{"id":27649,"date":"2026-10-05T20:02:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T20:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/premajor\/?page_id=27649"},"modified":"2026-10-05T20:02:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T20:02:37","slug":"the-word-and-the-world-what-does-it-mean-to-be-literate-in-the-21st-century","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/premajor\/first-year\/discovery-core\/spring-dcx\/the-word-and-the-world-what-does-it-mean-to-be-literate-in-the-21st-century","title":{"rendered":"The Word and the World: What does it mean to be literate in the 21st century?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/premajor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2023\/08\/AH-with-purple.svg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25068\" style=\"width:100px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-highlight-paragraph-large\">A Discovery Core Experience<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May be taken as <strong>BCORE 117<\/strong> (Arts &amp; Humanities).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About This Course<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>What does it mean to be literate? In this course we will explore the changing definitions, possibilities, and limitations of literacy in an increasingly interconnected, diverse and digitized world. Students will be asked to familiarize themselves with a range of perspectives on social, cultural, and political issues that impact the ways we both make and exchange meaning through shared texts and shared communities. In other words, what shapes the ways we read and write both the word and the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To facilitate this exploration, we\u2019ll explore both popular texts and scholarly perspectives on learning and knowing, as well as the role of the symbolic tools we use to communicate and express that learning. We\u2019ll also explore the role of historicized power differences in what we come to know. For example, who has determined the language\/s we have access to in order to understand the world? Who or what shapes the knowledge we can access or the art we create? What social dynamics impact how we understand our bodies? How do the needs of the economy impact the ways we are taught or the tools we are encouraged to use?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Students will be asked to engage in ongoing reflection about the significance of course texts over the meaning of their educational pasts. And by the end of the course, they will be asked to articulate a tentative plan for their educational futures. In other words, a final project that addresses what it means to consider themselves \u201cliterate\u201d in the 21st century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Should I Take This Course?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Take this class if you are interested in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ideas about learning and knowing, and the ways different forms of literacy encourage different forms of knowledge.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How the relationship between literacy, language, and power impacts the ways we communicate and the forms of knowledge we are able to access, develop, and share.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Contemplating what you may need to know and\/or understand to develop the literacies you\u2019ll need to meet your current educational and\/or life goals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Professor Mira Shimabukuro<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>School of Interdisciplinary Arts &amp; Sciences<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile is-vertically-aligned-top\" style=\"grid-template-columns:25% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/premajor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2026\/10\/HeadshotShimabukuro-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-27651 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/premajor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2026\/10\/HeadshotShimabukuro-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/premajor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2026\/10\/HeadshotShimabukuro-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/premajor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2026\/10\/HeadshotShimabukuro-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/premajor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2026\/10\/HeadshotShimabukuro-600x800.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/premajor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2026\/10\/HeadshotShimabukuro.jpeg 1158w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About Dr. Shimabukuro<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Mira Shimabukuro is a Teaching Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell, where she teaches classes on First-Year Composition and Interdisciplinary Writing; Japanese American Incarceration; Rhetorics of Redress and Resistance; and the intersections between Race, Language, Literacy, and Identity. With academic backgrounds in both Creative Writing (MFA) and Composition and Rhetoric (PhD), Dr. Shimabukuro maintains both a creative practice and a scholarly interest in the ways people use both public and private forms of writing to survive and resist the wrongs of their oppression. Her 2015 book Relocating Authority focuses on the ways imprisoned Japanese Americans used writing to respond to their community\u2019s mass incarceration during World War II. Her creative work\u2014both nonfiction and poetry\u2014addresses themes of diasporic, indigenous Okinawan identity; racialization of mixed Asian Americans; and the family politics of intergenerational activist families. Dr. Shimabukuro also served as the School of IAS\u2019s first Associate Dean for Diversity and Equity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Contact<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Email<\/strong>: <a href=\"mailto:mshima2@uw.edu\">mshima2@uw.edu<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Discovery Core Experience May be taken as BCORE 117 (Arts &amp; Humanities). About This Course What does it mean to be literate? In this course we will explore the changing definitions, possibilities, and limitations of literacy in an increasingly interconnected, diverse and digitized world. Students will be asked to familiarize themselves with a range&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":602,"featured_media":0,"parent":6138,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_is_archived":false,"_archived_contact_email":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-27649","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"related_links":{"toggle_visibility":false,"link_1":"","link_2":"","link_3":"","link_4":"","link_5":""},"highlight_box":{"toggle_visibility":false,"title":"","content":"","button":"","button_style":"angled-purple-button","button_screen_reader_text":""},"contact_type_1":{"toggle_visibility":false,"contact_title":"","email":"","phone":"","box":"","address_line_1":"","address_line_2":"","location":""},"contact_type_2":{"toggle_visibility":false,"contact_title":"","email":"","phone":"","box":"","address_line_1":"","address_line_2":"","location":""},"social_media":{"toggle_visibility":false,"facebook_url":"","instagram_url":"","linkedin_url":"","twitter_url":"","youtube_url":""},"blog_archive_sidebar_visibility":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Word and the World: What does it mean to be literate in the 21st century? - First Year &amp; Pre-Major Program<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/premajor\/first-year\/discovery-core\/spring-dcx\/the-word-and-the-world-what-does-it-mean-to-be-literate-in-the-21st-century\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Word and the World: What does it mean to be literate in the 21st century? - First Year &amp; Pre-Major Program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Discovery Core Experience May be taken as BCORE 117 (Arts &amp; Humanities). 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