My Life With Literacy: The Continuing Education of a Historian

By Harvey J. Graff
Copy edited by Karen Peirce. Designed by Mike Palmquist.

CoverCalling My Life With Literacy a “new intersectionality,” Harvey J. Graff explores both overarching and underlying patterns that connected his development and lived experience from childhood to and through his retirement from the academy. He considers the inextricable interconnections of personal experiences and relationships; the political, broadly defined to include life-shaping contexts and historical events, influences, values, commitments, and experiences; the social, intellectual, and political dimensions of academics and scholarship—a life of learning and using literacy and literacies; and the circumstances of living in six major cities and studying and then teaching in five universities. Graff’s pioneering scholarship in the history of literacy and literacy studies provides both the frame and the foundation for his work in the history of children and youth; the history of cities; higher education past, present, and future; and interdisciplinarity itself.

Table of Contents

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Front Matter

Acknowledgments

Introduction. The Intersections of the Personal, the Political, the Academic, and Place

Chapter 1. Endings from Beginnings: A Culmination of Learning and Practice

Chapter 2. First Formations: Early Years in Pittsburgh, 1949–1963

Chapter 3. Coming of Age in Pittsburgh, Squirrel Hill, and Taylor Allderdice High School, 1963–1967

Chapter 4. Northwestern University and Chicago: Higher and Wider Learning, Inside and Outside Classrooms, 1967–1970

Chapter 5. The Great Canadian Adventure, the New Social History, and Beginning to Study Literacy, 1970–1975

Chapter 6. A Not-So-Great Migration to Big D, Dallas, Texas: New Frontiers, New University, New City, 1975–1979

Chapter 7. Interlude: In Exile at the Newberry Library and Chicago, 1979–1981

Chapter 8. Dallas and UTD: Negotiating a Return and Beginning Again, 1981–1998

Chapter 9. San Antonio: Flirting With and Separating From Administration, 1998–2004

Chapter 10. Transitions and Challenges in Mid-Career: The Ohio State University and Columbus, 2004–2017

Epilogue. Intersecting Endings and Beginnings

Afterword. Near Final Reflections on Literacy and Literacy Studies, 2022: Excerpts From Searching for Literacy: The Social and Intellectual Origins of Literacy Studies

Epilogue. Many Paths, Many Futures

References

Appendix: Harvey J. Graff Curriculum Vitae

About the Author

Harvey J. Graff is Professor Emeritus of English and History, inaugural Ohio Eminent Scholar in Literacy Studies, and Academy Professor at The Ohio State University. Recognized internationally for his work on literacy studies and education, children and youth, urban studies, and interdisciplinarity, his publications include numerous articles and chapters in edited collections as well as the books The Literacy Myth, The Legacies of Literacy, Conflicting Paths: Growing Up in America, The Dallas Myth, Undisciplining Knowledge: Interdisciplinarity in the Twentieth Century, and Searching for Literacy.

Publication Information: Graff, Harvey J. (2024). My Life With Literacy: The Continuing Education of a Historian. The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado. https://doi.org/10.37514/PRA-B.2024.1312

Digital Publication Date: August 27, 2024
Print Publication Date: TBD

ISBN: 978-1-64215-131-2 (PDF) | 978-1-64215-242-5 (ePub) | TBD (pbk.)
DOI: 10.37514/PRA-B.2024.1312

Contact Information:
Harvey J. Graff: graff.40@osu.edu

Practices & Possibilities

Series Editors: Aimee McClure, Clarke University; Kelly Ritter, Georgia Institute of Technology; Aleashia Walton, University of Cincinnati; and Jagadish Paudel, University of Texas at El Paso

Acrobat Reader DownloadThis book is available in whole and in part in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). It will also be available in a low-cost print edition from our publishing partner, the University Press of Colorado.


Copyright © 2024 Harvey J. Graff. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License. 342 pages, with notes, illustrations, bibliography, and appendix. This book will be available in print from University Press of Colorado as well as from any online or brick-and-mortar bookstore. Available in digital formats for no charge on this page at the WAC Clearinghouse. You may view this book. You may print personal copies of this book. You may link to this page. You may not reproduce this book on another website.