The Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative’s Syllabus Repository and Teaching and Learning Materials collections are peer-contributed resources dedicated to providing open-source pedagogical artifacts. Beyond digital archives, we view these two repositories as possible mentoring texts and formative models that could inspire instructors in the current moment. In this call, we ask educators from across the disciplines to share syllabi and other course materials which center social justice-oriented pedagogies, including themes such as anti-racism, equity, inclusion, and more. By curating these resources, our aim is to provide alternative pathways for scholars to share pedagogical strategies that actively challenge systemic inequities.
As PhD students and women of color, we (Thais and Nicole) launch this call for teaching materials in response to a complex and often precarious political landscape where legislative restrictions and institutional pressures increasingly limit open discussion or even reference to social justice and related values. As educators face challenges to academic freedom, we invite submissions that explicitly name social justice pedagogies and practices, as well as those that might not name them outright. This latter move intends to protect folks who continue the work of social justice in institutions that may not support or allow it; please contact us directly with any concerns and we will do our best to support.
Full Submission Due: February 26, 2026
Submission Form: https://forms.gle/6tHySJpi9EXzdDFBA
Framing Social Justice
Our understanding of social justice is grounded in the field of Technical and Professional Communication’s (TPC) ongoing social justice turn toward coalition building and actionable intervention in the classroom (Haas & Eble, 2018). We draw on Walton, Moore, and Jones (2019), who argue that TPC must confront its complicity in systems of exclusion and work intentionally to dismantle them, because we agree that social justice isn’t some “sexy” topic (p. 4)—it requires critical self-reflection, deep and continued commitment, and vast coalition-building. To engage with the social justice turn in TPC, we believe in critically examining power relations inherent in the design, technology, and investigating how digital systems and standard language practices impact the distribution of power (Jones & Williams, 2017; Constanza-Chock, 2020).
To this end, our understanding of social justice seeks to move beyond the Western-centric models for technical communication, embracing “transliteracies” in intercultural communication (Walwema, 2018), an ethic of accountability (Agbozo, 2025), and amplifying marginalized voices (Agboka & Dorpenyo, 2022). We value scholarship which centers narratives and identity with careful attention to intersectionality, gender, culture, and race (Baniya & Chen, 2021; Cobos et al, 2018; Durack, 1997; Gonzales et al, 2021; Haas, 2012; Sano-Franchini, 2017). Our perspective is deeply informed by multilingual and transnational scholarship (Gonzales, 2022).
Resonating with Jones, Gonzales, Haas and Williams’ (2025) edited collection, “given the ongoing crises and oppressions that our communities and environments continue to face, it is a critical time to reaffirm our commitment to leverage TPC skills for a more justice driven future” (p. 3). This syllabus repository aims to contribute to this call by curating a living archive of pedagogical materials and reflection, empowering educators to center social justice in their praxis.
What is the Sweetland DRC Syllabus Repository?
The Sweetland DRC Syllabus Repository is a public, crowd-sourced collection of syllabi of courses taught by our contributors. We see the syllabus repository as a library of diverse classroom artifacts that may offer insights into the course design choices, texts, readings, projects, and classroom or online activities that instructors who have taught at the intersections of digital studies can share. We hope these syllabi will function as mentoring texts for instructors designing or redesigning courses, offering inspiration as we think deeply about our work’s pedagogical and justice-oriented implications. See more here.
What is The Sweetland DRC Teaching & Learning Materials?
The SRC TLM Collection is a public, crowd-sourced selection of course materials (prompts, classroom activities, texts, and so on). We see this collection as a space for instructors to share successful classroom resources with fellow instructors. We hope these materials will function as formative models and inspiration for other teachers and display the wide range of approaches to teaching at the intersections of Digital Studies. See more here.
Submitting Your Teaching Materials
Because we aim to bolster the DRC’s peer-contributed repositories with a focus on critical reflection and action, we invite contributions to either collection that center social justice pedagogies and practices across diverse classroom contexts. Given our orientation to social justice stemming from our backgrounds in Technical and Professional Communication (TPC), we are particularly interested in TPC course contexts but we welcome submissions that engage social justice in writing studies, composition, writing center studies, and rhetoric. Please consider submitting a syllabus or other classroom material which actively challenges systemic inequities and promotes socially just teaching practices. Submissions should showcase thoughtful and substantive integration of social justice-informed pedagogy and/or practice(s) within your course’s goals, core readings, major assignments, or assessment practices. Please contact us directly with any concerns and we will do our best to support.
Possible Key Themes
- Anti-racist pedagogies
- Accessibility and disability justice
- Community writing/engagement/activism
- Decolonial pedagogies
- Data and digital justice
- Environmental and climate justice
- Feminist orientations
- Place-based pedagogies
- Racial justice
- Service learning (critically framed)
How to submit?
Full Submission Due: February 26, 2026
Submission Form: https://forms.gle/6tHySJpi9EXzdDFBA
Contact: Thais Cons (tcons@arizona.edu) or Nicole Golden (goldenn2@msu.edu)
For Syllabi
In the submission form, we ask that you provide your syllabus, context, and a reflection.
Syllabus: Include the complete, finalized syllabus for a course you taught. This document should reflect the course design, schedule, policies, readings, and assignment descriptions.
Context: In 250 words or less, briefly describe the setting of the course. This description ideally includes the course title and level (e.g., graduate seminar, second-year writing), the field (e.g., TPC, FYW, community writing), and the institutional setting where it was taught. Specify the course length (e.g., 15-week semester, 7-week term) and the primary mode of delivery (e.g., face-to-face, hybrid, online).
Reflection: In 250-500 words, write a reflection about the specific social justice issues or themes that framed the course’s design (e.g., how the course addresses community-based activism or critical data literacies), the pedagogical choices you made to integrate social justice principles (e.g., your rationale for selecting decolonial readings, your use of labor-based grading, or how assignments engaged with community partners). Your reflection should also include what you learned from teaching this iteration of the course, particularly regarding its social justice goals, challenges, and potential revisions.
For Teaching and Learning Materials (TLM)
In the submission form, we ask that you provide your teaching materials, context, and a reflection.
Materials: Submit your primary artifact(s). This could be a detailed assignment prompt (e.g., for a major project, a community writing partnership, or a critical analysis task), a lesson plan, a writing or discussion activity handout, or a specific reading/text selection with instructional framing.
Context: In 300 words or less, describe the course in which the material was used. Include the course title and level (e.g., upper-division undergraduate, graduate seminar), the field (e.g., TPC, Rhet/Comp, FYW), and the institutional setting. Explain how this material was situated within the course’s overall flow and goals.
Reflection: In 250-500 words, discuss the main social justice goals the material is designed to achieve and/or its connection to social justice. Consider how the material enacts social justice principles in its design, content, or assessment as well as the outcomes or impact of using the material. For example, you might consider: What worked well? What challenges arose? What might you revise?
Editors’ Note
We (Thais and Nicole) are keenly aware of the complex and often precarious political landscape surrounding social justice topics in education today, particularly where legislative restrictions or institutional pressures limit open discussion and instruction on these themes, authors and their students may face risks. We want to be mindful of our authors’ and their students’ positionalities, especially in states where social justice topics are actively being restricted.
The Sweetland DRC is committed to supporting educators who continue to do vital social justice work. We strongly encourage submissions from Black, Indigenous, and people of color scholars (BIPOC), international scholars, and graduate students and are ready to work alongside you in the curation process to ensure your pedagogical efforts are shared safely.
If you wish to submit your work but are concerned about potential professional or personal repercussions, we can work with you to anonymize or make details confidential in order to maintain confidentiality. Please contact us directly to discuss or you may indicate your needs in the submission form; in either case, we will connect with you to determine how best to represent your invaluable work while protecting your security.
Disclaimer
The syllabus repository and TLM are collaborative projects that depend on generous scholars who agree to put their syllabi and activities on the DRC website for you to refer to and adapt with attribution. Please be advised that the authors are obliged to ensure the complete, accurate, teachable, and reliable content of the syllabi and activities. All syllabi will be shared with a CC-BY-NC license, which enables wide use of materials. To learn more about this, visit this link. Submitting materials requires signing in through a Google account.
References
Agboka, G. Y., & Dorpenyo, I. K. (2022). The role of technical communicators in confronting injustice—everywhere. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 65(1), 5-10.
Agbozo, G. E. (2025). Localization and Culture in Communities in the global South. In N. N. Jones, L. Gonzales, A. M. Haas, & M. F. Williams (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of social justice in technical and professional communication (pp. 357-367). Routledge.
Baniya, S., & Chen, C. (2021). Experiencing a global pandemic: The power of public storytelling as antenarrative in crisis communication. Technical Communication, 68(4), 74–87.
Cobos, C., Ríos, G. R., Sackey, D. J., Sano-Franchini, J., & Haas, A. M. (2018). Interfacing cultural rhetorics: A history and a call. Rhetoric Review, 37(2), 139-154. https://doi.org/10.1080/07350198.2018.1424470
Costanza-Chock, S. (2020). Design justice: Community-led practices to build the worlds we need. The MIT Press.
Durack, K. T. (1997). Gender, Technology, and the History of Technical Communication. Technical Communication Quarterly, 6(3), 249-260.
Gonzales, L., Walwema, J., Jones, N. N., Yu, H., & Williams, M. F. (2021). Narratives from the margins: Centering women of color in technical communication. In Walton, R., & Agboka, G. Y. (Eds.), Equipping technical communicators for social justice work: Theories, methodologies, and pedagogies (pp. 15-32). Utah State University Press.
Gonzales, Laura. (2022). Designing Multilingual Experiences in Technical Communication. University Press of Colorado.
Haas, A. M. (2012). Race, rhetoric, and technology: A case study of decolonial technical communication theory, methodology, and pedagogy. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 26(3), 277-310.
Haas, A, & Eble, M. (2018). Introduction: The Social Justice Turn. In Haas, A., & Eble, M., eds., Key Theoretical Frameworks: Teaching Technical Communication in the Twenty-first Century. University of Colorado Press.
Jones, N., & Williams, M. (2017). The social justice impact of plain language: A critical approach to plain-language analysis. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 60(4): 412-429.
Jones, N. N., Gonzales, L., Haas, A. M., & Williams, M. F. (2025). Introduction: The shifting landscapes of technical and professional communication. In N. N. Jones, L. Gonzales, A. M. Haas, & M. F. Williams (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of social justice in technical and professional communication (pp. 1-3). Routledge.
Sano-Franchini, J. (2017). What can Asian eyelids teach us about user experience design? A culturally-reflexive framework for UX/I design. Rhetoric, Professional Communication and Globalization. Spec. Issue on Designing for Everyday Life in a Global Context, 10(1), 27–53.
Walton, R., Moore, K., & Jones, N. (2019). Technical communication after the social justice turn: Building coalitions for action. Routledge.
Walwema, J. (2018). Transliteracies in intercultural professional communication. IEEE transactions on professional communication, 61(3), 330-345.
