
Traveling Exhibitions to Doctoral Program in English Studies, to establish an interdisciplinary, graduate-
Commerce, Texas (“Jasper, Texas: level certificate consistent with CLiC’s mission and the Writing Democracy
The Healing of a Community in project.
Crisis,” “’Behold the People: RC
Hickman’s Photographs of Black Without a sustainable and consistent funding source, however, CLiC
Dallas, 1949-1961,” “Images of will be unable grow into the kind of research center we are poised to
Valor: US Latinos in World War establish within the Texas A&M University System.
II,” and “Literary Texas: 25 East
Texas Writers” (February 21-April Budgetary concerns External Reviewer Richard Selfe raised in his 2008
15, 2011) report are directly related to the current request for a reliable funding
source: “Faculty collaborators in CLiC should . . . be involved (but
Amount: $1,500 not primarily responsible for) the development of new learning and
Status: Funded work spaces for students and faculty, new online learning spaces,
and the hiring of new support personnel who will help manage the
60%/40% split in resource allocation that should accompany the
CLiC venture.”
G RANTS S UBMITTED * Selfe describes the suggested “60%/40% split in resource allocation”
this way: “the experience over the past 6 years in Humanities
P UBLIC H UMANITIES Information Systems at Ohio State University has confirmed the industry
Carter, Shannon, Deborah Mutnick, standard 60/40 split for project allocations. For any sustainable
and Susan Stewart. “Writing technology-intensive venture, 60% of planned expenditures will
Democracy: Towards a Translocal need to be spent on human resources. The other 40% is spent on
Consortium for Access, the technical infrastructure. [. . .] Negotiations about what systems
Preservation, and Exchange of and purchases are most appropriate for the CLiC project should be
Community-Based Discourses.” ongoing and frequent.”
National Endowment for the
Humanities. Bridging Cultures Funding required for CLiC benefits the entire university and
grant. June 2010. surrounding community, thus we are requesting support that will in
no way replicate services and support already available to faculty,
Amount: $241,683 staff, and students across the disciplines.
Status: Not Funded
CLiC is committed to levering existing resources in support of
recurring projects, thus regular meetings with CLiC’s advisory board
Carter, Shannon. “Writing Democracy will include requests for equipment and other items most directly
Across Local Publics: A Laboratory relevant to stakeholders across the campus.
for the Public Humanities.”
Federal Initiative for 2011 (FY For example, in developing CLiC’s first documentary (The Other Side of
2012). September 2010. the Tracks), CLiC has made extensive use of the professional video
camera owned by Media Services. We wish to continue making use of
Amount: $750,000 Media Services in providing professional-grade equipment necessary for
Status: Under Review CLiC’s second documentary and other, relevant media projects. Our
request does not include a professional video camera for CLiC but
instead a new camera for Media Services, to benefit the entire
campus.
I NDIVIDUAL R ESEARCH
Carter, Shannon. “Writing for a In providing new media equipment like Flip Cameras, Easy Share
Change: Race and Social Protest Cameras, and audio recorders to student and community writers, CLiC
Rhetoric.” Spencer Foundation. has made extensive use of Gee Library’s circulation desk. In 2009, we
February 2011. placed the CLiC-owned equipment on reserve for the benefit of the
entire campus, joining additional equipment Gee Library had purchased
Amount: $40,000 for student use, in direct consultation with CLiC faculty. Our request
Status: Under Review includes recurring requests to replace equipment for the benefit of
the entire university, placing CLiC-owned equipment on reserve for
checkout by students and faculty members across the campus.
*Only external grant activities are listed
here. CLiC faculty have also submitted For these reasons, we are requesting an 70%/30% split in resource
and been awarded several internal allocation, with 70% for human resources and 30% for technology
grants, including four Faculty resources.
Development Leave grants for major
book projects and a Faculty Research In providing support for research, teaching, and outreach activities
Enhancement Grant from the
consistent with the CLiC’s mission, we are requesting support for travel,
Graduate School.
graduate research assistants, undergraduate research assistance, and
teaching incentives across the disciplines.
U NDER D EVELOPMENT
Carter, Shannon and Deborah CLiC’s General Operations Budget should include:
Mutnick. “Writing Democracy • Two, full-time graduate research assistantships to support
Institute.” National Endowment
research, teaching, and outreach projects consistent with
for the Humanities Summer
CLiC’s mission (including MA and PhD students in the
Institute, hosted jointly by Long
Department of Literature and Languages)
Island University-Brooklyn and
• One, full-time graduate research assistantship to support
Texas A&M-Commerce Summer
2013. Application Deadline: March faculty-sponsored research, teaching, or outreach projects in
2012. disciplines beyond English Studies where they contribute to
FUNDING: 2007-2011 CLiC’s mission or within English Studies if interdisciplinary
concerns are foregrounded (applicants outside Literature and
For the first four years, CLiC has been Languages will be given preference for this GAR opportunity)
funded primarily through contributions by • One undergraduate research assistantship to support faculty-
generous administrators for special sponsored research, teaching, or outreach projects across the
projects, extensive in-kind contributions disciplines as they contribute to CLiC’s mission
from units across campus, and the faculty • Administrative Assistant (full-time) to coordinate application
involved. Since 2007, for example, Carter and review process for above, campus and community events
has spent, on average, $3,500-5,000 per
(including the bimonthly speaker series “CLiC Talks), travel
year for (unreimbursed) travel and
incidentals associated with CLiC. Though requests, and other budgetary and administrative matters.
administrators across the campus have • Technology budget to purchase software, equipment, and
been extremely supportive of CLiC’s relevant technology necessary to facilitate research, teaching,
mission and goals, extremely limited and outreach efforts consistent with CLiC’s mission, especially
travel funds have meant that only $450- those technologies that can be made available to students,
$1000 of the $3500-5,000 per year Carter faculty, and community members across the university and
has spent have been reimbursed by the region through Gee Library’s Circulation Desk,
university.
Instructional Technology, Media Services, and the Writing
Center.
No faculty member has received
reassigned time for involvement with • Supplies budget to purchase items necessary for printing,
CLiC. We hope to remedy that soon. photocopying, and other activities necessary to facilitate
research, teaching, and outreach efforts consistent with CLiC’s
Generous administrators have funded mission.
several CLiC-related projects, however. • Travel budget for participation in relevant research, training,
and conference activities
2007 • Adjunct Funds for Course Reassignment (CLiC Director,
Travel: $2200
one course per long semester; up to two additional courses per
Mary Hendrix, then VPAA, provided
funding for Shannon Carter to attend the academic year for CLiC-affiliated faculty to coordinate special
Digital Media and Composition Institute projects, especially regular, external reviews)
at OSU (May-June 2007) • Incentive Funds to support interdisciplinary faculty
involvement in research, teaching, and outreach activities
2007-2008 consistent with CLiC’s mission
Consultant Fee: $2000 • Event Budget to fund recurring, local events like the
James Klein, then Dean of Arts and bimonthly speaker series “CLiC Talks”
Sciences, authorized CAS funding for site
• Consultant Budget to fund visiting scholars as determined by
visit for External Review by Richard
Selfe, OSU the CLiC Advisory Board and, every five years, an External
Review Team to evaluate CLiC, first in 2012, at the end of
Travel: $2200 CLiC’s fifth year.
Funding for Donna Dunbar-Odom to
attend the Digital Media and Composition Selfe’s external review in 2008 indicated that CLiC project leaders
Institute at OSU (May-June 2008) needed, above all else, “time [. . . ] for planning and assigning
responsibility . . . time-sensitive activities” like these. After his
Equipment: $5000 external review, Selfe concludes, “My impression, brief though it was,
HEAF request, portable media equipment
was that most of the key players in this project do not currently
(laptop, cameras, audio recorders)
have a great deal of unallocated time to spend on this project (as
2008-2009 important as it is) without new staff and faculty hires and the re-
Equipment: $5000 alignment of duties.”
HEAF request, portable media equipment
(PC, Mac, flip cameras, software) Above all else, we are requesting at least three new faculty hires take
place within the next two academic years. We seek academic year,
Travel: $800 tenure system faculty to contribute to research, teaching, and outreach
Salvatore Attardo, then Head of the efforts consistent with CLiC’s mission, drawing from expertise in the
Department of Literature and Languages, following areas:
authorized LL funding for keynote
speakers Julie Lindquist and Scott
Halbritter (Michigan State University) to Community Literacy
speak at the Federation Rhetoric Digital Humanities
Symposium alongside Deborah Brandt Multimedia Writing
(University of Wisconsin), February 2009
Candidates for the above positions are expected to hold a PhD or other
Event: $80 terminal degree in rhetoric, writing, or a related field, contribute to the
Attardo authorized LL funding to support Texas A&M-Commerce graduate and undergraduate programs most
promotional materials and other
relevant to CLiC’s overall mission, develop one or more graduate and
necessary expenditures for the National
Conversation on Writing (NCoW): undergraduate courses in area of specialization, and display an
Digital Installation to be exhibited during enthusiastic willingness to work collaboratively with colleagues in the
Federation Rhetoric Symposium department and college.
(February 2009)
In his 2008 External Review, Selfe’s recommendations include
2009-2010 significant concerns regarding a “sustainable budget” that would
Three CLiC GARs for special projects underscore CLiC’s grant making activities. According to Selfe,
(BWe, NCoW, and documentary), “Administrators need time to set up a sustainable budget for the
authorized by Chris Evans, then Dean of
CLiC (based on lab fees? On Tuition? On an endowment?). Although
the College of Arts and Sciences, and
funded by CAS grant seeking and grant writers are essential to CLiC, it is difficult to
run the bulk of its human and technical infrastructure off of these
Event: $260 highly focused and periodic funds. Administrators also need to bring
Attardo authorized LL funding to support their vision, assessment expectations, and institutional constraints to the
promotional materials and other planning table. This is also, typically, new work for department chairs,
necessary expenditures for the deans, and provosts. I’m sure that other stakeholders (vendors, donors,
coordination and promotion of Commerce local industry and organizations, state-wide institutional colleagues, etc.)
Week on Writing events (October 2009) will also play important roles as the project goes forward, but the basic
process will remain largely the same: Identify “new work” as
Event: $150 stakeholders are included regularly in planning meetings and CLiC
Attardo authorized LL funding to support
promotional materials and other
events and compensate them, as much as possible, for that work.”
necessary expenditures for the
coordination and promotion of CLiC 6. GOVERNANCE and ADVISORY STRUCTURE
Talks, including travel expenses for As CLiC is, fundamentally, an interdisciplinary research center, it is
speaker Hugh Burns (Denton, Texas) recommended that the CLiC Director report directly to the Office of the
Provost. Pursuant to Texas A&M University System Policy 11.02.4,
2010-2011 “Faculty serving within a center shall report to the director.” For similar
One CLiC GAR for special projects, reasons, it is recommended that recurring budget allocations for CLiC
authorized by Attardo, then Dean of the come from outside the College of Humanities.
College of Arts and Sciences, and funded
by CAS
CLiC’s Advisory Board includes internal and external membership, all
Consultants: $12,000 of whom will meet on a recurring basis.
Funded by the Federation of North Texas
Colleges and Universities (Federation CLiC’s Internal Advisory Board
Rhetoric Committee) and the College of The role of the Center’s Internal Advisory Board is to provide ongoing
Arts and Sciences (Dean Attardo) to bring feedback, direction and ideas regarding the mission, goals and objectives
seven leading scholars to A&M- of the Center. IAB meets regularly to assess and evaluates Center
Commerce to deliver keynote addresses Programs to ensure projects adhere to the objectives of the Center,
at the FRS (Writing Democracy reviews the use of Center resources and assists with identification and
conference, March 9-11, 2011)
selection of key personnel for recruitment to the Center through the
Additional funding for this event was annual review of the Center membership.
generously provided by the Office of the
Provost ($2300, authorized by Dr. Larry Internal Advisory Board Members currently include Shannon Carter
Lemanski), the Department of Literature (Chair), Associate Professor of English and Director of the Converging
and Languages ($1300, authorized by Dr. Literacies Center (CLiC); Donna Dunbar-Odom, Professor of English
Donna Dunbar-Odom, English Graduates and Head, Department of Literature and Languages; Tabetha Adkins,
for Academic Development ($1500, Assistant Professor of English and Director of Writing; Andrea Weddle,
authorized by faculty sponsor Dr. Susan Director of Special Collections; Greg Mitchell, Director of Libraries. We
Stewart), a grant from Humanities Texas
are currently reconstituting our original Advisory Board, which included
($1500), and contributions from
publishers and other entities (including Vaughn Wascovich, Assistant Professor of Art, Leah Wickersham,
registration fees) Associate Professor of Education Technology, Bill Bolin, Associate
Professor of English, and Greg Mitchell, Director of Libraries.
Our newly configured Internal Advisory Board will likely include
representatives from the Political Science Department, History
Department, the Art Department, the Sociology and Criminal Justice,
Department, Computer Sciences, the Department of Educational
Technology, Sam Rayburn College, Gee Library (i.e., Special
Collections and Digital Collections), Media Services, Instructional
Technology, Technology Services, the Center for Undergraduate
Research, the Writing Center, and the Writing Program.

CLiC’s Executive Advisory Board

The Executive Advisory Board (EAB) consists of leaders from
specializations most relevant to CLiC’s mission. The Board provides
external expertise and connections to the scholarly and professional
communities and is a potential source for External Reviews.

CLiC’s IAB is currently pursuing potential members for EAB.

8. MECHANISMS FOR PERIODIC REVIEW

Pursuant to Texas A&M University System Policy 11.02.1, “All centers
and institutes shall be periodically reviewed at least every five years.”
CLiC was reviewed in 2008 by External Reviewer Richard Selfe (Ohio
State University). That report is available in Appendix B. In 2012, CLiC
will be due again for an external review. External Review Team will be
selected by the Internal Advisory Board from the Executive Advisory
Board, ideally to include the original reviewer, Richard Selfe, and
address progress since previous review.

Internal Advisory Board will meet at least three times per academic year
to provide ongoing feedback, direction and ideas regarding the mission,
goals and objectives of the Center. IAB meets regularly to assess and
evaluates Center Programs to ensure projects adhere to the objectives of
the Center, reviews the use of Center resources and assists with
identification and selection of key personnel for recruitment to the
Center through the annual review of the Center membership. IAB will
also review membership with respect to contributions to scholarly,
teaching, and outreach activities contributing to CLiC’s mission and
recommend changes across membership when necessary.

Given the necessary contributions of IAB, it is recommended that they

be given first priority to CLiC-affiliated resources.

Twice yearly, CLiC Graduate and Undergraduate Assistants will submit

to the IAB reports on their activities and accomplishments most relevant
to CLiC’s mission and stated goals of research, scholarly, and creative
activities associated with their assistantship. IAB will review GAR and
UAR reports to determine continued appointments. Once yearly, IAB
will request similar reports from CLiC-affiliated faculty to determine
best use of existing resources.

On a biannual basis (or at the request of administration or Texas A&M

University System officials), CLiC Director(s) will submit a “CLiC
Report” describing CLiC’s accomplishments and plans.