Unsettling Literacy-Based Colonial Logics in the Writing Center

• In Event: Reimagining Settled Spaces: Creativity, Pedagogy, and Activism

Abstract

Writing Centers can reinscribe colonial logics as well as unsettle them. They can act as sites of acculturation, a place where “deficient” students go to learn the rules of the dominant academic discourse. They also can be radically student-centered, where students work side-by-side and help each other leverage academic discourse while holding space to witness and celebrate students’ own discourses (Bawarshi and Pelkowski 1999). I examine how we aim to unsettle literacy-based colonial logics in the University of XXX Writing and Communication Center through applying an antiracist/social justice lens to our recruiting, hiring, training, and tutoring practices.

Presenter

• Karen Rosenberg, University of Washington Bothell