April 23, 2019
The research and principles of the Writing Across Communities program at St. John’s University were proudly represented at the 2019 Northeast Writing Center Association Conference (NEWCA) in Danbury, CT. on March 30th and 31st. The program’s five Undergraduate Writing Coordinators (UWCs), Jade Colon, Maya Gwynn, Justin Melendez, Amber Reese, and Cheyenne Ross were awarded the 2019 NEWCA Scholarship for their efforts to use writing to sustain diverse academic, cultural, civic, and professional communities both across St. John’s and beyond the university.
Together they presented a roundtable, “Subverting the Normative Hierarchy: How 5 Undergraduate Writing Coordinators Affect Change Through Agency” which investigated how Writing Across Communities provides the space for UWCs to demonstrate agency as students who produce, enhance, and support "meaningful writing" in a variety of communities. The audience members were then invited into conversation on how this promotion could influence future collaborations which seek to create, engage and support the meaningful interactions within a community of writers.
Upon reflection of his experience at NEWCA, Justin Melendez notes “I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better first academic conference experience, both as an audience member and as a presenter. I was able to learn so much from fellow students and faculty (e.g. anti-racist pedagogy, experiences of writing center consultants assisting STEM students and ESOL students) and everyone in our audience made us feel welcomed and validated our work as being important and as one person wrote: ‘revolutionary’.”
A notable experience at NEWCA for Cheyenne, that she’s continued to consider post-NEWCA, was the Special Interest Group on Anti-Racism. Cheyenne recollects the experience: “Dr. Laura Greenfield, Director of the Transformative Speaking Program at Hampshire College, had us consider the differences between being non-racist and anti-racist, the former being a passive response while the latter is active. It is not enough to just say that you are not racist. There is actual work that needs to be done. Being non-racist is saying ‘We love and support diversity! Come over here!’ and being anti-racist is implementing policies and programs to support those same underrepresented groups in your institutions.”
Reckoning of the young creatives who flourish in non-traditional universities is a notion that was brought to the forefront for Maya during a dialogue with student writers from West Point Military Academy based in New York. There was a magic centering around the existence, or non-existence, of privilege in the writing community based on ethnicity and gender. In exchanging dialogue with the fresh and powerful faces who conducted this particular session after the wrap-up questions, Maya gained insight about power dynamics in the realm of military rankings--inside and outside of the tutoring center. Humanity and patience were the two values shown in every aspect of their explanation for their session’s premise, a concept that is heavily lacking in today’s world.
Tina M. Iemma, Assistant Director, Writing Across Communities, also presented “Meaningful Hiring Practices: Promoting Rhetorical Agency in the Hiring Process” which discussed how the hiring process has the potential to be a more meaningful and equitable encounter between potential consultants/coordinators and hiring committee members. Dr. Anne Ellen Geller, Director, Writing Across Communities and Professor, English at St. John’s University, and Dr. Neal Lerner’s, Professor, English Northeastern University, gave the conference’s opening keynote address, “Voices of Engagement : The Roles Writing Centers Play in Making Writing Meaningful,” based on research from The Meaningful Writing Project.
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