Day 1

Opening Remarks – 10:00 AM to 10:30 AM (EST)

A warm welcome to the 2021 National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing!

Concurrent Sessions A – 10:35 AM to 11:50 AM (EST)

A1

Andrew Yim, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, How COVID-19 Affected Tutors Tutoring Practices in a Writing Center

My presentation analyzes qualitative data that explores how COVID-19 affects the emotional states of tutors at a writing center in Western Pennsylvania. This presentation offers potential strategies and suggestions for other writing center administrators looking to address their tutors’ emotional well-being overall.

Josephine Kim and Olivia Tipton, University of Oklahoma Writing Center, Rising to the Challenge: Writing Center Experiences and Adaptations During COVID-19

During the pandemic due to COVID-19, writing centers could still remain as an essential learning hub and a virtual academic “shelter” for both consultants and writers using three methods. The methods include (a) using technology to promote fast and effective communications, (b) constant community engagement through Upward Bound programs, and (c) providing an online platform to connect writers and consultants regardless of the time difference.

Danielle Garcia-Karr, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, A Way Forward From Pandemic: Decolonial Praxis in Writing

In this presentation, I will discuss the process of creating a Writing Workshop at UTRGV, detailing planning, advocating, and networking. I will share goals, proposals, surveys, outcomes, and encourage discussion among attendees.

A2

Adrienne Ashe, Texas A&M at Galveston, Elements of Science Communication

The methods of tutoring need to adapt due to change towards asynchronous teaching techniques. The writing tutors at Texas A&M University at Galveston have produced an asynchronous method of relaying information to students as a video combining Prezi visuals and a tutor presenting. This asynchronous presentation is labeled “Elements of Science Communication,” and will provide information to a larger audience and will allow students to learn at their own pace.

Lucas Street, Tricia Plachno, Chi Vu; ELL Double-Consciousness as Subterfuge: Making the Writing Center an Inclusive Safe Space

Hosted by two culturally diverse peer tutors, this session explores the writing center experiences and hardships of an English language learner (ELL). We will apply W.E.B. Du Bois’s theory of double-consciousness as it relates to ELL students. We will also cover strategies to make the writing center a safer, more inclusive space for all ELL-identifying students.

A3

Olivia Davitt, University of Waterloo, The Impacts of Email Tutoring on Students’ Access to the Writing Centre

This presentation will discuss the need for research on email tutoring, explain the implementation of an email tutoring program, and highlight the key findings from ongoing research into the effectiveness of email tutoring. Ultimately, this presentation will show why email tutoring is an excellent option for writing centres, even after transitioning to face-to-face services.

Sasha Fennimore, Miami Oxford University, Getting to the Point: Explaining Language and Grammar to ELLs in Written Consultations

This presentation investigates common issues tutors may encounter when explaining language and grammar errors to English Language Learners in asynchronous written consultations and strategies that can facilitate better practice.

Keynote – 1:00 PM to 1:55 PM (EST)

Tutor Perspectives on Subversion and Subterfuge in the Writing Center

Panelists

Havalyn Frierson (she/her) is a senior majoring in English with a minor in Corrections at Langston University. Havalyn is an undergraduate peer mentor at the Langston University Writing Center. 

Makoto Johnstone (he/him) is a junior Physics major with a minor is Spanish. Miwa is undergraduate peer writing tutor at the Middlebury College Writing Center.

Anisha Ahuja (she/her) is a doctoral student in Cultural Studies at Claremont Graduate University. Anisha is a graduate writing consultant and chair of the anti-discrimination committee at the CGU Center for Writing and Rhetoric.

Jessie Abouchard Anaya (she/her/ella) is senior double-majoring in Mass Communications and Psychology at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley. Jessie is an undergraduate writing consultant at the UTRVG Writing Center. 

Moderator

Flo Davies (she/her) is Assistant Director of the University Writing Center at Texas A&M University.

Concurrent Sessions B – 2:00 PM to 3:15 PM (EST)

B1

Layli Miron, Katharine Brown, and Kayleigh Chalkowski; Auburn University; How do writing centers do diversity? Subverting education-as-assimilation universities

As sites where students are acculturated to academic writing, writing centers privilege certain identities, ”namely, the able-bodied, English-monolingual, straight and cisgender, white administrator/tutor/client. The three panelists each critique and deconstruct an aspect of this privileged identity. Drawing from experiences as tutors and administrators’ and as embodied beings” they also offer recommendations for making diversity inherent to writing center praxis rather than a mere slogan. They thus envision writing centers subverting universities gatekeeping and assimilative functions.

Concurrent Sessions C – 3:30 PM to 4:45 PM (EST)

C1

Elizabeth Geib and Allison Wade; Purdue University; Literacy in Hard-to-Reach Populations: Community Engagement Beyond the Writing Center

Community members in vulnerable spaces such as prisons and homeless shelters receive little writing support compared to neighboring community populations in public access spaces. In this roundtable, we ask attendees to consider the institutionalized, financial, social, and political barriers that limit their collaborative partnerships in hard-to-reach community populations. By naming and framing our common, overlapping, and missing methodological frameworks for community literacy work, we can work towards more equitable and sustainable engagement.

C2

Dani Putney, A. Poythress, and Roseanna Boswell; Oklahoma State University; Queer Subterfuge: How 3 LGBTQ+ Peer Tutors Complicate Writing Center Praxis

Elise Dixon’s framework of the “queer complication” of writing centers offers a lens through which we can learn about queer consultants’ subversive writing center practices. Queer consultants must balance their identities with the expectations of their peers and superiors, many of whom are unfamiliar with the complexities of queerness, thus necessitating acts of subterfuge. This roundtable discussion will explore queer subterfuge in writing center spaces, with participants sharing practical insights into queer acts of subversion.

Concurrent Sessions D – 4:50 PM to 6:05 PM (EST)

D1

G. Travis Adams, Kathy Radosta, Iona Newman, Josalyn Switzer, and Anna Meyers; University of Nebraska Omaha; Writing Center Mavericks: A Workshop for the 2022 NCPTW

Designed as part press conference, part workshop, this session offers a preview of the 2022 NCPTW conference in Omaha, NE and engages participants in brainstorming and writing toward conference proposals. This session invites participants to explore the “Writing Center Mavericks” theme, including the ways in which mavericks are considered unorthodox thinkers, likely to challenge the status quo, yet also recognizing that maverick ways of operating may run counter to institutional systems.

D2

Bridget Draxler, Anne Berry, Victoria Gutierrez, Manuela Novoa Villada; St. Olaf College; Inclusive Sentence-Level Support: Balancing Correctness and Voice

Our writing, even when the content is not personal, is always an expression of who we are. On the one hand, tutors risk committing microaggressions by “correcting” non-standard language use; on the other, we risk reinforcing hierarchies of power if we don’t provide support for dominant language conventions. This workshop will train tutors to offer more inclusive sentence-level support. 

D3

Christopher Ervin, Taylor Buccello, McKenzie Heryford, Trinity Polk, and Precious Vang; Oregon State University; Labor and Work in the Writing Center: Emotional, Rhetorical, Cultural, Ethical, and Communal

A series of lightning talks by four undergraduate writing consultants and a Coordinator will be followed by breakout rooms around each lightning talk topic. Speakers and attendees will listen, reflect, write, and then have conversations around several forms of work and labor in the Writing Center: emotional, rhetorical, cultural, ethical, and communal. Conversations will encourage thinking around the intersection of these forms of labor and how they shape how we work to support student writers.