Associate Professor
bronwen [dot] low [at] mcgill [dot] ca (E-mail)
Phone: 514-398-6399
Room 339, Education Building
Websites: Bronwen Low; McGill People Page
Areas of interest
- Cultural studies
- Curriculum theory
- Hip-hop studies
- Language and literacy studies
- Informal education
- Participatory media cultures
- Youth cultures
Description of research/teaching activities
Bronwen Low explores the implications and challenges of popular youth culture for curriculum theory, literacy studies, and pedagogy. This includes examining spoken word culture (including rap music and slam poetry) for insight into the evolution of youth language and literacy practices as well as identities. Current research includes community-media projects and pedagogies, translanguaging and the multilingual Montreal hip-hop scene, and the pedagogical implications of the lifestories of Montrealers who have survived genocide and other human rights violations. In relation to the latter, she is developing curriculum for use in Quebec schools.
Selected publications/presentations
Low, B. (2011). Slam school: Learning through conflict in the hip-hop and spoken word classroom. Stanford University Press.
Low, B. (2011). At the edge of writing and speech: New oralities and curriculum. Journal of the Canadian Association of Curriculum Studies 8(2), 50-75.
Low, B. (2010). The tale of the talent night rap: Black popular culture in schools and the challenge of interpretation. Urban Education 45, 194-220.
Low, B., Sarkar, M., and Winer, L. (2009). “J’chus mon propre Bescherelle”: Challenges from the Hip-Hop nation to the Quebec nation. Journal of Sociolinguistics 13(1), 59-82.
Hoechsmann, M., & Low, B. (2008). Reading youth writing: “New” literacy, cultural studies, and education. NY: Peter Lang.
Low, B. (2007). Hip Hop, language, and difference: The N-word as pedagogical limit-case. Journal of Language, Identity and Education 6(2), 147-160.
Sarkar, M., Low, B., and Winer, L. (2007). “Pour connecter avec le peeps”: Québéquicité and the Quebec Hip-Hop community. In Miguel Mantero (Ed.), Identity and second language learning: Culture, inquiry and dialogic activity in educational contexts. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 351-372.
Low, B, and Smith, D. (2007). Borat and the problem of parody. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education 11(1), 27-39.