Literacies Network
October 2026 – March 2027
Theme: Collaboration in Academic Writing and Research — Ethnographic Approaches
For our October 2026 to March 2027 schedule, we will expand on a topic of interest for the Literacies Network: ‘Collaboration in Academic Writing and Research —Ethnographic Approaches.’
Please see the programme, readings, and access links underneath, but here is an overview of the sessions.
In the first, Larissa Giacometti Paris (Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil) will begin by sharing her research on collaborative article writing practices by doctoral students, including co-writing for publication done by students alongside their academic supervisors. Adopting an ethnographic approach based on the New Literacy Studies and Academic Literacies frameworks, ‘social conventions, power relations, and issues of authority’ are investigated in relation to topics such as co-authorship criteria, and roles played by literacy brokers within academia. Professor Paris’ writing is published in Portuguese, but please check the abstracts in English below to get a sense of her excellent work.
In the second session, Sidury Christiansen (University of Texas, USA) and Zhongfeng Tian (Rutgers University, USA) explain ‘Critical Collaborative Autoethography’ as one example of a collaborative approach being developed by literacies researchers contemporarily, in their case via studies of critical language awareness and reflexivity in second language writing teaching which adopts a decolonial stance. Their presentation is based on a recent methods chapter appearing in Innovative Qualitative Methodologies in Multilingual Literacy Development Research: Amplifying Voices from Immigrant, Transnational, and Refugee Communities (Benjamins, 2025). One focal point concerns the notion of the ‘critical friend’ in research.
In the third, Anwar Ahmed (University of British Columbia, Canada) and Brian Morgan (York University, Canada) discuss their extensive work developing duoethnographic approaches in language and literacy studies, both within Canada and via transnational partnerships including Brazil. Duoethnography occurs where two or more ‘researchers juxtapose their experiences in a dialogic manner, seeking critical understanding that would otherwise not be available through individual self-reflection.’ In the suggested reading, the transformative potential of duoethnography is discussed within EAP (English for Academic Purposes) courses. The potency of affect within such academic literacies education is emphasised, albeit as one part of a broad conceptual framework.
In the fourth session, Gergely Szabó and Ráhel Katalin Turai (both Károli Gáspár University, Hungary) introduce a range of initiatives recently underway via Hungarian universities. These include a Collaborative Writing Research Group, a Sociolinguistics of Writing Project, and the preparation of a special edition for the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development on ‘Participatory Approaches in Researching Multilingualism: Democratisation and Social Impact.’ The reading taken from that edition emphasises how ethnographic and sociolinguistic work require a ‘re-interpretation of hierarchical relations through inviting non-linguists into the study of multilingualism.’
In the fifth, winner of the American Association for Applied Linguistics 2026 Book Award, Daniel Silva (Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil) discusses the concept of reverse ethnography. Drawing on his long-term fieldwork on the language and literacies of social movements in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, and his experiences of publishing about that as a Brazilian academic in international publications, Professor Silva problematises traditionally pre-figured framings of the ‘expert’ within ethnographic research. The hope of this critique is that ‘peripheral activists and scholars reversals of prefigured models may strengthen ongoing efforts for democratizing sociolinguistics’ and related work, including literacy studies.
In the last session, Tiatemsu Longkumer (Thimphu College, Royal University of Bhutan) addresses the contemporary issue of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) as a collaborative tool. Specifically, this is approached from the perspective of anthropology, ethnographic research training, and in the development of ethnographic writing by university students, such as field notes, interviews, and essay critiques. In a cautious but ultimately positive perspective, Professor Longkumer puts forward a range of case studies that highlight how ‘students develop critical awareness of cultural nuances, recognising Gen AI’s potential to expand inquiry while remaining attentive to ethical obligations and the cultural specificity of anthropological work.’
October 2026 to March 2027 Schedule
Day and time: Wednesday, 4 pm to 5 pm UK time (BST / GMT+1) but check the schedule in case of variations.
Meeting link: Join Teams Meeting
Access code: literacies
Readings:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Xe37dEiKx6EnUziCMcBur88L7uQ8GvFu?usp=share_link
| Date | Session Format | Title / Topic | Suggested Reading | Speaker |
| Oct.
21
Wed 4-5 BST |
Presen-tation | Collaboration in doctoral article writing | Paris, L. G. (2024). A prática de colaboração científica na escrita de artigos: Entre convenções sociais, relações de poder e questões de autoridade. Caminhos em Linguística Aplicada, 30(2),172–190.
https://periodicos.unitau.br/caminhoslinguistica/article/view/3634
*English abstracts for this and a related article are in the readings.
|
Larissa
Giacometti Paris (Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil)
|
| Nov.
18
Wed 4-5 BST |
Presen-tation | Critical collaborative auto-ethnography | Christiansen, M. S. & Tian, Z., (2025). Critical collaborative autoethnography. In A. K. Kibler & F. J. Karam (eds.), Innovative qualitative methodologies in multilingual literacy development research: Amplifying voices from immigrant, transnational, and refugee communities (pp. 232–252). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/rmal.11.12chr
|
Sidury
Christiansen (University of Texas, USA), Zhongfeng Tian (Rutgers University, USA)
|
| Dec.
17
Wed 4-5 BST |
Present-ation | Duo-ethnography | Ahmed, A., & Morgan, B. (2026). Exploring the transformative potential of duoethnography for critical language teaching. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2025.2612469
|
Anwar Ahmed
(University of British Columbia, Canada), Brian Morgan (York University, Canada) |
| Jan.
13
Wed 4-5 BST |
Present-ation | Collaboration in socio-linguistics and multi-lingualism
research |
Bodó, C., Fazakas, N., & Szabó, G. (2025). Towards participation: Collaboration, responsibility, and shared knowledge production in doing multilingualism research. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2025.2524067
|
Gergely Szabó & Ráhel Katalin Turai (Károli Gáspár University, Hungary) |
| Feb.
17
Wed 4-5 BST |
Present-ation | Reverse ethnography | Silva, D. N. (2025). Reverse ethnography and the prefiguration of expertise in sociolinguistics. Multilingua, 44(6), 817-841. https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2024-0223
|
Daniel Silva
(Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil) |
| Mar.
17
Wed 4-5 BST |
Present-ation | Gen AI in ethnographic training and writing | Longkumer, T. (2025). Generative AI in anthropology: Redefining fieldwork, textualisation, and collaborative knowledge production. Teaching Anthropology, 14(2), 118-140.
https://doi.org/10.22582/ta.v14i2.778
|
Tiatemsu Longkumer (Thimphu College, Royal University of Bhutan) |
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Are you interested in sharing your work in progress, or leading a text-based discussion for us in the next series? Drop us an email at jdiduncan@gmail.com or j.sine@lancaster.ac.uk