Transliteracy: The Origin Story

Sue Thomas
5 min readJul 7, 2023
Transliteracy: The Origin Story
Sue Thomas explaining transliteracy at the Institute for the Future, Palo Alto, California, 2007.

Transliteracy is a unified way to think about literacy past, present and future.

Over the last 15 years or so, the concept has attracted interest from academics, teachers and librarians in many countries. But do you know where it came from?

Here is the origin story.

I developed the concept of transliteracy in 2006–8 with colleagues at the Institute of Creative Technologies, De Montfort University, where I was Professor of New Media from 2005–2013. It has since been taken up by researchers around the world. We developed it as an open source concept, and a quick search will reveal that there are now many definitions from numerous sources, which is exactly what we hoped for.

Our original definition was as follows:

Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.

The meaning of transliteracy is still evolving, but the original 2007 definition, quoted above, along with the source for its inspiration, can be found in the first published paper on the subject at First Monday.

There’s a lively discussion about #transliteracy on Twitter.

I’ve given keynote talks on transliteracy in many places including:

When I’m explaining transliteracy, I like to begin with this amusing video which reminds us that the book is quite a new idea:

From YouTube notes: “Helpdesk support back in the day of the middle age with English subtitles. Original taken from the show “Øystein og jeg” on Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK)in 2001. With Øystein Backe (helper)and Rune Gokstad (desperate monk). Written by Knut Nærum.” 2007

Resources

There are numerous transliteracy resources and debates available online. Probably the best way to stay current is to follow #transliteracy on Twitter. Scoop-it and Google also turn up interesting activity. The Transliteracy Research Group has an archived website containing many excellent posts and links.

The first published article on transliteracy is the widely-cited Transliteracy: Crossing divides, First Monday, Volume 12 Number 12–3 December 2007, Thomas, S. with Joseph, C., Laccetti, J., Mason, B., Mills, S., Perril, S., and Pullinger, K. http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2060/1908

See also my lecture at the Institute of Creative Technologies, De Montfort University. October 24th, 2008

Citations 2005–2010

Read a version of this article on my blog.

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Sue Thomas

I write about life, nature and technology. Seeking a publisher for my third novel 'The Fault in Reality. www.suethomas.net. Threads: @suethomas_bournemouth