US-Based Ghanaian professor, Dr. Godwin Agboka honoured

Agboka, Professor of Technical Communication at the University of Houston-Downtown, won the CCCC Award for Best Original Collection of Essays in Technical or Scientific Communication for the collection (co-edited with Walton), Equipping Technical Communicators for Social Justice Work: Theories, Methodologies, and Pedagogies.

The selection committee said: “Walton and Agboka’s edited collection fills a gap in technical communication work focused on social justice, offering compelling examples of how to ethically engage in social justice work as well as frameworks for how to begin new projects in this direction.

In an interview with Agboka, he noted that “The academic field of technical communication is undergoing a social justice turn, which is a significant movement that is opening up the field to inclusive, delegitimized, and diverse approaches to scholarship, teaching, and practice.

Secondly, with a membership of over 4,000, the Conference on College Composition and Communication presents a unique and wider platform for projecting this important work and to bring attention to social justice issues in higher education.”

Agboka’s second award is for Best Article on Pedagogy or Curriculum in Technical or Scientific Communication for the publication, “Curricular Efforts in Technical Communication After the Social Turn,” (co-authored with Dorpenyo).

He continued: “My courses empower students to consider the social justice implications of their work, while providing them with job-ready skills for the contemporary workplace

I recently designed a new graduate course, ‘TCOM 6311: Social Justice Issues in Technical and Professional Communication’ to educate students about the role technical communication plays in legitimizing and sustaining injustice and oppression as well as how to take action against injustice