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  • © 2016

Decolonizing Rhetoric and Composition Studies

New Latinx Keywords for Theory and Pedagogy

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Together 21st century latinx scholars in the field of rhetoric and composition to both claim and reclaim important conceptual terms that have been misused or appropriated by hegemonic forces working against the interests of minority students

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xx
  2. Basics

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. Race

      • Iris D. Ruiz
      Pages 3-15
    3. Literacy

      • Steven Alvarez
      Pages 17-29
    4. Citizenship

      • Ana Milena Ribero
      Pages 31-45
  3. Making Texts

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 47-47
    2. History

      • José Cortez
      Pages 49-62
    3. Code Switching

      • José Cano
      Pages 63-75
    4. Writing

      • Raúl Sánchez
      Pages 77-89
  4. Self-(Re)Definitions

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 91-91
    2. Poch@

      • Cruz Medina
      Pages 93-107
    3. Mestizaje

      • Gabriela Raquel Ríos
      Pages 109-124
    4. Éxito (Success)

      • Octavio Pimentel, Nancy Wilson
      Pages 125-136
    5. Chicana Feminism

      • Candace Zepeda
      Pages 137-151
  5. Political Rhetoric

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 153-153
    2. Illegal

      • Amanda Espinosa-Aguilar
      Pages 155-167
    3. Mojado

      • Marcos del Hierro
      Pages 169-181
  6. Correction to: Race

    • Iris D. Ruiz, Raúl Sánchez
    Pages C1-C1
  7. Back Matter

    Pages 183-195

About this book



This book brings together Latinx scholars in Rhetoric and Composition to discuss keywords that have been misused or appropriated by forces working against the interests of minority students. For example, in educational and political forums, rhetorics of identity and civil rights have been used to justify ideas and policies that reaffirm the myth of a normative US culture that is white, Eurocentric, and monolinguistically English. Such attempts amount to a project of neo-colonization, if we understand colonization to mean not only the taking of land but also the taking of culture, of which language is a crucial part. The editors introduce the concept of epistemic delinking and argue for its use in conceptualizing a kind of rhetorical and discursive decolonization, and contributors offer examples of this decolonization in action through detailed work on specific terms. Specifically, they draw on their training in rhetoric and on their own experiences as people of color tohelp reset the field's agenda. They also theorize new keywords to shed light on the great varieties of Latinx writing, rhetoric, and literacies that continue to emerge and circulate in the culture at large, in the hope that the field will feel more urgently the need to recognize, theorize, and teach the intersections of writing, pedagogy, and politics.

Editors and Affiliations

  • University of California - Merced, Merced, USA

    Iris D. Ruiz

  • University of Florida, Gainesville, USA

    Raúl Sánchez

About the editors

Iris D. Ruiz is Lecturer at the University of California, Merced, USA. She is the Co-Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication Latin@ Caucus.

Raúl Sánchez is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Florida, USA. He has been a member of the Conference on College Composition and Communication Latin@ Caucus for over two decades. 

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access