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A Geopolitics Of Academic Writing (Pitt Comp Literacy Culture)

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The Geopolitics of Academic Writing reviews the practices of western scholarly journals and university publishers, "exposing the inequalities in the way academic knowledge is constructed and legitimized." In a fascinating mix of personal anecdote and scholarly research, the Sri Lankan professor of literature and composition A. Suresh Canagarajah describes the challenges facing scholars from the "periphery" -- Asia, Africa, and Latin America -- in getting their work into "center" journals and books -- published and edited by Europeans and Americans. His analysis of how such scholars fall afoul of EuroAmerican conventions is insightful and important.

In this sense, The Geopolitics of Academic Writing is a book unlike any you have ever read. Anyone interested in globalization and higher education should read it. Canagarajah's book is the first that I have read that captures the real difficulties periphery scholars have in bringing their incredible research to light, the first comfort I have found for scholars on the periphery who endure so much to publish their rich research. So, if you are a periphery scholar, read this book for the affirmation and knowledge it will bring you. If you are a center editor, read it to learn how you can make yourself and your journal more open to the extraordinary diversity of thought and expression that marks the twenty-first century. You owe it to yourself.