Communications Committee Meeting Minutes – Apr. 14, 2021
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Bio: Brad Jacobson is Assistant Professor of English at The University of Texas at El Paso, where he teaches courses in writing studies and English education. His research focuses on student experiences writing across the high school to college transition and writing teacher education, and his work has appeared in Writing Program Administration, Currents in Teaching and Learning, and the Journal of Writing Assessment. In addition to his membership in AWAC, Brad is affiliated with CCC, NCTE, NWP, and the Coalition for Community Writing.
Statement: As a scholar and teacher, I am committed to facilitating reciprocal research, teaching, and learning opportunities across K-16 and community contexts. I believe AWAC is uniquely positioned to contribute to such collaborations. As Chair of the Partnerships committee, I would work with the committee to solidify our developing partnership with NWP while seeking new partnerships with like-minded organizations. I look forward to creating and sustaining opportunities like sponsored panels and collaborative events with our partners in the coming years.
Bio: Alisa Russell is an Assistant Professor of English and WAC Director in the Writing Program. Her areas of interest include rhetorical genre studies, public writing, and WAC, and her research focuses on increasing community access through writing and writing innovations. Her work has appeared in journals such as Composition Forum, The WAC Journal, Across the Disciplines, and Pedagogy. Alisa is a founder of the WAC Graduate Organization, and she currently serves as Co-Chair of the WAC Summer Institute Committee for AWAC. She enjoys hiking and re-watching television series.
Statement: For the first institute in 2019, our planning group met every month for a year and half prior: We juggled registration, housing, and catering logistics; we balanced budgets; we designed a jam-packed agenda and materials; we worked closely with local hosts; etc. And then the institute arrived, and it was like magic. WAC faculty from vastly different institutions and programs had this three day gift dedicated to learning from one another, developing their next steps, reenvisioning their program possibilities, and building community. All that hard planning work paid off. I would be honored to continue facilitating and improving this event as one piece of AWAC’s networked vision, the best part of which is collaborating closely with colleagues across WAC.
Bio: Mandy is a third-year PhD Candidate and Graduate Assistant Director of WAC Programs at the Howe Center for Writing Excellence (HCWE). Previously, she served as Graduate Assistant Director of the Howe Center for Business Writing where she worked with students and faculty across Miami’s business school. Mandy currently serves as Chair of WAC-GO and is conducting her dissertation research on graduate student writing support through case study research with graduate faculty on how WAC programming can support graduate students in the moment and, over time, in making meaningful programmatic change. She also is conducting research with the HCWE WAC team on innovative teaching of writing across disciplines.
Statement: As current Chair of the WAC-Graduate Organization (WAC-GO), I hope to bring more graduate student involvement in AWAC activities and membership in this role as WAC-GO AWAC chair. Specifically, I see overlap in some of WAC-GO’s research and mentoring plans and ongoing AWAC initiatives that could lead to beneficial partnerships (e.g., I could see WAC-GO members joining AWAC writing groups). WAC-GO is dedicated to connecting graduate students interested in WAC work with scholars and practitioners in the field. I would work to provide graduate students with such opportunities by learning more about and relaying the work of AWAC and its various committees.
Bio: Heather is an Assistant Professor of Writing and WAC Coordinator at Curry College. Her research focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion in disciplinary spaces (particularly STEM), and has focused her time with the Research and Publications Committee (first as Chair, then as Co-Chair) on planning opportunities to support scholars at all stages of research.
Bio: Christopher currently works as Acting Director of University Writing at Auburn University, where he helps faculty integrate high impact practices into their courses and leads professional development for the writing center staff. His research on WAC, rhetorical genre theory, writing program administration, and threshold concepts has appeared in Across the Disciplines, the WAC Journal, Double Helix, Prompt, and Composition Forum. He served on the IWAC 2018 planning committee and currently chairs the CCCC WAC Standing Group. As a founding member of AWAC, he participated in the organization’s planning group, and he is interim co-chair of the AWAC Research and Publications committee.
Joint Statement: As co-chairs of the Research and Publications Committee, Drs. Basgier and Falconer intend to continue our successful initiatives, including virtual writing groups, awards for excellent publications, and support for cross-organizational presentations with the AAC&U and others. We also plan to continue developing grants to support WAC/WID research. Finally, we plan to collaborate with WAC-GO on a survey to understand the current level of preparation graduate students receive in WAC theory and practice, with the goal of making recommendations to AWAC and the discipline in general.
Bio: Amy Cicchino is Associate Director of University Writing at Auburn University. At Auburn, she supports faculty development within the WAC program, leads the Graduate Writing Partners program, facilitates workshops related to writing and writing instruction, and is currently expanding online resources for writing across the curriculum. Her research takes up writing program administration, multimodal online instruction, and teacher professionalization. She is a member of the AWAC Mentoring Committee, an Executive Board At-Large member of the Global Society for Online Literacy Educators (GSOLE), and a member on the Association for Authentic, Experimental, Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL)’s Digital Ethics taskforce.
Bio: Lindsay Clark is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Sam Houston State University where she teaches business and managerial communication courses, directs the College’s Communication Lab, and serves as Co-Chair of the University Writing in the Disciplines Committee. Her research includes visual and multimodal communication, genre theory and pedagogy, and writing across the curriculum. She is a member of the AWAC Mentoring Committee and serves as the Secretary/Treasurer for the Association for Business Communication, Southwest Region.
Joint Statement: As Co-Chairs of the AWAC Mentoring Committee, we hope to grow the initiatives developed by the committee in the last year, including the AWAC Board of Consultants, the workshop series on WAC leadership and pedagogy, and an online repository for WAC resources in collaboration with the WAC Clearinghouse. Additionally, we hope to create new opportunities for conversation and mentorship. In looking forward to the return of the WAC Summer Institute and IWAC conference, we would like to develop opportunities for semi-structured horizontal mentorship in those spaces in addition to more flexible mentoring events that could take place online throughout the academic year.
Bio: Chris Anson is Distinguished University Professor, Alumni Association Distinguished Graduate Professor, and Director of the Campus Writing and Speaking Program at North Carolina State University, where he works with faculty across the disciplines to enhance writing and speaking instruction. He has published 19 books and 140 articles and book chapters relating to writing, WAC, and WID, and has spoken widely across the U.S. and in 33 other countries. He is Past Chair of CCCC and Past President of the CWPA. He has received or participated as a co-principal investigator in over $2.1 million in grants. His full CV is at www.ansonica.net
Bio: Federico Navarro is an Associate Professor and the President of the Latin American Association of Writing Studies in Higher Education and Professional Contexts (ALES) and the Chief Editor of International Exchanges: Latin America Section, The WAC Clearinghouse, Colorado State University. He has published more than 100 research papers in 12 countries, including the Spanish edition of “Reference Guide to WAC” (2016).
Joint Statement: Since AWAC was created, we have co-chaired the International Collaborations Committee with a goal of exploring how AWAC could extend its reach to learn from and exchange with people in many countries and organizations. We focused on three projects: 1) developing international AWAC affiliates and partnering, for starters, with organizations in Europe and Latin America; 2) working with international WAC representatives to collectively document trends in WAC and WID worldwide; 3) creating AWAC panels in international conferences. It would be a pleasure to see these projects to fruition and to embark on new initiatives for internationalization that will enrich research and instructional innovation across countries and cultures.
Bio: Swan Kim is an associate professor of English and Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) coordinator at Bronx Community College (BCC) at City University of New York (CUNY). She received her PhD in English at University of Virginia specializing in Asian American diaspora. She teaches courses in composition and ethnic American literature. She has been directing the WAC program at BCC since 2015, and serving as the departmental personnel and budget committee, member of the faculty senate, and one of the co-leaders for the CUNY-wide WAC Professional Development.
Bio: LaKeisha McClary is an assistant professor of Chemistry. She has spent 9 years teaching a writing-in-the disciples (WID) 2000-level chemistry laboratory course that explicitly teaches students how to write a science manuscript. Her writing assignment received the 2020 Best Assignment Award from the GW WID Program. LaKeisha received her PhD in Chemistry from The University of Arizona and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in chemistry education research at Miami University. She currently serves as the mentor for GW Posse 2 cohort, a leadership and merit based scholarship program aimed to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus. She also is the inaugural Director of Undergraduate Studies in Chemistry.
Joint Statement: Participating in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee meetings through the pandemic, we found ourselves sharing the same vision for AWAC. We are both eager to bring what we learned in theory and practice over the years: Dr. McClary, as a seasoned instructor of WID in Chemistry and mentor of DEI initiatives, and Dr. Kim, as a WAC coordinator at a Hispanic Serving Institution and who has also specialized in Asian diaspora. As co-chairs of the DEI committee, we will collaboratively lead, support, and promote efforts to find creative, simple, and impactful ways to incorporate DEI into AWAC. Our goal is to work toward implementing DEI so that it does not become an add-on but an integral part of AWAC.
Bio: Paula Rosinski is a professor of English/Professional Writing & Rhetoric and Writing Across the University Director at Elon University. She led her university’s 5-year Writing Excellence Initiative (QEP), which sought to enhance the teaching and learning of academic, professional, and co-curricular writing for students, faculty, and staff. Her recent research focuses on the transfer of rhetorical knowledge and writing strategies between self-sponsored, academic, and professional contexts; the writing lives of alumni; reframing rhetorical theories and writing practices in multimodal environments; and Writing Center Fellows. She is currently co-leading Elon’s Writing Beyond the University multi-year, multi-institution research seminar.
Statement: I’m running for this position to support and connect colleagues across the country/world as they work to develop sustainable cultures of writing and infrastructures to support WAC on their own campus. I’m particularly interested in exploring/supporting what WAC means in the 21st century, as writing is increasingly visual, newer genres are emerging, and we’re learning more about writing transfer between academic and co-curricular, professional, and personal contexts. I see in this moment great opportunities for collaboratively designing multi-institutional faculty development and research projects, as a way to address these emerging issues and to continue supporting faculty, staff, and students/alumni.
Bio: I earned my doctorate in Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy from The Ohio State University in 2020. Currently, I am a Visiting Assistant Professor at Indiana University East. My areas of scholarly interest include WAC/WID, writing center theory and practice, and composition pedagogy. My current research builds on my WID dissertation, which explores history and social work instructors’ writing-related expectations for their undergraduate students. One of my primary research goals is to uncover trends, patterns, and complexities in the writing-related expectations for undergraduates in a variety of disciplines. I pursue this avenue of inquiry with the aim of making implicit disciplinary writing expectations more explicit for students. Ideally, this research can help to reduce inadvertent gatekeeping into academic communities and to promote more just and equitable pedagogy.
Statement: As an early-career scholar, I want to connect with and contribute to the broader WAC/WID community of practice. As a member at large, I would hope both to share new ideas with like-minded scholars, as well as learn from established figures in the field. There are several areas in which I would like to see WAC/WID work expand. First, I would like to foster more collaborative partnerships with faculty across the disciplines, involving disciplinary instructors more directly in shaping WAC/WID scholarship and practice. Second, I would like to promote more mentorship and support for graduate students interested in WAC/WID as an area of inquiry. Finally, I would like to enhance WAC/WID initiatives at the undergraduate level, exploring new avenues to promote undergraduate engagement in WAC/WID work and study.
Bio: Sherri Craig is an Assistant Professor of Professional and Technical Writing at West Chester University where she specializes in teaching diversity and inclusion through business and non-profit writing courses. Much of her research centers upon the experiences of Black women in their academic and industry careers and their professionalization and mentorship. As a student organization advisor and a diversity and inclusion consultant, Sherri enjoys sharing her knowledge with others and being inspired by those around her. Her work can be found in WPA: Writing Program Administration and at SparkActivism.com.
Statement: As the former Chair of the AWAC Advocacy Committee, I have spent the last two years engaged in many conversations with the DEI committee about the relationships between Advocating for and with our AWAC members and supporting the organization’s commitment to inclusion and equity. As the member-at-large for the committee, I would be able to bring these ever-important issues to the forefront of our actions in the WAC community. As the member-at-large, I am most interested in offering my support and experience with diversity and inclusion to help the chair and members of the DEI committee.
Bio: Doug Hesse is Professor and Executive Director of Writing at the University of Denver, where he’s been named University Distinguished Scholar. He’s a past president of NCTE, chair of CCCC, president of CWPA, and editor of Writing Program Administration. Starting at Illinois State in the late eighties, he directed a large writing program that included a WAC effort. His current role includes directing a writing intensive general education requirement that has involved some 250 faculty in three-day seminars, plus ongoing support. His 75+ articles/chapters focus on program development and leadership, writing pedagogy, creative nonfiction, and professional issues in writing studies.
Statement: In addition to ongoing work supporting writing-to-learn and writing in the disciplines, AWAC should encourage research, practices, and policies toward four challenges. We must better understand (1) how conditions for WAC will differ in post-pandemic institutions; (2) how increasingly multimodal-by-default texts are effectively and ethically produced and circulated; (3) how writers with diverse identities, pasts, and futures negotiate academic languages; (4) how WAC might better connect with discourse beyond the academy. Current events demonstrate why publics need information and ideas grounded in scientific, social, and humanistic knowledge. In addition to cognitive growth and epistemological savvy, WAC should foster writers for a world that surely needs expertise.
Bio: Crystal N. Fodrey is director of writing at Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA. Her recent scholarship on writing pedagogy and curriculum development has appeared in Across the Disciplines, Composition Forum, and Implementing Multimodal Curricula and Programs and is forthcoming in multiple edited collections on WEC, faculty development, and multimodal writing. In addition to leading first-year writing and WEC efforts at Moravian, she is currently working with colleagues to develop a conceptual framework for promoting digital multimodal teaching praxes across the disciplines and co-leading a team of undergraduate researchers in studying the role of multimodality across the curriculum.
Statement: As a leader in AWAC, I will strive to promote and embody rhetorical listening, reflection, and flexibility in order to understand and represent the diverse needs of writers, writing faculty, and WAC program administrators across myriad situational ecologies. My vision is for AWAC to expand our influence through strategic and effective communication and outreach efforts, promote faculty development that highlights inclusive assignment design and assessment practices, promote the possibility of both the WEC model and designing college curricula for vertical writing transfer, explore the roles of digital multimodal composing and media literacy in a WAC context, and celebrate innovative work.
Bio: Beginning in 1993, I have been a member of the English department at the University of St. Thomas, serving first as Director of the interdisciplinary Academic Development Program for underprepared students (in which I still teach each year) and then, since its inception in 2009, serving as Director of Writing Across the Curriculum. With a supportive WAC Committee as well as Chris Anson as a mentor and guide, I have weathered the early years of program development. After a WPA Program Review in 2019, UST-WAC is now an established, growing part of our curriculum, and larger university culture.
Statement: As a Member-at-Large, my primary goal would be to make sure the needs of our members are met as they work to build, maintain, and grow their WAC programs during these challenging times. In order to achieve this goal, I would familiarize myself with the work of the AWAC committees and listen carefully to the needs expressed by our membership. As someone who has worked to build a WAC program over the past twelve years, I know how important it is to receive both practical and moral support; I will make sure our members receive these as well.