Dr. Yasmine Romero, an associate professor of English at the University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu, authored a chapter in the recently published book, “Racing Translingualism in Composition Toward a Race-Conscious Translingualism.”
Romero is among 16 contributors to the collection, which was edited by Tom Do and Karen Rowan, and published in September by Utah State University Press.
“This edited collection is a part of a larger movement towards recognizing how race and racism shape writing studies, specifically through a translingual lens,” Romero said. “Translingualism conceptualizes writing as always in the process of negotiating rhetorical situations, relationships with others, and relationships with power structures; in this way, writing is dynamic, social, and has agency.”
Romero said that in other words, a race-conscious approach to teaching writing, as the collection shows, encourages students and writing teachers to challenge relationships of power across writing situations.
“Being a part of this collection, then, allows me to contribute to the conversation as to how to not only innovate race-conscious approaches to teaching writing through students’ lived experiences, but also to show why these kinds of approaches matter,” Romero said.
Romero’s chapter is titled, “Multilingual Speaker-Writers’ Co-stories as Part of a Race-Conscious Translingual Practice.”
“My chapter explores the lived experiences of my student, Emma, and how those lived experiences shape her attitudes and perspectives on language use across different writing situations,” she said. “Our conversations center around issues of race and racism, especially accent discrimination and racial stereotyping. I engage these issues as they emerge in Emma’s stories about the workplace and college classroom.”
Read Romero’s chapter, “Multilingual Speaker-Writers’ Co-stories as Part of a Race-Conscious Translingual Practice,” in its entirety, via UH West O‘ahu’s James & Abigail Campbell Library DSpace repository.