AWAC Colleagues,

The Mentoring Committee is excited to announce our first fall virtual workshop, “Turning the Page: Notes Towards Mindfulness, Motivation, and Meaningful Work at HBCU Writing Centers and Programs,” Friday, September 30th at 12 p.m. U.S. Eastern/11 a.m. U.S. Central/ 10 a.m. U.S. Mountain/ 9 a.m. U.S. Pacific, presented by Dr. Kendra Mitchell, Dr. Robert Randolph, Jr., and Amber Lunderman.

Workshop Overview

Drawing upon their award-winning 2018 International Writing Center Association keynote address, the presenters will discuss the strategies and techniques they employ in their writing programs to promote mindfulness, motivation, and meaningful work at HBCUs. They are exploring this meaningful work of mindful motivation in the HBCU writing centers as makerspaces. First, they will talk about practical mindfulness techniques that help to decrease anxiety, track intentionality, and promote reflection. Then, they will discuss the intersections of African American Language (AAL) and Edited American English (EAE) to provide students with a sense of agency and motivation. Lastly, they will speak about how writing ecologies, including writing centers, help promote a sense of meaningful work that extends beyond writing assignments.

For more information and to register, visit the Events page on the AWAC website.

Speaker Bios

Kendra Mitchell (she/her), is Director of Composition at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida, where she has taught composition, literature, and historical linguistics. She serves as an Executive Committee member for NCTE and was also appointed to the NCTE Committee for Change, a social justice-driven committee. Her research interests include the intersections of translanguaging, writing center studies, and Black ways of knowing. Dr. Mitchell’s writing center scholarship can be found in the Writing Center Journal, Praxis Journal, and several book collections. Her current scholarship includes mapping geospatial, social, and multimodal circulation of Black identities and culture at/as HBCUs found in her forthcoming co-edited special issue in the Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics, Transdisciplinarity @HBCUs: (Re)Writing Black Futures beyond the Margins, and her forthcoming HBCU writing center co-edited collection, Makin’ A Way Outta No Way: HBCUs, Writing Centers, & Antiracism.

Robert Randolph, Jr., PhD (he/him), is Director of The Writing Center at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. His research and teaching interests include 20th- and 21st-century African American literature and cultural production, socio-cultural foundations of education, and Black feminist and queer rhetorics and pedagogies. His notable publications include “The Queer Poetics of Social Justice: Literacy, Affect(ion), and the Critical Pedagogical Imperative” and “Shifting the Talk: Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Feminism at HBCUs.”

Amber Lunderman (she/hers) is a Fall 2021 graduate of Florida A&M University with a bachelor’s degree in English. She currently works as a tutor in the FAMU Writing Resource Center and as a Marketing Assistant for Anhinga Press in Tallahassee. During her senior year, Amber was a student editor for FAMU’s literary Journal, CaKe, an experience which inspired her to want to pursue a post-graduate degree in Publishing. She will be attending Rosemont College in spring of 2023 where she will be on a quest to obtain a double degree in Publishing and Creative Writing. Amber is a lover of fantasy, sci-fi, magical realism, and historical fiction.

Questions? Please contact AWAC Mentoring Committee Co-Chairs Lindsay Clark (ude.ushs@kralcl) and Amy Cicchino (ude.uare@anihccic).