A Geopolitics Of Academic Writing

by A. Suresh Canagarajah

Overview

A Geopolitics of Academic Writing critiques current scholarly publishing practices, exposing the inequalities in the way academic knowledge is constructed and legitimized. As a periphery scholar now working in (and writing from) the center, Suresh Canagarajah is uniquely situated to demonstrate how and why contributions from Third World scholars are too often relegated to the perimeter of academic discourse. He examines three broad conventions governing academic writing: textual concerns (matters of languages, style, tone, and structure), social customs (the rituals governing the interactions of members of the academic community), and publishing practices (from submission protocols to photocopying and postage requirements). Canagarajah argues that the dominance of Western conventions in scholarly communication leads directly to the marginalization or appropriation of the knowledge of Third World communities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822957942
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	12/15/2002
Series:	Composition, Literacy, and Culture , #163
Edition description:	1
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

A. Suresh Canagarajah taught English in the war-torn region of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, for ten years before joining the faculty of the City University of New York (Baruch College) in 1994. He is the author of Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English Teaching.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	The Problem	1
	The Project	8
1.	Contextualizing Academic Writing	32
2.	Communities of Knowledge Construction	50
3.	Conventions in Knowledge Construction	77
4.	Textual Conventions in Conflict	102
5.	Publishing Requirements and Material Constraints	157
6.	Literacy Practices and Academic Culture	183
7.	Poverty and Power in Knowledge Production	233
8.	Reform, Resistance, Reconstruction	265
	Notes	307
	Works Cited	314
	Index	325

Editorial Reviews

A groundbreaking examination of the complex interaction between the center and the periphery in academic discourse. . . . Will stand as a landmark for decades to come.

University of Texas Lester Faigley

A welcome intervention in such fields as English studies, rhetoric, liguistics, postcolonial theory, and of western knowledge construction in general, and the publishing practices of academia in particular.

Rocky Mountain Review

This is a disturbing book in the best sense of the word. Canagarajah redraws the map for understanding academic writing. And he makes you rethink what it means to claim membership in a community of scholars.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Deborah Brandt

Even those who like me are wary of the center-periphery distinction will find this a challenging work. It is jargon free and clearly written and the author is refreshingly straightforward in his criticism of accepted wisdom.

Princeton University Gananath Obeyesekere

Canagarajah deepens and sharpens our understanding of the luxury of ordinary research, writing, and publishing practices even as he guides us through a thicket of extraordinary postcolonial barriers to the democratization of academic scholarship and publication.

Linda Brodkey

A welcome intervention in such fields as English studies, rhetoric, liguistics, postcolonial theory, and of western knowledge construction in general, and the publishing practices of academia in particular.”
—Rocky Mountain Review

From the Publisher