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MAWCA

The Mid-Atlantic Writing Centers Association


MAWCA 2018 Conference Schedule

Friday, March 23rd

Registration 2:00-3:30

Workshops

3:00-5:00 Business Hall

Reception

5:00-6:30 Business Hall Hub

MAWCA Board Meeting

6:30-7:30 Business Hall, Room TBD 

Tutor Open-Mic Night: Rowan Writing Center, Campbell Library, Room 131

6:00-7:30

Saturday, March 24th

Breakfast and Registration: 7:30-8:30 Eynon Ballroom, Chamberlain Student Center

Keynote:  8:30-9:30  Eynon Ballroom, Chamberlain Student Center

Registration: 9:30-11:00 Business Hall Hub


At a Glance:

Session A: 10:00-10:50  Business Hall

Session B: 11:00-11:50 Business Hall

Lunch and Story Sessions 12:-1:00

Session C: 1:10-2:00 Business Hall

Session D: 2:10-3:00 Business Hall

Conference Wrap up: 3:00-3:30  Business Hall 


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Session B: 11:00-11:50 Business Hall

Room 101

“Bridging the Gap: Establishing Collaborative Relationships with Developmental Writers through In-Class Tutoring”  

Timothy Smith, Jay Barnica, Nicole Bollinger, John Zukowski, and Marissa Kopp

HACC, Central Pennsylvania's Community College

Panel Presentation

Explore the impact of an embedded tutoring program as tutors and administrators share strategies for engaging students, partnering with faculty, and developing activities to empower developmental student writers.

Room 103

“Minoritized Writing Associates: Our Contributions and Relations to Writing Discourse”

Fayola Fair, Jovanté Anderson, and Kamini Masood

Lafayette College

Presentation

Writing Associates of marginalized identities must balance existing as minoritized members within writing discourse, as well as authorities of writing. This panel includes three Writing Associates who will explore the tension between these two positions through a moderated discussion.

Room 104A

“A Higher Order Concern: Service Work Through the Writing Center”

Daniel DeLuise, Julia Taormina, Rowan University, and Mary Aruffo, Glassboro Public Schools

Panel Presentation

Writing tutors are a valuable resource, especially in the K-12 learning community. Our presentation will show the benefit of service work in the Writing Center and how tutors can make a difference in their local schools.

Room 104B

“Centering Narratives: How Tutors Can Foster Empathy and Reflection in Composition Classrooms” Eileen Brumitt, Meg MIkovits, Cara McClintock-Walsh

Northampton Community College

Panel Presentation

This panel discusses a cross-institutional tutoring partnership designed to foster empathy among students in a summer writing class through tutor-facilitated workshops on oral storytelling and structured exchange of personal narratives.

Room 121

“Writing Center Tutoring and its Place in the Writing Process”

Michael Heiss, Hofstra University  

Data Dash

This Data Dash is a study proposal that examines who uses writing centers and what part of the tutoring experience motivates students to more proactively use writing center tutoring.

“Empowering Nontraditional Students” Susan Edele, Jazmine Lampley, Lindenwood University

Data Dash

One Writing Center’s mission to support graduate students and empower them to do their best writing by validating their voices and supporting their writing needs.

Room 131

“We're Here, We're…Queer? Challenging Language to Define Sexuality and Gender in Writing Centers” Caitlin McLaughlin, Drexel University

Individual Presentation

My research examines language like “queer” and “LGBT” to define students in writing centers. I will identify gaps in the literature through qualitative methods and seek to fill those gaps.

“By A Name, I Know Not What To Call Thee: Preferred Pronouns in Writing Center Report” Justin Hopkins, Franklin and Marshall College

Individual Presentation

Expanding on my MAWCA 2017 presentation, I add new data and analysis to my examination of responses to my Writing Center’s policy to ask tutees for their preferred pronouns.

“Is the Writing Center a Tool of Empowerment or an Instrument of Oppression: Investigating Writing Centers and Identity in Graduate Tutor Training?”

Kerri Rinaldi, Immaculata University

Presentation

This presentation examines how tutor training that investigates the intersection of identity and writing center work can contribute to challenging systemic oppression in academia.

Room 201

“Playing the Game: Interrogating Privilege, Power and Possibility”

Danielle Fruehan, Veronica Garis, Amanda Snook, Penn State University

Round Robin

As an alternative to the Privilege Walk, come play our Privilege Board Game! Players will roll the dice and experience the ways intersectionality, precarity, and privilege shape our opportunities and learning skills.

Room 204

“Call to Action: Taking Activism Beyond the Center”

Andrea Efthymiou, Tyler Thier, Nicholas Rizzuti

Hofstra University

Presentation

Our panel understands engagement as activism within the center and beyond, looking at writing center interactions within our spaces but also across international borders and in increasingly high-stakes writing situations.

Room 208

“Mini-Regional Think Tank (Anyone can do it)”

Margaret Ervin and Julianna Balmer

West Chester University

Roundtable Discussion

The purpose of this presentation, in roundtable format, is to encourage MAWCA members, especially newer members, to take the leap to become a mini-regional host. Attendees will leave the roundtable with resources and a plan for next steps toward a mini-regional.

Room 221

“Human Rights Praxis in the Writing Center: Access and Activism through Social Work Scholarship”

Benjamin Morgan, Marquetta Bond, and Virginia Carr

West Chester University

Presentation

This presentation describes recent social work and writing center initiatives at WCU in Philadelphia, where practice has been challenged and informed by Human Rights principles.

“Racism in the Authority Complex” Daniel Israelsson, George Washington University

Presentation

Through analysis of how race entered into a session’s the balance of authority, I analyze how consultants should consider how aspects of identity can factor into their session’s authority complex.

“Motivation and Mentorship Extending the Reach of Tutoring Among Black Women in the Writing Center” Candace Chambers, independent scholar

Presentation

This session will explore the impact of the laboring between Black women tutors and clients in writing centers in the areas of identity, language discourse, and mentorship.

Room 225

“Student Stories: The Effectiveness of Writing Center Practices” Tanique Philogene and Christian Lopez-Ashby, Loyola University, Maryland
Roundtable Discussion

We wish to explore the narratives of students that attend the Writing Center to ensure the diversity and intersectionalities of our tutees are being addressed in center interactions and practices.


Lunch and Story Sessions 12:-1:00

Story Sessions (On-Going)

Story Sessions

“Notes from a Stranger in a Strange Land”

Olivia Hardy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

“The Veritable Value of Voice: Understanding Student Fears in the Presence of Academia”  Matthew Parsons, Immaculata University

Discover why students are anxious when writing for academic audiences, and how empowerment of the writer helps to conquer the source of their fears.

“The Poetry Within: Organizing a Poetry Workshop for Writers of All Abilities”

Emily Goff, York College of Pennsylvania

College writing centers can be transformed into havens of uninhibited creativity through workshops. Ideally, my poetry workshop will empower individuals, regardless of their “disabilities,” to unleash their unique human voices.

“The Writing Center: A Space for Intercultural Communication and Constructive Dialogue”

Jamel Hudson,  Jennifer Davis, Morgan Parker, Ashley Vernola, Hofstra University

Three members of the Hofstra Writing Center worked together to construct video footage that highlights the intercultural communication that developed between an African American Male student, and a Jewish American Female Tutor.

“My Experience Volunteering: Extending Tutor Obligation and Checking Educational Privilege” Devon James,  Rowan University

This story will provide an overview of my experience volunteering for a Community Literacy Organization, and consider a Writing Center’s responsibility to its surrounding community.

“The Writing Center "F" Word: Friendships” Chelsea Watts, Penn State University, Berks

“F” is for friends who share their narratives. Join the discussion about friendships among Writing Center tutors and how their personal stories and relationships help to maintain an inclusive and cohesive environment.

“Merging the Creative Writing Class and the Writing Center” Maddie Carroll, Rowan University

I share the efficacy of current pedagogical approaches to tutoring creative writing in the writing center and look at how writing centers and creative writing programs can work together to benefit creative writers.

Labtime (ongoing, Business Hall Hub)

“Uncovering Faculty/Student Dynamics in a Writing Fellow Program”  

Danielle Saad, Lauren Gough, Taylor Gough, Meghan Steffey, Alvernia University

Undergraduate student researchers who serve as writing fellows seek survey participants and feedback on interview questions to evaluate a four-year old writing support program at a small liberal arts university.

Session C: 1:10-2:00 Business Hall

Room 101

“Understanding the Full Impact of Writing Center Outreach Workshops”

 Ryan MacDonald, Katie Branca, Darcy Gagnon, and Jenna Kahn, George Mason University

Panel Presentation

Administrators and tutors from George Mason University’s writing center present data and findings concerning the impacts of their growing outreach program on the university and the center itself.

Room 103

“Identity, Privilege, and Activism: Cultivating Spaces of Community for First-Year Writers”

 Meg Mikovits, Mike Guarino, Na'im Pretlow, Vaughn Tempesta

Moravian College

Panel Presentation

Panelists share their experiences and strategies on incorporating and navigating often challenging discussions on themes of identity, privilege, and activism in the learning discourse community of the college composition classroom.

Room 104A

“Does Tutoring Impact the Writing Quality and Complexity of ESL and Basic Writers?”

Brian Hutchison, Deah Atherton, Karen Johnson

Shippensburg University

Panel Presentation

Using a mixed-methods design with three unique instruments, we will share how tutoring impacts writing complexity, creativity, and quality for graduate international writers and undergraduate basic writers.

Room 104B

“The Stories We Must Share: The Role of Narrative in Revision, Compositional Rhythms, and Civic Conversations in the Writing Center”

Jason Hoppe, Helen Schroeder, Maya Kuang, and Danny Nguyen

United States Military Academy

Panel Presentation

This panel considers how storycraft and specific narrative methods can transform student attitudes about revision, the role of diverse compositional rhythms in the writing process, and serious civic conversation.

Room 121

“A Narrative of STEM Students Homing into Writing Centers”  

Morgan M. Douglas, Rowan University

Presentation

In this story session, I share hard-copied and digital resources vital to redirecting the signaling processes of STEM students’ academic success as they “home” into the writing center.

 

“Bridging the Gap Years: Non-Traditional Students in the Writing Center”

Kerrin Smith, University of Baltimore

Presentation

This presentation will investigate the writing challenges unique to returning students and older students, and will hypothesize that that a heavier emphasis on genre theory can help this demographic succeed in writing-intensive courses.

“How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Asynchronous Online Tutoring”

 Tom Earles, University of Maryland

Presentation

This presentation will discuss the challenges and successes the UMD Writing Center took in planning and implementing asynchronous online tutoring, and ultimately, how effective students and tutors find our approach.

Room 131

“Spanish Tutoring: Observations of Tutoring Writing in a Foreign Language”

Luz Mueller, George Mason University

Presentation

This presentation explores a new Spanish writing tutoring program, introduces three distinct types of Spanish language writers, and discusses the transfer of learning that occurs when English speakers write in a second language, specifically Spanish.

“One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: One Center's Struggle to Stay Woke”

Janel McCloskey, Drexel University

Presentation

This session explores the challenges of enacting anti-racist pedagogy in the writing center with emphasis on successes, failures and the need for this work to be focused and ongoing.

Presentation

“Re-imagining Writing Centers for Chinese International Students in America”

Soo-Jin Kweon, George Washington University

Presentation

This paper analyzes the shortcomings of the current writing center model in accommodating the needs of the ELL student population in order to provide a better environment for international students.

Room 201

“Personal Activism: Catalyzing Change through Questioning”

Sufiya Abdur-Rahman, Funmilayo Adenugba, Moniesha Lawings, and Christine Ramroop

Bowie State University

Round Robin

Students see a variety of injustices in the world but may not have voice to speak on them. In this discussion, learn how to help students access their suppressed voices.

Room 204

“Trauma, Triage, and Trust, Embodied Activism in Tutor's Responses to Uncovered Embedded Narratives of Crisis”

Marilyn Buono, Joseph Chillman, Tom Buqo

Hofstra University

Roundtable

This roundtable examines unspoken critical narratives of writing center clients struggling with disabilities, mental health issues, or both, offering  problem-solving strategies as well as opportunities for discussion.

Room 208

“Postcolonialism in Writing Centers and the Narrative of Activism”  

Samaa Gamie, Tadia Nicholson, Lynnazia Davis, and Craig Watson

Lincoln University

Panel Presentation

The panel investigates the role of postcolonialism and anti-racist pedagogies in framing writing center activism and presents approaches and activities through which the WC can empower traditionally marginalized students.

Room 221

“Stop Chasing Followers: Using Social Media Science to Promote F2F Networks”

Craig Medvecky, Loyola University, Maryland

Presentation

This presentation will examine the principles behind the use of internet based applications (i.e Web 2.0) for the purposes of successfully marketing the writing center both online and face-to-face. [29]

“Spaces of Possibility: Counterarguments and Emerging College Scholars”

Vivek Freitas, United States Military Academy

Presentation

Tutors are physical manifestations of scholarly discourses defined by interactions with other scholars. This paper argues that by focusing on counterarguments, tutors can build positive and scholarly associations with the activist task of creating spaces attuned to diverse voices.

“Writing Centers' Activism: How to Help Writers Embrace Their Voice”

Simone Hunter-Hobson, George Washington University

Presentation

Analyzing a session in which a Palestinian writer hesitated to reveal her background in a personal statement, I examine tutors’ motivational scaffolding techniques to help writers unapologetically embrace and write about their identities.


Session D: 2:10-3:00 Business Hall

Room 101

“Connection, Cooperation, and Collaboration: Building Community in the Writing Center”

Katelyn Snyder, Autumn Paul, Kendal McLaughlin, Meg Mikovits, Moravian College

Panel Presentation

This presentation explores ways that writing center tutors and writing fellows can instill a sense of community among student writers by emphasizing collaboration and encouraging a culture of peer support.

Room 103

“Scribes or Serfs?: Professional Writing Tutors in Theory and Practice”

Sarah Marshall, Lauren-Elise Kadel, Luke Swinson

Thomas Jefferson University - East Falls Campus

Roundtable

We will discuss narratives about professional tutors in our own institutional contexts, and then identify specific practices we might change, narratives we might re-shape, or questions we might further explore.

Room 104A

“Teaching Ariel to Fight off Ursula: Helping Students Reclaim Their Voice”

Willmaria Miranda and Christina Mastroeni, Kean University

Round Robin

The path to helping a student find their voice is a challenging one. Confidence from the beginning steps of the writing process allow the student’s voice to become louder.

Room 104B

“Defining and Embracing Otherness in the Writing Center Environment”

Samantha Lelah, Baillie Dougherty, Morgan Dean, Emily Grenier, Laura Kincaid, Mikaela Langdon, Kwame Sekyere, Rowan University

Roundtable

We discuss and define “Otherness” in the Writing Center environment. We draw from our personal experiences to provide strategies for approaching and discussing otherness during tutoring sessions. How can we work with students to embrace their otherness in their writing and therefore, progress into unique, established writers. We welcome and value your feedback as well!

Room 121

“Mind the Gap: Exploring the Spaces Between Writing, Identity & Culture”

E. Mairin Barney, Lauren Campbell, Jodie Fair, Sharea Harris, University of Baltimore

Panel Presentation

Panel members explore and define what we have identified as a “gap” between  student experiences and university expectations and identify an ethical role for writing centers that validates diverse learners.

Room 131

“Fear Unveiled: Using Jane Tompkins’ Theory to Empower Writing Centers”

Ron DePeter and Margaret Villari. Delaware Valley University

Individual Presentation

Jane Tompkins’ critique of the fear-based “performance model” is applied to writing centers, with reflections and alternatives which unveil fears and contribute to effective, reflective tutoring, teaching, and emotional well-being.

“The Power of Silence and Stillness in Writing Center Conversations”

Elaine MacDougall, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Individual Presentation

Some of the best insights are found during periods of silence and stillness. How can Writing Tutors utilize silence and stillness to create mindful, non-judgemental sessions with their peers?

“Empowering Writers Through Music” Isaiah Jordan-McIntyre, Valley Forge Military College

Presentation

This presentation uses brain-based research and writing tutoring experience to discuss strategies and tools for using music in tutoring sessions.

Room 201

“Intercultural Learning and Campus Activism through Writing Tutoring”

Samuel Santiago, Gio Bradley, Trinity Golden, Penn State, Abington

Roundtable Discussion

How does tutoring writing with international students function as activism which can help desegregate culturally divided student bodies? This roundtable discusses diverse cultural interactions as a benefit of tutoring.

Room 204

“Seeing Tutors in 20/20: A New Vision for Recognizing Tutors as Students”

Emily Baqir and Alexandra Roland, Salisbury University

Roundtable Discussion

We present findings from a survey of our tutors about how supported they feel in the writing center. Then we open the discussion to learn how other centers support tutors.

Room 208

"Empowering Writers Across Linguistic and Cultural Differences"

Kristin Lindgren, Barbara Hall, Deanne Battle, Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, Catheline Phan, Haverford College

Roundtable Discussion

This roundtable aims to open a discussion about strategies for communicating the value of linguistic and cultural diversity, affecting institutional change, and negotiating expectations of “correctness.”

Room 221

“Narratives of Writing Center Spaces: A Case Study of Changes to Kutztown University's Writing Center”

Kristina Fennelly, Patricia Pytleski, Heather Flyte, Kutztown University

Panel Presentation

This session will examine the recent administrative changes that prompted the Kutztown University Writing Center's move from its own confined space to a shared space in the university library.

Conference Wrap up: 3:00-3:30  Business Hall


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