The Association for Writing Across the Curriculum and the WAC Clearinghouse sponsor awards that recognize contributions to the WAC community through scholarship, service, and achievement. Nominations are solicited prior to each International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, and awards winners are announced at the conference.
The following awardees were recognized at the SIxteenth International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference in June 2023.
Publication Awards
These awards recognize significant contributions to WAC scholarship in 2020, 2021, or 2022.
Quick Links: Monograph | Edited Collection | Dissertation | Research Article | Pedagogy, Theory, or Practice Article | Early Career | Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion | Distinguished Fellows
Best WAC Monograph
This award recognizes an authored book (including books by multiple authors) that makes an exceptional contribution to WAC scholarship, including (but not limited to) WAC programming, administration, pedagogy, and impact.
Heather M. Falconer, University of Maine: Masking Inequality with Good Intentions: Systemic Bias, Counterspaces, and Discourse Acquisition in STEM Education
Comments from the Selection Committee: This award goes to Heather M. Falconer for Masking Inequality with Good Intentions: Systemic Bias, Counterspaces, and Discourse Acquisition in STEM Education (The WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado). The selection committee believes that this is a book we need at this cultural moment, one that takes an unflinching look at how efforts toward equity and inclusion in STEM disciplines are too often naive to the politics of language practice.
Falconer follows six students from historically underrepresented backgrounds as they navigate a multi-year undergraduate research program in biological, chemical, computer, and forensic sciences. Her methodology is impressive, grounded in interviews and observations. At the same time, she delivers astute and accessible explanations of key terms, recognizes the complex interplay of systemic and individual factors, and employs scholarship from both critical race theory and writing studies to contextualize the experience of the students. Their voices come through, as does hers.
In Falconer’s careful examination of the vexing institutional obstacles these students face even in a well-designed, linguistically and racially aware program, she argues that such efforts may not be enough if the students’ intersectional identities, aspirations, and goals are not sufficiently recognized and addressed. Meanwhile, she recounts how some faculty mentors, albeit too few, create vital counterspaces in which students grow as emerging scientists and writers. She delivers some important practical recommendations for pedagogy and program development but perhaps more significantly articulates questions and frameworks that will inform future research.
The book is available in open-access formats on the WAC Clearinghouse.
Best WAC Edited Collection
This award recognizes an edited collection that makes an exceptional contribution to WAC scholarship, including (but not limited to) WAC programming, administration, pedagogy, and impact.
Cristina Hanganu-Bresch, University of the Sciences, Michael J. Zerbe, York College of Pennsylvania, Gabriel Cutrufello, York College of Pennsylvania, and Stefania M. Maci, University of Bergamo (Eds.): The Routledge Handbook of Scientific Communication
Comments from the Selection Committee: The best edited collection award is given to Cristina Hanganu-Bresch, Michael J. Zerbe, Gabriel Cutrufello, Stefania M. Maci who co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Scientific Communication (Routledge). This book, the committee agreed, is an excellent model of the texts our field should be producing when it comes to WAC and disciplinary ways of thinking and teaching. We particularly want to highlight its approachability (for scientific and non-scientific scholars alike); comparative breadth of information; international authorship; and clear, concise, straightforward language. Moreover, the collection forefronts issues of race, gender, and ethics in meaningful ways, which we genuinely hope to see happening in future disciplinary collections like it. View the book at Routledge.
Honorable Mention: Chris M. Anson, North Carolina State University, and Pamela Flash, University of Minnesota (Eds.): Writing Enriched Curricula: Models of Faculty-Driven and Departmental Transformation
The committee also recognizes Writing Enriched Curricula: Models of Faculty-Driven and Departmental Transformation (The WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado), edited by Chris M. Anson and Pamela Flash, with an honorable mention. This is an excellent resource for WAC faculty looking to bring writing-enriched curriculums to their institutions as it combines both big-picture discussions of frameworks as well as specific accounts and examples.
The book is available in open-access formats on the WAC Clearinghouse.
Outstanding WAC Dissertation
This award recognizes a dissertation that makes an exceptional contribution to WAC scholarship, including (but not limited to) WAC programming, administration, pedagogy, and impact.
Lauriellen Stankavich, Southern Adventist University
Comments from the Selection Committee: Lauriellen Stankavitch’s dissertation, A Nexus of Literate Activity: The Design of Writing Assignments in the Disciplines, is a rigorous and thoughtful study exploring the design processes WAC instructors use in composing assignments. This work, as Stakavitch’s recommender noted, exemplifies “a rich theory of practice that applies far beyond its immediate object of study . . . . Stankavich’s theory portrays the WAC instructor as an embodied reservoir of disciplinary knowledge and an arbiter of literate practices who employs the mediating capacity of writing assignments as a potent pedagogical nexus.” The committee agreed that the dissertation was both eloquently written and offered novel insights into design and embodiment that WAC scholars and administrators will find useful in practical ways. View the dissertation at the Old Dominion University Digital Commons.
Best WAC Article or Chapter Focused on Research
This award recognizes a research-based article or chapter that makes an exceptional contribution to WAC. Nominated work should primarily offer the methodology and results of a research study, even if the findings have programmatic, theoretical, or pragmatic implications.
Dana Driscoll and Omar Ahmed Yacoub, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Comments from the Selection Committee: Driscoll and Yacoub’s contribution in their article to a disciplinary understanding of threshold genre is significant. “Threshold Genres: A 10-Year Exploration of a Medical Writer’s Development and Social Apprenticeship Through the Patient SOAP Note” reports on a case study—the longest longitudinal study in the field. The authors share insights into the participant’s experiences developing writing expertise over a ten-year span, beginning with first-year composition, to novice medical student, and, ultimately, to that of expert medical practitioner. The authors argue that the SOAP note serves as a dynamic, required genre for the participant’s mastery of professional thinking and practice. Driscoll and Yacoub make a compelling case for longitudinal threshold genre research as a means of deepening our understanding of how and why writing expertise develops over time. View the article in Written Communication on the Sage Journals website.
Best WAC Article or Chapter Focused on Pedagogy, Theory, or Practice
This award recognizes an article or chapter that makes an exceptional contribution to WAC scholarship in the areas of pedagogy, theory or practice. Nominated work should primarily offer us theoretical ways of approaching WAC work, discussions of program design and operation, or insights regarding pedagogy, even if this work is based in research.
Angela Rounsaville, University of Central Florida, Rebecca Lorimer Leonard, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Rebecca S. Nowacek, Marquette University
Comments from the Selection Committee:In “Relationality in the Transfer of Writing Knowledge,” Rounsaville, Leonard, and Nowacek provide a collaborative transdisciplinary analysis of transfer scholarship. We were impressed with the authors’ focused and expertly handled synthesis of interdisciplinary transfer research, which we believe enriches our field’s understanding of transfer and offers new and refined concepts that will drive future research and teaching in first year composition, writing centers, and writing across the curriculum. It impressively integrates scholarship from aviation, medicine, human resources and many other fields in order to help readers make sense of transfer’s paradoxical nature, which is crucial for WAC scholars and teachers looking to activate transfer in disciplinary courses. It is a great example of what WAC scholars can do to involve themselves in ambitious, theoretically sophisticated, thoughtful argument. View the article in CCC on the NCTE website.
Achievement Awards
These awards recognize contributions to the field of WAC through scholarship, service, or achievement.
Early Career Contributions to the Field
This award recognizes early career scholars (i.e. graduate students and scholars in the first nine years of their academic career) who have made significant contributions to the field of WAC through scholarship or service.
Lindsey Harding, University of Georgia
Comments from the Selection Committee: The committee recognizes Lindsey Harding for her outstanding contributions to the field of writing across the curriculum and her work to advance WAC and foster a culture of writing at her home institution, the University of Georgia. Through her leadership roles with the WAC Clearinghouse and AWAC, Lindsey has taken the lead in launching new programs that have had a positive impact on the field. As Associate Publisher for Resources for the WAC Clearinghouse, Lindsey took the lead role in creating and launching the Exemplary WAC Program Awards, a collaboration between the WAC Clearinghouse and AWAC. In her role as Associate Publisher for Resources, Lindsey also launched a new journal, The WAC Repository, a digital collection of peer reviewed articles and curated collections of materials related to WAC administration and pedagogy. Lindsey also took the lead on two innovative WAC Clearinghouse projects: The Coronavirus Stories Archive and the Dartmouth ’66 Seminar Exhibit. In addition, Lindsey served as co-host for the 2022 WAC Summer Institute. Lindsey’s research in WAC has appeared in College Composition and Communication, Journal of Response to Writing, and the edited collection Scientific Communication: Principles, Practices, and Methods, and she regularly presents at IWAC, CCCC, CWPA, and IWCA conferences. At UGA, Lindsey’s WAC efforts have impacted the entire campus. She launched an undergraduate student writing journal, a program that invites professionals as guest speakers to writing-intensive courses, writing retreats and support programs for faculty and students, and an annual campus-wide event–Write@UGA—with panels, exhibits, showcases, and a nationally renowned guest speaker. The committee praised Lindsey’s WAC work as “dynamic” and “sustainable” and acknowledged that Lindsey is “a much needed community member” and an “innovative and collaborative leader” in the field of writing across the curriculum.
Outstanding Contributions to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Field
This award recognizes scholars who have promoted diversity and inclusion in the field of WAC through scholarship and service.
Swan Kim, Fordham University, and LaKeisha McClary, George Washington University
Comments from the Selection Committee: The Outstanding Contributions to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Field Award is dedicated to WAC scholars and practitioners who have made significant efforts in their teaching, research, and service to promote and extend our field. As co-chairs of the Diversity and Inclusion committee for AWAC, Drs. Kim and McClary have guided the organization towards being more equitable in their practices and policies for the last three years. As WAC administrators and practitioners, these scholars have made impressive contributions to increasing the presence of DEI at their home institutions and communities. Additionally, their cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional collaboration represents the best of the affordances in WAC research, teaching, and service.
Distinguished Fellows of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum
This award recognizes distinguished scholars (i.e., scholars in field for at least 10 years) who have made significant contributions to the field of WAC through scholarship, service, and/or achievement. This is an award that continues beyond the year in which it was made. You can view the full list of Distinguished Fellow on the Distinguished Fellows page.
North Carolina State University
Selected 2023
Dartmouth
Selected 2023
University of Vermont
Selected 2023
Coventry University
Selected 2023
University of Michigan
Selected 2023
Zurich University of Applied Sciences
Selected 2023
LaSalle University
Selected 2023