Category: Racial Justice

a drawing of sound waves going into an ear and then leading to a lightbulb representing how listening can lead to new ideas and understanding

Linguistically Diverse Writers’ Experiences Guide Linguistic Equity Training 

Multilingual Writers, Peer Tutoring, Racial Justice, Writing Center pedagogy, Writing Center Research, Writing Center Theory, Writing Centers

By Susanne Treiber, Madison College and Karen Best, University of Wisconsin-Madison—Just a bike ride away from the renowned UW Writing Center lives a hidden gem of a neighbor–the Writing Center at Madison Area Technical College, a 2-year institution with a mission to “provide open access to quality higher education that fosters lifelong learning and success” (“Madison College: Our Culture”). Within this progressive community college resides a writing center, where an average of 33% of its visitors over the past 7 years identify as […]

July 11, 2023
An angled view of a classroom with gray desks and chairs.

Reflecting on Tutor Training in Times of Crisis

Classes, Diversity and Inclusion, Higher Education, Racial Justice, Social Justice, Tutor Training, Undergraduate Students, Writing Center Academic Staff, Writing Centers

By Stacie Klinowski, University of Massachusetts Amherst—”I think about that reading all the time when I’m tutoring. Literally all the time,” one undergraduate tutor told me as we discussed one of her sessions that I had observed. The reading in question, “Peer Tutoring: A Contradiction in Terms?” by John Trimbur, was something that this tutor had read two years previously when taking a class to prepare to work in our writing center. 

June 6, 2023
Kneeling people, fists raised during a Black Lives Matter protest

“Try and Fight that white Supremacy:” Tutors on Antiracist Praxis

Diversity and Inclusion, Higher Education, Racial Justice, Social Justice, Tutor Training, Writing Center pedagogy, Writing Center Research, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Faith Thompson, Salisbury University—After Victor Villanueva’s 2006 catalyzing speech at the International Writing Centers Association Conference, calls for antiracist practices at writing centers have been echoed by many scholars such as Frankie Condon, Laura Greenfield, and Neisha Anne-Green. These calls have offered insight into ways that racism shows up in writing centers, including student work brought to tutors that perpetuate racism and racist ideologies […]

February 21, 2023
Emily Bouza and her English 201 class stand grouped at the front of a college classroom, all facing the camera.

Disciplinary Writing Interviews and the Need for Linguistic Justice Across Professions

Classes, Racial Justice, Social Justice, Student Voices, Undergraduate Students

By Emily Bouza and her English 201 class—How do writing conventions change among different disciplines? How can we move toward greater linguistic justice in writing for different disciplines? These are the questions our ENGL 201: Intermediate Composition course sought to answer this semester. Each of the 19 students in Emily Bouza’s section of this class interviewed a professional in a career they are interested in pursuing to find out more about the nature of writing in those professions. We decided to share […]

December 13, 2022
Bree Newsome climbing up a flag poll and removing a Confederate flag.

Allyship & Co-Conspiracy in an Antiracist Writing Center

Diversity and Inclusion, Graduate Students, Peer Tutoring, Racial Justice, Social Justice, Tutor Training, Writing Center Theory, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Gabrielle Isabel Kelenyi and Seth Umbaugh—This fall, the Writing Center offered an ongoing education group (OGE) about being an ally versus a co-conspirator in an antiracist writing center, which was co-facilitated by the TA Assistant Director of the Writing Center, Seth Umbaugh, and the TA Coordinator of Multicultural and Social Justice Initiatives, Gabrielle Kelenyi. We assembled […]

December 7, 2021

Booked but Can’t Read: “Functional Literacy,” National Citizenship, and the New Face of Dred Scott in the Age of Mass Incarceration

Racial Justice, Social Justice, Tutor Publications, Writing Center Tutors

By Mckenna Kohlenberg—For Black men in the contemporary age of mass incarceration, the consequences of functional illiteracy are devastating. 70% of America’s adult incarcerated population and 85% of juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate, which extends beyond the ability to read and includes the development of problem-solving and critical-thinking skills one needs to access knowledge, communicate, and participate effectively in political processes, the economy, higher education, and other 21st century exercises of democratic citizenship. […]

September 29, 2020