Reclaiming Mam Language and Culture: Pedagogies and Literacies of Women’s Activism Across the Hemisphere (Poster 14)

• In Event: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research
  In Invited Poster Session: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research Poster Session

Abstract

I present an overview of my multi-sited dissertation on Maya Mam women activists’ language and cultural activism in their ancestral communities and diaspora. The Maya Mam are an ethnolinguistic pueblo whose ancestral territory spans Western Guatemala and Southern Mexico. While emerging research has focused on the experiences of Maya diasporas in the US, there remains little understanding of Maya women’s experiences and language maintenance. Drawing from anticolonial methodologies, I engaged in online and in-person participant observation, design-based collaborations, testimonios, and gathered hundreds of primary materials over five years. I highlight how Maya Mam women teach critical pedagogies and literacies in grassroots education and digital media to foster multilingual ecologies to increase belonging, intercultural understanding, and language awareness.

Author

• Cristina Selena Mendez, University of California - Berkeley