Written Communication Oct 2011

Undocumented in a Documentary Society

Kate Vieira University of Wisconsin–Madison

Abstract

While transnationalism has emerged as a growing area of interest in Writing Studies, the field has not fully examined how migrants’ movement across national borders shapes their literacy practices. This article offers one answer to this question by reporting on an ethnographic study of the transnational religious literacies of a community of undocumented Brazilian immigrants in a former mill town in Massachusetts. A grounded theory analysis of (a) participants’ accounts of their literacy experiences before and after migration, (b) their writing, and (c) ethnographic observations reveals the following: As participants crossed a border and were excluded from state documentary projects, they began to write within other literacy institutions, namely, transnational churches, that have historically documented subjects and whose reach extends across national borders. The author concludes that as the field of Writing Studies continues to explore transnational literacies, it would do well to take into account the materiality of national borders, which can shape possibilities for written communication in a global context.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2011-10-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088311421468
Open Access
Closed
Topics
qualitative research multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (15)

  1. Kalman et al. (2023)
    “Don’t Tell Them What You Told Me”: Negotiating Paperwork in Mexico City
    Written Communication
  2. Durán et al. (2022)
    Walls, Bridges, Borders, Papers: Civic Literacy in the Borderlands
    Research in the Teaching of English
  3. Austin (2022)
    Traversing Academic Contexts: An Egyptian Writer’s Literacy Learning Trajectory…
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  4. Harvey-Torres et al. (2021)
    “And I Did It with My Writing”: Bilingual Teachers Storying Resilience and Resi…
    Research in the Teaching of English
  5. Byrd (2020)
    “Like Coming Home”: African Americans Tinkering and Playing toward a Computer C…
    College Composition and Communication
Show all 15 →
  1. Wang (2020)
    Becoming Multilingual Writers through Translation
    Research in the Teaching of English
  2. Shapiro (2019)
    Transnational Networks of Literacy and Materiality: Coltan, Sexual Violence, an…
    College English
  3. Wang (2019)
    Tracing Connections and Disconnects: Reading, Writing, and Digital Literacies a…
    College Composition and Communication
  4. Wang (2019)
    Observing literacy learning across WeChat and first-year writing: A scalar anal…
    Computers and Composition
  5. Christiansen (2017)
    Creating a Unique Transnational Place: Deterritorialized Discourse and the Blen…
    Written Communication
  6. Pavia (2015)
    Taking Up Faith
    Written Communication
  7. LeBlanc (2015)
    Performance and Apprehension of the Mass in an Urban Catholic School
    Written Communication
  8. Arnold et al. (2015)
    Recognizing and Disrupting Immappancy in Scholarship and Pedagogy
    Pedagogy
  9. Leonard (2015)
    Writing Through Bureaucracy
    Written Communication
  10. Rounsaville (2014)
    Situating Transnational Genre Knowledge
    Written Communication

Cites in this index (2)

  1. Lillis (2008)
    Ethnography as Method, Methodology, and “Deep Theorizing”
    Written Communication
  2. Hesford et al. (2008)
    Introduction: Configurations of Transnationality: Locating Feminist Rhetorics
    College English
Also cites 16 works outside this index ↓
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CrossRef global citation count: 23 View in citation network →

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