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“We learn from each other”: A Sibling Case Study of Multimodal Identity-Making in a Refugee Youth Literacy Program
Wednesday October 7, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EDT
Circular Church
In this paper presentation, we examine how two Afghan refugee siblings navigated identity, culture, and belonging through multimodal composing within the Literacy and Community Initiative (LCI), a research-practice partnership focused on the literacy education and well-being of immigrant and refugee youth. LCI integrates critical multimodal literacy, trauma-informed practices, and arts-based approaches to create safe spaces for adolescent expression and meaning-making. Using qualitative case study methodology grounded in critical multimodal social semiotics, we trace Roya's and Ahmad's participation across six sessions over two years, analyzing their writing and visual art as interconnected semiotic systems.
Our research question is: How do siblings' multimodal compositions reflect relational and cultural identity-making within an arts-based and trauma-informed literacy program for immigrant and refugee youth? Our findings reveal that a) familial relationships served as a primary resource for identity construction across both written and visual modes; b) cultural anchors, including language, clothing, religion, and homeland, functioned as recurring semiotic tools through which both youth asserted belonging and resisted displacement; and c) the sibling relationship itself constituted a shared compositional and interpretive framework, with each student's work deepening and contextualizing the other's.
These findings carry implications for how arts-integrated literacy programs can honor the relational dimensions of refugee youth experience. When adolescents compose alongside and in response to one another, multimodal literacy spaces become sites not only of individual voice but of collective meaning-making, cultural affirmation, and well-being.
Speakers
avatar for Angela Wiseman

Angela Wiseman

Associate Professor, Literacy Education, NC State University
Angela M. Wiseman, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Literacy Education at North Carolina State University and Affiliated Faculty at the Center for Visual Literacies at San Diego State University, where her scholarship advances critical visual and multimodal qualitative methods for understanding how youth... Read More →
avatar for Majid Komasi

Majid Komasi

Doctoral Student and Graduate Research Assistant, NC State University
Majid Komasi is a Doctoral Student in Learning Design and Technology at NC State University's College of Education, where he works as a Graduate Research Assistant affiliated with the Literacy and Community Initiative (LCI). His research focuses on the intersections of multimodal... Read More →
avatar for Sarah Blankenbeker

Sarah Blankenbeker

Graduate Student, NC State University
Sarah Blankenbeker is a first-year doctoral student in the Literacy and English Language Arts Education program within the Teacher Education and Learning Sciences department at North Carolina State University. She holds a Master of Arts in Reading and Literacy Education from East... Read More →
Wednesday October 7, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EDT
Circular Church
  Paper

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