StudioCLA really starts with the story of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University. Located in Beppu, Japan, APU boasts students from over 90 countries. Indeed, half of the students at APU are international students and half are domestic students from Japan, and students can enroll and study as either an English-basis or Japanese basis student.
Some of the most distinctive events on campus include the Multicultural Weeks in which students from member countries introduce their culture, each week ending with a Grand Show, a cultural theater performance that celebrates their culture, dance, and music, through a story that helps to express all these elements.
Meanwhile, after completing my PhD in which I had been researching second language discussion of literary fiction, I noticed that mixed proficiency groupings are very useful for training students in the language and leadership skills needed to successfully facilitate group discussions.
More broadly, I conceived of Community Literacy Activism as a branching from citizen science to focus on various literacy initiatives for developing leaders and resources for supporting multilingual literacy, and in 2019 I applied for a grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to study how one might work with university students to develop an anthology of stories for language learners based upon past Multicultural Week Grand Shows at APU.
I was awarded a three-year grant to develop six stories in collaboration with student leaders who work as authors, translators, and team managers to develop these stories. The series will be available on this site as preprints in 2022. The aim is to have completed final revisions and illustrations for a final publication date in 2023. The tentative title for the anthology is Multicultural Book Clubs: Asia Focus.
The purpose of this website is to share research and publications as they are developed as Open Educational Resources to encourage the spread of multilingual literacy leadership around the world.
As an Open Educational Resource, teachers and students are welcome to use and translate materials published here for educational purposes free of charge, provided that credit is given to StudioCLA. You can learn how to cite our stories, publications and presentations on our research page.
This blog will feature posts from various members of the CLA team with their specific background and takes on the development of our projects.
Thanks for visiting our site,
Paul Sevigny, PhD
December 31, 2021
Beppu, Japan
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