Recovery
by voicesfromrockbottom

#RedemptiveLiteracies

IMG_6983When the radio show first began, a fellow colleague began tweeting the research related to this project with the hashtag, #redemptiveliteracies.  Because this was not my original hashtag idea … I wanted to give credit to where credit was absolutely due.

Thank you to my fellow colleague, my friend, Miguel Vasquez, who made #redemptiveliteracies have a meaning at the beginning of this community literacy project. Miguel and I crossed paths during the start of my doctoral journey at St. John’s in 2015.

But, it wasn’t until the end of my coursework, pre-ABD preparation, (’16-’18) that he and I, and our scholarly interests began to intersect. This photo of Miguel and I was taken after we kicked ass during our research presentations at the (4c18) CCCC Conference in Kansas City, Missouri (March 2018); we were excited to celebrate with some KC BBQ!

I asked Miguel to explain why he credited this research with the hashtag #redemptiveliteracies after both my 4c18 and SJU ’18 Grad conferences. Of course, in a very “academic” way, I asked him for a 400 word or less explanation, and to also provide a short bio.

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I wrote #redemptive literacies because life is about creating pathways to recover from our falls and rebuild ourselves as individuals. Life is full of experiences that are meant to break us down and make us feel that who we are is not enough. We all need support to withstand life’s traumas. And that’s what #redemptive literacies is all about, strengthening each other’s voices in community, day by day.
My name is Miguel Vasquez and I was raised in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Being Dominican and Puerto Rican, I was exposed to Catholicism as well as the rhythms of salsa, merengue, and bachata. This unexpected combination of religion and music inspires my current academic interests which include multilingual literacies, African Diaspora studies, and theologies of sexuality and desire. These academic focuses are very much connected to the community literacies that I have discovered within my travels and through my own cultural heritage. As I begin the first year of my English PhD program at the University of Miami (FL), I hope to broaden my understanding of how our bodies and voices transform the way we experience the world.