Editors Letizia Guglielmo and Sergio C. Figueiredo and their contributors share the experiences of first-generation immigrant scholars in rhetoric, composition, and communication and how those experiences shape individual academic identity and, in turn, the teaching of writing and rhetoric.
With stories of migrants, refugees, and immigrants constantly in the news, this collection of personal narratives from first-generation immigrant scholars in rhetoric, composition, and communication is a welcome antidote to the polemics about who deserves to live in the United States and why. As literacy scholar Kate Vieira states in the foreword, this book "tells better, more fully human, more intellectually rigorous stories." Sharing their experiences and how those experiences shape both individual academic identity and the teaching of writing and rhetoric, Letizia Guglielmo and Sergio C. Figueiredo and their contributors use the personal as a starting point for advancing collective and institutional change through active theories of social justice. In addition to exploring how literacy is always complex, situational, and influenced by multiple and diverse identities, individual essays narrate the ways in which teacher-scholars negotiate multiple identities and liminal spaces while often navigating insider-outsider status as students, teachers, and professionals. As they extend current and ongoing conversations within the field, contributors consider how these experiences shape their individual literacies and understanding of literacy; how their literacy experiences lie at the intersections of gender, race, class, and public policy; and how these experiences often provide the motivation to pursue an academic career in rhetoric, composition, and communication.