Ethnographic research has investigated academic institutions as sites where meaning making can be contested and/or collaborative and can lead to transformation in social relationships. Such perspectives contrast with dominant deficit discourses positioning academic literacy as a discrete set of neutral skills to be imparted to students. An ideological commitment to transforming unequal power relations distinguishes academic literacies from related fields such as English for academic purposes. Theory and methodology in academic literacies have responded to the changes influencing knowledge construction in educational institutions, particularly the spread of marketization, globalization, and electronic communication. The challenge for future researchers will be to address the perceived methodological limitations of small-scale ethnographic studies in terms of policy influence, to diversify from Western university contexts, and to find ways of conceptualizing “academic” to take account of knowledge construction outside formal institutions.