Reimagining Critical Multimodality in Education

From Soil to Seedlings

Edited by:
Raúl Alberto Mora, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana
Katarina Silvestri, SUNY Cortland
Angel M. Y. Lin, The Education University of Hong Kong

A volume in the series: Contemporary Perspectives on Semiotics in Education: Signs, Meanings and Multimodality. Editor(s): Katarina Silvestri, SUNY Cortland. Mary McVee, University at Buffalo, SUNY. Jennifer D. Turner, University of Maryland College Park. Raúl Alberto Mora, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana.

Reimagining Critical Multimodality in Education: From Soil to Seedlings is the proposed second edited volume for the IAP Book Series Contemporary Perspectives on Semiotics in Education: Signs, Meanings and Multimodality. The first volume, Toward Critical Multimodality: Theory, Research, and Practice in Transformative Educational Spaces, tried to define and show how new multimodal theory, research design, and contexts can be used in ways that are critical and directly connected to power. This proposed volume wants to build on and expand on those lessons. Reimagining Critical Multimodality in Education: From Soil to Seedlings will comprehensively examine the theory, history, and lineage of critical multimodal theorizing, illustrate analytical methods, and highlight future directions for the field. We are especially interested in seeking contributions from emerging scholars in diverse settings, with a particular interest in multimodal scholarship coming from the Global South that promotes voices in educational spaces that we seldom hear from in edited volumes (R’boul, 2023). We will also prioritize chapters that show clear intergenerational mentorship of scholars, including foregrounding emerging scholars in authorship. Finally, we encourage proposals to intentionally seek out multimodal theorizing, methodologies, and scholarship rooted in cultures, languages, regions, and knowledge systems in the Global South. For us, the Global South does not refer to a specific geographic region but rather to adherence to an ideological stance of resistance:

It is also necessary to recognize that talking about Global North and Global South does not necessarily relate to geography, but ideology, with varying flows and modes of communication. Making a blanket, monolithic claim that the Northern Hemisphere equals Global North and Southern Hemisphere equals Global South fails to acknowledge global knowledge and language dynamics. Not every country in the Northern Hemisphere would claim to be part of that Global North, nor does every country in the Southern Hemisphere adhere to the idea of belonging to the Global South. We have witnessed Global North dynamics across social groups in Latin America, Asia, and Africa; we have seen Global South dynamics of resistance in social groups in Europe and North America. A blanket Global South-Global North binary also fails to account for issues of physical and digital mobility and migration, as well as how scholars worldwide participate in moments of glocal advocacy (Mora, 2016b). (Mora et al., 2024)

Regarding the materiality of these modes (Silvestri, Nyachae, & Barrett, 2023), as we explained in the first volumes of this series, multimodality is made up of different ways of interacting, such as sight, touch, writing, color, space layout, gaze, proxemics, and gestures. We expand this definition to include theorizing relating embodiment and non-sensorial modes, which thus involve affect, feelings, and emotionality. Zhang and Gee (2021) theorize that:

The material resources named [relating to modes] are usually things such as sound, images, gesture, writing, and so forth. But materiality alone is not enough to define a mode, since the material resources can be used in quite different ways. Here is one way we would define “mode” that we think is not incompatible with how Kress and van Leeuwen talk about modes: a sign is a re-purposing of some physical material. The physical material has its own physical properties that we humans sense in certain ways. The physical material and the normal sensations we associate with it then become associated with new experiences, memories, and ways of imagining. These are all the result of being socialized into social practices such as driving, reading, religious practices, and many other things.

TOPICS OF INTEREST:

In-depth explorations of the theoretical/conceptual soil, roots and branches of critical multimodality from a social semiotics perspective, including chapters exploring:

• The theoretical lineage and mapping of ideas salient to critical multimodality, explain the proliferation of theories and their offspring, their connections and divergences, especially critical multimodal theorizing.

• Embodied, sensational theorizing of multimodality

• Translanguaging and trans-semiotizing lineages

• Specific critical theories intersect with critical multimodality (e.g., decolonial theorizing, feminisms, critical race theories, queer/trans theories, protest literacies, etc.)

• Specific turns in theory that intersect with critical multimodality (e.g., multiliteracies, embodiment, affect, spatialities, new materiality, post/transhumanism, etc.)

Illustrations of innovative analytical methods, the trunk of the tree, amplifying explanations of and contributions to multimodal methodologies, including methodological chapters with illustrative examples as well as empirical studies with robust methodological descriptions, including chapters exploring:

• Mapping of sister methods moving from critical to critical multimodality (e.g., critical discourse analysis >> critical multimodal discourse analysis; critical genre analysis; critical multimodal genre analysis; critical conversation analysis >> critical multimodal conversation analysis

• Descriptions and in-depth illustrations of novel methodologies and methodological perspectives

• Methodologies that prioritize critical multimodal analytical methods that study moment-by-moment (inter)actions

Case studies, the leaves of the tree, that demonstrate what research looks like when critical multimodality intersects with other theories that may work together as root systems with critical multimodality across contexts, problematics, and issues in our fields.

Critical explorations of future directions, the seedlings, including meta-syntheses, state-of-the-art literature reviews, and other provocations that will illuminate where critical multimodality is going, including chapters exploring:

• How the process of meaning-making is embodied, foregrounding analysis of the unfolding processes rather than overfocusing on the product

• Meta-analyses interrogating and revealing gaps of knowledge and innovations in the realm of social semiotics perspectives of critical multimodality

• Generative AI and critical multimodality

PROPOSAL INFORMATION:
Proposals should be made as a Word file to upload to a Google Drive folder. They should include authors’ names and affiliations, email addresses, a tentative title, and an abstract (300-500 words plus references and images). In the proposal, authors should indicate what part(s) of the tree metaphor their chapters would address. Please include an additional page with a brief biography (200-300 words) and relevant professional publications. Please use this link to upload your proposal by June 30, 2024. In case of questions about the volume and the proposal submission process, please contact Dr. Rau l Alberto Mora at raul.mora@fulbrightmail.org

CHAPTER SUBMISSION INFORMATION:
Authors of accepted proposals will receive chapter guidelines and updates on the status of their submission by July 31, 2024. At that time, all authors will receive a link to a working subfolder to work on their corresponding chapters. Authors should submit their full chapters, ranging from 6,000 to 7,000 words in Times New Roman 12, double-spaced text, including title, abstract, manuscript, and references, as a Google Document in the assigned folders by October 31, 2024. Manuscripts should conform to APA style (7th Edition) conventions. See Author Guidelines. Graphics and images may be included.

SCHEDULE FOR PUBLICATION:
Chapter Proposal Submission: June 30, 2024
Notification of Proposal Acceptance: July 31, 2024
Submission of Book Chapter: November 30, 2024
Reviews of Book Chapter Manuscripts Sent to Author(s): February 28, 2025
Receipt by Editors of Final Draft of Book Chapters: April 30, 2025
Final Book Submitted to Publisher: June 30, 2025
Anticipated Publication: Fall 2025

CONTENTS