Symposia concludes with new literacies scholar

The Mary Lou Fulton Spring Symposia concludes this month with a presentation from Colin Lankshear, professor of literacy and new technologies at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia. The lecture, presented by Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, will take place at 1:30 p.m., April 24, at the University Club on ASU's Tempe campus.

Lankshear will present on the topic “The Stuff of New Literacies,” which will focus on answering two key questions: How are literacies being constituted, and what does this mean for communicating and negotiating meanings in everyday life?

Lankshear was trained as a philosopher of education, and his early work dealt with rights and freedom in education. The latter theme led to Paulo Freire's work, which stimulated a long-standing academic interest in literacy studies, beginning with “Literacy, Schooling and Revolution,” which was named the “Outstanding Recent Book” by the American Educational Studies Association in 1987.

His recent work has centered around new technologies, popular cultural practices and literacy, culminating in several publications on “new literacies.”

Lankshear serves on several journal editorial boards and jointly edits an online journal and book series. In addition, he is the co-editor of the forthcoming “Handbook of New Literacies Research; Digital Literacies; and DIY Media.”

The Fulton Symposia debuted in January 2005 with support from the Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Chair, Graduate Fellowships, Scholarships and Educational Research Fund. Since its inception, the distinguished lecture series has attracted 12 nationally and internationally known scholars to ASU to share their knowledge and insight with audiences from across the university and the larger community through presentations highlighting their cutting-edge research in the area of reading and literacy.

For more information, visit the Web site http://coe.asu.edu or contact the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education at (480) 965-6502.