Class Details
Taco Literacy: Writing Mexican Foodways in Oklahoma
In recent years, there has been a steady increase of interest in the transnational migrations of Mexican food popularized by bloggers, television food shows, and travel journalists. In addition to the immense number of reviews, trade publications, and cookbooks, important social issues in regard to multilingualism, cultural appropriation, migrant labor, and the translation of indigenous cuisine for corporate consumption have also become topical. This seminar will examine how transnational community foodways situate different literacies, rhetorics, and forms of cultural knowledge across borders. Readings will include Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food by Jeffrey M. and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America by Gustavo Arellano.
Enrollment
- Enrollment through your home campus
- OSLEP provides all required reading materials at no additional cost – NO books to buy!
- Housing and meals provided
Scholar
Steven Alvarez
St. John’s University (NY)
Steven Alvarez is an associate professor of English at St. John’s University in New York, specializing in literacy studies and bilingual education with a focus on Mexican immigrant communities. He teaches courses ranging from autobiographical writing, ethnographic methods, visual rhetoric, and “taco literacy,” a course exploring the foodways of Mexican immigrants in the United States. He is the author of Brokering Tareas: Mexican Immigrant Families Translanguaging Homework Literacies (State University of New York Press, 2017) and Community Literacies en Confianza: Learning From Bilingual After-School Programs (National Council of Teachers of English, 2017).