| Popis: |
Scholars in the field of Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy have called for more work on the intersections of race and technologies (Banks, 2006, 2011; Gilyard & Banks, 2018; Haas, 2018; A. H. Powell, 2007). There is a particular need for research on how Black Americans engage with digital technologies beyond school settings. This project fills this research gap by examining the print and digital literacy practices of five Black family reunions. In this qualitative study, I sought to answer two questions. First, what are the roles of reading, writing, and digital technologies in how Black family reunions are planned, executed, and sustained? Second, what does the study of digital practices in Black family reunions contribute to how we define and conceptualize digital literacy? To answer these research questions, I introduced and used a Critical Race-Grounded Theory methodology (Malagon, Huber, & Velez, 2009) tailored to Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy studies. My data collection methods included interviews, participant observation, and print and digital content analysis. My study yielded two major findings. In my first finding, I show that the primary role of reading, writing, and digital technologies is to help families organize as a business. My analysis illustrated how document genres and material artifacts circulated internally and externally to help families position themselves as business organizations. I argued that the work of these five families should prompt scholars and practitioners to think more expansively about how we define professional communication. In my second finding I show the families’ ability to strategically engage multiple digital platforms to complete the work of the reunion. My analysis illustrated how these families traveled across a variety of platforms to accommodate family members of all ages, promote family values, and to meet individual research and networking goals. I conclude that these families’ multiplatform engagement pushes us to define digital literacies by considering technological breadth just as often as we consider technological depth. Finally, I characterize the work these families do as hospitable literacies, which I define as a situated approach to reading, writing, and communication that decenters economic exigence and prioritizes accommodation, accessibility, and self-determination. |
