Transmodal Communications
This book examines semiotics, meaning-making and the co-construction of relations in transmodal communications. Through the lens of transpositioning – the multiple and interwoven layers of emplacements and positionings that are entailed in communications which cross and transcend the boundaries that have historically shaped our thinking about the world and its inhabitants – the chapters interrogate digital languaging and literacies, and how transmodal communications shape identities, belongings and relationships, with particular attention paid to issues of equity and social justice. The chapter authors consider both transmodalities and critical cosmopolitanism as they analyze empirical data from youth, adults and researchers participating in a project that digitally connects youth to share their lives across diverse and under-resourced global communities. In offering this multi-perspectival, multi-voiced volume, the authors portray and address methodological issues in researching transglobal transmodal communications.
Margaret R. Hawkins is a Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Her work focuses on languages, literacies and learning across classroom, home and community-based settings in local and global contexts. As a community-engaged scholar she has worked with schools, communities, community organizations and institutions of higher education around the world. Her current focus is exploring semiotics and relations in transmodal communications. She is the recipient of the Leadership Through Research Award from the Second Language Research SIG of the American Educational Research Association (2019) and the Erwin Zolt Digital Literacy Gamechanger Award from the International Literacy Association (2019).