Mogadishu on the Mississippi: Language, Racialized Identity, and Education in a New Land

In Mogadishu on the Mississippi , Martha Bigelow brings together five years of interdisciplinary research within the Somali community in Minnesota.  The community is a little–studied population in Minnesota, which is Somali, Muslim, refugee, and under–schooled.  In the book, she investigates the language learning, multiple literacy development, and schooling and community experiences of the community and draws upon theories from the fields of applied linguistics, second language acquisition, education, and sociology. Bigelow’s research uses a range of epistemological frames to explore central and contemporary problems that tie language learning to racialized, religious, and gendered identities. It also examines the broader experiences of minoritized and under–schooled youth in high school and their integration into the dominant society. In this illuminating study, Bigelow offers scholars in applied linguistics an argument for the centrality of sociopolitical contexts in language learning and for the integration of advocacy and research.

Series Editor’s Foreword. Acknowledgements. 1. Engaged Scholarship in the Somali Communities of Minnesota. 2. Orality and Literacy within the Somali Diaspora. 3. Multilingualism and Multiliteracy among Somali Adolescent Girls.

Martha H. Bigelow is an Associate Professor in the Second Languages and Cultures Education program at the University of Minnesota. Most of her current research, teaching, and community engagement activities are focused on the language learning, academic success, and healthy cultural adaptation of immigrant and refugee youth. She has completed studies in the areas of second language acquisition, language teacher education, and immigrant education.