Spatializing Social Justice

This book explores esthetic cultural landscapes of both physical space and imaginative space. Spatializing social justice reflects on the study of literature and space is centered on a remembrance of a places or settings in fiction. Space (study of diversity, understanding global perspective, cultural awareness of diverse peoples through analytical strategies, close reading, the analysis of figurative language; spatialization as a theoretical model applies a literary spatialization to important works by key authors. Examining cultural landscape in literary works presents literary critiques on and reflections of the works of Willa Cather, Ernest Cline, Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, Flannery O’Connor, Toni Morrison, and Stephanie Powell Watts

Spatialization as a theoretical model applies literary critiques and presents reflections on works by Willa Cather, Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen Flannery O’Connor, Toni Morrison and Stephanie Powell Watts

About the Author 
Maryann, a published author or more than 50 books and articles on the international market, recipient of two Professional Achievement Awards at University of Maryland University College and the UMUC Stanley J. Drazek Teaching Excellence Award, also received the 2018 Professional Achievement Award from College English Association. In 2016, she was recipient of the College English Association’s Karen Lentz Madison CEA Award for Scholarship, an annual award for a presentation at our annual conference by an adjunct or contingent faculty member who contributes significantly to the corpus studiorum in English. The prize is funded by an endowment from James R. (Dick) Bennett, and serves to recognize the College English Association’s immeasurable gratitude to adjunct and contingent faculty in literature and composition studies and to honor their unconquerable esprit de corps and professional dedication. 
Maryann P. DiEdwardo is the author of more than forty books and articles, including “Pairing Linguistic and Music Intelligences.” Her case study research connects music as representative of culture and relates to the rhetoric found in literary passages. For example, modern songs with lyrics hold cultural contextual meanings and metaphors, such as “A Thousand Miles,” by Vanessa Carlton. Students compare songs to current multicultural literature and demonstrate connections. For example, the work of Chinua Achebe can be understood through the comparison of her works to the works of modern songwriters. Modern music transforms, and allows the student to learn literature, reading, and writing through the theory that promotes transformation. She has been creating presentations and teaching peace through spatializing the study of emigration, migration, immigration, and diasporas. In 2018, at the College English Association St. Petersburg Conference, April 5, 6, 7 & 8, she presented an original paper: “Thomas Merton Essays”. At the Northeast Modern Language Association Convention 2018, she presented a paper entitled “Writing Trauma”. In 2017, she presented two original papers. “Lonely Island of the Self in Feminine Practice in Writing” presented at the College English Association Conference. Hilton Head, SC. and “Metacognition” for Northeast MLA 2017. Baltimore, MD. Next, in 2016 at a Recap Education and Technology Conference in West Chester, PA, she presented “Blog and Wiki Journaling and E-Portfolios about Themes of Nature and Place Memory to Engage Student Voices ”In 2016, for the College English Association Conference, Denver, CO. she presented her paper, “Dystopian Architecture in Ready Player One: Semiotic Praxis”. In 2016, at the Northeast Modern Language Association Convention. Hartford, Conn. Maryann was Chair for Women and Gender Studies Panel and presenter of study on the use of place as a sign in “Black Death” by Zora Neale Hurston and “Unassigned Territory” by Stephanie Powell Watts. Her panel initiative was published into a contributed volume by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in 2016 entitled American Women Writers, Poetics, and the Nature of Gender Study. Maryann was editor and contributor of seven chapters