Christian Kowalski

Context:

For my International Human Rights class, we were assigned a final research paper that explored in more depth any of the topics discussed during the semester. The class provided a fascinating perspective on aid, human rights and state responsibility that really challenged my preconceived notions of this kind of work. The topic I chose to analyze was modes of communication oppressed groups used to fight against systems of abuse and power. The title of this research paper was “Pinpointing the Forms of Literacy used to Combat Institutional Oppression.”

 

The assignment was a twenty-plus page paper that had to meet traditional research writing requirements: abstract, literature review, etc. This project was successful mostly due to strength in organization and the ability to create compelling narratives. More specifically, this project allowed me to investigate a major social issue I’m passionate about within the framework of research.

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Rhetorical Decisions:

In preparation for this research project, I had to truly consider my audience and how they would process the information. Our professor said the audience would be the Elon community, especially targeting those unaware of human rights issues. To make this research accessible to the Elon community, I compiled stories that many people can relate to. I read articles on children’s literature and social media and how these outlets have been used to educate and mobilize oppressed groups. Not many students at Elon consider platforms like Twitter to be devices that engage populations and foster resistance against systemic oppression. This research sheds light on these types of narratives so it can be easier for Elon students to empathize with the stories.

 

With these narratives throughout the research paper, I also wanted to appeal emotionally to my audience. I wanted to share research and studies conducted on poor, disaster stricken community and how a lack of literacy and education has severely stymied their educational growth. I looked at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and there was research that showed that critical literacy were severely low to the point that people didn’t know how to renew or get driving licenses. Critical literacy, the ability to analyze text and retain its message, has been lost due to the disaster and the government poor and misguided response. The mistakes of the elites had damaged schools systems in the region and even threatened human rights such as literacy. By telling stories like this, I was able to appeal to pathos for my audience. This provided another lens for the audience to connect and be informed by the research.

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Reflection:

This project taught me how to connect seemingly different narratives into one tight thematic piece. The research I explored covered decades in history and involved many modes of communication. My paper weaved these scholarly findings together to tell a greater story of how oppressed groups fight against systems of power that seek to silence them. The project covers many elements of this human rights issue and provides a unique synthesis of issues that span decades and mediums. The end product was a cohesive that showed how many narratives from all other the world can be affected by the same human rights dilemmas.

 

The piece also succeeds in informing audiences of these human rights narrative and how they can think critically about behaviors they may not even consider. Not many people think about rhetoric and voice in their daily lives since their freedom of speech isn’t being violated. But this research aims to highlight stories that go unnoticed by the general public and reveal some unsettling truths about the world around us.

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Embedded below is the document.