Elastic Literacies and (Re)Mediated Me(s): Or, Toward a Theory of Composing as Actant in Action

• In Event: 35.082 - Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: 35.082-18 - Writing Without Words: Digital Literacies, Visual Representation, and Identity

Abstract

As our contemporary time becomes increasingly mediated by digital technologies and virtual geographies, educational research must account for the many spatio-temporal and socio-technical scales it presents. As research has documented, there is a needed call for conceptual tools and overlays for examining the profound ontological and methodological significances youth operationalize across (re)presentational modalities. This paper, drawing from qualitative data sources in language and literacy education, puts forth a conceptual overlay (elastic literacies) to account for the ways youth use multimodal composition to orchestrate visibility, navigate (in)equality, and enact (re)presentational self/ves. In (re)reading data as actant, this paper illuminates how elastic literacies accounts for youth using specific types of composing practice to maneuver between the embodied self and the digital selves.

Author

• Jon Michael Wargo, Michigan State University