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.
AWAC Election Results
/in News, UncategorizedCongratulations to all of our new AWAC board members!
Dear AWAC Members:
The AWAC Executive Committee is very pleased to announce the results of the 2022 AWAC Election.
AWAC welcomes these individuals to the AWAC Executive Board in the following roles:
We look forward to working with all of our new AWAC board members. The new terms begin July 1, 2022. Congratulations to all!
Sincerely,
The AWAC Executive Committee
Ann Blakeslee, Chair
Doug Hesse, Incoming Chair
Stacey Sheriff, Outgoing Chair
Justin Rademaekers, Secretary
Laurie Britt-Smith, Treasurer
Sherri Craig, Member-at-large
Paula Rosinski, Member-at-larger
Congratulations to the WAC Clearinghouse!
/in News, UncategorizedStatement of Support for Ukraine
/in NewsOn behalf of our respective editorial boards, we share the news that the WAC Clearinghouse and the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum have issued the following statement of support for Ukraine.
The WAC Clearinghouse Editorial Board and the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum (AWAC) Executive Board stand with the board of the European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing (EATAW) in expressing solidarity with our colleagues who are affected by the Russian government’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, which we recognize as a violation of international laws, an attack on human rights, and a threat to civilized society. We also stand in solidarity with our colleagues at institutions of higher education in Russia whose rights and freedom have been threatened by their government for speaking out against this unjust war.
The boards of the WAC Clearinghouse and AWAC also join EATAW in pledging our help and support to our Ukrainian colleagues who are directly impacted by this unprovoked violence. This may include virtual consulting and class visits, scholarly resources, and support for the development and publication of anthologies as work is undertaken to rebuild and strengthen educational programs and institutions. Together, we express our strong collective desire for an end to this conflict and the preservation of Ukraine’s independence.
We encourage other professional organizations in writing studies to join us in extending support for our colleagues in Ukraine and Russia and seeking a peaceful resolution to this conflict.
Mike Palmquist, Publisher, The WAC Clearinghouse
Professor of English
Colorado State University
ude.etatsoloc@tsiuqmlap.ekim
Ann Blakeslee, Chair, Association for Writing Across the Curriculum – on behalf of the AWAC Executive Board
Professor of English
Eastern Michigan University
ude.hcime@elsekalba
Website launched for the Exemplary WAC Program Awards
/in NewsA new website has been launched for the Exemplary WAC Program Awards!
Purpose and Overview of Awards
Three Exemplary WAC Program awards will be issued each award cycle, corresponding with the years dedicated to program building as specified below. This structure affirms that excellence occurs at all levels and honoring this excellence at different stages is important to advance writing across the curriculum at individual institutions as well as more generally as a field. Accordingly, the Exemplary WAC Program Awards series recognizes the extraordinary achievements of WAC directors and/or administrative teams to establish, maintain, and sustain programs that foster and facilitate exemplary engagement with writing across the curriculum at their institution, as well as institutional commitments to support these achievements. Such recognition can help programs build their reputations within their institutions, maintain and enhance their funding, and create momentum for writing across the curriculum. Award-winning programs will be recognized at IWAC, profiled on the WAC Clearinghouse and AWAC websites, and invited to host an AWAC workshop during the upcoming academic year. In this way, the Awards series also aims to support fledgling and future programs by identifying models and establishing a new venue for mentorship. The Awards series is sponsored by the WAC Clearinghouse and the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum.
Awards
Award for Exemplary Emerging WAC Program (1-5 years)
Award for Exemplary Established WAC Program (6-10 years)
Award for Exemplary Enduring WAC Program (11+ years)
Access more information at the website here:
https://wac.colostate.edu/community/awards/programs/
The official call for nominations is expected within the next few days.
Call for Proposals for Special AWAC Session at EWCA in Graz, Austria, July 6-9, 2022
/in UncategorizedAWAC has been granted a sponsored session at the European Writing Centers Association conference to take place in person in Graz, Austria, from July 6-9, 2022. The theme of the conference is “Writing Centers as Spaces of Empowerment” (the conference website is at https://europeanwritingcenters-2022.uni-graz.at/en/). For this panel, we solicit proposals based on the following CPF:
Writing Centers and WAC: Relationships Between Students and Faculty/Academic Staff
The mission of writing centers typically supports both the improvement of students’ writing projects and the more general enhancement of their writing abilities through face-to-face and online tutorial consultations, workshops and seminars, and visits to classes for brief presentations on tailored topics. Indirectly, faculty/academic staff learn about students’ writing challenges from these consultations and visits, and may adjust their own assignment design or other aspects of their pedagogy from this knowledge. But it is not usually in the main purview of writing centers to work systematically and transformationally with faculty/academic staff across the curriculum on deeper areas of writing support, such as the creation of learning-based writing activities; support for the development of larger projects such as the inclusion of student peer review or the scaffolding of writing episodes; or the development of clear, principled evaluation criteria. Such faculty-development work is normally in the province of writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) or writing-in-the-disciplines (WID) programs, which are designed to enhance writing pedagogy through the support and intervention of the instructors themselves.
This panel, sponsored by the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum (https://www.wacassociation.org/), will bring together scholar-educators to discuss current and potential interconnections between writing centers and WAC/WID programs, or potential expansions of student-facing writing centers to include significant work with faculty/academic staff for their increased and enhanced involvement in the development of their students’ discipline- or course/module-specific writing abilities. In particular, we seek presentations that might address the following questions, but these are by no means exhaustive:
Proposals can be theoretically or empirically driven and should:
Please note that the preferred language of the conference is English but that in the interest of inclusivity, the EWCA welcomes those would feel more comfortable presenting in another language, in which case, please provide an English translation of your proposal.
Please submit proposals as attached Word files via email, with the subject line “AWAC-Sponsored Panel EWCA 2020,” NO LATER THAN MAR. 1, 2022, to:
Chris Anson: ude.uscn@nosna_sirhc
Federico Navarro: lc.hou@orravan
Upon acceptance, panelists must be members of AWAC or become members.
AWAC Business Meeting: June 15th, 3:30-5:00PM EST
/in UncategorizedPlease join us for the AWAC Annual Business Meeting via Zoom on Tuesday, June 15th from 3:30-5:00 PM EST.
Read on for the meeting invitation and agenda, below. Note: to avoid Zoom bombing, the meeting password is omitted below. Please check your email for the June 11 message from “AWAC <gro.noitaicossacaw@yraterces>” with the subject “AWAC Business Meeting Zoom Link” for the password or email the Secretary directly.
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It has been a tumultuous year for many, and our annual business meeting is an important moment for all of us to reflect not only on what AWAC has been able to do (and not do) during the 2020-21 academic year, but also on what we would like to become as an organization. How can AWAC best fulfill its mission to “bring together the intellectual, human, political, and economic capital of the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) community to better support and grow WAC as a global intellectual and pedagogical movement”? Just as importantly, as a young organization, we must also ask: How can we bring antiracist practices to all aspects of AWAC and, by extension, WAC work?
To this end, this year’s meeting will have two elements:
In preparation for the June 15th meeting, we encourage you to reflect on this question with respect to the full range of AWAC’s work, including the way AWAC is organized and how we function procedurally as an organization; the IWAC conference and WACSI events; our sponsored workshops and panels; our publications, research, and scholarship in WAC journals, the WAC Clearinghouse, and through other venues; our pedagogy and work in WAC classrooms; and our WAC faculty development.
As you reflect, you might find it helpful to view this video of our most recent virtual WAC pedagogy workshop, “WAC Pedagogy, Equity, and Antiracism.” Drs. Teresa Redd, Zhaozhe Wang, and Kate Drezek McConnell talk about the many challenges to achieving equity in WAC programs and solutions for developing antiracist practices in WAC courses.
Please take some time to reflect on antiracism and AWAC and please JOIN US for our June 15th 3:30pm EST meeting.
Zoom link: https://wcupa.zoom.us/j/
Thank you,
The AWAC Executive Committee
2021 Election Results
/in News, UncategorizedCongratulations to the following new members of the AWAC Executive Board:
Incoming Chair, Executive Committee
Doug Hesse, University of Denver
(chairs rotate through 1-year terms as Incoming, Current, and Outgoing chair)
Members-at-Large (2-year term)
Sherri Craig, Westchester University
Paula Rosinski, Elon University
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee Chair (2-year term)
Co-Chairs Swan Kim | LaKeisha McClary (Confirmed)
International Collaborations Committee Chair (2-year term)
Co-Chairs Chris Anson | Federico Navarro (Confirmed)
Mentoring Committee Chair (2-year term)
Co-Chairs Amy Cicchino | Lindsay Clark (Confirmed)
Research and Publications Committee Chair (2-year term)
Co-Chairs Heather Falconer |Chris Basgier (Confirmed)
WAC Graduate Organization AWAC Committee Chair (1-year term)
Mandy Olejnik, Miami University of Ohio (Confirmed)
WAC Summer Institute Committee Chair (2-year term)
Alisa Russell, Wake Forest University (Confirmed)
Partnerships Committee Chair (2-year term)
Brad Jacobsen, University of Texas El Paso (Confirmed)
Note: Board Members assume their roles on July 1, 2021.
Ballot Question #1: Approved.
The following italicized text shall be added to bylaw 5.03 Terms:
4. Chairs of standing committees shall serve two-year terms. The WAC-GO AWAC Committee chair is an exception; this chair shall serve a one-year term.
AWAC Virtual Workshop: WAC Pedagogy, Equity, and Anti-Racism
/in UncategorizedWAC Pedagogy, Equity, and Anti-Racism
AWAC members are invited to attend a virtual workshop on WAC pedagogy, equity, and anti-racism on Thursday, April 1st, 3:30-5:00 ET on Zoom. Register for the event here. Please register by 5:00 ET on March 30th.
Workshop Description
Conformity or Equity?: Designing WAC Assignments to Promote Equity in the Curriculum
Presenter: Teresa Redd, former director of Writing Across the Curriculum and the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning & Assessment at Howard University
Description: Drawing upon Critical Language Pedagogy, the presenter will examine how WAC assignments can promote conformity or equity in the curriculum. First, she will demonstrate how WAC privileges the canons and conventions of the dominant group in a discipline. Then she will expose the consequences: how WAC assignments marginalize people of color by requiring students to conform to canons and conventions that often do not include their perspectives or address their needs. Finally, by sharing excerpts from WAC assignments from Howard University, she will illustrate how some Howard faculty have designed WAC assignments to create an equitable curriculum that can benefit all students.
Presenter Bio: Teresa Redd directed Howard University’s Writing Across the Curriculum Program for 24 years as well as the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning & Assessment for nearly 13. She also served on the Board of Consultants of the International Network of Writing-Across-the-Curriculum Programs for 19 years. She is best known for co-authoring A Teacher’s Introduction to African American English: What a Writing Teacher Should Know, published by the National Council of Teachers of English (2005). Since retiring, she has served as a WAC consultant and published “Breaking Out of the Box: Expanding the WAC Program at Howard University” in Shirley Logan and Wayne Slater’s volume Academic and Professional Writing in an Age of Accountability (Southern Illinois University Press, 2018).
Autoethnography as a Site of Negotiation for Linguistic Justice
Presenter: Zhaozhe Wang, doctoral candidate in the Department of English at Purdue University
Description: This presentation will draw our attention to international multilingual students who are victims of tacit or explicit linguistic racism on campus. The presenter will begin with a call for meaningful advocacy work in the disciplines, then introduce an autoethnography assignment designed to cultivate linguistic equity and combat linguistic racism. The description of the assignment will be illustrated with a student case. The presenter will conclude by offering suggestions on how to appropriate the assignment for WAC/WID contexts.
Presenter Bio: Zhaozhe Wang is a doctoral candidate in the Department of English at Purdue University, where he teaches writing and communication. His work, broadly exploring multilingual literacy and transnational digital/public rhetorics, has appeared in journals such as College Composition and Communication, Composition Forum, and Rhetoric Society Quarterly. He is also co-editor of Reconciling Translingualism and Second Language Writing.
What the Written Communication ‘Landscape of Learning’ Reveals about Equity in Undergraduate Learning
Presenter: Kate Drezek McConnell, Assistant Vice President for Research & Assessment and Director of the VALUE Institute, AAC&U
Description: AAC&U’s inaugural Landscape of Learning report spans five years (2014-2019) of findings on student learning outcomes gathered from samples of student work submitted by campuses and evaluated by national panels of scorers using the VALUE (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education) rubrics. For written communication, the most frequently subscribed outcome, results are based on over 20,000 scored pieces of student work. This presentation will share aggregate results for Written Communication focused on equity, diversity across higher education sectors, and quality of learning within the undergraduate curriculum.
Presenter Bio: Kate Drezek McConnell, PhD, is Assistant Vice President for Research & Assessment and Director of the VALUE Institute, AAC&U’s nationwide assessment system that enables any higher education provider (institution, PCE program, academic department, state, consortium, etc.) to collect and upload samples of student work to a digital repository and have the work scored by certified VALUE Institute scorers for external validation of institutional learning assessment. An educational psychologist by training, Dr. McConnell has written extensively on the reliability and validity of the VALUE approach to assessment. Her other research and campus consultations focus on using course-embedded assessment to improve teaching and learning while also addressing accountability and accreditation requirements; course-embedded assessment; aligning pedagogy with assessment efforts; faculty development; and leveraging the learning sciences in teaching, assessment, and evaluation. Before joining AAC&U, Dr. McConnell spent ten years at Virginia Tech working in assessment and evaluation as well as serving as affiliate faculty in Virginia Tech’s graduate program in educational psychology, teaching courses on cognitive processes and effective college teaching. She received a BA from the University of Virginia, an MA in history from Providence College (Rhode Island), and a PhD in educational psychology from Virginia Tech.
Announcing AWAC Writing Groups!
/in NewsDuring this time of continued social distancing, campus closures, and remote instruction, you may be feeling disconnected from your professional communities. To help build community support for our members, the AWAC Research and Publications Committee is proud to announce a new initiative to match interested members together into writing groups! Writing groups typically take one of three forms, but of course group members can decide how they want their groups to run (e.g., synchronous versus asynchronous).
Writing groups are open to current AWAC members. Please visit the AWAC membership page to become a member.
If you are already a member and are interested in participating in a writing group, please fill out this registration survey by Sunday, August 30th. We will respond to participants with their group contact information and additional resources by Tuesday, September 8th. If you have any questions, please contact Chris Basgier, Interim Co-Chair of the AWAC Research and Publications Committee, at ude.nrubua@reigsab.sirhc.
Call for Mentors & Mentees: WAC-GO Cross-Institutional Mentoring Project
/in NewsThe Writing Across the Curriculum Graduate Organization (WAC-GO) is pleased to call for mentors and mentees to participate in the 2020-21 Cross-Institutional Mentoring Project.
Because many graduate students interested in WAC do not have access to mentoring relationships or WAC coursework at their institutions, the Cross-Institutional Mentoring Project pairs graduate students interested in WAC/WID work with faculty mentors at a different institution.
Participants in the program define and develop their reciprocal mentoring relationship by setting their own goals, expectations, and activities over the academic year. Participants are encouraged to commit no more than 6 hours per semester on the mentoring project. This Best Practices guide details more ideas and expectations for mentors and mentees in the program.
To become a mentor or mentee: Complete this brief, 8-minute survey (https://forms.gle/XbKm4Nfvs5zoHMWRA) by August 24, 2020.
We will only use these survey results to best match mentors and mentees based on shared interests and goals.
Email moc.liamg@01ogcaw with any questions you may have. We look forward to making connections across institutions!