Reconceptualizing Transnationalism: Black Global Mobility, Literacies, and Social Class

• In Event: Reimagining Education: From Colonial Control to Transnational Mobility

Abstract

Black people have long engaged in multidirectional movements across nation-states. However, transnational theories and educational scholarship have prioritized Latinx people’s border-crossing experiences with a focus on their experiences in Eurowestern host nations. Further, educational research on transnationalism has rarely foregrounded social class, largely ignoring a core theoretical interest of transnationalism. Drawing on two critical qualitative studies, we examine the literacy and language practices that economically diverse Black transnational youth recruit and develop to participate in transnational life across African and Caribbean nations. Through this repositioning of Black people and Black geographies at the center of transnationalism, we propose a transnational framework of Black mobility and insights into how literacies, language practices, and social class are implicated therein.

Authors

• Lakeya Afolalu, University of Washington

• Allison Skerrett, University of Texas at Austin