Dr. Jenel Cavazos: Nonacademic Literacy

Though Dr. Jenel Cavazos has the same job as many other professors here at the University of Oklahoma and at several different universities, the way she approaches her career is fairly opposite. She does not partake in the traditional research and experiment procedures as her colleagues. Along with this, she also uses her nonacademic literacy, which is music, to come up with different ways for students to understand key concepts. Dr. Cavazos received her graduate degree at the University of Oklahoma. Originally, she was more focused on making, what is now her nonacademic literacy, her academic literacy. Entering college she had a plan that was nothing like where she would end up today. She began college as a music major in hopes of becoming …show more content…
When asked how these two subjects are the same she stated that they are “completely different and involve different ways of using the brain”. However as the interview continued on she realized that there was a way that the skills in these literacies connected. When Dr. Cavazos began to realize that they do have a connection, she began to become a part of the theory of repurposing literacy practices. According to “Journalism, Pottery Stand-up Comedy, and Academic Literacy: Mapping the Interplay of Curricular and Extracurricular Literate Activate” by Kevin Roozen, the definition of repurposing literacies occurs when someone uses the skills they have learned from a previous literacies and applies them to a new literacy. Specifically, one literacy that is academic and one that is …show more content…
Dr. Cavazos does not apply to this generalization. Instead of doing research that would only further her understanding of the topics she was interested in, she uses her profession to make it easier for her students. She describes herself as more of a teacher than a researcher. Since she is more interested in figuring out how to keep her students entertained and interested in the topic, she does not use the textbook as one of her textual artifacts. She uses social media. She has created pages on Facebook such as “Psych with Dr. C” and uses her Twitter profile to find interesting articles that relate to the current topics being taught in class. This is due to a skill, or rather an observation made through music. While doing music she realizes that it is concise and easy for most people to understand. Transferring what she does while in her nonacademic literacy to her academic literacy contributes to her success as a