Global College
Institute for Literacy, Diversity and Identity
Director Position now open!
About the Recent Past Director
About the Founding Past Director
Upcoming and Past Events and Activities
About the Institute
The Institute for Literacy, Diversity, and Identity continues the work for the past Institute for Literacy and Transformative Learning and connects more fully the idea that language learning activities must honor the diverse nature of local and global constituencies. The emphasis in this Institute is the development of sustainable partnerships around literacy activities, diverse knowledges, and constructions of identity that centre around language. At the core of such relationships are learning activities that explore advocacy and activism in relation to multiple literacies: human rights education, adult and family literacy, participatory democracy, community literacy projects, conflict resolution, interfaith dialogue, creative campaigning and global citizenship.
This institute sponsors activities that move beyond functional approaches to literacy and toward a comprehensive view that sees literacy as a social practice, not simply a technical skill. This Institute seeks to make clear connections between our diverse literate practices and our being in the world.
About the Recent Past Director (2011-2012)
Jennifer Clary-Lemon (PhD, Arizona State) is associate professor of rhetoric in the Department of Rhetoric, Writing, and Communications, Director of The Global College Institute for Literacy, Diversity, and Identity (formerly The Global College Institute for Literacy and Transformative Learning) and Editor of the journal Composition Studies. Her research interests have recently focused around writing and positionality—argument and the discourses of civic life, and ethnic and racial identity. This is represented by her current work with the discursive construction of immigrant identities of post-WWII Irish emigrants to Manitoba. Her past work on community-based and experiential learning, feminist praxis, mentoring, critical multiculturalism, and civic engagement at all levels of curriculum have led her to envision learning as a transformative experience, based on the conceptualization of teaching as reflective practice.
Jennifer teaches courses in writing and theory, writing and identity, and offers a full-year writing practicum course that gives students an opportunity to partner with community organizations in a reciprocal relationship that draws on student writing expertise.
In the Summer of 2009, she offered a Summer Institute supported by the former Institute for Literacy and Transformative Learning in Writing and Reading Women's Lives: Life Writing Workshop; as well, she has been asn active member of the Experiential Learning Initiative Network ELiN since its inception in the Spring of 2008. Collectively, Jennifer's research and teaching activities draw on a deep belief that language cannot be separated from the contexts of who we are at any given point in time.
Jennifer has been a Wakonse-Arizona Fellow since 2005 and is a Research Affiliate for the Prairie Metropolis Centre. Her recent publications include Argument in Composition (2009), Relations, Locations, Positions: Composition Theory for Writing Teachers (2006), as well as articles in Discourse and Society (2010), the American Review of Canadian Studies (2009), and College Composition and Communication (2009, 2010).
About the Founding and Past Director (2006-2011)
Email: d.schnitzer@uwinnipeg.ca
Phone: 204.786.9281
Deborah Schnitzer is a professor in The English Department, was the founding and past co-director of The Global College Institute for Literacy and Transformative Learning and 3M
Teaching Fellow. Her interests in activism, teaching, scholarship,
course design and community-based learning have led to the development
of courses that integrate theory and practice, involving students in
organizations and programs concerned with access, inclusivity, social
justice, human rights, peace making and creative freedom. In developing
this Institute, Deborah was working with university and community
members to build partnerships that integrate scholarship and activism,
exploring collaborative and cooperative teaching, research and learning
models that draw strength from the diversity of participants and their
various learning styles, experiences, visions and practices.
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Dr. Schnitzer is the winner of the 2010 Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction for her book "An Unexpected Break in the Weather," published by Turnstone Press.
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