Writing on the Wall : Writing Education and Resistance to Isolationism (Hardcover)

The first concerted effort of writing studies scholars to interrogate isolationism in the United States, Writing on the Wall reveals how writing teachers—often working directly with students who are immigrants, undocumented, first-generation, international, and students of color—embody ideas that counter isolationism.

The collection extends existing scholarship and research about the ways racist and colonial rhetorics impact writing education; the impact of translingual, transnational, and cosmopolitan ideologies on student learning and student writing; and the role international educational partnerships play in pushing back against isolationist ideologies.

Established and early-career scholars who work in a broad range of institutional contexts highlight the historical connections among monolingualism, racism, and white nationalism and introduce community- and classroom-based practices that writing teachers use to resist isolationist beliefs and tendencies.

“Writing on the wall” serves as a metaphor for the creative, direct action writing education can provide and invokes border spaces as sites of identity expression, belonging, and resistance. The book connects transnational writing education with the fight for racial justice in the US and around the world and will be of significance to secondary and postsecondary writing teachers and graduate students in English, linguistics, composition, and literacy studies.

Contributors: Olga Aksakalova, Sara P. Alvarez, Brody Bluemel, Tuli Chatterji, Keith Gilyard, Joleen Hanson, Florianne Jimenez Perzan, Rebecca Lorimer Leonard, Layli Maria Miron, Tony D. Scott, Kate Vieira, Amy J. Wan