Kudos: Cahnmann-Taylor, Sciurba publish books; doctoral students win awards

Cahnmann-Taylor celebrates launch of new book

Melisa (Misha) Cahnmann-Taylor, a professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, celebrates the launch of her new book, “The Creative Ethnographer’s Notebook” (2024) at the Annual Meeting of American Anthropologists from Nov. 20-22 in Tampa, Florida. Published by Routledge Press, the book offers emerging and trained ethnographers exercises to spark creativity and increase the impact and beauty of ethnographic study.

With contributions by emerging scholars and leading creative ethnographers working in various social science fields (e.g., anthropologists, educators, ethnomusicologists, political scientists, geographers, and others), this volume offers readers a variety of creative prompts that ethnographers have used in their own work and university classrooms to deepen their ethnographic and artistic practice. The contributions foreground different approaches in creative practice, broadening the tools of multimodal ethnography as one designs a study, works with collaborators and landscapes, and renders ethnographic findings through a variety of media.

Instructors will find dozens of creative prompts to use in a wide variety of classroom settings, including early beginners to experienced ethnographers and artists. In the eBook+ version of this book, there are numerous pop-up definitions to key ethnographic terms, links to creative ethnographic examples, possibilities for extending prompts for more advanced anthropologists, and helpful tips across all phases of inquiry projects.

This resource can be used by instructors of anthropology and other social sciences to teach students how to experiment with creative approaches, as well as how to do better public and engaged anthropology. Artists and arts faculty will also benefit from using this book to inspire culturally attuned art making that engages in research, as well as research-based art. Readers will learn how creative ethnography draws on aspects of the literary, visual, sonic, and/or performing arts. Information is provided about how scholars and artists, or scholartists, document culture in ways that serve more diverse public and academic audiences.

Those who are first to arrive at the Spotlight on the Arts and Research 4’33” competition will be eligible to receive a free copy of this book and/or another of the NEA Big Read books offered through a collaboration with the Athens-Clarke County Library.

Sciurba publishes book on reading and relevance

Katie Sciurba, an assistant professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, published “Reading and Relevance, Reimagined: Celebrating the Literacy Lives of Young Men of Color” with Teachers College Press. Through case studies of six young Black, Latino, and South Asian men and their reading experiences over a 10-year span, this book reconceptualizes the term “relevance” as it applies to and is applied within literacy education (middle school through college).

Sciurba will be signing copies of her book at the upcoming National Council of Teachers of English conference in Boston on Friday, Nov. 22 at 11 a.m. at the Teachers College Press booth (#216).

Doctoral students win award

Lauren Hearn, a doctoral student in counselor education, won the 2024 Outstanding Doctoral Student Award from the Association for Creativity in Counseling (ACC). Alisha Jordan, a doctoral student in the counselor education and supervision program, was named a 2024 Doctoral Emerging Leader by the ACC.