Program

Hall of Languages, Room 203
Texas A&M-Commerce
May 11, 2010, 1:15-3:15
COMMERCE WRITES!
investigating text use and production in Commerce, Texas
Course: English 677
Description: These MA and PhD students in the Department of Literature and Languages studied rhetoric in everyday
contexts via extensive fieldwork and rigorous use of archival materials. Course goals included preparing rhetoricians and
literacy scholars to research writing in everyday contexts, particularly among historically marginalized populations. To meet
these goals, students drew from a common research site: the Norris Community, in Commerce, Texas.
On the Norris Community

Our panel uses ethnographic and archival research methods to investigate traditional and non-traditional literacy practices in
the Norris Community, an historically African American neighborhood in Commerce, Texas, which has a long history in the
Civil Rights movement of the North East Texas region. Our research includes an investigation of the textbooks used during
segregation years at the Norris School, a look at the interactive literacy community of Mt. Moriah Temple Baptist Church
(the oldest African-American church in town), a life-history account of one church member’s acquisition and use of digital
literacy, and a discussion of the McNair Scholars Program, which provides a route for students from marginalized
communities, including the Norris Community, to pursue graduate studies. Joining research traditions established by scholars
like Jones-Royster (2000, 2005), Moss (2003), Heath (1983) and Brandt (2001, 2009), we argue that marginalized
communities serve as contact-zones between academic and non-academic literacies characterized by both conflict and mutual
enrichment.
Sean Ferrier-Watson, “Distorted Identities: Explicating Textbook Narratives in a Segregated School in East Texas”
A bibliographic/ethnographic study of textbooks used in the Norris School prior to integration. The study attempts
to reconstruct the kinds of narratives and teaching styles that would have been available to the students in the Norris
Community and how these narratives were received. Many textbooks before and during desegregation depicted African
Americans negatively or not at all. Richard L. Hughes notes that “activists and educators offered a steady stream of critiques
of textbooks and their inability to reflect America’s multiracial history without the culture’s more enduring racial
stereotypes” (201). Negative depictions of African Americans would clearly taint the narratives in these textbooks and
possibly corrupt the sense of identity and entitlement of Black students. This study seeks to create a foundation for future
research by exploring the impact of biased textual depictions of minorities within a particular community.
Allyson Jones, “The Word Became Flesh”: Communal Literacy Practices at an African-American Church in East Texas
Drawing on observations of adult Sunday school classes and church services at Mt. Moriah Temple Baptist Church
in Commerce, Texas, this study examines an African American church’s function as a literacy sponsor. Mt. Moriah guides
literacy acquisition to help church members achieve direct access to scripture. Church members negotiate the text as a
community, using everyday experiences to flesh out the skeletal outlines of Biblical parables. As Shirley Brice Heath notes,
“[a]uthority in the written word does not rest in the words themselves, but in the meanings which are negotiated through the
experiences of the group” (196). Church members follow a set pattern of movements from private reading and writing to
communal negotiation of the text to improvised, interwoven oral professions of faith. Jones attests that the communal
negotiation of a text represents an innovative mode of meaning-building.
Sunchai Hamcumpai, “Digitizing The Word: New Media Ministry at an East Texas Church”
Follows the literacy narrative of the Sunday School Superintendent and Deacon at a local African-American church,
examining how this long-time community-member acquired digital literacy to perform his educational tasks for the church,
especially with respect to the various ways developing technologies in the last thirty years changed his approach to text use
and production for church business. These tasks include developing reading materials, recording and broadcasting weekly
church services, and using the Internet as a promotional tool. The church uses new digital medias to disperse its ideology,
enhancing the religious experience. Hacumpai uses oral history interviews and archival research to investigate Turner’s
acquisition of new media literacy to motivate the church’s mission. The presentation will be delivered as a video essay,
remixed from recorded oral histories and other media.
Lami Adama, Advancing Literacy: Graduate School Experiences Among Local Students and Graduates from
Underrepresented Groups”
Historically, literacy acquisition has been a challenge for students from low income and minority backgrounds and
first generation college students. The McNair Scholars Program is designed to recruit undergraduate students from
underrepresented groups to graduate programs. Using data compiled from oral interviews of two potential participants and
Hall of Languages, Room 203
Texas A&M-Commerce
May 11, 2010, 1:15-3:15
two Master’s participants in the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program at a local university, this study
discusses the relationship between the program and minority communities in this university town.
JP Sloop, “’Moore’ Than Meets the Eye: A Brief Biographical Narrative of the Life of Ivory Moore”
In her work with the Oral History Project in Brooklyn, Deborah Mutnick explores the pedagogy of the public sphere,
arguing that “individual stories could begin to shape a larger collective one.” One of Mutnick’s conclusions is that the telling
of personal stories from our communities can help us to learn three lessons: 1 Everybody’s story has value; 2 we have to tell
the stories ourselves in order to know who we are. 3 We have to listen to others’ stories in order to know them. In the spirit of
Mutnick’s project it is important for us to look locally to our community members and the stories they tell.
For more than twenty years Ivory Moore worked as an educator and community official to promote integration,
change, and communication between members of East Texas State University (ETSU) and members of the Commerce City
community. As Director of Minority Affairs at ETSU Moore worked closely with members of the Norris Community Club to
help students….As the first African-American City Commissioner and Mayor, Moore worked to bring federal grant money to
Commerce and improve the lives of its citizens. During his tenure as Mayor, Moore wrote a weekly column for the
Commerce Journal called “Commerce on the Move” through which through promoted local businesses, educational
institutions and wrote to help make members of the community aware of the needs and progress of its members. In hearing
Moore’s story--as a writer, as a community organizer--we learn something about ourselves.
On International Students
Hmoud Alotaibi, “Literacy Among International Students” (in Graduate School at Texas A&M-Commerce)
Employs surveys and life history research to examine language use patterns among international students in various
graduate programs at Texas A&M-Commerce, with a particular focus on literacy practices for academic purposes. Finds that
international students often approach academic tasks in the American classroom with a mixture of English and their native
language(s). Among different skills, language plays a vial role in this research. This research sheds light on the skills that the
international students already had when they were attending their home schools. Offers evidence that the international
students have further developed these skills after arriving at A&M-Commerce.
Debbie Jones, “Learning from English Learners” (in an Adult Education Program at Paris Junior College)
Through surveys, life history research, and extensive field observations, the researcher investigates the literacy
histories of english language learners in the current cohort at Paris Junior College. Study attempts to establish patterns of
language use among ELL students in this Adult Education Program.
On Local Events
Baker Banikair, “Literacy and Racial Identity Development within Black History Month”
Through interviews with student groups and campus administrators organizing Black History Month celebrations in
Commerce in the last two years, this project applies a Jungian lens to these important events and draws them into
conversation with Commerce Journal accounts depicting what the researcher is calling “racial identity development” over the
past century.
Visit http://www.eng677.wordpress.com for course details and links to student research,

video, images, and other exciting artifacts and information.
We wish to thank the many individuals in Commerce and at Texas A&M-Commerce who were involved
in these projects for their insight, time, and generosity.

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Hall of Languages, Room 203

On the Norris Community

Visit http://www.eng677.wordpress.com for course details and links to student research,

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