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Emerging Scholars Circle SIG Meeting 05/07/26
Online Meeting
Thursday, May 07, 2026, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM EDT
Category: Special Interest Groups

Emerging Scholars Circle SIG is for international and domestic undergraduate and graduate students interested in social justice-oriented research centered around equity, diversity, inclusion and empowerment. The Emerging Scholars Circle SIG is a bridging space for these students who are engaged in scholarly research and undergraduate/graduate school coursework.. Visit the Emerging Scholars Circle SIG page for more information.

Emerging Scholars SIG Webinar – Digital Storytelling & Immigrant Youth Networks

Dear MATSOL community and friends,

We are pleased to invite you to the upcoming webinar hosted by the Emerging Scholars Special Interest Group.

  • Date: May 7th

  • Time: 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM

  • Location: Zoom (Link)

As part of our ongoing work to explore the intersectional dimensions of language and education, we are joined by two guest presenters. Their research offers valuable insights and tools for understanding diverse educational contexts and developing more robust pedagogies.

Presentations:

  • Drina Kei Yatsu (Boston College): Digital Storytelling as Reflective Practice: Bridging Personal and Academic Identities in Teacher Education

  • Rachel Wang (UMass Boston): “Emails are only for school”: Digital affinity space and social connections of Chinese immigrant youth in Massachusetts

We look forward to your attendance, the opportunity to learn from their work, and an engaging Q&A session.

Please feel free to share this invitation with colleagues and friends who may be interested. You can find the abstracts for both presentations included below.

Best regards,

Emerging Scholars Special Interest Group: Nilufer Johnson, Lilunnaher, Aram Ahmed, Damian Diaz

Digital Storytelling as Reflective Practice: Bridging Personal and Academic Identities in Teacher Education

Drina Kei Yatsu

This presentation examines the transformative potential of digital storytelling (DST) in teacher education, focusing on how multimodal composition supports preservice teachers in reconciling personal and professional identities through reflective practice. I examine how four undergraduate students experienced the assignment and engaged in multimodal meaning-making. Interview data provide insight into students’ experiences with the project, while a multimodal analytical framework grounded in SFL is applied to analyze how visual, auditory, and textual elements contribute to meaning-making. Findings show that DST creates space for students to engage with “disorienting dilemmas” and explore aspects of identity that may remain underexamined in traditional academic formats. Its multimodal nature supports nuanced expression and deepens reflection. This session highlights how digital storytelling can expand approaches to reflection in teacher education, with implications for both research and pedagogical design.

“Emails are only for school”: Digital affinity space and social connections of Chinese immigrant youth in Massachusetts

Rachel Wang

This study explores how Chinese immigrant youth use digital platforms to build social connections and participate in digital affinity spaces (Gee, 2004, 2015), thereby shaping their language practices, identities, and opportunities for English development. Grounded in New Literacy Studies (Street, 2001, 2003), New Media Literacy Studies (Jenkins, 2009; Lin et al., 2013), and theories of digital affordances and constraints (Jones & Hafner, 2021), the study examines how platforms such as WeChat and email structure youth participation across school-based and peer-oriented networks. Drawing on two ongoing ethnographic case studies in Massachusetts, the analysis shows that digital affinity spaces both enable strong transnational ties and, at times, limit access to English-dominant interactions and local socialization.

This meeting will take place online via ZOOM Meeting: 
Emerging Scholars Circle Meeting Link