ABOUT THIS BOOK

Equipping Technical Communicators for Social Justice Work provides action-focused resources and tools—heuristics, methodologies, and theories—for scholars to enact social justice. These resources support the work of scholars and practitioners in conducting research and teaching classes in socially just ways. Each chapter identifies a tool, highlights its relevance to technical communication, and explains how and why it can prepare technical communication scholars for socially just work.

For the field of technical and professional communication to maintain its commitment to this work, how social justice intersects with inclusivity through UX, technological, civic, and legal literacies, as well as through community engagement, must be acknowledged. Equipping Technical Communicators for Social Justice Work will be of significance to established scholar-teachers and graduate students, as well as to newcomers to the field.

Contributors: Kehinde Alonge, Alison Cardinal, Erin Brock Carlson, Oriana Gilson, Laura Gonzales, Keith Grant-Davie, Angela Haas, Mark Hannah, Kimberly Harper, Sarah Beth Hopton, Natasha Jones, Isidore Kafui Dorpenyo, Liz Lane, Emily Legg, Nicole Lowman, Kristen Moore, Emma Rose, Fernando Sanchez, Jennifer Sano-Franchini, Adam Strantz, Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq, Josephine Walwema, Miriam Williams, Han Yu

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Rebecca Walton is associate professor of technical communication and rhetoric at Utah State University and editor-in-chief of Technical Communication Quarterly. Her coauthored work has won multiple national awards, including the 2020 CCCC Best Article Reporting Qualitative or Quantitative Research in Technical or Scientific Communication, the 2018 CCCC Best Article on Philosophy or Theory of Technical or Scientific Communication, the 2016 and 2017 Nell Ann Pickett Awards, and the 2017 STC Distinguished Article Award.

Godwin Y. Agboka is associate professor of technical and professional communication and director of the Master of Science in Technical Communication program at University of Houston–Downtown. His publications have appeared in Technical Communication Quarterly, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Technical Communication, Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, and Connexions. He has also coedited several special issues and collections.

REVIEWS

“An invaluable contribution to the field of technical communication. The book itself not only is timely but also will influence the field for years to come.”
—Jenn Mallette, Boise State University

“Equipping Technical Communicators for Social Justice Work extends and explicates the application of social justice theories of technical communication to a wide variety of contexts, from our classrooms to marginalized communities in explicit ways. The contributions to future socially just scholarship is evident. It is one of a kind.”
—Michelle Eble, East Carolina University

“Engaging, enlightening, and enjoyable to read..”
—CHOICE

“Equipping Technical Communicators for Social Justice Work contains a much-needed discussion of grounded approaches to redressing social inequality within the realm of technical communication, and thus stands alone as possibly the only book ever to take on this topic.”
—Technical Communication

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Beyond Ideology and Theory: Applied Approaches to Social Justice | Rebecca Walton and Godwin Y. Agboka

Section I: Centering Marginality in Professional Practice

1. Narratives from the Margins: Centering Women of Color in Technical Communication | Laura Gonzales, Josephine Walwema, Natasha N. Jones, Han Yu, and Miriam F. Williams

2. Iñupiat Iḷitqusiat: An Indigenist Ethics Approach for Working with Marginalized Knowledges in Technical Communication | Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq

3. “I’m surprised that this hasn’t happened before”: An Indigenous Examination of UXD Failure during the Hawai‘i Missile False Alarm | Emily Legg and Adam Strantz

Section II: Conducting Collaborative Research

4. Purpose and Participation: Heuristics for Planning, Implementing, and Reflecting on Social Justice Work | Emma J. Rose and Alison Cardinal

5. Visual Participatory Action Research Methods: Presenting Nuanced, Co-Created Accounts of Public Problems | Erin Brock Carlson

6. Legal Resource Mapping as a Methodology for Social Justice Research and Engagement | Mark A. Hannah, Kristen R. Moore, Nicole Lowman, and Kehinde Alonge

Section III: Teaching Critical Analysis

7. Social Activism in 280 Characters or Less: How to Incorporate Critical Analysis of Online Activism into TPC Curriculum | Kimberly Harper

8. The Tarot of Tech: Foretelling the Social Justice Impacts of Our Designs | Sarah Beth Hopton

9. An Intersectional Feminist Rhetorical Pedagogy in the Technical Communication Classroom | Oriana A. Gilson

Section IV: Teaching Critical Advocacy

10. Election Technologies as a Tool for Cultivating Civic Literacies in Technical Communication: A Case of the Redistricting Game | Fernando Sánchez, Isidore Dorpenyo, and Jennifer Sano-Franchini

11. Plotting an Interstitial Design Process: Design Thinking and Social Design Processes as Framework for Addressing Social Justice Issues in TPC Classrooms | Liz Lane

12. Kategorias and Apologias as Heuristics for Social Justice Advocacy | Keith Grant-Davie

Afterword: Equipping for Action: Suggestions for Using This Book | Rebecca Walton and Godwin Y. Agboka

About the Authors

Index

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