Community Action: a Framework for Egalitarian, Reciprocal Community Engagement in the Field of Rhetoric and Composition
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Community Action: A Framework for Egalitarian, Reciprocal Community Engagement in the Field of Rhetoric and Composition by Paul T. Feigenbaum A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (English and Education) in The University of Michigan 2008 Doctoral Committee: Professor Anne R. Gere, Co-Chair Associate Professor Carla O’Connor, Co-Chair Professor William R. Alexander Professor John C. Burkhardt Associate Professor Paula Mathieu, Boston College University © Paul T. Feigenbaum 2008 Acknowledgments First and foremost, I want to thank my wife Bayan for all her support during this extended process. My writing the dissertation occurred while she was making a huge transition from life in Uzbekistan to life in America, and she made this transition with incredible grace and patience. She also sacrificed much time and energy in helping me finish! My parents, William and Janice, have provided more support than can possibly be detailed here. There are countless reasons why this dissertation would not have happened if not for them, extending far beyond the specific detail of their having given me birth! I would like to spend some time reflecting on and thanking the five members of my dissertation committee. I first met my Co-Chair Anne Gere in 1999. Her course on composition theory opened up a world for me, an entire discipline I had known little about, one that would quickly become more exciting and intellectually stimulating for me than the work I was doing in literary criticism. Then Anne proved incredibly supportive in allowing me to transition from Language and Literature to English and Education. Her thoughtful counsel throughout all aspects of my professional development has been, and continues to be, enormously beneficial for me. The mentorship of my other Co-Chair, Carla O’Connor, began with a Sociology of Education course that focused on the factors leading to generational reproduction of structural inequalities, and Carla gave her students a tough education into the realities of intervening in this reproduction. But we also spent much time discussing resilience in the ii face of structural inequality—where it comes from, how it is sustained, and how it might spread. Although my dissertation is not a sociological treatise, all my work is founded in these ideas. Carla has been a tremendously astute reader whose critiques challenged me to overcome the various intellectual obstacles I faced in developing the dissertation. Before entering the Peace Corps, I mostly knew Buzz Alexander from the English Department’s Community Action Committee, which sought to create new courses that would incorporate writing and community work. But after my return to Ann Arbor, I was lucky to participate in the Prison Creative Arts Project that he began nearly 20 years ago. In many ways this organization represents the gold standard for combining academic and community work. Buzz has shown me that it is possible, although the challenges are numerous, to integrate one’s various missions as a scholar, teacher, and community activist into one’s academic identity, and he has been enormously inspirational for me. I met John Burkhardt while searching for a final committee member in order to reach candidacy before entering the Peace Corps. Within five minutes of sitting down in his office, he said he would be happy to help me with anything I needed, including being on my committee. Upon my return to Ann Arbor in 2005, he helped create possibilities for me to pursue the work that has redefined and reinvigorated my academic identity— working with talented, underserved students in Detroit on college preparation. He has been a wonderful mentor and friend. I came across Paula Mathieu’s book Tactics of Hope while trying to figure out how to incorporate community work with academic work, and her book rather serendipitously came along at the perfect time. It provided the linchpin of my slowly developing theoretical framework for community action. I was even more amazed when, iii after sending her an email to let her know what a profound influence her book had had on my dissertation, she offered to be another reader for me. It was my first glimpse into her boundless generosity. In addition to my committee members, I owe special thanks to the English and Education students I first met in Anne Gere’s class: Rob Cosgrove, Suzanne Spring, and Matt Nelson. They invited me to participate in an independent study on the pedagogy of composition, and it was during this experience that I decided to switch from Language and Literature to English and Education. I will never forget Rob’s counsel, “Paul--come to the dark side!” Thanks for welcoming me into the fold! Suzanne also helped immensely with the job search. Rob has been a very close friend in my time at Michigan, offering social support through darts, bubble hockey, and most importantly, trivia nights! He has also provided rigorous constructive criticism of my writing, from my first-year exam through to the dissertation. I also want to thank a number of other people (currently or formerly) in the Joint Program in English and Education who provided intellectual inspiration and moral support, critiqued many incarnations of different chapters, and proved to be wonderful friends and colleagues. They include Kelly Sassi, Donna Scheidt, Mary Graciano, Jill Lamberton, Lindsay Ellis, Valerie Goodwin, Janice Leach, Hannah Dickinson, Krista Homicz, Staci Schultz (who put me in touch with Paula Mathieu!), Jim Beitler, Ben Gunsberg, Jenn Luttman, Jeanie Laubenthal, Jeannie Loughry, and Heather Thompson Bunn. Another supportive friend and colleague I’ve met along the way is Linda Adler- Kassner, who provided great advice numerous times over muffins at Sweetwater’s Café. iv I also want to thank the various faculty members, as well as graduate and undergraduate students, who participated in the college preparation program in Detroit, including Josh Gottlieb, Hannah Dickinson, Brett Griffiths, Josh Young, Deanna Birdyshaw, Percy Bates, Meghan Codd, Kate Walter, Sarah Walter, Robin Goldberg, Michelle Liszt, and Alicia Kwok. I want to give special thanks to Ken Watson, Philander Asaka, Renard Monczunski, and Delia Graham for their friendship and inspiration. My work in Detroit was also sustained by members of the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good, including Eliza Marroni, Ekko Byrne, Elizabeth Hudson, Kate Thirolf, and Shannon Johnson. I also want to thank John O’Brien, Mike Lauchlan, and Scotty Simpson’s Fish & Chips for their support and tasty fried fish. The term “community action” is bandied about from time to time in various ways and contexts by people wishing to promote community change. My first encounter with the term occurred during my participation on the English Department’s Community Action Committee, which helped inspire me to make community work a core part of my academic identity. I drew great inspiration from the members of this committee, who included Buzz Alexander, Joyce Meier, George Cooper, Sarah Wolfson, Jean Borger, Julie Ellison, Rebecca Ingalls, and Cari Carpenter. There are countless other people who have made this dissertation possible, including the many students I’ve had the pleasure of working with along the way, and I fear I will never be able to thank them all enough. v Table of Contents Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………...ii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………..vii Chapter One Introduction: The Promise and Peril of the Service-Learning Movement in Higher Education...…………………………………………1 Chapter Two The Ironies of Service Learning for Social Change in Rhetoric and Composition……………………………………………………………...39 Chapter Three The New Literacy Studies: Laying the Theoretical Foundation for Egalitarian Literacy-Based Collaborations between Academic and Nonacademic Communities……………………………………………...93 Chapter Four Hybrid Literacies and the Shift from Strategic to Tactical Service Learning………………………………………………………………...151 Chapter Five Community Action: The Melding of Tactics and Hybrid Literacies for Egalitarian, Reciprocal Engagement between Academic and Nonacademic Community Partners.……………………………………204 Chapter Six Conclusion: The Prospects for Community Action…………………….259 References………………………………………………………………………………285 vi ABSTRACT Community Action: A Framework for Egalitarian, Reciprocal Community Engagement in the Field of Rhetoric and Composition by Paul T. Feigenbaum Co-Chairs: Anne R. Gere and Carla O’Connor This dissertation’s central aim is to articulate a framework for scholars of rhetoric and composition to engage in egalitarian literacy-based community engagement while producing intellectually rigorous academic work. In order to constitute ethically responsible outreach, it is imperative that collaborations between institutions of higher education and local communities produce mutual benefits. However, too often the academy’s institutional framework subsumes the goals of enacting egalitarianism and reciprocity, which results in service that clearly benefits the academy while marginalizing the community’s gain. Rather, engagement should allow all partners to serve and receive service, experience meaningful learning, and produce concrete action that improves their lives and communities in substantive ways. To that end, I conceptualize a paradigm of engagement called community action, which subverts the traditional dichotomies found in service learning by pursuing egalitarianism and reciprocity as its principal focus.