NEWCA 2016 FINAL Conference Program

 2016
Northeast Writing Centers Association Reading Our Past, Telling Our Stories, Writing Our Future April 2-­‐3, 2016
Keene State College NEWCA 2016, 2
2015-2016 NEWCA Steering Committee Members
Erin Durkin, Chair
Richard Sévère, Vice Chair
Stephanie Carter, Chair Ex-Officio
Kate Tirabassi and Cynthia Smith, Conference Hosts
John Hall, Treasurer
Anna Sicari, Records Historian, IWCA Representative
Jennifer Mitchell, Website Manager
Neal Lerner, NEWACC Chair
Kelli Custer, Steering Committee Member
Genie Giaimo, Steering Committee Member
Alison Perry, Steering Committee Member
Kristina Reardon, Steering Committee Member
Stefan Spezio, Steering Committee Member
Proposal Committee:
Siu Ng and Jan Robertson, Co-Chairs
Susan DeRosa
Michael Turner
Sarah Franco
Johanna Pittman
State Representatives:
Melissa Bugdal (CT)
John Hall (MA)
Sarah Franco and Molly Tetrault (NH)
Richard Sévère (NJ)
Jennifer Mitchell (Upstate NY)
Robert Mundy and Andy Stout (Metro NY)
Stephanie Carter (RI)
NEWCA 2016, 3
The Northeast Writing Centers Association is a regional affiliate
of the International Writing Centers Association (IWCA).
NEWCA brings together a diverse group of secondary and postsecondary educators from around the region. Each year NEWCA
presents a conference with various themes.
NortheastWCA NortheastWCA http://northeastwca.org 2015 - 2016 NEWCA Steering Committee
The NEWCA Steering Committee plans the annual conference,
facilitates communication with IWCA, and develops additional
resources for NEWCA members. This committee meets three
times a year—in April (directly following the conference), June,
and January. Members of the committee hail from across the
northeastern states and share a commitment to the writing
center community.
Massachusetts New York New Jersey Connecticut Maine Vermont New Hampshire Rhode Island NEWCA 2016, 4
Welcome from the 2016 NEWCA Chair
Welcome to New Hampshire! We have gathered together this beautiful spring
weekend in the heart of our region and one could not ask for a more
picturesque setting in which to tell our stories.
On behalf of the Northeast Writing Centers Association Steering Committee, I
would like to extend a warm welcome to all attendees of our 2016 conference.
The committee has been collaborating since last April to make this year’s
conference a weekend full of thought-provoking and insightful conversations. I
look forward to NEWCA every year as a rejuvenating experience that brings me
back to the essential questions that drive us as writing center advocates and
facilitators; I always leave with a sense of renewal and purpose.
I look forward to NEWCA
every year as a rejuvenating
experience that brings me
back to the essential
questions that drive us as
writing center advocates and
facilitators;
I always leave with a sense of
renewal and purpose.
I hope you will join me in offering warm thanks to our conference hosts at Keene
State College. Kate Tirabassi and Cynthia Smith, as well as their staff, have done
an exceptional job supporting NEWCA and the Steering Committee. Kate and I
have spent many hours in conversation about this weekend and I have full
confidence that her attention to detail will ensure that this conference will
continue NEWCA’s tradition of excellence. This beautiful campus and town have
many lovely spaces and I hope that you take full advantage of all that they and
the conference have to offer. One new change in our schedule is that our SIGS
will be on Sunday morning, so I encourage you to get an early start on Sunday
and to join us for some coffee and conversation.
This year our theme, Reading Our Past, Telling Our Stories,
Writing Our Future, is evocative of the essence of what we do as writers and
tutors: we tell stories, our stories. For NEWCA, the story begins when the
steering committee has the privilege of reading the diverse presentation
proposals each winter. In particular, NEWCA’s focus this year provides each of
us with the occasion to reflect on our own experiences and narratives, both in
our writing centers and as members of this collective. We look forward to a
weekend where the theme is explored in multiple modalities, from the keynote
speech by Dr. Jackie Grutsch McKinney, to the concurrent sessions, to the
special interest groups on Sunday morning.
The NEWCA Steering Committee deserves commendation for developing a
wonderful program this year. Even as I welcome you to the 2016 conference, the
committee has already begun thinking about upcoming conferences. If you are
interested in planning next year’s conference, please consider joining the
steering committee. Come to our meeting on Sunday afternoon if you’d like to
learn more.
I hope that you will find that your weekend is filled with opportunities to engage
with colleagues from across the region and to tell your story to someone new.
Regards,
Erin L. Durkin, Chair, NEWCA Steering Committee, 2015-2016
NEWCA 2016, 5
NEWCA Conference Schedule
Saturday, April 2
7:45-8:45 Registration and Breakfast
Young Student Center Lobby and Mabel Brown Room
9:00-10:15 Welcome & Keynote
Mabel Brown Room, Young Student Center
o Welcome: Walter Zakahi, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic
Affairs, Kate Tirabassi, Conference Host, and Erin Durkin, NEWCA Chair
o Keynote: Dr. Jackie Grutsch McKinney (See bio on p. 8)
10:30-11:45 Concurrent Session 1
Putnam Science Center
11:45-1:00 Lunch, Awards, and Book Signing with Dr. Jackie Grustch McKinney
Starlight Room, Zorn Dining Commons
1:15-2:30 Concurrent Session 2
Putnam Science Center
2:45-4:00 Concurrent Session 3
Putnam Science Center
4:15-5:30 Concurrent Session 4
Putnam Science Center
5:30 Reception
Putnam Science Center Lobby (Atrium)
10:30-5:30 Book Display
Putnam Science Center Atrium
NEWCA 2016, 6
NEWCA Conference Schedule (continued)
Sunday, April 3
8:00-9:00 Breakfast and NEWACC Registration
Putnam Science Center Atrium
9:00-9:50 Special Interest Group Meetings
Putnam Science Center Classrooms
9:30 NEWACC Meeting
Putnam Science Center Classroom 175
10:15-10:45: Coffee and Refreshments Available
Putnam Science Center Atrium
10:00-11:15 Concurrent Session 5
Putnam Science Center Classrooms
11:30-12:45 Concurrent Session 6
Putnam Science Center Classrooms
9:00-12:45 Book Display
Putnam Science Center Atrium
1:00 NEWCA Steering Committee Meeting
Putnam Science Center Classroom 102
NEWCA 2016, 7
Dr. Jackie Grustch
McKinney
Director of the Writing Center
and Professor of English,
Ball State University
Dr. Jackie Grutsch McKinney is Director of the
Writing Center and Professor of English at Ball State
University in Muncie, Indiana. Her scholarship on
writing center issues has appeared in key journals
such as WPA: Writing Program Administration,
Writing Center Journal, Writing Lab Newsletter,
and Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, as well as in
several writing center edited collections
including Before and After the Tutorial, Multiliteracy
Centers, and The St. Martin’s Sourcebook for
Writing Tutors. Her first book, Peripheral Visions for
Writing Centers, won the International Writing
Center Association Outstanding Book Award in
2014. Her second book Strategies for Writing
Center Research, published in 2015, is a guide to
empirical research on writing center work. This fall,
her third book--this one co-written with Becky
Jackson and Nikki Caswell--will be published; titled
The Working Lives of New Writing Center
Directors, this book reports on a year-long study of
new writing center directors. She currently serves as
the Vice President of the International Writing
Centers Association.
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Saturday, April 2
Concurrent Session 1, 10:30-­‐11:45 Roundtables: Putnam Science Center, Room 101
Telling Stories of Privilege and Bias: Changing Our Narratives for Tutor Education
A.
New York Univ ersity: William Morgan, Director of the Writing Center, Expository Writing Program; Jono Mischkot,
Assistant Director of the Writing Center and Senior Lecturer, Expository Writing Program; Tara Parmiter, Senior Lecturer,
Expository Writing Program
In this roundtable, we share the stories of middle-class privilege and racial, gender, and sexual bias that troubled tutors
and created dissonance in our writing centers this year. In light of these stories, we seek to build on Nowacek and
Hughes’s recent work (2015) to name the threshold practices of tutor education (being an “outside expert,” etc.). How do
local stories of privilege and bias change our narratives of tutor education?
B. The Words in Our Shared Stories: Writing Center Narratives and Threshold Concepts
University of Maine: Elizabeth Powers, Writing Center Coordinator; Kim Carter, Tutor; Ann Cookson, Tutor; Rebekah
Friel, Tutor; Megan Kenyon, Tutor
This interactive discussion explores how embracing threshold concepts might enable writing tutors to break down
problematic grand narratives by building up stories around shared understandings of threshold concepts of writing
studies. The facilitators briefly overview threshold concepts, share their experience using threshold concepts as tutors and
tutors-in-training, and offer questions for all participants to consider as they share their experiences. Connections
between the roundtable discussion and grand narratives will be pointed to and reflected upon.
Panel: Putnam Science Center, Room 102 Revising Grand Narratives: Using Stories to Reimagine Writing Center Work
University of Massachusetts Amherst: Tim Conklin, Undergraduate Writing Tutor; Rebecca Maillet, PhD candidate,
English, Graduate Writing Tutor; Travis Grandy, PhD candidate, English, Assistant Director, Writing Center; Jesse Priest,
PhD candidate, Composition and Rhetoric, Assistant Director, Writing Center
The stories that get told within and about writing centers greatly impact our work. For example, established narratives
impact the ways students see themselves as writers, how tutors approach “challenging” tutoring situations, and how
administrators negotiate assumptions about the role of writing centers. This panel presentation, consisting of three case
studies, considers possibilities for revising stories to help us reimagine our work and intervene in ways that better represent
what we value as practitioners.
Panel: Putnam Science Center, Room 126 Incorporating a Conversational English Program: Connecting International & Domestic Students Through Stories
Southern New Hampshire University: Selina Marcille, Writing Tutoring Coordinator; Evan Bodi, Writing Tutor; Hallie
Semmel, Lead Writing Tutor; Kyle Kling, Writing Tutor; Megan Leger, Writing Tutor
With a student population of nearly 10% international students at Southern New Hampshire University, developing
programs to help with cross-cultural adjustment is key to connecting international students with domestic students and
enriching their experiences here. Several writing tutors will outline the Conversational English Program and will discuss how
it benefits not only international students, but also enriches the tutors themselves. By becoming “cultural ambassadors,”
this program supports diversified cultural, racial, and personal narratives to all SNHU students.
NEWCA 2016, 9
Saturday, April 2
Concurrent Session 1, 10:30-­‐11:45 (continued) Panel: Putnam Science Center, Room 127
In/V isible Maternal Bodies: Narratives of Maternity and Motherhood in Writing Centers
St. John's University: Alison M. Perry, Associate Director, University Writing Center; Nancy Alvarez, Doctoral Candidate,
English; Andrea Rosso Efthymiou, Assistant Professor, Writing Studies, Co-Director, Writing Center
This panel explores instances where actual, embodied motherhood intrude upon the grand narratives of the Writing
Center as Home, and WCPs and female tutors as Mothers. After recounting their own experiences with in/visible maternity
in the Writing Center, the panelists will invite attendees to represent and discuss their experiences with parenthood in the
WC.
Workshop: Putnam Science Center, Room 129
Doing
v s. Talking: Dealing w ith Anxiety in the Writing Center
Bay Path University : Brenda Hardin Abbott, Writing Program Coordinator; Leah Frascarelli, Peer Writing Tutor; Sarah
DeFlumeri Peer Writing Tutor
In this interactive workshop, we will discuss what steps can be taken to deal with anxiety in the writing center. We will
consider the tutoring session and how anxiety affects the work we do as tutors; then we will deconstruct our own attitudes
toward mental health stigmas, and ask, how might we create safe spaces for all our students? When is “talking” about
mental health problems not enough, and when is “doing” the right action?
Presentations: Putnam Science Center, Room 154
A. Walking Along the Periphery w ith Multilingual Students : Using Approaches From L2 Writing and 2nd
Language Teaching in Tutoring Sessions
Baruch College, The City Univ ersity of New York: Titcha Ho and Deepti Dhir, Multilingual Writing Support Specialists
In this presentation, we call for a broadening of writing center scholarship to be more inclusive of multilingual writers.
Building on the idea of communities of practice, attendees will collaboratively examine approaches to facilitate
multilingual students’ language acquisition and cultural understanding with the goal of recognizing the new reality of
writing centers as linguistically diverse spaces.
B. Working w ith Multilingual Writers at the Sentence-Level
University of Connecticut: Vanessa Petroj, Writing Center Tutor
This session will focus on strategies for identifying and working through three patterns of grammatical error that
commonly surface when international students write in English: plurals, verb tenses, and subject-verb agreement. The
origin of those word-level and sentence-level issues can often be explained by how the native language of the learner
relates to English. The presenter will illustrate how the syntax and morphology of selected languages (including Chinese)
compare to English, and how, by understanding those processes of translation, we can more thoughtfully address
grammatical issues with multilingual writers.
NEWCA 2016, 10
Saturday, April 2
11:45-1:00 Luncheon & Awards
Starlight Room, Zorn Dining Commons Concurrent Session 2, 1:15-­‐2:30 Presentations: Putnam Science Center, Room 102
Challenging Professors’ Grand Narrativ es
A.
Bronx Community College: Daniel Tehrani, Senior Tutor; Corey Lionel Spencer, Senior Tutor
We often encounter assignments and materials from professors that contradict writing center theory and practice. In our
presentation, we will share real materials given to students by professors and discuss how we dealt with the contradictions.
We will raise questions such as: Should tutors avoid conflict with instructors at all costs? What is the responsibility of the
tutor to the professor? Can (or should) a tutor challenge a professor’s grand narrative?
B. Div ergent Narration: Subv erting the Pow er Dynamics of the Fix-It Shop
Eastern Connecticut State University: Hannah Bythrow, Tutor; Nicole Green, Tutor; Christopher Morris, Tutor
Inherent in persisting writing center narratives are power dynamics which privilege the ideologies of faculty and, by
extension, tutors. Such dynamics encourage students to reproduce what they believe their teachers want to see. We will
engage the audience in an interactive demonstration of how to break from the tutoring practices inherent in these
narratives; it is the tutor’s job, provided the student’s reasoning is sound, to encourage only further exploration of the
student’s divergent thought.
Roundtable: Putnam Science Center, Room 126
Serve All Writers, Ex cept…
We
Boston University: John Hall, Director, COM Writing Center; David Shawn, Writing Center Coordinator, CAS Writing
Center
Our roundtable presentation looks at McKinney’s grand narrative about serving “all students” from a different angle:
Should a writing center serve all students or restrict access to a select community? As directors of the two largest writing
centers at BU, we will discuss why our centers have answered this question differently and the ramifications of these
decisions. We will also have attendees share their own centers’ approaches to this deceptively simple question.
Workshop: Putnam Science Center, Room 127
Expanding
the Story: Multilingual Writers, Multiple Perspectives
University of New Hampshire: Molly Tetreault, Director; Corey McCullough, Graduate Writing Assistant; Kayla Cash,
Graduate Writing Assistant; Xiaoqiong You, PhD Candidate in Composition; Katie McKay, Graduate Writing Assistant;
Lauren Short, Graduate Writing Assistant; Fenghua Chen, PhD Student, UNH Education Department; Liz Haas,
Undergraduate Writing Assistant; Rachelle McKeown, Undergraduate Writing Assistant; Nicole Tremblay,
Undergraduate Writing Assistant
In this workshop, we will present ways that our writing center has used different types of research projects to engage with
multiple perspectives on/from multilingual writers. We will provide participants with interview transcripts, conference
transcripts, and reflections from writing assistants and writers to encourage discussions about working with multilingual
writers and leading staff development.
NEWCA 2016, 11
Saturday, April 2
Concurrent Session 2, 1:15-­‐2:30 (continued) Workshop: Putnam Science Center, Room 129
Yes, And…. The Complexity of Writing Center Work as told by the Everyday Narratives of Writing Center
Administrators, First-Year Writing Instructors, and Writing Center Consultants
St. John’s University: Anna Sicari, First-Year Writing Instructor; Alison Perry, Associate Director of the Writing Center;
Michael Benjamin, Undergraduate Writing Consultant; Samira Korgan, Graduate Writing Consultant; Michael Reich,
Doctoral Fellow; Preetica Pooni, Undergraduate Writing Consultant; Lauryn Weigold, Undergraduate Writing Consultant
Questioning and pushing back at the grand narrative is a call that WCPs and tutors continue to struggle with, as writing
center work is still depicted as a collective story of individualized tutoring and “best practices” that often remains
unquestioned and unchallenged by people who work in writing centers (Eodice, Jordan, Price). This workshop asks the
audience to reflect on how we both participate in and resist the grand narrative of writing center work.
Panel: Putnam Science Center, Room 154
Solving
the Narrative Puzzle: Personal Statements and Cover Letters
New York Univ ersity: John Paul Cleveland, Director of Polytechnic Tutoring Center, NYU Tandon School of Engineering;
Catherine Henry, Writing Center Coordinator, NYU Tandon School of Engineering; Lateefah Torrence, Writing Consultant,
NYU Tandon School of Engineering
At NYU Tandon School of Engineering, each semester, many of our students prepare to advance to graduate or postdoctoral education as well as the general workforce. In our panel discussion, we hope to engage other conference
members to consider how a writing center can best help students present their unique experiences and stories through
personal statements and cover letters, tempering careful adherence to prompts and standardized format with respect and
appreciation for each student’s personal narrative.
Workshop: Putnam Science Center, Room 161
Confidence in the Writing Center: Storying the Ex perience of Marginalized V oices
College of the Holy Cross: Peter Van Galen, Undergraduate Consultant; Patricia Corey, Undergraduate Consultant;
Emma O’Leary, Undergraduate Consultant; Marissa Casey, Undergraduate Consultant
We consider how the stories marginalized students tell about their writing affects their confidence levels in sessions. We
will: 1) present the results of a study on confidence at our center; 2) invite attendees to participate in an interactive
exercise to help them chart their own degree of confidence; and 3) consider together how marginalized groups on
campus tell stories about confidence and how we might help them improve both writing and confidence.
Panel: Putnam Science Center Room 175 We Don’t Do That Here: Repositioning Grammar as Rhetorical Choice
Northeastern Univ ersity: Belinda Walzer, Writing Center Director; Kristi Girdharry, Writing Center Assistant Director; Eric
Sepenoski, Tutor/PhD candidate: Areti Sakellaris, Tutor/PhD candidate; Michael Turner, Tutor/PhD candidate
This interactive panel compares sessions before and after rhetorical grammar training and shares this training’s practical and
theoretical dimensions. We consider implications such training has for supporting/challenging monolingualism in the
Writing Center and its role in changing how tutors approach higher order and lower order concerns. Participants will gain
insight into structuring training and into how such training can change a writing center’s relationship to “error” and
“choice.”
NEWCA 2016, 12
Saturday, April 2
Concurrent Session 2, 1:15-­‐2:30 (continued) Presentations: Putnam Science Center, Room 101
A. Our Thoughts Entangled in Metaphors: How the Language We Use to Describe Tutoring Can Shape Tutoring (for
Bad or Good)
Boston Architectural College: Elizabeth Stuhlsatz, Manager of the Learning Resource Center
Phrases we all face daily in the Writing Center: Get this cleaned up. Struggling. We may not realize these are metaphors:
the essay is dirty, the writer is in battle. On the other hand, we embrace phrases like “build an argument, support your
thesis;” these too are metaphors. In this interactive conversation, we will examine how the metaphors of tutoring are a
powerful force for shaping thought, and discuss creating our own new metaphors.
B. Centers and Peripheries of Undergraduate Student Publications: Emphasizing Scholarship w hile Exploring
Ephemerality
State University of New York-Plattsburgh: Tom Halford, Assistant Director/Writing Specialist
This presentation explores undergraduate student publications about writing tutoring. Melissa Ianetta and Lauren
Fitzgerald’s The Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors: Practice and Research features the scholarly work of undergraduate
authors alongside seminal essays such as Kenneth Bruffee’s “Peer Tutoring and ‘The Conversation of Mankind’”. Their
vision of writing tutors as scholarly researchers invites undergraduate writers to think of themselves as active participants in
writing center studies as opposed to passive recipients of knowledge (Fitzgerald and Ianetta xiv). Although Fitzgerald and
Ianetta’s guide should be a central text for writing center people, student publications that emphasize creative activity
might complement their vision. The Dangling Modifier, for example, put out a call for papers that requested creative writing
in the fall of 2015. How will Fitzgerald and Ianetta’s The Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors: Practice and Research influence
undergraduates, and what publications should supplement their vision of writing center discourse? Audience participation in
the form of commentary on these various student publications, particularly from undergraduate writing tutors, would be
very welcome.
C. Why Can’t Writing Centers Be “Fix-It Shops”? Recasting Writers and Consultants as Text ‘Tinkerers’
Saint Francis University : Brennan Thomas, Writing Center Director, Associate Professor of English
Stephen North’s essay “The Idea of a Writing Center” defines not only what a writing center should be but also what it
must never become: a grammar “fix-it shop.” Subsequent publications echo North’s sentiment that writing centers should
not offer proofreading or editing services. But why can’t they? This presentation aims to give voice to those directors,
consultants, and compositionists who believe this anti-grammar-fix-it-shop mantra unnecessarily constrains and
misrepresents the work of writing center specialists.
NEWCA 2016, 13
Saturday, April 2
Concurrent Session 3, 2:45-­‐4:00 Presentation: Putnam Science Center, Room 102
Working Tow ard a More Equitable University through Tutor Education
Westfield State Univ ersity: Catherine Savini, Writing Across the Curriculum Coordinator and Reading and Writing Center
Director; Shaynice Robinson, Writing Consultant; Andrew Morin, Writing Consultant; Evelyn Murray, Writing Consultant;
Emily Spakauskas, Writing Consultant; Anaila Aleman, Writing Consultant
This interactive presentation will present an alternative model to tutor education that focuses on working toward leveling
the academic playing field in the university. Tutors will describe four specific projects aimed at tackling stigma surrounding
mental health conditions, the pervasiveness of racial microaggressions, and the marginalization of LGBTQ students in the
residential halls. Participants will be invited to consider how this nontraditional tutor education does and does not prepare
students to serve as tutors.
Roundtable: Putnam Science Center, Room 126 (Em)bracing the Shift: From Writing Center to Multiliteracy Center
Endicott College: David R. DiSarro, Writing Center Director; Juliana Struder, Academic Resources Coordinator
This roundtable discussion focuses on the narrative shift of “Writing Centers” to “Multiliteracy Centers;” specifically, the
facilitators will discuss adapting existing practices, tools, and training methods to forward the narrative of writing centers
as a vehicle for functional, critical, and rhetorical literacy in relation to digital technology and compositions. The discussion
facilitators will also assist attendees in producing pragmatic/programmatic action plans to change the narrative of their
own writing centers toward a multiliteracy approach.
Presentation: Putnam Science Center, Room 127 Writing w ith the Disciplines: How Fellow s Draw on Ways of K now ing from their Majors to First-Year Composition
Discussion Sessions
University of Connecticut: Rofina Johnkennedy, Tutor; Luke LaRosa, Tutor; Sindhu Mannava, Tutor; Yasemin Saplakoglum
Nathan Wojtyna, Tutor
Drawing from lesson plans and personal experience, five course-embedded writing fellows will examine how their
respective disciplinary lenses can be transferred to the context of first-year composition courses. By demonstrating the
integration of seemingly disparate disciplines and ways of knowing in these sessions, the presentation will address the
larger generalist/specialist debate, ultimately arguing that cross-disciplinary perspectives are effective in helping first year
writers negotiate rhetorical and writing decisions.
NEWCA 2016, 14
Saturday, April 2
Concurrent Session 3, 2:45-­‐4:00 (continued) Presentations: Putnam Science Center, Room 101 Presentations: Putnam Science Center, Room
A.
The Story that Assessment Tells
Bronx Community College: Jan Robertson, Director; Kenisha Thomas, Evening Coordinator; Daniel Tehrani, Tutor; Betty
Doyle, Tutor; Jarrett Taylor, Tutor
The Bronx Community College Writing Center conducted assessment using our mission statement as the point of
assessment. The tutors conducted self-assessments of their sessions, and the students/writers assessed their learning,
including answering the question: “What did you learn as a result of your tutoring session?” The students’ rich and varied
answers became the focus of the final project. The numbers of answers in 8 categories were counted and graphed, for
example, the numbers of students who said they had learned something specific about grammar, or research paper writing,
or developed confidence in their writing ability, as well as unclear or non-specific answers, and those who did not write
anything. For this panel presentation, we will provide the tutors’ and the students’ rubrics, copies of samples of the
students’ comments, and a Power Point of the outcomes. We will elicit responses and reflection from the audience, inviting
them to generate new categories for new rubrics for future assessment projects. What narratives can assessments tell of the
work of Writing Centers?
B. Stepping Out: Creating a Safe Space for Minority Identities in Writing Centers
Eastern Connecticut State University: Alex Cross, Writing Tutor; Laura Pérez-Handler, Writing Tutor
Through the lens of LGBT+ and cultural-racial theories, we will examine how minority identities do not fit conventional
master narratives, and how Writing Centers must break out of an oppressive state of neutrality and become a safe space
for all identities. We will use a PowerPoint presentation and interactive scenarios, such as a discussion period oriented
around leading questions that address real-life applications of safe spaces for minority identities in Writing Centers.
Roundtable: Putnam Science Center, Room 129 Complicating the Narrativ es of Community Engagement: The Story of the 826 Boston Writers’ Room, a Partnership
betw een an Urban High School, a Nonprofit Youth Writing Center, and a Univ ersity Writing Program
Northeastern Univ ersity: Neal Lerner, Writing Program Director; Belinda Walzer, Lecturer; 826 Boston: JoJo Jacobson,
826 Boston In School Program Manager; Johnny Sadoff, 826 Boston Commonwealth Corps Writers’ Room Coordinator
This roundtable features tutors and teachers from 826 Boston, Northeastern University, and the John D. O’Bryant School of
Mathematics and Science to describe the 826 Boston Writers’ Room at the O’Bryant. Following a brief description of the
design and implementation of this project, participants will discuss the potential for high school writing centers to build
their schools’ writing cultures and the implications for community engagement as central to the stories writing centers might
tell.
NEWCA 2016, 15
Saturday, April 2
Concurrent Session 3, 2:45-­‐4:00 (continued) Workshop: Putnam Science Center, Room 154 Workshop: Putnam Science Center, Room
If You Try to Make Every Paper Look the Same: Tutors, Teachers and Students Explore How Grand Narratives of
Science Writing Affect Our Practice
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences: Laura Rogers, Writing Center Director; Treven Santicolam, Professional
Tutor; Katherine Bogari, Writing Center Peer Tutor; Connor M. Callaghan, Writing Center Peer Tutor; Kristin Courtney.
Writing Center Peer Tutor; Kyle Farina, Writing Center Peer Tutor; Amanda Kaley, Writing Center Peer Tutor; Kasie
Olszewski, Writing Center Peer Tutor; Dawn Pluckrose, Writing Center Peer Tutor; Amaal Yehia, Writing Center Peer Tutor
This workshop uses Jackie Grutsch McKinney’s ideas about “peripheral vision” to explore how questions of disciplinary
“grand narratives” impact our practice in a school of pharmacy and health sciences through multiple inquiry methods.
Participants will engage in hands-on activities, reflection, and discussion in order to engage with questions of how to
explore their own grand narratives and how disciplinary stories impact their practice.
Workshop: Putnam Science Center, Room 161 We Learn Stories and Teach Them to Students Through a Hands-on Approach: How to Enhance the Training of the
Graduate Writing Staff to Work w ith ESL Students
Yale University: Elena Kallestinova, Assistant Dean and Director, Graduate Writing Lab, CTL; Nicole Calabro, Graduate
Writing Consultant; Peter Coutros, Graduate Writing Consultant
Our research addresses three major questions: (1) how to train consultants to work with ESL students; (2) how to focus on
higher-order concerns during consultations with ESL students; (3) how to make training and work-flow practice sustainable.
Specifically, we discuss the tutorial creation project that Yale graduate consultants conducted as part of their training.
During our interactive workshop, we share our story and invite participants to work in groups to address the three
questions.
Presentations: Putnam Science Center, Room 175 A. The Disabled Body in the Public Sphere of the Writing Center
University of Connecticut: Noah Bukowski, Tutor
Writing center studies has only recently been brought into direct conversation with disability studies. However, scant
research has been done by writing center tutors with disabilities about how they are perceived in this environment by
peers. This research project will draw from online surveys and interviews with writers I have worked with to gauge how my
identity as a tutor with a physical disability (Cerebral Palsy) challenges the master narratives of the writing center.
B. Working w ith Deaf Students in the Writing Center
Bristol Community College: Reid McKinney, Master Peer Tutor
This presentation is a review of training materials and readings to prepare tutors to work with a deaf student. The current
research demonstrates a need for some adjustments to tutoring practices to better serve a deaf client. Cultural and
communication considerations will be discussed. Language matters common to deaf students will also be touched upon to
aid the tutor in approaching the student’s writing with respect to his or her linguistic background.
NEWCA 2016, 16
Saturday, April 2
Concurrent Session 4, 4:15-­‐5:30 Presentations: Putnam Science Center, Room 126 Presentations: Putnam Science Center, Room
A. In a Land Far Aw ay…or Around the Corner
Bronx Community College: Jarrett Taylor, Tutor
A Writing Center’s setting, which includes location, size, and layout, could shape the Writing Center’s story. The
environment of a Writing Center may represent how academic support is appreciated on a college campus. That is why the
setting of a Writing Center can dictate what services it could offer to their students. Changes in setting can improve or
impede the success of the Writing Center.
B. Write-Ins, Retreats, and Boot Camps: Constructing Temporary Spaces to Let Writers Write
Amherst College: Jessica Kem, Senior Writing Associate
Writing Centers can support writers by creating retreats, boot camps, and write-ins, events that allow us to expand our
models of support for students’ writing practices. The Amherst College Writing Center has experimented with many
forms of these events and has begun to gather data about their impact on student writing practices. This session will
prompt participants to imagine, develop, and assess similar programs for their own campuses.
Workshop: Putnam Science Center, Room 154 Taking Note
Columbia Univ ersity : Matthew Rossi, Consultant; Jason Ueda, Coordinator
Note-taking is an integral, often ephemeral part of writing center work. Especially when consultants transcribe writers’
words, they exert enormous cognitive effort, removing the consultant from the session. In this workshop, we will explore
note-taking as a collaboration with the writer. Participants will be encouraged to collectively develop new note-taking
techniques that help writers take greater agency in shaping their process and in shaping the writing center as a space for
collective and collaborative work.
Panel: Putnam Science Center, Room 127 Presentation: Putnam Science Center, Room RAD Approaches to Story telling: Studying Tutor Note Narratives
College of the Holy Cross: Kristina Reardon, Associate Director, Center for Writing; Melissa Bugdal, Assistant Director
and Graduate Student Tutor, University Writing Center; University of Connecticut: Tom Deans, Director, University
Writing Center
Though they tell the story of writer and tutor development, session reports are often overlooked in writing center work.
This interactive panel discusses ways to mine the peripheral stories tutors write daily. We will: 1) explain how we used
archives of tutor notes for a RAD research study; 2) brainstorm ways to conduct similar projects with narrative archives;
and 3) code sample transcripts together to show how we can tell stories with narratives and numbers.
NEWCA 2016, 17
Saturday, April 2
Concurrent Session 4, 4:15-­‐5:30 (continued) Roundtables: Putnam Science Center, Room 101 Roundtable: Putnam Science Center, Room
A. Looking In, Looking Out: A Study Comparing Tutor, User, and Faculty Perspectives of a University Writing
Center
Bentley University: Gregory Farber, Writing Center Director and Writing Program Director; Colleen Lindberg, Student
Tutor; Dante Tagariello, Student Tutor; Alison Fortier, Student Tutor; Rachel Palumbo, Student Tutor
We often take for granted certain aspects of our work, but what messages are students and faculty getting? Do others
see us as flexible and non-judgmental as we assume? Do others share our values? When we surveyed center users,
faculty, and tutors to describe our writing center, we found significant differences. In this session, we will present our
results while exploring ways to help writing centers align the perceptions of all community members.
B. Writing New Stories: Threshold Concepts as a Bridge for Collaboration betw een Writing Centers and Writing
Programs
University of Maine: Paige Mitchell, Writing Center Director; Ryan Dippre, Associate WPA
In this interactive, discussion-based presentation, a Writing Center Director and Associate WPA demonstrate how they
used threshold concepts (Wardle and Adler-Kassner, 2015) to collaboratively align the narratives of their respective
programs. They describe how they productively linked the different conceptions of “writing” they enact through teaching
and tutoring. Participants will be encouraged to think about their nuanced concepts of writing and productively connect
divergent ways of thinking and talking about writing in different rhetorical circumstances.
C. Footnotes to the Grand Narrative: Stories of Synergy We Forget to Tell
Plymouth State University: Jane Weber, Director; Laura Hoffman, Undergraduate Writing Consultant; Brittany Faulkner,
Undergraduate Writing Consultant
Staff members of the Writing Center at Plymouth State University have embraced the grand narrative since our Center was
created in 1994. We actively promote our space as relaxing and comfortable and our service as one-to-one support for
writers. We feel these are the most binding threads to our story, but in brainstorming for a new promotional video for
spring, we realized there are many stories that occur in our Center that we forget to tell – stories of group writing and
spontaneous collaboration among writers. We realized these functions are footnotes to the main story we tell, and
perhaps these footnoted stories would be useful for more PSU faculty to know. Our spring 2016 Writing Center Fellow has
planned a video on the synergy of group writing as well as parallel writing for a common genre/assignment. The audience
for this video will be professors specifically, and we will send the link to faculty when the video is ready. Following its
release, we will poll professors on the usefulness of the new video. Did they learn anything new about the Writing Center?
Will they plan or promote Writing Center visits differently based on the information? Our brief presentation will be
followed by group discussion, and perhaps revised/enhanced promotional efforts will emerge on other campuses as a
result.
NEWCA 2016, 18
Saturday, April 2
Concurrent Session 4, 4:15-­‐5:30 (continued) Roundtables: Putnam Science Center, Room 175
A. A Radical Critique of Liberal “Neutrality:” Naming and Negotiating Our Politics On Campus
Hampshire College: Laura Greenfield, Director of the Transformative Speaking Program; Carmen Figueroa, Peer Mentor;
Andrea Johnson, Peer Mentor; Lily Holmes, Peer Mentor; Devin Zhu, Peer Mentor
What happens when a center does not assume a neutral position with respect to institutional policies, the curriculum, and
classroom pedagogies? What does it mean to be explicit and bold in naming our political commitments, and how do we
negotiate the institutional repercussions that follow? The roundtable will explore strategies for crafting mission statements,
redefining relationships, and imagining new norms for practices in tutorials.
B. In the Peripheral: Community College Writing Centers in a Snapshot and Bristol Community College WC as a
Testing Ground for RAD Research
Bristol Community College: Dr. Genie Giaimo, BCC Writing Centers Director; Amy Blanchette, Tutor-in-Training/Student;
Cameron Carlin, Tutor-in-Training/Student; Jessica Mattos, Tutor-in-Training/Student; Katelyn Parson, Tutor-inTraining/Student; Casey Bernier, Tutor
This roundtable consists of six short presentations from peer tutors at the BCC Writing Centers, and members of Dr. Genie
Giaimo’s Tutoring in a Writing Center Practicum (Fall 2015). We will use PowerPoint, handouts, and offer stopping points in
between each presentation for questions and discussion. Together, we aim to offer a Comprehensive overview of
community college writing centers: their histories (both scholarly and local), their demographics, and how ours intervened in
scholarship via RAD research.
Presentations: Putnam Science Center, Room 102 A. Telling the Graduate Student Story: Why Writing Centers Should Expand Support for Graduate Student
Writing
Merrimack College: Amber Caplan, Graduate Fellow
Masters students experience a lack of understanding of graduate level writing; using the Writing Center will benefit these
students in their writing and in their degree completion. This qualitative study explores Masters students’ perceptions of
graduate level writing at Merrimack College and how they do or do not use the Writing Center. The discussion will
explore the data collected and the possibilities for expanding Writing Center services at a small liberal arts college.
B. Renegotiating Our Stories: Maintaining Elements of the ‘Grand Narrative’ in Composing New Identities
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: Barbara Lewis, Director, Center for Communication Practices; Jacqueline Bowler,
Graduate TA Tutor; Lorelei Wagner, Graduate student/former Tutor
The writing center of one technological university has been challenged to further revise some of their ‘grand narratives.’
Through three presentations, audience members will be asked: In this time of new media and new technologies,
multimodal communication, and multidisciplinary curricula, how do writing centers reconcile our institutions’ drive for
innovation and growth to meet existing expectations – notably maintaining a welcoming space for students to reflect on
and talk about their texts?
NEWCA 2016, 19
Saturday, April 2
Concurrent Session 4, 4:15-­‐5:30 (continued) Workshop: Putnam Science Center, Room 129 Talking Back: Archives, Counterstories, and Preserving Writing Assistant Perspectives
University of New Hampshire: Molly Tetreault, Director, Connors Writing Center; Brad Dittrich, Associate Director; Holly
Fosher, Undergraduate Writing Assistant; Yussra MT Ebrahim, Undergraduate Writing Assistant; Nicole Tremblay,
Undergraduate Writing Assistant; Natalie Monteiro, Undergraduate Writing Assistant; Madison Schaefer, Undergraduate
Writing Assistant; Sameer Panesar, Undergraduate Writing Assistant
This workshop will describe the Connors Writing Center staff’s exploration of the Robert J. Connors Writing Center Files.
Through exploring and contributing to the archive, writing assistants have begun “talking back” to the dominant narratives
within the field and preserving their own perspectives. Using archival documents as a source of writing prompts, this
workshop will primarily provide a space for participants to write and preserve their stories, too.
Sunday, April 3
8:00-9:00: Breakfast and Registration
Putnam Science Center Atrium Special Interest Groups (SIGs), 9:00-­‐9:50
SIG 1: Tutoring Best Practices, facilitated by Stephanie Carter, Director of the Academic Center for
Excellence and The Writing Center, Bryant University, Putnam Science Center, Room 102
SIG 2: Collaborating with Student Support Services, facilitated by Kelli Custer, Coordinator of the Writing
Center, Western Connecticut State University, Putnam Science Center, Room 126
SIG 3: Reading in the Writing Center facilitated by Siu Ng, Director of Academic Services, Schenectady
County Community College, Putnam Science Center, Room 127
SIG 4: Working with International Students, facilitated by John Hall, Director of the COM Writing Center,
Boston University, Putnam Science Center, Room 129
SIG 5: Tutoring Techniques for Students with Disabilities, facilitated by Erin Durkin, Tutor Training
Coordinator, Centenary College, Putnam Science Center, Room 154
9:30: Northeast Writing Across the Curriculum Consortium Workshop (NEWACC) Putnam Science Center, Room 175
NEWCA 2016, 20
Sunday April 3
Concurrent Session 5, 10:00 -­‐ 11:15 Workshop: Putnam Science Center, Room 102 Speak ing is the New Writing: An Interactive Tool K it
Hampshire College: Laura Greenfield, Director of the Transformative Speaking Program; Lily Holmes, Peer Mentor; Andrea
Johnson, Peer Mentor; Kaylie Vezina, Peer Mentor; Alizae Wineglass, Peer Mentor; Devin Zhu, Peer Mentor: Fangzhou Zhu,
Peer Mentor
Despite our focus on writing, the day-to-day work of students in classrooms and in the writing center involves a great deal of
speaking: group discussions, conversation-based tutorials, oral reports of projects, and so on. In this interactive workshop,
participants will experience a buffet of fun and pedagogically purposeful speaking warm ups, exercises, and games that can
be brought into individual sessions or staff meetings to calm students’ nerves, prepare the body and voice, and get the
energy flowing for learning.
Workshop: Putnam Science Center, Room 126 When the Everyday Isn’t So Common: Considering the Narrative of Writing Center Scholarship
Pace University: Robert Mundy, Director, Composition and Co-Director, Writing Enhanced Courses; St. John’s University: Anna Sicari, First-Year Writing Instructor
In Peripheral Visions, Jackie Grutsch McKinney writes of the intellectual work that does not get told in the grand narrative of
writing centers. Writing centers are spaces of activism and institutional change and yet continue to be seen as sites of
service. This workshop asks participants to push back at this narrative by reading writing center scholarship on identity
politics (Condon; Denny; Greenfield & Rowan; Grimm) and using this scholarship to inform their everyday practices.
Roundtable: Putnam Science Center, Room 101 Coloring Outside of the Center: Using Individual Stories and Mandalas to Mov e Beyond the Grand Narrative
Western Connecticut State University: Kelli Custer, Coordinator of the Writing Center; Dan Chamberlin, Graduate
Student Tutor; Charlotte Dabrowski, Graduate Student Tutor; Stephanie Hardisty, Graduate Student Tutor; Christina
Kinsella, Graduate Student Tutor; Abigail Lebron, Graduate Student Tutor; Steph Myers, Graduate Student Tutor; Beth
Turley, Graduate Student Tutor; Fatima Selimovski, Undergraduate Student Tutor; Lauren Hudak, Undergraduate Student
Tutor; Kimberly Janvier, Undergraduate Student Tutor
To challenge the grand narrative of writing center studies, McKinney suggests that we move beyond the tight center of the
Venn diagram of our experiences and instead color in the elements that surround the center – the overlapping microcosms
of our individual centers. In this roundtable/workshop, we will color the mandalas of our experience and exchange stories of
our individual centers through guided questions that focus on what is different between us rather than common.
NEWCA 2016, 21
Sunday April 3
Concurrent Session 5, 10:00-­‐11:15 (continued) Panel: Putnam Science Center, Room 127
Re-Envisioning
the Narrativ e: Special Writing Center Programs in the Small Liberal Arts College
Merrimack College: Hannah Pavlik, Peer Writing Consultant; Jennifer Griffith, Peer Writing Consultant; Erin Duffy Pastore,
Associate Director of the Writing Center; Kathleen Shine Cain, Director of the Writing Center
The increasingly diverse populations of a small liberal arts college have afforded the Writing Center an opportunity to reenvision its narrative and to re-invent itself. This presentation will focus on two programs, one designed for conditionally
accepted students and one for multilingual international students, exploring how serving these populations has resulted in a
new, revitalized, and inclusive narrative.
Panel: Putnam Science Center, Room 129
Looking Inw ard, Moving Outw ard: Reconsidering Writing Center Spaces and Practices
K eene State College: Analee Benik, Head Tutor; Nathan Brown, Head Tutor; Allison Brady, Head Tutor; Amy Donovan,
Head Tutor
In this panel, Keene State College tutors will share research that they conducted to examine the impacts of nature,
nurture, culture, and the writing center’s environment on student writing and effective tutoring. Tutors drew on this
research the following year to explore which current practices in the Center should be revised or rethought. Panelists will
share their rationale for what was changed, and what new initiatives resulted from this research.
Concurrent Session 6, 11:30am-­‐12:45pm
Presentation and SIG: Putnam Science Center, Room 102
A. Writing Centers are Great, Just Not for My Students: The Dilemma of High School Writing Centers
University of Connecticut: Alexandria Bottelsen, Tutor
This paper reports on a study of how secondary school teachers see the relationships among Common Core standards,
their own teaching practices, and peer writing centers. Through conducting interviews with teachers across subject areas at
two high schools with peer writing centers, the researcher discovered a paradox: that most teachers praised the concept of
writing centers in general even as they saw them as not especially relevant for their own students and subject areas.
B. Special Interest Group Discussion: High School Writing Centers
University of Connecticut: Melissa Bugdal, Assistant Director of the Writing Center
This SIG will build on points raised in the above presentation, and offer an opportunity for participants to have an open
discussion focusing on the topic of high school writing centers.
NEWCA 2016, 22
Sunday April 3
Concurrent Session 6, 11:30-­‐12:45 (continued) Roundtable: Putnam Science Center, Room 129
P olaroid OneStep and the Peter C. Wensberg Writing Center: A Round Table Deliberativ e Session for Collecting
Peripheral Stories
Franklin Pierce University: Molly Badrawy, Wensberg Writing Center Coordinator, Sr. Lecturer; Zan Goncalves,
Coordinator of First Year Composition Program, Associate Professor of Composition; Leila Jabbour, Assistant Professor of
Health Sciences; Melissa Mulvany, Biology and Psychology Senior; Hunter Jordan, Health Science Senior; Nicole
O’Doherty, Health Science Sophomore
NEWCA participants at our roundtable discussion will help us begin the process of listening to those peripheral
stories. As stakeholders, we will examine issues, global and specific to writing centers. We will use a Deliberative
Dialogue concern-collecting session, a method that decenters the dominant narrative making room for the peripheral
stories, a voice-centered approach allowing participants to acknowledge tensions and shared values to find common
ground, make decisions, and take action. The question we will begin with is: What concerns you about writing at the
university as students, faculty, administrators; as a writing center tutors, coordinators, directors, or first year writing
program coordinators?
Panel: Putnam Science Center, Room 127 First Year Students and Peer Tutors: Shifting Interactions, Roles, and Identities
University of V ermont: Cristina MacKinnon, Tutor; Wes Dunn, Tutor; Rebecca Potter, Tutor; Audrey Kreiser, Tutor;
Steven Ushakov, Tutor
Our panel will explore the writing center’s role in supporting first year students as they work through a variety of issues
relating to identity, including their relationship to the topics of diversity and social justice, their encounters with different
cultural expectations and communication styles, and their challenges in shifting from high school to college-level writers.
Following short presentations, speakers will engage the audience in exploring how writing tutors can support first-year
writers in facing these new challenges.
Panel: Putnam Science Center, Room 126 Giving Voice to Peer Consultants in a Community of Practice: The V alue of Dialogic Journals in the Writing Center
Merrimack College: Rachel Silsbee, Professional Writing Consultant; Ashley Widing; Kathleen Shine Cain, Director of
the Writing Center; Erin Duffy Pastore, Associate Director of the Writing Center
The Writing Center is one of the few locations on a college campus that can truly call itself a community of practice.
When achieving real community via face-to-face encounters is challenging, however, a virtual community can thrive
through reflective dialogic journals. This presentation will report on implementation of a program that gives voice to
peer writing consultants, allowing their stories to inform the Writing Center’s mission.
1:00-2:00: NEWCA Steering Committee Meeting, Putnam Science Center 102 NEWCA 2016, 23
Acknowledgments
The 2015-2016 Steering Committee extends gratitude and thanks to:
The Keene State College Center for Writing Staff
Dr. Anne Huot, Keene State College President
Dr. Walter Zakahi, Keene State College Provost and Vice President for Academic
Affairs
Dr. Glenn Geiser-Getz, Keene State College Associate Provost, Academic Affairs
Rick Kraemer, Sodexo Catering Director and the Zorn Dining Commons Sodexo Staff
Michelle Fuller, Executive Assistant, Academic Affairs
Steven Russell, Keene State College Bookstore Operations Assistant
The Young Student Center Operations Staff
Keene State College Campus Safety
Keene State College Parking Office
Keene State College Student Volunteers
Program Photo Credits: Arline Votruba, Keene State College Center for Writing Intern