The Pragmatics to Opening Access: Collaborative, Digital, and Communal Mariana Grohowski Bowling Green State University

Introduction –Ethos –Similar projects Background –MEA –Veteran Studies Community Literacy (Higgins, Flower, Long) as frame –D.I.Y.

Introduction: Ethos

Similar Projects

Background

Pump 1: 2011, Student veterans came together to produce Volume 1 of The Journal of Military Experience (JME) Pump 2: 2012, Volume 2 JME => MEA. MEA Symposium, July Pump 3: Late 2012, The Blue Falcon Review and Blue Streak. The Veterans’ PTSD Project. Pump 4: Present, The Journal of Military Experience, The Blue Falcon Review, Blue Streak: A Journal of Military Poetry, and The Veterans’ PTSD Project which includes online peer support and the journal Blue Nostalgia. Background // Timeline:

Veteran Studies: An interdisciplinary research and advocacy agenda that seeks to foster understanding and justice for military-service personnel, veterans, and their families.

Community Literacy “uses writing to support collaborative inquiry into community problems; calls upon local publics around the aims of democratic deliberation; and transforms personal and public knowledge by restructuring deliberative dialogues among individuals and groups across lines of difference” (Higgins, Flower, & Long, 168)

Community Literacy: Difference is treated as resource To share silenced perspectives Creation of artifacts to promote experiences Writing groups through Facebook 1:1 (veteran & experienced writer) writing consulting / coaching Dialogues through Facebook Pages Develop an alterative discourse Through listening and trusting participants Multiple journals Importance of varied info on social media All participants are experts on problem and solutions Genuine collaboration Seek to valued and utilize participants’ varied expertise Assessing the Rhetorical Situation Creating a ‘local public’ Supporting personal & public transformations by circulating alternative texts & practices Developing participants’ rhetorical capabilities Higgins, Flower, & Long (2006)

Assessing the rhetorical situation “Configure the problem space or object of deliberation, Identify relevant stakeholders in the community, Assess existing venues for public problem solving, and Analyze literate practices used to represent and address problems and the way these practices structure stakeholder participation” (171). All participants are experts on problems & solutions Genuine collaboration: value and utilize participants’ varied expertise Higgins, Flower, & Long (2006)

Create a ‘local public’: “A local public creates its own “alternative discourse... participants will require the rhetorical competency to develop and engage in such discourse” (176).

Develop rhetorical capabilities: “Eliciting situated knowledge, Engaging difference in dialogue, and Constructing and reflecting upon wise options” (178). Higgins, Flower, & Long (2006) Writing Workshops 1:1 writing consulting / coaching Dialogues Partnerships

Support personal & public transformation through alternative texts & practices: Difference is treated as resource Share silenced perspectives through the creation of artifacts

Support personal & public transformation through alternative texts & practices cont.:

D.I.Y. (Do it Yourself)

Open access Community Literacy Remove barriers

Community Literacy: Assessing the Rhetorical Situation Creating a ‘local public’ Supporting personal & public transformations by circulating alternative texts & practices Developing participants’ rhetorical capabilities Higgins, Flower, & Long (2006) African American Males Women in STEM First Generation College Students Focus groups Recruit diverse stakeholders Utilize hi & low tech Value & engage people’s expertise Remove barriers to participation Embrace multiple modes of representation, action, expression, & engagement

We invite you to participate: 1. If you are a veteran, veteran spouse, or military-dependent: share/publish your writing / art with MEA 2. If you are a teacher of writing help us build archives of pedagogy using Veterans work 3. If you are a teacher of writing, utilize our archives: use veteran work in your classes 4. If you are a researcher of writing: study our organization, study veteran work and write about it (publish it MEA and other places).

Thank you Mariana Grohowski Bowling Green State University