Amir Kalan

McGill University, Department of Integrated Studies in Education (DISE), Faculty Member

University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Lecturer

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I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education (DISE) at McGill University. My work aims to create a sociology of literacy that provides insights into cultural, political, and power-relational dimensions of linguistic and textual practices. I mobilize discourse analysis, ethnography, practitioner research, narrative inquiry, and arts-based inquiry to study the sociological dimensions of reading, writing, and language education. I am particularly interested in learning about the experiences of minoritized and racialized students in multicultural and multilingual contexts. I study organic writing practices that occur beyond the current narrow institutional categorizations of writing styles, genres, and rhetorical norms. I seek to learn from literacy practices that are unofficial, underground, community-based, plurilingual, and multi-semiotic. I also welcome opportunities to study non-Western forms of language and literacy education. My research is often interdisciplinary. In my scholarship, I draw on philosophy, sociology, history, and literary theory. Where applicable, I make use of creative academic genres such as poetic scholarship.
Phone: (514) 398-2720
Address: McGill University, 3700 rue McTavish, Education Building Rm 314, Montreal, QC, H3A 1Y2

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Mastin Prinsloo

University of Cape Town

Lynn Mario Menezes de Souza

Universidade de São Paulo

Ana Duboc

Universidade de São Paulo

yonas asfaha

T. Philip Nichols

Baylor University

Gerald Campano

University of Pennsylvania

Eugenia Vasilopoulos

University of Ottawa | Université d'Ottawa

Olga Obdalova

Katherine Schultz

Mills College at Northeastern University

Donna Alvermann

The University of Georgia

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Books by Amir Kalan

Sociocultural and Power-Relational Dimensions of Multilingual Writing: Recommendations for Deindustrializing Writing Education

Sociocultural and Power-Relational Dimensions of Multilingual Writing: Recommendations for Deindustrializing Writing Education, 2021

This book examines the writing practices of three adult multilingual writers through the prism of... more This book examines the writing practices of three adult multilingual writers through the prism of their writing in English as an additional language. It illustrates some of the social, cultural and political contexts of the writers' literacy activities and discusses how these impact their literate and intellectual lives. It reflects on the para- and meta-textual dimensions of writing because organic writing practices are almost always performed within sociocultural and power-relational contexts. In our highly compartmentalized educational structures, writing education has been severed from those organic components, focusing mainly on writing stylistics. This book proposes creating space for organic writing practices in our everyday writing pedagogies, and argues for a writing pedagogy that acknowledges the complex interactions of social, emotional and identity-related layers of writing. See the book here: https://www.multilingual-matters.com/page/detail/Sociocultural-and-PowerRelational-Dimensions-of-Multilingual-Writing/?k=9781788926706

Video Abstract: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21GuN3se8XM

Farsi Translation of 'Who’s Afraid of Multilingual Education?'

This is a Farsi translation of Amir Kalan's book; the translator is Hiwa Weisi, Razi University. ... more

Who’s Afraid of Multilingual Education? Conversations with Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Jim Cummins, Ajit Mohanty and Stephen Bahry about the Iranian Context and Beyond

More than 70 languages are spoken in contemporary Iran, yet all governmental correspondence and e... more More than 70 languages are spoken in contemporary Iran, yet all governmental correspondence and educational textbooks must be written in Farsi. To date, the Iranian mother tongue debate has remained far from the international scholarly exchanges of ideas about multilingual education. This book bridges that gap using interviews with four prominent academic experts in linguistic human rights, mother tongue education and bilingual and multilingual education. The author examines the arguments for rejecting multilingual education in Iran, and the four interviewees counter those arguments with evidence that mother tongue-based education has resulted in positive outcomes for the speakers of non-dominant language groups and the country itself. It is hoped that this book will engage an international audience with the debate in Iran and show how multilingual education could benefit the country. Multilingual Matters

Multilingual education has become an important topic of this and the next decade. Amir Kalan has created a book that advances debates and universal ideas about multilingual education. Contextualised in the political, religious and linguistic complexity of Iran, the book is essential reading for anyone interested in the importance of multilingual education, in Iran itself, and in listening to four exceptional scholars. Colin Baker, Bangor University, UK
http://www.multilingual-matters.com/display.asp?K=9781783096176

Persian Hip Hop: Writing as Social Action

Tarmatn Publications, 2014

Persian Hip Hop: Writing as Social Action is a collection of articles in Persian about the socioc... more Persian Hip Hop: Writing as Social Action is a collection of articles in Persian about the sociocultural dimensions of Persian Hip Hop and its impact on Iranian youth subcultures (particularly the artistic legacy of the groundbreaking album The Asphalt Jungle, produced by Soroush Lashkari and Mahdyar Aghajani in 2006). Adopting a variety of social studies and literary criticism approaches, the writers of the articles discuss how Iranian rap songs are produced, what sociocultural and political discourses inform Persian Hip Hop, and how Iranian rappers challenge more conservative ideological paradigms in Iranian society. Soroush Lashkari and Mahdyar Aghajani have also contributed two articles to this book, describing their experiences as influential figureheads of Persian Hip Hop. The book has been published in electronic format and is available free of charge. https://www.radiozamaneh.com/189576

Amir Kalan

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