For this week’s topically relevant blog entry, I want to connect my overall topic with a musical that has personally influenced me: Suffs, created by Shaina Taub. Suffs tells the story of the American women’s suffrage movement and the relationships, conflicts, and collective actions that shaped the fight for women’s voting rights (PBS, 2026). A recorded Broadway version of Suffs is available through PBS Great Performances, and PBS also provides clips such as “Wait My Turn,” which highlights Ida B. Wells confronting the racial exclusions within the suffrage movement (PBS, 2026). I was drawn to this musical not only for its music and storytelling, but also for how it shows how social movements depend on communication, community, public voice, and literacy. Watching Suffs made me think about literacy in a broader way. Literacy is not only the ability to read and write. It is also the ability to understand power, participate in public life, tell stories, use available communication tools, and make one’s voice heard.
| Production photo from Suffs on Broadway. From “Suffs Sets Closing Date on Broadway,” by P. A. Smith, 2024, Broadway Direct. Copyright 2024 by Broadway Direct. |
The suffrage movement was not built by isolated individuals. It depended on networks of organizers, writers, speakers, activists, and community members who shared information, developed strategies, disagreed with one another, and kept working toward a collective goal. In this sense, Suffs helps me see community as something active and relational. A community is not simply a group of people with the same label. It requires repeated interaction, shared purpose, norms, conflict, leadership, and collective learning.
This idea connects to my topic of social media tools in higher education. In today’s higher education context, students also build learning communities and professional networks through digital platforms and other online spaces. These platforms can help students access information, connect with others, and develop professional identities. However, the platform itself does not automatically create a community. People need to interact meaningfully over time, recognize shared goals, and build some level of trust to build a community.
Suffs also helps me think about literacy as participation. The suffragists needed political literacy, public communication skills, strategic knowledge, and community networks to push for change. Similarly, students in higher education need more than basic digital access. They need digital literacy, professional literacy, and network literacy. They need to know how to evaluate information, participate in online communities, manage their digital identities, ask for support, and contribute to shared knowledge. Dabbagh and Kitsantas (2012) explain that Personal Learning Environments can support self-regulated learning by connecting formal and informal learning through social media tools. This suggests that social media can support student learning when students use it intentionally rather than passively.
This is where Suffs becomes meaningful to me beyond a musical. It reminds me that literacy and participation are connected to power. Who gets to speak? Who is heard? Who is included in the community? Who is left out? The women’s suffrage movement itself was not perfect; it involved racial exclusion, strategic disagreements, and tensions over whose rights were at the center. That complexity matters because online learning communities also reproduce power dynamics. Some voices become more visible than others. Some people feel safe participating, while others remain silent or become lurkers.
Overall, Suffs helps me connect literacy, community, and higher education in a more personal way. The musical shows that social change depends on people learning together, organizing together, and using communication tools to make their voices public. Students need guidance, models, privacy protection, and opportunities for low-risk participation. This week helped me understand that digital literacy is about learning how to participate ethically, critically, and purposefully in communities that shape knowledge, identity, and opportunity.
References
Dabbagh, N., & Kitsantas, A. (2012). Personal Learning Environments, social media, and self-regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning. The Internet and Higher Education, 15(1), 3–8.
PBS. (2026). Suffs. Great Performances. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/suffs-about/17498/
Smith, P. A. (2024, October 11). Suffs sets closing date on Broadway. Broadway Direct. https://broadwaydirect.com/suffs-sets-closing-date-on-broadway/
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