Macomb immigrant finds her voice as advocate for linguistic justice
A professor of writing and rhetoric once said to Mena Hannakachl that in order to thrive in the real world she would need to put her language aside and conform to standard English.
She was too proud for that.
Instead she found her writing voice by embracing the languages she was taught by her parents while growing up in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates. Now she’s a scholar who advocates for linguistic justice and a mentor to other young writers who speak English as a second or third language.
“I’ve come full circle,” said Hannakachl, a junior majoring in professional and digital writing at Oakland University and recipient of OU’s Keeper of the Dream Award Scholarship, which recognizes students demonstrating exceptional leadership through their involvement on campus by breaking down racial and cultural stereotypes and promoting racial understanding. “The same work I was told to put aside are the contributions that were celebrated and validated by the award.”
Hannakachl, who received a $10,000 award, admits her early encounter with old school academia was a blow to her self-esteem but it fueled her inspirations to explore linguistic justice and research on issues affecting minorities like herself.
“I am an Arab Chaldean American,” said Hannakachl, who immigrated to the United States in 2015.
She was 4 years old when her family fled the turmoil in Baghdad and settled in Dubai. Her father was a successful small business owner in the city that lies along the Persian Gulf. However, like others who came before him, he remained determined in his pursuit of the American dream and in 2015, moved his wife and their four children including Hannakachl to Michigan.
They settled in Sterling Heights where they were embraced by a diverse community and while many of her neighbors and classmates were also Chaldean, she never singled herself out as just that.
“I don’t like being labeled,” she said. “I am many things. I am pro choice. I’m a woman. I am a student. When I lived in Dubai I wasn’t consumed by identity. Why are we always trying to find ways to separate ourselves?”
After graduating from Stevenson High School, Hannakachl attended OU. She was a communications major but at the end of her first year and first writing class under the direction of Cathy Rorai, she switched her major to professional and digital writing.
“She brought out the best in me,” Hannakachl said, of Rorai. “I finally felt like my immigrant story was relative to the conversation and to the class and space I was in.”
Shortly after that she took on the role of an embedded writing specialist and hasn’t looked back since, helping and mentoring other students while completing her research and writing assignments.
“She consistently chooses to work on projects that promote racial understanding and break down cultural barriers and stereotypes,” said Felicia ArzuCarmichael, an assistant professor at OU and one of three professors who nominated Hannakachl for the Keeper of the Dream scholarship award.
One example is Hannakachl’s paper titled, “How are Writing Instructors Complicit in White Mainstream English?”
“In this paper, Mena acknowledged the critical relationship between language and race, and she investigated how racial issues show up in how writing instructors teach access student writing. Drawing on notable scholars in our field, Mena challenged the role of white language supremacy in the cloassroom and it’s consequences for linguistically diverse students,” Arzu-Charmichael said.
“She asks smart and difficult questions, offers important culturally-relevant examples and challenges her own and her classmates’ understanding of those issues,” she added.
Crystal VanKooten concurred.
The 31st annual Keeper of the Dream Scholarship Awards Celebration held at Oakland University on Martin Luther King Day. The event recognized seven students for their efforts to break down stereotypes and promote racial and cultural understanding.
The prestigious award was given during a marvelous celebration in the Oakland Center Founders Ballroom and was attended by faculty, family and fellow students.
The evening’s keynote speaker was award-winning actor and best-selling author Hill Harper.
Other award recipients included:
• Guadalupe Avalos, social work
• Krystal Davis, English
• Kyle Griggs, psychology
• D’Zariah Hopkins, communications
• Zoe Rosario, history within the Secondary Teacher Program
• Tamia Smith, health sciences
For more information visit oakland.edu/cmi/.
“She often challenged us to question the status quo when it came to race, language and writing in college,” said VanKooten, associate professor of writing and rhetoric and former director of the EWS program.
It is by questioning the norm Hannakachl hopes to bring about change as a writer, civil rights lawyer or maybe even a legislator.
“I’m only 21. So, I’m still not sure what I will do,” she said. “I might run for office in some capacity.”
Whatever she ends up doing, it won’t be something that requires her to abandon who she is and where she came from. Nor will she ever ask her students to do so.
“When I’m teaching my students, my question is not what I can take away, but how can I use my role to empower them and bring their experience to the table,” she said.