Approaches to diversity: Multimodality and representational ethics in Making Our Mark

While diversity is ostensibly welcomed and valued at universities nationwide, representatives of universities have not always adequately attended to the ethical dimensions of claiming diversity as an institutional value. This dissertation, Approaches to Diversity: Multimodality and Representational Ethics in Making Our Mark, presents a model of how those in composition studies can (1) foreground ethical dimensions of diversity initiatives and discourses and (2) place the field's current concern with multimodality in relation to such work.;The research is informed by qualitative case study data gathered in the context of a project in which students from historically underrepresented groups at a rural, Midwestern, technological university combined written narrative and web development in order to publish stories about how they adjust and succeed in the majority white male institution. The data gathered is based on observations of project meetings, work in collaborative web development sessions, and interviews with project participants. Composition theory (Yancey 2004, Shipka 2007); feminist theory (Mohanty 2003, Moya 2002); literacy theory (Cope and Kalantzis 2000); and theories of research methodology (Tuhiwai Smith 1999) inform the interpretation of data.;This research indicates that a goal-oriented approach to diversity is counterproductive; that micro-level practices and relations provide useful points of focus; and that it is important for university representatives who are usually considered to be outside the formation of diversity to examine and respond to our own implication in diversity-related work. The research also shows that the role of multimodality in constructing unconventional representations of difference was limited by institutional and contextual factors, as well as by a lack of available designs for representing the complexities of students identities.;Ultimately, the methodological dimension of representational ethics in the project is the most fundamental aspect of the research. Questions about a researcher's role, assumptions, and responsibilities must be continually engaged and evaluations of a project's direct benefits and consequences for its participants must be foregrounded.