BA Oberlin College

MA San Francisco State University

PhD University of Pittsburgh

An Assistant Professor in WKU’s department of English Studies, Jordan Clarke Hayes is a teacher of English composition and a literacy studies scholar.

Dr. Hayes began his educational career as a literacy consultant for Lindamood-Bell Learning, a research-based organization that works with children overcoming dyslexia and other learning challenges. Before coming to Wenzhou-Kean, Dr. Hayes taught English composition at Northeastern University, the University of Pittsburgh, San Francisco State University, and Foothill Community College. His teaching emphasizes student agency and the cultivation of knowledge about writing processes. Embracing the use of all available languages and digital tools as resources for inquiry and reflection, he brings a translingual and sociomaterial orientation to his student-centered classrooms.

Dr. Hayes’s doctoral research focused on literacy, technology, and mobility. His dissertation, Trajectories of Belonging, gathered a community of Syrian refugees’ stories of displacement, migration, and settlement in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. A current project, (Im)Possible Homes, inquires into the choices made by a community of Syrian refugees when they invest time, money, expertise, memory, and hope into building a house. At WKU, he sponsors Exploring Literacy, a community literacy project designed in partnership with the WKU Institute for Picture Book Learning. WKU undergrads participating in Exploring Literacy are currently bringing picture book tutoring to children at the Li’ao Kindergarten.

Literacy Studies, Writing Studies, Sociomateriality, Intersectionality, Translingualism,

Decoloniality, Infrastructure Studies

“Against Autonomous Literacies: Extending the Work of Brian V. Street, Editors’ Introduction.” Co-authored with Antonio Byrd and Nicole Turnipseed. Literacy in Composition Studies, special issue honoring Brian V. Street. February 2021.

“Trajectories of Belonging & Enduring Technology: Digital Infrastructures, 2G Devices, and Syrian Refugees in the Kurdish Region of Iraq.” Media and Forced Migration, special issue, The European Journal of Communication. November 2019.

“Upon the Walls of the UN Camp: Situated Intersectionality, Trajectories of Belonging, and Built Environment among Syrian Refugee Communities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq." Making Faces: Art and Intersectionality in Iraqi Kurdistan, special issue, The Journal of Intersectionality. December 2018.

3090 Business Writing

3029 Research Methods

4040 New Literacy Studies and Ethnography