New Hampshire Justice for All Campaign 

Students

  • Marianna Miller (UNH Italian Studies)
  • Rebecca Nann (CCSNH, NHTI/Concord)

Faculty

  • Krista Jackman (English, UNH)

Overview

What does it take to move the world? To change opinions? To make progress toward social justice? The project examined multimodal composing practice using the strategies social activists use in creating texts that further the causes of social justice actions. The central aim was for a pair of interns to identify a specific audience that could help further the cause of social justice in a local (New Hampshire) context and create a campaign to educate and persuade the target audience to help.

The interns were responsible for researching and understanding advocacy within issue-based community education, civic engagement initiatives, and a variety of different public writing spaces. Interns identified a proactive organization and identified the key players of the organization. They determined the organization’s promotional needs through observations, interviews, and research, and then crafted a digital campaign to target audiences that could make a difference for this organization.

This project and its accompanying article drew on the premise that students can and should develop an understanding of rhetoric and the deliberate role it plays in advocacy for a more just and equitable society. It encouraged students to recognize multimodal communication as advocacy that makes change. Our current digital media platforms facilitated interaction among vast public audiences. Focus was given to developing students into savvy advocates, leveraging digital composing tools to push back against discrimination. With deliberation and purpose, they built access and acceptance within public writing spaces in this project and beyond.  

Outcomes

  • The student advocacy campaign was developed, deployed, and promoted via social media streams. 
     
  • Professor Jackman supported and interviewed interns as they navigated the advocacy campaign project and drafted an article responding to the call for submission to the Pedagogy Special Issue: After the Pandemic: The State of English.