"K for the Way" Wins the Advancement of Knowledge Award

Advancement of Knowledge Book Award

Thoughts captured on Monday, March 17, 2025

One of the things that has been crazy in the midst of this Black History Month (2025) was the email I received from the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). When I get emails from CCCCs, I’m not really sure what to expect. This time, when I saw the email, it was a message congratulating me for being the recipient of the Advancement of Knowledge Award for 2025.

The Conference on College Composition and Communication is also known as the four C's (or CCCC) in our English circles. The Conference on College Composition and Communication is really one of the premier professional college writing studies organizations and conferences. They do a lot of work around College Writing and Rhetoric. It is connected to NCTE, but also very much separate from NCTE. I've been going to CCCC's since 2008. I’ve met a lot of people through that professional organization and from going to the yearly conference. I’ve seen a lot of people who I know and respect receive the Advancement of Knowledge Award.

The CCCCs description reads, “The Advancement of Knowledge Award is presented annually for the empirical research publication in the previous two years that most advances writing studies.” In explaining why the Award Committee chose "K for the Way," they say, “Craig makes connections between Hip Hop, writing, community, and technology, and provides examples for scholars and teachers of writing who want to continue expanding the boundaries of our field to reflect the skills and perspectives of the global majority. We thank Dr. Craig for showing us how to conduct qualitative research that is deeply rooted in community while also contributing to our field’s longstanding interests in multimodality.”

It stands as an important landmark moment, because it's an award that is a testament to the fact that the research in "K for the Way" is resonating with people in a particularly positive and innovative way. I've always said, I hope I get it right for the DJs! But now it's becoming clear that I may have gotten it right for the academic community as well. And the illest part about the entire thing was the award ceremony was scheduled to take place on, Friday, April 11! As we know, Friday, April 11th is my birthday. So again, I'm just seeing a lot of synergy in these moments. The fact that I won the Russell Award on my mother's birthday, and then I'm receiving the Advancement of Knowledge Award on my birthday – it's just clear to me that there's a lot of synergy happening in this moment. It’s also clearly one of those divine intervention joints as well. It's just crazy, for real. Two academic book awards in one academic year!

So, yeah – super exciting and super humbling. I’m beyond thankful and overly grateful. It's such an extraordinary blessing, and it just really goes to show that if you put the work in and you're dedicated to the work and the craft, good things can happen. So shout out to the CCCCs and the Advancement of Knowledge Award…

Like DJ Khalid said, “Another one!”