Literacy and Literacies: Texts, Power, and Identity (Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language)

Developing a new synthesis of literacy studies, this book explores the domain of power through questions of colonialism, modern state formation, educational systems and official versus popular literacies. James Collins and Richard Blot present a critical discussion of particular cases and discuss the role of literacies in the formation of class, gender, and ethnic identity.

James Collins is Professor of Anthropology and of Reading at the University at Albany, State University of New York. He is the author of Understanding Tolowa Histories: Western Hegemonies and Native American Responses (1998), as well as of book and journal articles.

Richard Blot is Assistant Professor at the Graduate Program in Literacy Studies, Lehman College, City University of New York. He has published in a number of journals, including TESOL Quarterly, Anthropology and Education Quarterly and Latin American Anthropology Review.