Critical Studies in Democracy and Political Literacy

ISSN: 2166-5036

Why do so few people vote? What is political engagement? How does education intersect with democracy and political literacy? What can be learned from interdisciplinary studies on democracy? How do we cultivate political literacy? What is the relevance of elections in light of war, poverty, discrimination, social inequalities, etc.? What are the alternatives to the traditional electoral, representative, party-politics models that have characterized our societies? Is the mainstream media holding government to account, disseminating propaganda or fuelling the need to pacify the population? How do international systems, approaches and realities related to democracy compare, and what can we learn from others? These are some of the questions that are addressed through this book series. Seeking to fill an important gap in the literature, this book series takes on the theme of democracy in a multi-/inter-disciplinary, comprehensive, and critical way. Some books have democracy in the title but do not make it the focus, and often books that address more directly, for example, multiculturalism, media studies, or school reform may delve into the area of democracy without fully deconstructing what it is, how it functions, how people can shape and intersect with it, and how it is used (or misused) to distort power relations, which is at the base of teaching, learning and action. Thus, a broader range of materials specifically tailored to teacher-education and scholars within the education field is desirable. Similarly, the overlapping and interdisciplinary nature of the study of democracy bleeds naturally into the areas of media studies, sociology, political science, peace studies, multiculturalism, feminist studies, and cultural studies, etc., all of which have a natural and inextricable relationship to and within education.

6 publications

Critical Literacies and Language

One of the most fundamental aspects of a just society is the right to create equitable and inclusive spaces of belonging for all people while also confronting injustice and oppression. However, we are now in a time where seeking justice and equity is met with neoliberalism, which pervades the academy at all levels of education. Yet, for many, this is not a time for retreat, but rather a moment of solidarity, a time to create new knowledge and understanding through struggle. As Freire wrote, "Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other." Thus, the purpose of this series is to provide literacy and language researchers, practitioners, as well as community activists, with a space to actualize and embody a restless, impatient never-finished objective of critical literacies and language education. It is the aim of this series to create a space to share research that promotes pedagogies of equity. We also recognize that different audiences have different needs. To that end, we seek to provide, when applicable, a "notebook" as a companion to research volumes to facilitate actionable steps for the PK-12 classroom or community spaces. This series is different as it approaches the dissemination of critical work from a place of intentionality to address the gap in disseminating research (typically read by scholars) and the need to have it "on the ground" for classroom teachers, community activists, and workers. By creating companion volumes (where applicable), there is a greater chance for sustained criticality in literacy education.

8 publications

A Critical Introduction to Media and Communication Theory

The study of the media has led scholars to apply a humbling array of theories in their efforts to analyze messages, media systems, audiences and media themselves. One of the strengths of media studies has been its flexibility as it incorporates humanist and social scientific ideas in our work. This series is focused on theories, methods, schools of thought, domains of intellectual struggle, and individual thinkers whose importance to the study of the media can be reconfigured, reinvented, and refocused. Each of the specially commissioned books in the series shares a concern for the heritage of thought in the field of communication. These books provide sophisticated discussions of the relevance of particular theorists or theories, with an emphasis on reinventing communication and media studies, whether by incorporating ideas thought by some to be 'outside' the field, or by providing fresh analyses of ideas that have long been considered central to media studies. Though theoretical in focus, the books are at all times concerned with the applicability of theory to empirical research and experience, and are designed to be accessible, yet critical, for students -undergraduates and postgraduates - and scholars.

17 publications

Minding the Media

This series is designed for those engaged in pedagogy and pedagogy and media. Using a critical perspective, authors will be invited to contribute volumes of approximately 85,000 words to this series. The editors anticipate acquiring between 5 and 8 volumes per year. Around the world today, there are blatant and insidious uses and effects of media in a hyperreal society. As educators we watch the media curriculum which pervades childhood and youth and understand that it would be impossible for young citizens to escape this curriculum. We recognize that teachers and administrators are often unequipped and/or unwilling to address their students’ embedded media curricula. Students walk into schools with the expectations that they must shirk their knowledge (and often obsessions) of media to drink the weakened Kool-Aid of public school curriculum. Minding the Media is the first book series specifically designed to address the needs of both students and teachers in watching, comprehending, using, and reading the media. We will acquire books from a wide range of authors in theoretical, technical and practitioner media disciplines.

30 publications

Media and Culture

This series will be publishing works in media and culture, focusing on research embracing a variety of critical perspectives. The editors are particularly interested in promoting theoretically informed empirical work using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Although the focus is on scholarly research, works published in the series will appeal to readers beyond a narrow, specialized audience. This series will be publishing works in media and culture, focusing on research embracing a variety of critical perspectives. The editors are particularly interested in promoting theoretically informed empirical work using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Although the focus is on scholarly research, works published in the series will appeal to readers beyond a narrow, specialized audience. This series will be publishing works in media and culture, focusing on research embracing a variety of critical perspectives. The editors are particularly interested in promoting theoretically informed empirical work using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Although the focus is on scholarly research, works published in the series will appeal to readers beyond a narrow, specialized audience.

14 publications

LaCuLi. Language Culture Literacy

In the LaCuLi. Language Culture Literacy series, studies in foreign language research and intercultural communication will be published, as well as studies in foreign-language didactics. Research on the processes of language acquisition and language teaching, with a special focus on language awareness, cultural awareness and learner perspectives, is central to the series. It focuses on empirical research in intercultural foreign didactics as well as on cultural aspects of the workplace. Multi-perspective, multi-language and multi-cultural comparative approaches are highlighted. Fields of application are comparative analyses of political speeches, news, ads and business communication in an international context, as well as in learner texts in multi-language and multi-cultural learning environments. In der Reihe LaCuLi. Language Culture Literacy erscheinen Studien zur Fremdsprachenlehr- und -lernforschung und Interkulturellen Kommunikation sowie zur Fremdsprachendidaktik. Im Zentrum stehen Forschungsergebnisse im Bereich von Spracherwerbs- und -vermittlungsprozessen mit den Schwerpunkten Language und Cultural Awareness und Lernerperspektivität, ebenso empirische Untersuchungen zur interkulturellen Fremdsprachendidaktik sowie zu kulturellen Aspekten des Arbeitsplatzes. Im Fokus stehen mehrperspektivisch, mehrsprachig und mehrkulturell vergleichende Herangehensweisen. Anwendungsfelder sind vergleichende Analysen von politischen Reden, Nachrichten, Werbetexten und Businesskommunikation im internationalen Kontext sowie von Lernertexten in mehrsprachigen und multikulturellen Lernumgebungen.

20 publications

Critical Studies of Latinxs in the Americas

ISSN: 2372-6830

The Latinx presence continues to grow and intersect with every aspect of life in the 21st century. This is evident when one considers the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor as Associate Justice to the United States Supreme Court. As well as the prominence of distinct Latinx individuals in various spheres of social, cultural, and political life such as Mario J. Molina, Nobel Prize winner and recipient of the Medal of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013; and Jorge Maria Bergoglio (Pope Francis) who has revolutionized the Catholic church since he became the highest ecclesiastical authority of the Catholic world in 2013. Latino Studies, as an academic field of inquiry, began to emerge during the early 1990s surfacing from the more recognized field of Chicano Studies. As such, the major contributions to the field first emerged from Mexican/Chicano scholarship—publications such as Aztlán, the most important journal in the field of Chicano Studies since 1970; Gloria Anzaldúa’’s groundbreaking memoir/essay, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987); George J. Sanchez’s historical account, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945 (1995); and the two volumes of The Chicano Studies Reader: An Anthology of Aztlan, 1970-2010. These are a few examples of the consolidation and the continuing development of Chicano Studies in the United States. In the past two decades, Latino Studies have grown and expanded significantly. There have been a large number of publications about Latinxs in the Midwest and North East; in addition, due to the fast-growing population of Latinxs in the area, new scholarship has emerged about the Latinxs in the New South. Some examples of the emerging field of Latino Studies are the Latinos on the East Coast (2015) edited by Yolanda Medina and Ángeles Donoso Macaya, Global Cities and Immigrants (2015) by Francisco Velasco Caballero and María de los Angeles Torres; the Handbook of Latinos and Education (2010) edited by Enrique Murillo, et al.; Angela Anselmo’s and Alma Rubal-Lopez’s 2004 On Becoming Nuyoricans; David Carey Jr. and Robert Atkinson (2009) Latino Voices in New England; Yolanda Prieto’s case study entitled, The Cubans of Union City: Immigrants and Exiles in a New Jersey Community (2009); and Lawrence La Fontaine-Stokes’ Queer Ricans Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora (2009). Critical Studies of Latinxs in the Americas will become the counterpart of the aforementioned research about the Latinx diaspora that deserve equal scholarly attention and will add to the academic field of inquiry that highlights the lived experience, consequential progress and contributions, as well as the issues and concerns that all Latinxs face in present times. This provocative series will offer a critical space for reflection and questioning of what it means to be Latinx living in the Americas, extending the dialogue to include the North and South hemispheric relations that are prevalent in other fields of global studies such as Post-Colonial Theory, Post-Colonial Feminism, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Critical Race Theory, and others. This broader scope can contribute to prolific interdisciplinary research and can also promote changes in policies and practices that will enable today’s leaders to deal with the overall issues that affect us all. Topics that explore contemporary inequalities and social exclusions associated with processes of racialization, economic exploitation, health, education, transnationalism, immigration, identity politics, and abilities that are not commonly highlighted in the current literature as well as the multitude of socio-economic, and cultural commonalities and differences among the Latinxs in the Americas will be at the center of the series. As the Latinx population continues to grow and change, and universities enhance their Latino Studies programs to be inclusive of all types of Latinx identities, a series dedicated to the lived experience of Latinxs in the Americas and a consideration of their progress and concerns in the social, cultural, political, economic, and artistic arenas is of incredible value in the quest for pedagogical practices and understandings that apply a critical perspective to the issues facing scholars in this area of study. Scholars, faculties, and students alike will benefit from this series. Expressions of interest for authored or edited books will be considered on a first come basis. A Book Proposal Guideline is available on request. For individual or group inquiries please contact the Series Editors at ymedina@bmcc.cuny.edu & Margarita.MachadoCasas@UTSA.edu.

52 publications

Media Industries

The Media Industries series offers comprehensive, reader-friendly textbooks written to meet the needs of classes in newspapers, magazines, radio, and television broadcasting. Each book provides a concise, practical guide to all aspects of each industry. These volumes are also an ideal reference source for libraries. The Media Industries series offers comprehensive, reader-friendly textbooks written to meet the needs of classes in newspapers, magazines, radio, and television broadcasting. Each book provides a concise, practical guide to all aspects of each industry. These volumes are also an ideal reference source for libraries. The Media Industries series offers comprehensive, reader-friendly textbooks written to meet the needs of classes in newspapers, magazines, radio, and television broadcasting. Each book provides a concise, practical guide to all aspects of each industry. These volumes are also an ideal reference source for libraries.

8 publications

Cultural Media Studies

ISSN: 2641-1415

0 publications

Medienästhetik und Mediennutzung. Media Production and Media Aesthetics

ISSN: 2365-2993

Media production and media aesthetics are corresponding aspects of the discussion surrounding media that form a single unit. The series focuses partly on works about the aesthetic-dialectic analysis of media design. Areas of interest include media technology development and the resulting changes in both media design and what is expected of media. At the same time, digital and online media are influencing usage to a large extent. Authors in this series address these impacts and examine the extent to which changed forms of use are encouraging the development of new technologies and applications. By linking these interacting areas, we want this series to encourage and promote discussion between the disciplines. The volumes 1–4 have been published under "Babelsberger Schriften zu Mediendramaturgie und -Ästhetik". Medienästhetik und Mediennutzung bilden als korrespondierende Aspekte des Diskurses über Medien eine Einheit. Im Fokus der Schriftenreihe stehen zum einen Arbeiten, in denen sich Autor_innen der ästhetisch-dialektischen Analyse der Gestaltung medialer Werke zuwenden. Fokussiert werden die Entwicklungen der Medientechnik und die sich daraus ergebenden Veränderungen in der Gestaltung und in den Erwartungen an Medien. Zum anderen nehmen digitale und Online-Medien einen großen Einfluss auf die Nutzung ein. Autor_innen der Reihe widmen sich diesen Auswirkungen sowie der Untersuchung dessen, inwiefern veränderte Gebrauchsformen die Entwicklung neuer Technologien und Anwendungen anstoßen. Mit der Verbindung dieser interagierenden Bereiche möchten wir in der Reihe einen Diskurs zwischen den Disziplinen anregen und befördern. Die Bände 1–4 sind unter dem Reihentitel "Babelsberger Schriften zu Mediendramaturgie und -Ästhetik" erschienen.

4 publications

Critical Qualitative Research

Critical research serves to address societal structures and institutions that oppress and exclude so that transformative actions can be generated that reduce inequitable power conditions. We invite proposals for authored and edited volumes that describe critical social science research (re)conceptualizations, practices, and methodologies that can be used by other scholars who wish to design and implement critical qualitative inquiry. Critical Qualitative Research challenges modernist orientations toward research by using social theory, designs, and research practices that emerge from critical questions like: Who/what is heard? Who/what is silenced? Who is privileged? Who is disqualified? How are forms of inclusion/exclusion being created? How are relations of power constructed and managed? How do various forms of privilege and oppression intersect to impact life possibilities for various individuals and groups? How do the arts inform research? How can multiple knowledges be engaged in research? How can research be socially just?

46 publications

Global Crises and the Media

From climate change to biodiversity loss, financial meltdowns to forced migrations, pandemics to world poverty and humanitarian disasters to the denial of human rights, these and other crises represent the dark side of our globalized planet. They are endemic to the contemporary global world and so too are they highly dependent on the world's media. Each of the specially commissioned books in the Global Crises and the Media series examines the media's role, representation and responsibility in covering major global crises. They show how the media can enter into their constitution, enacting them on the public stage and thereby helping to shape their future trajectory around the world. Each book provides a sophisticated and empirically engaged understanding of the topic in order to invigorate the wider academic study and public debate about some of the most pressing and historically unprecedented global crises of our time.

58 publications

Understanding Media Ecology

ISSN: 2374-7676

Media Ecology is a field of inquiry defined as ‘the study of media as environments’. Within this field, the term «medium» can be defined broadly to refer to any human technology or technique, code or symbol system, invention or innovation, system or environment. Media ecology scholarship typically focuses on how technology, symbolic form, and media relate to communication, consciousness, and culture – past, present and future. This series publishes research that furthers the formal development of media ecology as a field of study. Works in this series bring a media ecology approach to bear on specific topics of interest, including theoretical or philosophical investigations concerning the nature and effects of media or a specific medium. Further, this series also publishes books that examine new and emerging technologies and the contemporary media environment, as well as historical studies of media, technology, modes, and codes of communication. Scholarship regarding technique and the technological society is particularly welcome, as is scholarship on specific types of media and culture (e.g., oral and literate cultures, image, etc.). Publications may also consider specific aspects of culture (such as religion, politics, education, journalism, etc.); critical analyses of art and popular culture; and studies of how physical and symbolic environments function as media.

26 publications

Critical Intercultural Communication Studies

ISSN: 1528-6118

Within Communication, culture is broadly understood as a meaning-making process that evidences itself within discourse, mediated forms, and interactional instances to constitute group autonomy. Within that meaning-making process, intercultural communication considers relationships between institutions and their societies, media and their audiences, and peoples and their communities. The formalized study of intercultural communication has always been problematic; like most disciplines and subdisciplines, its usefulness and limitations emerge from the historical context in which it is studied. Developed after World War II, intercultural communication initially served as an applied area of study to train U.S. governmental and business entities for relationships beyond U.S. borders. Then, out of the struggles of the U.S. Civil Rights era, intercultural communication expanded to concern itself with relationships between differing racial and ethnic groups. By the turn of the twentieth century, some intercultural communication scholars had fully embraced studying the differential power relations between nations, communities, and individuals thus catalyzing a body of research known as critical intercultural communication. Now, heading into the middle of the twenty-first century, critical intercultural communication has come into focus as an area of study that emphasizes, explains, and seeks to resolve power relations within specific contexts, applying theories and modes of inquiry suited to contemporary issues understood within their ongoing historical dynamics. As our institutions and their societies, mediated forms and their corresponding audiences, and communities and their members continue to alter and morph, critical intercultural communication adapts to interpret and envision progressive, socially just ways forward. This series, therefore, invites scholarship that challenges status quo cultural constitutions by recognizing and problematizing hegemonic modes of belonging and being. Spanning a range of contexts, critical intercultural communication considers symbolic and performative orders across local, national, hemispheric and transnational circuits. Moreover, this series fosters interdisciplinary conversations that innovate ontological and epistemological forms, advancing a range of systematic intellectual approaches to cultural transformation and validation. The series is particularly interested in works grounded in BIPOC, decolonial, feminist, queer, crip, and/or kink perspectives that construct claims, knowledges, and theories capable of guiding society toward new social justice knowings.

45 publications

Critic of Institutions

ISSN: 1068-4689

12 publications

Critical Education and Ethics

ISSN: 2166-1359

The Critical Education and Ethics series intends to systematically analyze the pitfalls of social structures such as race, class, and gender as they relate to edu-cational issues. Books in the series contain theoretical work grounded in prag-matic, society-changing practices. The series places value on ethical responses, as prophetic commitments to change the conditions under which education takes place. The series aims to (1) Further the ethical understanding linking broader social issues to education by exploring the environmental, health-related, and faith/spiritual responses to our educational times and policy, and (2) Ground these works in the everyday world of the classroom, viewing how schools are impacted by what critical researchers do. Both theoretically and practically, the series aims to identify itself as an agent for community change. The Critical Education and Ethics series welcomes work from emerging scholars as well as those already established in the field.

18 publications

Disability, Media, Culture

ISSN: 2633-0849

Globally today, television, film and the internet comprise the principal sources of cultural consumption and engagement. Despite this, these areas have not featured strongly in the cultural study of disability. This book series will provide the first specific outlet for international scholars of disability to present their work on these topics. The series will build a body of work that brings together critical analysis of disability and impairments in media and culture. The series expands the work currently undertaken in literary studies on disability by using media and cultural theory to understand the place of disability and impairment in a range of media and cultural forms. The series encourages the development of work on disabled people in the media, within the media industries and in the wider cultural sphere. Whilst film and television analysis will be central to this series, we also encourage work on disability in other media, including journalism, radio, the internet and gaming. We welcome proposals from media studies: narrative constructions of disability; technical aspects of media production; disability, the economy and society; the impact of social media and gaming on disabled identities; and the role of architecture and image. Cultural studies are also encouraged: the uses of disabled and chronically ill bodies, ‘cripping culture’, corporeal projections in culture, intersectional identities, advertising, and the uses of cultural theory in furthering understandings of ableism and disablism. All proposals and manuscripts will be rigorously peer reviewed. The language of publication is English, although we welcome submissions from around the world and on topics that may take as their focus non-English media. We welcome new proposals for monographs and edited collections. Editorial Board: Eleoma Bodammer (Edinburgh), Catalin Brylla (Bournemouth), Colin Cameron (Northumbria), Sally Chivers (Trent, Canada), Eduard Cuelenaere (Ghent), Beth Haller (Towson, USA), Catherine Long, Nicole Marcotić (Windsor), Maria Tsakiri (Cyprus), Dolly Sen, Sonali Shah (Birmingham), Alison Sheldon (Leeds), Murray Simpson (Dundee), Angela M. Smith (Utah), Heike Steinhoff (Ruhr-University Bochum), Laura Waite (Liverpool Hope).

2 publications

Contextualising Literature and Media

ISSN: 2627-0684

The series was founded and edited by prof. Dorota Filipczak (1963–2021) until the publication of volume 2. The aim of the series is to introduce new, incisive analyses of literature and media in different cultural contexts. The series will focus on the phenomena that are inderdisciplinary and dissolve the boundary between literature and media such as film, music video, computer games etc. The idea behind the series is to show how our traditional understanding of literature can be transformed by the cultural, social and technological contexts. The successive studies will be informed by the scholarly background of contemporary literary theory and media studies, while seeking to relate literature and media to the challenges of contemporary world. The books published in the series will bridge the gap between diverse discourses and involve different fields of study, e.g. philosophy, gender studies, cultural studies etc.

4 publications

Critical Multicultural Perspectives on Whiteness

ISSN: 2572-9616

This book series seeks to engage a broad and cross-disciplinary range of students, scholars, activists, and others in a critical multicultural dialogue on the complex intersections of power, privilege, identity, and Whiteness. The series aims to link theory and practice to problematize key societal and educational concerns related to Whiteness. The series editors share the view that taking action for transformative change in and through education, in the spirit of what Paulo Freire called conscientization, is the role of educators who seek to address the needs of all their students. In focusing on Whiteness, we are concerned with social, economic, and environmental justice, the problematization of race, and the potential for education to be emancipatory in addressing power imbalances. Some of the questions of interest for this book series include: • How do we engage in critical discussions related to power, privilege, identity, and Whiteness when many multicultural frameworks dissuade us from such work? • How can we connect Whiteness to other intersecting and pivotal forms of being, marginalization, and identity? • How can those categorized as White engage in dialogues and action about Whiteness that can positively contribute to addressing concerns of racialized and marginalized groups? • How can we effectively contextualize and critique hegemony and globalized economic realities so as to be able to discuss race in a constructive and transformative manner?

5 publications

Critical Praxis and Curriculum Guides

The Critical Praxis and Curriculum Guides is a curriculum-based series reflective of theory creating praxis. The series targets not only undergraduate and graduate audiences, but also tenured and “experienced” teachers of all disciplines. Research suggests that teachers need to have well-designed, thematic-centered curricula and lessons at their disposal. This is accomplished when the school works as a community to meet their own needs. Community in this sense includes working collaboratively with students, parents, and local community organizations to help build the curriculum. Practically, this means that time is devoted to professional development workshops, not exam reviews or test preparation pointers, but real learning. Together with administrators, teachers form professional learning communities (PLCs) to discuss, analyze, and revise curricula and share pedagogical strategies that meet the needs of their particular school demographics. This communal approach was found to be more successful than requiring each individual teacher to create lessons on her/his own. Ideally, we would love it if each teacher could create their own authentic lessons because only s/he truly knows her/his students – and we encourage it, because it is possible! However, as educators ourselves, we understand the realities our colleagues in public schools face, especially when teaching in high needs areas. The Critical Praxis and Curriculum Guides provides relief for educators needing assistance in preparing their lessons. When possible, and in the spirit of communal practices, the series welcomes co-authored books by theorists and practitioners or solo-authored books by an expert deeply informed by the field. Because we strongly believe that theory guides our practice, each guide will blend theory and curriculum chapters creating a praxis. All, of course, in a critical pedagogical framework. Ultimately, the guides will serve as resources for teachers to use, expand upon, revise, and re-create. The Critical Praxis and Curriculum Guides is a curriculum-based series reflective of theory creating praxis. The series targets not only undergraduate and graduate audiences, but also tenured and “experienced” teachers of all disciplines. Research suggests that teachers need to have well-designed, thematic-centered curricula and lessons at their disposal. This is accomplished when the school works as a community to meet their own needs. Community in this sense includes working collaboratively with students, parents, and local community organizations to help build the curriculum. Practically, this means that time is devoted to professional development workshops, not exam reviews or test preparation pointers, but real learning. Together with administrators, teachers form professional learning communities (PLCs) to discuss, analyze, and revise curricula and share pedagogical strategies that meet the needs of their particular school demographics. This communal approach was found to be more successful than requiring each individual teacher to create lessons on her/his own. Ideally, we would love it if each teacher could create their own authentic lessons because only s/he truly knows her/his students – and we encourage it, because it is possible! However, as educators ourselves, we understand the realities our colleagues in public schools face, especially when teaching in high needs areas. The Critical Praxis and Curriculum Guides provides relief for educators needing assistance in preparing their lessons. When possible, and in the spirit of communal practices, the series welcomes co-authored books by theorists and practitioners or solo-authored books by an expert deeply informed by the field. Because we strongly believe that theory guides our practice, each guide will blend theory and curriculum chapters creating a praxis. All, of course, in a critical pedagogical framework. Ultimately, the guides will serve as resources for teachers to use, expand upon, revise, and re-create. The Critical Praxis and Curriculum Guides is a curriculum-based series reflective of theory creating praxis. The series targets not only undergraduate and graduate audiences, but also tenured and “experienced” teachers of all disciplines. Research suggests that teachers need to have well-designed, thematic-centered curricula and lessons at their disposal. This is accomplished when the school works as a community to meet their own needs. Community in this sense includes working collaboratively with students, parents, and local community organizations to help build the curriculum. Practically, this means that time is devoted to professional development workshops, not exam reviews or test preparation pointers, but real learning. Together with administrators, teachers form professional learning communities (PLCs) to discuss, analyze, and revise curricula and share pedagogical strategies that meet the needs of their particular school demographics. This communal approach was found to be more successful than requiring each individual teacher to create lessons on her/his own. Ideally, we would love it if each teacher could create their own authentic lessons because only s/he truly knows her/his students – and we encourage it, because it is possible! However, as educators ourselves, we understand the realities our colleagues in public schools face, especially when teaching in high needs areas. The Critical Praxis and Curriculum Guides provides relief for educators needing assistance in preparing their lessons. When possible, and in the spirit of communal practices, the series welcomes co-authored books by theorists and practitioners or solo-authored books by an expert deeply informed by the field. Because we strongly believe that theory guides our practice, each guide will blend theory and curriculum chapters creating a praxis. All, of course, in a critical pedagogical framework. Ultimately, the guides will serve as resources for teachers to use, expand upon, revise, and re-create.

13 publications

Black Studies and Critical Thinking

ISSN: 1947-5985

Black Studies and Critical Thinking is an interdisciplinary series which examines the intellectual traditions of and cultural contributions made by people of African descent throughout the world. Whether it is in literature, art, music, science, or academics, these contributions are vast and far-reaching. As we work to stretch the boundaries of knowledge and understanding of issues critical to the Black experience, this series offers a unique opportunity to study the social, economic, and political forces that have shaped the historic experience of Black America, and that continue to determine our future. Black Studies and Critical Thinking is positioned at the forefront of research on the Black experience, and is the source for dynamic, innovative, and creative exploration of the most vital issues facing African Americans. The series invites contributions from all disciplines but is specially suited for cultural studies, anthropology, history, sociology, literature, art, and music. Subjects of interest include (but are not limited to): Education, Sociology, History, Media/Communication, Spirituality and Indigenous Thought, Women’s Studies, Policy Studies, Advertising, African American Studies, Black Political Thought.

167 publications

Studies in Literary Criticism and Theory

The focus of this series is on studies of all literary genres that elucidate and interpret works of art in the context of criticism and theory. Theory and criticism are held to provide the hermeneutically most rewarding access to specific authors, works, and issues under consideration. Studies of a comparative nature with special reference to issues of literary history, criticism, and postmodern theory are the distinctive features of this monograph series. Emphasis is on subjects that may set trends, generate discussion, expand horizons beyond present perspectives, and/or redefine previously held notions about "major" and "minor" authors and their achievements within or outside the canon. Approaches may center on works, authors, or abstract notions of criticism and/or theory, including issues of a comparative nature concerning world literature. The focus of this series is on studies of all literary genres that elucidate and interpret works of art in the context of criticism and theory. Theory and criticism are held to provide the hermeneutically most rewarding access to specific authors, works, and issues under consideration. Studies of a comparative nature with special reference to issues of literary history, criticism, and postmodern theory are the distinctive features of this monograph series. Emphasis is on subjects that may set trends, generate discussion, expand horizons beyond present perspectives, and/or redefine previously held notions about "major" and "minor" authors and their achievements within or outside the canon. Approaches may center on works, authors, or abstract notions of criticism and/or theory, including issues of a comparative nature concerning world literature. The focus of this series is on studies of all literary genres that elucidate and interpret works of art in the context of criticism and theory. Theory and criticism are held to provide the hermeneutically most rewarding access to specific authors, works, and issues under consideration. Studies of a comparative nature with special reference to issues of literary history, criticism, and postmodern theory are the distinctive features of this monograph series. Emphasis is on subjects that may set trends, generate discussion, expand horizons beyond present perspectives, and/or redefine previously held notions about "major" and "minor" authors and their achievements within or outside the canon. Approaches may center on works, authors, or abstract notions of criticism and/or theory, including issues of a comparative nature concerning world literature.

22 publications

Cultural Media Studies

ISSN: 2577-6231

In the past few years, our political, cultural, and media landscapes have cultivated a sharp, notable rise of media activism, more representations of diverse groups and characters, and the need for intersectional approaches to media studies. The #MeToo campaign, the 2017 and 2018 Women’s Marches, Black Lives Matter marches, cross-border anti-feminicide activist marches, immigration marches, and increased representation of diverse sexual identities, racial/ethnic groups, and gender identities are evidence of the need for continued research on cultural media studies topics. The Peter Lang Cultural Media Studies Book Series is accepting book proposals for both proposed book and fully developed manuscripts on a rolling basis for media studies books that explore media production, media consumption, media effects, and media representations of feminism(s), race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and related topics.

14 publications

Textbooks and Educational Media

ISSN: 2995-8407

This series emphasizes the intersectoral and regional/national nature of textbooks and educational media. In doing so, it reaches beyond the objective of theory development in the various fields related to textbooks and educational media. It establishes synergies between disciplinary, linguistic, and industry communities at various scales ranging from the local to the global. As a multilingual endeavor, the series connects regional discourses within a common framework without working towards a hegemonic global discourse (in English). The series stresses the multifaceted nature of (digital) textbook and educational media research, design, production, and usage across the globe.

2 publications

Literary and Cultural Studies, Theory and the (New) Media

ISSN: 0935-4093

Literary and Cultural Studies, Theory and the (New) Media provides a forum for discussions on a variety of topics in literary, cultural, and media studies. Open to comparatist approaches, the series main venue is in anglophone literature and media, with a special emphasis on narratological, postcolonial, film and media studies. Dedicated to promoting innovative and theoretically informed analyses, the series publishes monographs as well as edited volumes versed in media and literary theory. It also encourages explorations within, as well as dialogues between, narratological, postcolonial, feminist and queer approaches. Other theoretical approaches (stylistics, New Historicism, ecocriticism, etc.) are welcome as are works on literary and cultural theory. All volumes in the series are peer-reviewed. Monographs: Only complete manuscripts are accepted for review. Edited volumes: A proposal with two essays is solicited; a final decision will be taken after all the essays have been submitted in their final form. Please address all queries to sekretariat.fludernik@anglistik.uni-freiburg.de or sieglinde.lemke@anglistik.uni-freiburg.de.

10 publications