Announcements & Upcoming Events
Rewind & Reset: Internationalization, Massification, and the Knowledge Economy: A Comparison of International Writing Center Trends
Writing centers play a key role in universities' internationalization efforts. In this 2018 piece from the blog archives, Dr. Tomoyo Okuda identifies three main imperatives that have contributed to the initiation of writing centers worldwide.
Rewind & Reset: ‘Prioritizing Antiracism Writing Tutor Education’
"This chapter is intended for readers who are new to the discussion of antiracist pedagogy, who are coming from a background that did not include writing center theory, or who are re-evaluating their tutor education programs. Within the context of my own process of evaluating and re-evaluating my tutor education programs, and following in a feminist pedagogical tradition of exploring intersections between theory, experience, and application, I will suggest some practical ways to prioritize conversations within writing tutor education about the relationships between writing, the academy, and institutionalized oppression."
New Beginnings: A Dual Campus Writing Center
I continued to correspond with Stateville Correctional Facility students, and in the Spring of 2020, I became a mentor to a second mentee. We corresponded about commenting on student’s papers and how to create the proper tone when giving feedback. But after North Park’s spring break last March, all communication with students in Stateville ceased, as Chicago and Stateville went into quarantine modes. This was a scary time. We learned of rising cases within the prison and death of two highly valued students. One was my mentee. I learned of this loss over email and struggled to comprehend that I would never receive another letter from him.
Looking Forward: The Regional Writing Centre, University of Limerick, Ireland
As I wrote in ‘At the Centre of Changing Contexts: A Writing for Life Centre' (Cleary 2019, p.116), Irish law obligates our universities to be outward facing: “…we are a face looking in two directions simultaneously, back to a student’s life before matriculation and forward to the life the student faces when they leave.” Moving forward, we will continue to host a national essay-writing competition for secondary school students, engaging them in debates about social issues that are relevant to them as a way of preparing them for future civic engagement.
Rewind & Reset: Multimodal and Multimedia Projects in the Writing Center
"In this post, I hope to provide some concrete advice for working with multimedia and multimodal projects in the writing center, but I should start by noting that my advice (and even my definition of “writing”) comes from my work as editor of Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy and from my research interests in digital rhetoric – I’m not a scholar or practitioner of Writing Center pedagogies, but I am an ally and supporter of the great work that Writing Centers accomplish. I’ll start with some history and some context; feel free to skip down to the “Advice and Preparation” section to get straight to the practical bits."
It’s been a learning experience. The writing center community remains tight knit in the online space. We hold hands and provide each other emotional support. Writing camps have gone virtual for now. Let’s keep reflecting upon our collective experiences.
Inspiring Resilience
Our focus on the next thing disassociates us from the present. This notion, embracing real-time events, is what has been inspiring me lately.
Locate our international colleagues from all over the world!
