Beyond “Complexity” in Literacy Studies

• In Event: A Critical Revisioning of Literacy Research: A Time for Expansion or Stability?

Abstract

New Literacy Studies has long emphasized complexity, openness, and instability. Yet, in a moment of profound social and political precarity, is demonstrating “complexity” a sufficient project for the field? Drawing on theorist Caroline Levine, we critique complexity as an end in itself, arguing for the necessity of structured continuity and shared frameworks. By reconsidering how stability fosters learning and collective action, we reorient literacy research toward material and political urgencies rather than perpetual theoretical expansion.

Authors

• Robert LeBlanc, University of Lethbridge

• T. Philip Nichols, Baylor University