Out in the Center
Public Controversies and Private Struggles
Utah State University Press
Out in the Center explores the personal struggles of tutors, faculty, and administrators in writing center communities as they negotiate the interplay between public controversies and features of their own intersectional identities. These essays address how race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, faith, multilingualism, and learning differences, along with their intersections, challenge those who inhabit writing centers and engage in their conversations.
A diverse group of contributors interweaves personal experience with writing center theory and critical race theory, as well as theories on the politics and performance of identity. In doing so, Out in the Center extends upon the writing center corpus to disrupt and reimagine conventional approaches to writing center theory and practice. Out in the Center proposes that practitioners benefit from engaging in dialogue about identity to better navigate writing center work—work that informs the local and carries forth a social and cultural impact that stretches well beyond academic institutions.
Contributors:
Allia Abdullah-Matta, Nancy Alvarez, Hadi Banat, Tammy S. Conard-Salvo, Michele Eodice, Rochell Isaac, Sami Korgan, Ella Leviyeva, Alexandria Lockett, Talisha Haltiwanger Morrison, Anna Rita Napoleone, Beth A. Towle, Elizabeth Weaver, Tim Zmudka
A diverse group of contributors interweaves personal experience with writing center theory and critical race theory, as well as theories on the politics and performance of identity. In doing so, Out in the Center extends upon the writing center corpus to disrupt and reimagine conventional approaches to writing center theory and practice. Out in the Center proposes that practitioners benefit from engaging in dialogue about identity to better navigate writing center work—work that informs the local and carries forth a social and cultural impact that stretches well beyond academic institutions.
Contributors:
Allia Abdullah-Matta, Nancy Alvarez, Hadi Banat, Tammy S. Conard-Salvo, Michele Eodice, Rochell Isaac, Sami Korgan, Ella Leviyeva, Alexandria Lockett, Talisha Haltiwanger Morrison, Anna Rita Napoleone, Beth A. Towle, Elizabeth Weaver, Tim Zmudka
'Out in the Center offers refreshing and important new voices necessary in the kinds of diversely populated writing centers needed today and in the future. Many writing centers are durable, middle class, heteronormative, white writing places, with stubbornly hegemonic values and practices that subordinate the discourses and ideas that come from diverse habitus. I find multiple ways to rethink my own practices as a writing center director and writing teacher in this book, as well as new questions and new problems we all should pose privately and within our disciplines.'
—Asao B. Inoue, University of Washington Tacoma
‘This galvanizing collection challenges the idea that writing centers are by default inherently democratic and egalitarian spaces. . . . Summing Up: Highly recommended.’
—CHOICE
Harry Denny, associate professor of English, directs the Writing Lab at Purdue University. He has also directed writing centers at St. John’s University and Stony Brook University (SUNY) in New York and is the author of Facing the Center. His research focuses on writing centers, LGBTQ issues in rhetoric and public policy debates, first-generation students, and assessment protocols that identify and address social justice dynamics.
Robert Mundy is assistant professor of English and writing program director at Pace University. His research focuses on composition theory and pedagogy, masculinity studies, writing center theory and practice, and cultural studies. His essays have appeared in the collection Class in the Composition Classroom and the journal The Peer Review.
Liliana M. Naydan is assistant professor of English and writing program coordinator at Penn State Abington. She researches writing centers and American literature, and her articles have appeared in journals including Praxis, Forum, and Critique. She is the author of Rhetorics of Religion in American Fiction and coeditor of Terror in Global Narrative.
Richard Sévère is associate professor of medieval literature and professional writing at Valparaiso University and founder and former director of the Writing Collaboratory at Centenary University of New Jersey.
Anna Sicari is assistant professor of English and writing center director at Oklahoma State University. Her research interests are in writing center theory and pedagogy, feminist research methods, composition theory and pedagogy, feminist theory, and qualitative research. She is associate editor of The Writing Center Journal.
Robert Mundy is assistant professor of English and writing program director at Pace University. His research focuses on composition theory and pedagogy, masculinity studies, writing center theory and practice, and cultural studies. His essays have appeared in the collection Class in the Composition Classroom and the journal The Peer Review.
Liliana M. Naydan is assistant professor of English and writing program coordinator at Penn State Abington. She researches writing centers and American literature, and her articles have appeared in journals including Praxis, Forum, and Critique. She is the author of Rhetorics of Religion in American Fiction and coeditor of Terror in Global Narrative.
Richard Sévère is associate professor of medieval literature and professional writing at Valparaiso University and founder and former director of the Writing Collaboratory at Centenary University of New Jersey.
Anna Sicari is assistant professor of English and writing center director at Oklahoma State University. Her research interests are in writing center theory and pedagogy, feminist research methods, composition theory and pedagogy, feminist theory, and qualitative research. She is associate editor of The Writing Center Journal.
