Collin Craig
Assistant Professor, Institute for Writing Studies
craigc@stjohns.edu
Ph.D. in English, Michigan State University, 2010 M.A. in
Composition and Rhetoric, 2005 B.A. in English, Stephen F. Austin
State University
My profile as a teacher-scholar connects 21st century literacies
with cultural rhetorical practices of knowledge production that
make visible how scholars and students of color can leverage the
political and social dimensions of language practices for social
and institutional change. Specifically, my scholarship
investigates black male writing, institutional literacy, and Black
Male Initiative programs as “practices” of place making that make
visible how black college males integrate into and interrogate the
language and social norms of their institutions. In my book
project, Imagining Possible Lives: Black Male Literacies in the
American University, I investigate how African American rhetorical
practices work in the shaping of place within predominately white
institutions of higher learning. I define what I term a
“rhetoric of black male retention,” through how black males locate
and make culture in these institutions, and how they use vernacular
practices as heuristic for critical literacy development. As I
engage the question, “What is the substance of black male
writing?” I investigate ways that black college males use
literacies to create spaces for interrogating and speaking back to
institutional discourses. I also document the evidence they
provide for how they navigate these discourses in order to develop
and employ meaning making techniques for resistance, cultural
assimilation, and identity formation. My interests in cultural
rhetoric and 21st century literacy education frame my teaching and
commitment to equity and access to higher education.