Cynthia "Cindy" Selfe is an author,editor,scholar,and teacher in the field of Writing Studies,with a speciality in the subfield of computers and composition.[1][2][3] She is Humanities Distinguished Professor Emerita in the English Department at the Ohio State University where she taught from 2006 until her retirement in 2016.[4] Prior to that,she taught at Michigan Technological University.[4] Selfe was the first woman and the first scholar from an English department to win the EDUCOM Medal for innovative computer use in higher education.[3]
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin–Madison,Selfe taught English in middle school and high school in Houston,Texas.[5] In 1976 she enrolled in the University of Texas for her doctorate,where she was taught by Rhetoric and Composition scholars such as James Kinneavy,Lester Faigley,Steve Witte,Maxine Hairston,and John Ruszkiewicz.[3] Selfe went on to teach at Michigan Technological University,where,with Kathleen Kiefer,she founded the academic journal Computers and Composition.[6] After joining the faculty of the English Department at the Ohio State University,Selfe co-directed their annual Digital Media and Composition institute (DMAC) and coordinated the program for Visiting Scholars in Digital Media and Composition.[7] She founded Computers and Composition Digital Press with Gail Hawisher in 2007.[8] Selfe also co-founded the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (DALN) with H. Loius Ulman,which houses over 3500 entires from authors around the world.[2][9][10][11][12]
Computers and composition
Selfe's approach to the subfield of computers and composition has been described as "a focus on thinking through how technology complements and enriches classroom practices/pedagogical goals while simultaneously allowing for a shift from an instructor-centered classroom to a student-centered classroom."[3] Selfe's publications focus on the human-computer interaction and the critical examination of technology on writing. She frequently notes that technology is not simply a tool for composing but also an influential force. In an interview for an academic journal,Selfe reflects on how the impact of computers were often misperceived when they first became more common in the classroom (in the 1980s and 1990s):"We only thought of technology as a prosthesis for what we already did. We didn’t see it as a way of changing what we didn’t know we could do."[3] While Selfe frequently lauds the possibilities of digital tools for enriching education,she sees both positive and negative ramifications of technology. In 1999,early in the history of the online world,Selfe was skeptical about what she labeled "utopian" promises of the internet.[13] She warned that the discourse (at the time) about the "internet revolution" erasing sexism,racism,and other systemic ills was misguiding people.[13] To prove her point,she wrote about how digital texts replicate the same problems found "irl," specifically the exoticization of people of color and the norming of whiteness.[13] Her recommended antidote is teaching analytical digital literacy.[13]
Narrative
Selfe's interest in narrative permeates her public project,the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives,as well as her scholarly work. For Selfe,literacy narratives complement statistics and experiments that give us a picture of the impact of literacy education.[11] Selfe believes in "the informational value of these vernacular digital accounts for students and teachers of composition,as well as members of the public."[11] She identifies three particular insights narratives give academic and public audiences:[11]
understanding how identity formation is connected to literacy
understanding a wide range of cultural backgrounds' intersections with literacy
understanding the social and political agency that can be enacted through literacy
In her book Literate Lives in the Information Age,she and co-author Gail Hawisher formulate a matrix showing the various intersections of literacy—particularly digital literacy—and factors such as education,class,race,gender,and political affiliation.[14] They use the matrix to analyze literacy stories of a representative range of Americans. Selfe and Hawisher expand this line of thinking to an international focus,or,as they term it,a "transnational" focus in their digital book Transnational Literate Lives in Digital Times, which explores literacy agency in stories from students who travel from their home countries to Western,English-speaking countries for higher education.[15]
Personal life
Cynthia Selfe is married to humanities scholar Richard "Dickie" Selfe;they have two dogs named Comal and Lupe (Guadalupe).[2] When the couple retired,they took up residence in a cabin in Michigan.[2]
Awards
In Atlanta in 1999,Selfe delivered the Chair's address to the Conference on College Composition and Communication,"Technology and Literacy:A Story about the Perils of Not Paying Attention."[16][17] Soon after her Chair's address,in 2000,Selfe and her frequent co-author Gail Hawisher won the Technology Innovator Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Committee on Computers in Composition and Communication.[10]
In 2004,Selfe co-authored (with Gail Hawisher) the print book Literate Lives in the Information Age:Narratives of Literacy from the United States.[14] Seven years later,Selfe and Hawisher added co-author Patrick Berry when they updated and reformatted that publication as a fully interactive online book-length text entitled Transnational Literate Lives in Digital Times.[18] This digital publication received the CCCC Research Impact Award and CCCC Advancement Knowledge Award (2013) as well as CCCC Research Impact Award (2013).[18]
Related Research Articles
Ecocomposition is a way of looking at literacy using concepts from ecology. It is a postprocess theory of writing instruction that tries to account for factors beyond hierarchically defined goals within social settings;however,it does not dismiss these goals. Rather,it incorporates them within an ecological view that extends the range of factors affecting the writing process beyond the social to include aspects such as "place" and "nature." Its main motto,then,is "Writing Takes Place".
Computers and writing is a sub-field of college English studies about how computers and digital technologies affect literacy and the writing process. The range of inquiry in this field is broad including discussions on ethics when using computers in writing programs,how discourse can be produced through technologies,software development,and computer-aided literacy instruction. Some topics include hypertext theory,visual rhetoric,multimedia authoring,distance learning,digital rhetoric,usability studies,the patterns of online communities,how various media change reading and writing practices,textual conventions,and genres. Other topics examine social or critical issues in computer technology and literacy,such as the issues of the "digital divide",equitable access to computer-writing resources,and critical technological literacies. Many study by scientist such have shown that writing on computer is better than writing in a book
Digital rhetoric can be generally defined as communication that exists in the digital sphere. As such,digital rhetoric can be expressed in many different forms,including text,images,videos,and software. Due to the increasingly mediated nature of our contemporary society,there are no longer clear distinctions between digital and non-digital environments. This has expanded the scope of digital rhetoric to account for the increased fluidity with which humans interact with technology.
Composition studies is the professional field of writing,research,and instruction,focusing especially on writing at the college level in the United States.
Digital literacy is an individual's ability to find,evaluate,and communicate information by utilizing typing or digital media platforms. It is a combination of both technical and cognitive abilities in using information and communication technologies to create,evaluate,and share information.
Information and media literacy (IML) enables people to show and make informed judgments as users of information and media,as well as to become skillful creators and producers of information and media messages in their own right. Renee Hobbs suggests that “few people verify the information they find online ―both adults and children tend to uncritically trust information they find,from whatever source.”People need to gauge the credibility of information and can do so by answering three questions:
Who is the author?
What is the purpose of this message?
How was this message constructed?Students in computer lab
Commonly called new media theory or media-centered theory of composition,stems from the rise of computers as word processing tools. Media theorists now also examine the rhetorical strengths and weakness of different media,and the implications these have for literacy,author,and reader.
Storyspace is a software program for creating,editing,and reading hypertext fiction. It can also be used for writing and organizing fiction and non-fiction intended for print. Maintained and distributed by Eastgate Systems,the software is available both for Windows and Mac.
A digital studio provides both a technology-equipped space and technological/rhetorical support to students working individually or in groups on a variety of digital projects,such as designing a website,developing an electronic portfolio for a class,creating a blog,making edits,selecting images for a visual essay,or writing a script for a podcast.
The Digital Writing and Research Lab (DWRL) is a research lab at The University of Texas at Austin,United States,dedicated to the identification and promotion of twenty-first-century literacies. These literacies range from navigating online newsfeeds and participating in social networking sites to composing multimedia texts that require producing,sampling,and/or remixing media content.
LSU Communication across the Curriculum is a program at Louisiana State University (LSU) that works to improve the communications skills of students. This includes writing,public speaking,visual and technological communication skills. The program is a successor to the Writing across the Curriculum and Writing in the Disciplines programs.
Multimodality is the application of multiple literacies within one medium. Multiple literacies or "modes" contribute to an audience's understanding of a composition. Everything from the placement of images to the organization of the content to the method of delivery creates meaning. This is the result of a shift from isolated text being relied on as the primary source of communication,to the image being utilized more frequently in the digital age. Multimodality describes communication practices in terms of the textual,aural,linguistic,spatial,and visual resources used to compose messages.
Kathleen Blake Yancey is the Kellogg W. Hunt Professor of English at Florida State University in the rhetoric and composition program. Her research interests include composition studies,writing knowledge,creative non-fiction,and writing assessment.
Deborah L. Brandt is professor emerita of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Jonathan Alexander is an American rhetorician and memoirist. He is Chancellor's Professor of English,Informatics,Education,and Gender &Sexuality Studies at the University of California,Irvine. His scholarly and creative work is situated at the intersections of digital culture,sexuality,and composition studies. For his work in cultural journalism and memoir,Tom Lutz,founding editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books,has called him "one of our finest essayists."
Renee Hobbs is an American scholar and educator who works in the field of media literacy education. She is Professor of Communication Studies at the Harrington School of Communication and Media and founder of the Media Education Lab at the University of Rhode Island.
Victor Villanueva is an American academic and scholar in rhetoric and composition studies,serving the role of Regents Professor Emeritus at Washington State University. Villanueva was awarded NCTE's David Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English for his groundbreaking book Bootstraps,From an American Academic of Color. In 2009,Villanueva was the recipient of the Conference on College Composition and Communication Exemplar's Award. Villanueva has written and edited a number of significant works on the topic of race,rhetoric,basic writing,and the social and political contexts of literacy education.
Min-Zhan Lu is a composition professor and scholar. She serves as Professor Emerita of English at the University of Louisville. She is the 2005 recipient of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Richard M. Braddock Award and the 2012 CCCC Outstanding Book Award.
Cheryl Ball is an academic and scholar in rhetoric,composition,and publishing studies,and Director of the Digital Publishing Collaborative at Wayne State University. In the areas of scholarly and digital publishing,Ball is the executive director for the Council of Editors of Learned Journals and the Editor-in-Chief for the Library Publishing Curriculum. Ball also serves as co-editor of Kairos:A Journal of Rhetoric,Technology,and Pedagogy,an open access,online journal dedicated to multimodal academic publishing,which she has edited since 2006. Ball's awards include Best Article on Pedagogy or Curriculum in Technical or Science Communication from the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC),the Computers and Composition Charles Moran Award for Distinguished Service to the Field,and the Technology Innovator Award presented by the CCCC Committee on Computers in Composition and Communication (7Cs). Her book,The New Work of Composing was the winner of the 2012 Computers and Composition Distinguished Book Award. Her contributions to academic research span the areas of digital publishing,new media scholarship,and multimodal writing pedagogy.
The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (DALN) is an online public archive of personal literacy narratives. The DALN collects narratives ranging in formats and composition styles to include traditional and unconventional self-exploratory mediums such as video essays,drawings and written narratives. In 2005,Cynthia Selfe,H. Lewis Ulman,and Scott DeWitt at Ohio State University began development of the DALN with the purpose of creating and preserving a diverse and accessible collection of personal narratives. While most visitors to the site are from the United States,the DALN has developed a worldwide audience,and as of 2021,there were over 8,000 submissions from countries on six of seven continents.
References
↑ Beck, E. (2013). Reflecting upon the past, sitting with the present, and charting our future: Gail Hawisher and Cynthia Selfe discussing the community of computers & composition. Computers and Composition, 30, 349-357'
1 2 3 4 Head, S. (2017) A scholarly legacy: Cynthia Selfe and the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives. Kairos, 22 (1).
1 2 3 4 5 Bailie, B. (2010). "If you don't believe that you're doing some good with the work that you do, then you should't be doing it: An interview with Cindy Selfe. Composition Forum, 21.
1 2 Head, S. (2017) A scholarly legacy: Cynthia Selfe and the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives. Kairos, 22 (1)
1 2 3 4 Selfe, Cynthia (1999). "Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution: Technology and the Nature of Change". In Hawisher, Gail; Selfe, Cynthia (eds.). Passions, Pedagogies, and 21st Century Technologies. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. pp.292–322. ISBN9780874213164.
1 2 Selfe, C.L.; Hawisher, G.E. (2004). Literate Lives in the Information Age: Narratives of Literacy From the United States. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum. ISBN0-8058-4314-0.
↑ Berry, Patrick; Hawisher, Gail; Selfe, Cynthia (2012). "Transnational Literate Lives in Digital Times". Transnational Literate Lives in Digital Times. Utah State University Press/Computers and Composition Digital Press.
↑ Selfe, C.L. (1999). "Technology and Literacy: A Story about the Perils of Not Paying Attention". College Composition and Communication. 50 (3): 411–436. doi:10.2307/358859. JSTOR358859.
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