CONTACTS:
Marcelo Diversi, Human Development, 360-546-9170, diversi@vancouver.wsu.edu
Brenda Alling, Office of Marketing and Communications, 360-546-9601, brenda_alling@vancouver.wsu.edu
VANCOUVER, Wash. Marcelo Diversi, assistant professor of human development at Washington State University, and his colleague Claudio Moreira, assistant professor of communications at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, have won the National Communication Association Ethnography Division 2010 Book award. Their book Betweener Talk: Decolonizing Knowledge Production, Pedagogy, & Praxis was published by Left Coast Press in 2009.
In their literary, co-constructed narrative, Diversi and Moreira, both Brazilian scholars, explore the spaces in-betweenbetween their own biographies, one raised privileged, the other poor; between the experience of being raised in Brazil and finding acceptance in U.S. universities; between their lives in the academic establishment and their studies of poverty in Latin America; between the constraints of apolitical scholarship and the need to promote social justice; between contrasting styles of researching, theorizing and writing. Their dialogue seeks to decolonize the world of American scholarship and promote the use of research toward inclusive social justice.
The committee found that your book takes a fresh and innovative approach to critical performance and praxis studies and makes an important contribution to qualitative research in communication studies, said Patty Sotirin, past chair of the NCA ethnography division in a letter informing Diversi and Moreira of the award.
This award is a rare recognition from a mainstream professional association for scholarship done outside the traditional paradigm of American social sciences. It's a larger professional recognition that scholarship that attempts to shift the traditional position of research participants from "subjects" to makers of knowledge about their own lived experiences has potential to carry us forward into a century of greater unconditional inclusiveness, said Diversi. I hope this award will open doors to more books and dialogue with folks thinking of inclusiveness and social justice across national borders and disciplines.
Diversi and Moreira have been invited to accept their award on Nov. 15 at a meeting of the NCA ethnography division to be held in San Francisco.
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