An invited lecture for the SLA Talk Series
Dr. Wan Shun Eva Lam
Associate Professor
School of Education and Social Policy
Northwestern University
Friday, November 10, 1:00 pm
1418 Van Hise Hall
About the talk
This presentation brings together two projects (1) an observational study of transnational digital literacies in the everyday lives of adolescents of Chinese and Mexican heritage, and (2) participatory design research in a high-school language arts classroom where youth engage in storytelling on migration. In doing so, Dr. Lam explores how youth mobilize spatiotemporal movements and framings to develop their transnational identities and knowledge, and how these literacy practices could manifest and be fostered in educational settings. Dr. Lam’s analysis draws from semiotic concepts of chronotope and scale (Christiansen, 2017; Lam et al., 2021) and border studies (Anzaldúa, 2015) to examine how multiple space-time scales are configured in a narrative to construct transnational positionings and border-crossing narratives. In linking the two studies Dr. Lam is interested in how young people’s lived experiences of space and time can inform literacy, narrative, and the teaching and learning of migration in educational settings.
About the speaker
Dr. Wan Shun Eva Lam is an associate professor at the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Her research is informed by her diaspora journey and participation in academic communities of literacy educators, scholars, applied linguists, and colleagues in the learning sciences. She works with young people to explore their digital and multilingual literacies in transnational cultural and political contexts, as well as educational designs that promote an expansive view of youths’ migration experiences to support learning and development.
Sponsors: Second Language Acquisition PhD Program with the Language Institute
Funding: Anonymous Fund
Contact: Jana Martin
The UW-Madison Language Institute is committed to inclusive and accessible programming. To request an accommodation for this event, please contact Language Institute associate director Jana Martin three business days in advance.