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09/22/2020

Symposium on Black Lives Matter and Antiracist Projects in Writing Program Administration

Sheila Carter-Tod and Jennifer Sano-Franchini, Virginia Tech

In response to the recent racial injustices enacted by police and other political and educational entities, two tenured Black women full professors—Christina Stanley and Marilyn Mobly—suggest that university administrators play a significant role in dismantling institutionalized racial injustice. In their August 2020 article “‘Time to Get Real’: What Black Faculty Need from White Faculty and Administrators to Interrupt Racism in Higher Education,” they state that “[s]ubstantive change begins earnestly and cross-culturally when White faculty and administrators, with access to the tower and its benefits, relinquish the propensity to guard and protect others from entering and begin to engage in the serious work of connecting intellectual heft with the emotional intelligence this moment demands.” In their list of actions that would lead towards this “earnest change” they list two actions that we see as particularly pertinent to the work done by writing program administrators: reflecting on how scholars of color are used to advance research, and breaking silence by speaking the truth. As directors of writing programs, during a time of racial unrest, protest, and calls for change, we are positioned with a range of interconnected roles, with responsibilities for and to a network of stakeholders—students, faculty, staff, university administrators, and local communities. Writing program administrators of color may find negotiating these interconnected roles professionally and personally challenging—trying to figure out how to enact change, advance our own scholarship, and speak truth, while supporting the people in our programs. 

 

To be sure, this summer, as Black Lives Matter protests appeared across the globe, several writing programs and professional organizations released statements decrying the unjust murders of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, George Floyd, and too many others. For instance, acknowledging that many writing program administrators need support and allyship as they react and respond to local and national racial unrest, The Council of Writing Program Administrators published a Statement on Racial Injustice. As they describe in the introduction to this statement, they are seeking to respond to “the dehumanizing, traumatizing, and even lethal injustices recently represented by the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd… [and expressing]  solidarity with those who are striving for meaningful societal change and a just world.” Within professional and technical communication, ATTW President Angela Haas’ Call to Action to Redress Anti-Blackness and White Supremacy and Natasha N. Jones’ and Miriam F. Williams’ call for “The Just Use of Imagination” urged that non-Black members in particular take concrete actions to redress anti-Blackness within their/our spheres of influence. What's been somewhat less visible, however, are what material actions and policy changes writing program administrators have taken since then to make Black Lives Matter within writing programs. 

 

We are seeking submissions for a WPA Journal symposium on race and the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement or other antiracist projects on writing program administration, including first-year composition, professional and technical communication, writing centers, and undergraduate or graduate writing programs. More specifically, we are seeking proposals for:
  • 1000 word short essays speaking to the effects of Black Lives Matter and other antiracist efforts on writing program administration, or 
  • 500 word narrative vignettes from the perspective of writing program administrators or teachers and/or students working within writing programs and responding to the administration of such programs with Black Lives Matter and antiracism in mind.

 

These essays and vignettes might touch on the following topics (but they are not limited to these topics):
  • Efforts to redress anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and racism more generally within writing programs and their effects
  • Narrative accounts of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) writing program administrators
  • In-the-moment snapshots or responses to Black Lives Matter or other antiracist projects
  • How writing program administrators have taken up the call for linguistic justice (Baker Bell), challenged the myth of neutrality (Shelton), and/or addressed policing within education as it pertains to writing programs
  • How program administrators in professional and technical communication have accounted for the ways in which terms like “professional,” “technical,” and “technological” are often interpreted through a white racial frame
  • Strategies for writing program administrators for antiracist cultural change
  • Labor and the “diversity tax” on BIPOC writing program administrators
  • Effects of writing programs on BIPOC students and communities
  • How writing program administrators have negotiated interconnected personal, professional, and university responsibilities and the needs and concerns of multiple stakeholders (students, faculty, staff, university administrators, and local communities)
  • Community-sustaining work of BIPOC writing program administrators, teachers, and students 
 

References

Baker-Bell, April. Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy. Routledge, 2020.

The CWPA Executive Board and Officers. “CWPA Statement on Racial Injustice.” Council of Writing Program Administrators Website. June 2020. http://wpacouncil.org/aws/CWPA/pt/sd/news_article/308259/_PARENT/layout_details/false

Haas, Angela. ATTW President's Call to Action to Redress Anti-Blackness and White Supremacy. ATTW. 2020. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SlewDtMX41u6hjo1Xydp3D-gNy1anUJ9kCinRCH0li4/edit 

Jones, Natasha N., Williams, Miriam F.. The Just Use of Imagination: A Call to Action. ATTW. 2020. https://attw.org/author/attworg_jg1gyk67/

Shelton, Cecilia. "Shifting Out of Neutral: Centering Difference, Bias, and Social Justice in a Business Writing Course." Technical Communication Quarterly 29.1 (2020): 18-32.

Stanley, Christina, Mobley, Marilyn. “Time to Get Real”: What Black Faculty Need from White Faculty and Administrators to Interrupt Racism in Higher Education. Insight into Diversity. August 2020. https://www.insightintodiversity.com/time-to-get-real/.

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