Published December 1, 2022 by

PDC Blog Fall 2022: New Colleagues, WP Mini-Conference, and Teaching Circles

Introducing: Joseph Navarro and Fiona Weigant

Here’s an introduction to the two newest members of the Writing Program, who have been with us since the start of the 2022-03 academic year.

Joseph Navarro – Lecturer

I am excited to return to UCSC and continue my service to this community. I view teaching writing and literacy as an opportunity to change the world. This approach provides me with a strong sense of purpose in my labor. I am working on my dissertation for a PhD in Composition and Applied Linguistics at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. My research and pedagogy are rooted in anti-racism and critical pedagogy. I wish that I had more time to spend with my partner (Ryah), two cats (Ezekiel, Comrade) and two dogs (Haruki, Miercoles). I also wish I had more time to read and write for myself.

Fiona Weigant – Writing Program Manager

​​I grew up in Dublin, Ireland and spent a decade living in Paris, France. I have now lived longer in Santa Cruz than anywhere else. I was a junior transfer student from Cabrillo College where I took the required writing courses. I graduated from UCSC with a BA in History and a minor in Legal Studies. I have 21 years of experience across multiple units and roles at UCSC. I am excited to bring my expertise and institutional knowledge to the Writing Program. I am a fierce advocate for our campus communities and currently serve on the Undergraduate Academic Advising Council. I am looking forward to getting to know the writing program community and learning how best to serve the program and our students.

Fun Fact: I don’t speak Irish but I do speak French 🙂

Save the Date!

The Second-Annual Writing Program Mini-Conference: April 20 and 21, 2023 

Image of dark wood library shelves filled with books that curve around the second-floor of a rotundaLast spring, the PDC organized our first annual Writing Program mini-conference, in which some of our WP faculty shared “recycled” or upcoming writing-related talks or presentations. This was a wonderful opportunity for our colleagues to share and learn from each other!

We are looking forward to our second-annual Writing Program mini-conference this spring quarter. More information below:

WHAT: 

  • If you are presenting at an upcoming conference (CCC, Young Rhetoricians, NTCE, etc), have given a paper/presentation on campus or at a conference in the last few years, or if you have been or are working on a publication, we invite you to present at the conference!
  • This year, we look forward to expanding the mini-conference to multiple genre-based panels:
    • Writing Pedagogy/General Pedagogy
    • Creative Writing
    • Independent Research
    • Journalism
    • Other
  • As previously, there will be time for discussion at the end of each panel. For non-pedagogy presentations, we will be asking you to reflect on how your writing/work/research helps inform or impacts your teaching of writing.

WHEN: 

  • Thursday, April 20 and Friday, April 21, 2023
  • Times TBD

WHERE: 

WHO:

  • All Writing Program faculty, staff, and GSIs!
  • We encourage all of you to consider presenting a piece of your past (or upcoming) writing/talk in a low-pressure environment. Presenters do not need to edit their presentations; presenters can begin by providing context for the presentation’s original/intended audience if needed.

WHY: 

  • We all do a lot of great work, but sometimes, we don’t get to share it with each other. This is a chance to share what we’re doing in a very low effort (but Biobib-able) free event.

Teaching Circles: Staying Connected

One recurring theme in our discussions in the Pedagogical Development Committee has been how we often feel isolated from other faculty members in the program. Our offices are scattered throughout the campus, and many faculty members are now working from home. We have so few chances to “talk shop” and find out what is happening in the classrooms of other faculty.

A few years ago, a group of faculty came together to form an unofficial group called the Faculty Learning Community. We visited each other’s classrooms, chatted afterwards, and met occasionally as a full group for discussion and informal presentations from members on innovative pedagogical strategies they were developing.

The PDC has taken on the initiative this quarter to re-establish a similar program. We began by taking a survey among faculty to gauge interest in the process. Those who responded positively were paired up with other instructors at convenient times and locations. Online instructors were paired with others working in the same modality. Classroom visits, whether online or in-person, were intended to be non-evaluative and not involve critique or unsolicited suggestions. Faculty would have the opportunity to sit in the back of the class, check out what was going on, and then afterwards have a brief chat to ask questions and talk about any new ideas for teaching.

We have matched up four in-person pairs and six online pairs. We have not yet collected any data on who had a chance to meet or how it went. Some of the in-person class visits have undoubtedly been derailed by the strike, but we are excited to continue the process over next quarter. We will send out another survey to see who was able to meet and to match up new pairs based on our Winter teaching schedules.

We also plan to schedule an optional online meeting at the beginning of Winter quarter to informally discuss what was learned from classroom visits, questions we have about our own pedagogy, or any other issues we are facing in the Writing Program. We are hoping you will see this as a low-stress opportunity to “talk shop,” get to know each other a little better, and see what’s happening in the classroom down the hall (or online).
Clip art image of 6 people sitting around a circular table, drinking coffee, and working on computers and in notebooks

Announcements Faculty Spotlight

Published November 18, 2022 by

Fall 2022: Resource Round-Up

As we head into the end of Fall term, we’ve put together a collection of resources from our Fall faculty meetings, including how to connect with Slug Support, Writing Program tutoring, and more.

At the Writing Program’s Nov. 8th faculty meeting, the Slug Support team answered faculty questions and presented ways we can leverage their resources to help students in need of their support. Here’s a rundown of some of the resources they shared and ways to get in touch.

Slug Support: Quicklinks

  • Points of Contact:
    • Slug Support website
    • Email: deanofstudents@ucsc.edu
    • Phone: 831-459-4446 (Monday thru Friday 9am-5pm)
    • Crisis Line: 831-459-7003
    • Instagram: @ucsc_dos
      *If getting in touch on a student’s behalf, Slug Support recommends including student name, ID, and a short description of concerns, barriers, needs, and questions

Writing Program Tutoring and Assistance

Here is the link to the Writing Program tutoring and writing assistance website! They offer embedded and drop-in tutoring for students in Writing Program courses. At this site, you can:

If you have questions, you can reach out here.

Teaching with the DTEN: A How-to Guide

During our last faculty meeting, the Online Education Committee shared resources regarding a valuable classroom teaching tool: the DTEN. These include an “Introduction to the DTEN” that covers step-by-step basics, including how to set up the DTEN machine in your classroom, how to reserve a room with a DTEN, some of the beneficial pedagogical features of the DTEN, and additional campus resources for this innovative teaching tool.

You can find the Online Education Committee’s “How-To Guide” here.

Announcements

Published November 15, 2022 by

Rothman Award Winners 2021-2022

This year we’ll be holding the Don Rothman Awards Ceremony for Excellence in First-Year Writing during the Winter quarter. We read dozens of amazing submissions this year, a testament to the excellent work of students and faculty in WP courses. We’ll share more details soon about the ceremony itself, but for now, we’re excited to share the finalists for the 2021-2022 academic year:

First Place: Camille Vergely, “Growing Up on a Dying Planet”

Second Place: Joy Malak, “Lesbian Community: Confusion or Connection?”

Third Place: Camille Lagunera, “From Splendor in the Grass to Sexploitation: The Sex Revolution of the 1960s in American Cinema”

Honorable Mention: Julia Spilman, “Aphantasia: An Unusual Blindness”

Congratulations to the winners and their instructors!

Announcements

Published June 9, 2022 by

End-of-Year Message from the PDC

So much has happened during the 2021-22 Academic Year! It’s been inspiring to see all the ways we’ve come together in the Writing Program to support each other throughout this year’s unique challenges. In the Pedagogical Development Committee, we’re really excited about some of the projects we began this year.

In the fall, PDC launched a new blog version of The Rhetorical Situation, with the goal of creating a more accessible format and featuring a variety of content for WP faculty. We look forward to continuing to develop this resource for WP, and we hope it will be a way to amplify faculty voices, stimulate discussion, and collaborate with one another. 

In the winter, PDC hosted our first WP “mini-conference,” in which some of our faculty presented recycled work from other conferences or contexts. (Presentation materials linked here.) It was a wonderful opportunity for our colleagues to share and learn from each other, and we intend to make this an annual event. Please stay tuned for more about next year’s conference. 

Throughout the year, we’ve been gauging faculty interest in establishing teaching circles to foster more collaboration and discussion among our colleagues. And this spring, we’ve begun making steps toward this goal for next year. The diagram below shows the results from our most recent survey. 

A circle diagram shows that 35% responded that they would be interested in joining a circle, 55% that they may be interested, and 10% said they they would not be interested. 20 people responded.

We’re excited to continue finding ways to connect with each other and support pedagogical growth in the Writing Program, and wish you all a wonderful summer!

Best,

PDC Committee

Lisa Schilz, chair

Steve Coulter

Madeline Lane-McKinley

Kate McQueen

Announcements

Published June 9, 2022 by

Faculty Accomplishments

The PDC wanted to highlight what our faculty was most excited about accomplishing this past year or this upcoming summer–conferences, publications, teaching awards, classes, hobbies, children’s or students’ achievements, etc. Thank you to those of you who responded!

“I consider it an accomplishment simply to have made it through this academic year.” 

— A common sentiment 

Small dog collapsed on what looks like a wood patio. Text says, "There's no tired like teacher tired."

Gail Brenner: Guiding/helping several of my W1E students who previously failed W1 or W1E to develop skills needed for passing-quality work this time around. Participating in a wider scope of WP involvement on WPPC, Leadership Committee and as Acting Chair of MLC. 

Steve Coulter: This summer I will be taking twenty UCSC students to Ireland for a 5-week Writing 2 course. I lived in Dingle, County Kerry, for about ten years, and on the occasion of returning, I have released a CD of Celtic harp music that I recorded in my studio there. You can listen to it here: https://stevecoulter.bandcamp.com/releases

​​Lara Galas: After this academic year, I am very much looking forward to getting back to the basics of mindfulness by practicing meditation, getting into nature, and creative writing. I also started a puzzle during spring break that I’d love to finish as a nice closing to this year. Finally, I am most excited about the collaborative work I did with the other members of the ELWR committee. I had such a lovely time getting to know and learning from faculty–who knew meetings could be so fun?! Happy summer everyone!

Joy Hagen: Star is graduating from UCSC with their degrees in Art: Games and Playable Media and Fine Arts! Spring 2022 marks my twentieth year working with the Writing Program. For myself this summer, I will make all the ribbon skirts I currently have planned (five!) and finally manage my first vacation break since the start of the pandemic (it’s remarkable how difficult it is to do these “for myself” things). 

Roxi Hamilton: My poetry book, The Songs that Objects Would Sing, was accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press for 2023.  I was awarded a Professional Development Fund grant for a trans-genre event I organized at the Philadelphia AWP.  My daughter, Emma, won an award in Biology at her high school.  And, for my family, just getting through the year feels like award enough.

Madeline Lane-McKinley: This year I published literary reviews and poetry in Boston Review and Protean Magazine, and in the fall my first book, Comedy Against Work, will come out from Common Notions Press. My kid started playing saxophone, and now reads an average of 2 cat fantasy novels per week. And this summer we’re going to Istanbul for a couple weeks to visit a friend. 

Phil Longo

Kate McQueen: This year I made strides in defining a new-ish area of specialization for me as a scholar: prison journalism. Three highlights: my book chapter on the Literary Journalism of the American Prison press coming out this summer in the anthology Literary Journalism and Social Justice, Journalism History published a short research essay of mine on the history of the American Penal Press Context, and  I was invited to introduce a new open-source digital archive of American Prison newspapers for JSTOR Daily.  I’m also excited to share that Prison Journalism Project launched a print digest of our online magazine this year, called PJP x Inside, with me as the managing editor. The purpose of this publication was to reach an incarcerated audience. The fall issue won an award of excellence from the Society of News design ! The spring issue was just published and the PDF is available online for free/ 

Brenda Sanfilippo: Teaching Excellence Award. Teach Access Faculty Grant. Completed Digital Instruction Project. Offered two trainings on working with student veterans. Continued working on accessibility, equity, and online teaching. I am looking forward to incorporating new digital tools into my pedagogy this summer.

Lisa Schilz: Not really an accomplishment, but my spouse and I adopted (aka “foster failed”) our long-term foster pup, Lola. She now joins our other 2 pugs (all adopted from TPPR) for a totally-unplanned grumble of 3. There can be a lot of snoring and snorting. 🙂 

Terry Terhaar: I’m trying to grow as many cherry tomatoes as possible as my pet ducks adore red tomatoes. (They’ll eat yellow tomatoes but reds are the favorite!)

Kristen Terry: I had two publications come out this past March that I wrote during the summer of 2020. It feels great to finally see them come out!

Amy Vidali: I gave a paper – a manifesto – on food access for those with food allergies at RSA (Rhetoric Society of America). It was nice to get fired up about it!

Tiffany Lynn Wong: In July, I am going on a month-long retreat at IMS (Insight Meditation Society) Forest Refuge in Barre, Massachusetts, and in August-September, I will visit in Mexico to work with my COIL/VE (Collaborative Online International Learning/Virtual Exchange) partner Dr. Maria De Lourdes Perez Cesari who is a Theater Arts Professor at the Universidad Autonoma de Hidalgo. 

Faculty Spotlight

Published June 9, 2022 by

Conference Round-Up

With your help, the PDC has rounded up a list of conferences and workshops we as a faculty have loved in the past….

Instruction-focused Conferences

Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC)

What: The Conference on College Composition and Communication is committed to supporting the agency, power, and potential of diverse communicators inside and outside of the postsecondary classroom.

For: Scholars and teachers of composition

When: The 2023 annual convention on the theme “Doing Hope in Desperate Times” will be held February 15-18, 2023 in Chicago, IL.

ESCALA Educational Services

What: ESCALA is a consortium of higher education consultants based in the U.S. Southwest who are committed personally and professionally to increasing the retention and graduation rates of underrepresented students in higher education. It works specifically with Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) to close the gap in educational access and completion rates for Latinos, mainly through faculty development programming and remedial program evaluation.

For: teachers interested in developing culturally responsive teaching to benefit Latinx students

When: ESCALA’s Faculty Summer Institute on Teaching & Learning in Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) offers multi-day programming; dates and info for 2023 are still TBD.

The Institute for Writing and Thinking 

What:The Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking seeks to enrich learning in all disciplines through collaborative writing practices. Their July weeklong workshops help teachers deepen their understanding of writing-based teaching, its theory and practices, and its application in the classroom.

For: Teachers of writing

When: The next round of workshops will be held July 10-15, 2022

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)

What: The National Council of Teachers of English is devoted to improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education.

For: Teachers of English/composition

When: The 2022 conference will be held November 17-20, 2022, in Anaheim, CA. No info yet on the 2023 conference.

Online Writing Instruction Symposium

What: The Online Writing Instruction Community is an academic resource that provides a sense of community for online writing instructors around the globe and that encourages the use of recent online writing instruction (OWI) scholarship, the sharing of assignments, feedback, and course design ideas. 

For: online writing teachers

When: Symposia were held in August and September of 2020 and 2021. No info currently available on the website about 2022 or 2023 dates. 

Young Rhetoricians Conference

What: This is a college composition conference and retreat held historically in Monterey, California.

For: College composition teachers

When: The current conference will be held virtually June 16-18, 2022. No dates have been announced for 2023, but it looks like this conference tends to take place in mid-June.

 

Linguistics and Other Genre-based Writing Conferences 

International Association for Literary Journalism Studies 

What: IALJS is a multi-disciplinary learned society whose essential purpose is the encouragement and improvement of scholarly research and education in literary journalism (or literary reportage).

For: Scholars, teachers and practitioners of literary journalism

When: The date of the 2023 conference has not yet been posted but this conference usually takes place the second week of May. 

Note: this conference is a great resource if you are interested in adding reported work to syllabi and or want to teach the art and craft of reported storytelling across genres. It’s an inviting place for first-time presenters.

Investigative Reporters and Editors  

What: Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting. IRE was formed to create a forum in which journalists throughout the world could help each other by sharing story ideas, newsgathering techniques and news sources.

For: teachers interested in learning to scrape data and use spreadsheets for reported stories

When: IRE has ongoing virtual and in person workshops, boot camps and two annual conferences. See their website for more information.

Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference

What: This is an annual conference hosted by the University of North Texas’ journalism department.

For: teachers, students, and practitioners of literary nonfiction

When: The next conference is October 28-29, 2022, in Dallas, TX, on the theme “Diary of a Storyteller: Crafting Words that Matter”

​​New Ways of Analyzing Variation

What NWAV is a yearly conference for the presentation and discussion of new research on sociolinguistic variation

For: anyone interested in sociolinguistics/language variation

When: The 2022 conference will be held at the Department of Linguistics, Stanford University, from October 13-15, 2022. 

Note: NWAV is at Stanford this fall, so it’s highly recommended to anyone is interested in sociolinguistics/language variation

 Society for Professional Journalists MediaFest

What: MediaFest is a journalism convention, bringing together professional journalists, student journalists and college media advisers from every area of journalism, from across the country.

For: teachers, students, and practitioners of journalism

When: MediaFest22 will be held October 27-30, 2022, in Washington, D.C.

Announcements

Published January 29, 2022 by

Pandemic-Related Resources (& Humor)

With the ongoing nature of the pandemic and the related upheavals in teaching, the PDC wanted to focus this post on resources (both humorous and serious) that normalize and speak to some of the challenging experiences we have been facing as faculty at UCSC. 

On January 13, The Chronicle of Higher Education crunched the latest student enrollment numbers for the fall of 2021. Using data published by the ​​National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, the report shows that undergraduate enrollment is down across the board, at an average of 3.1 percent from the previous year. Community colleges have been the most impacted, with an estimated 700,000 student loss since 2019. Why the continued enrollment drop? Reporting by NPR’s Morning Edition suggests that young people are choosing to work since minimum wages are on the rise in many states, and online classes remain relatively unpopular. This supports reporting done earlier in the pandemic by other organizations, including Inside Higher Ed, that financial concerns are a primary concern for students returning to campus. 

– Kate McQueen

Colleen Flaherty synthesizes some of the research about the impact on faculty caregivers during COVID, including a March 2021 study which indicates that more women have suffered from job loss and/or have left the workforce due to lack of support. Similarly, a Stanford study of employees found that 45% of respondents were spending at least four more hours a day as primary caretakers, and that 50% of those respondents identified as women and 33% identified as men. Focusing on the intersection between gender and caregiving, Flaherty unpacks the research in helpful (and non-essentializing) ways. Although childcare is clearly an important facet of this issue, the article frames this crisis for caregivers in more robust terms to address the at-home working conditions of many faculty during the pandemic. 

At UCSC, the group Academic Mamas formed to address some of these concerns and find ways to support faculty caregivers during the pandemic. The group recently helped secure an out-of-network option for back-up family care with Bright Horizons. 

 – Madeline Lane-McKinley

And for some “fun,” a brief compilation of sardonically humorous articles on teaching during a global pandemic, complements of McSweeney’s:

Meme shows Steve Carell, as his character Michael in The Office, with mouth pursed shut, with the title: "When a teacher is asked to reflect on their time during distance learning." Michael's response is captioned: "I knew exactly what to do. But in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do."

Etc.

Published January 24, 2022 by

WP Mini-Conference on March 4th!

♲ An Invitation from the Professional Development Committee (PDC) ♲

Writing Program Mini-Conference: Recycled Papers (PDF version)

March 4, 2022 (on Zoom)

WHAT: If you are presenting at CCCC in 2022, or if you gave a writing-related talk/presentation in the last few years, please participate in the Writing Program Mini-Conference! We invite recent-ish presentations/papers, such as those from CCCC, Young Rhetoricians, campus presentations focused on writing, etc. There will be time for discussion. 

WHEN: Our plan is to start at 10am on March 4, and we’ll determine the end-time when we see how many folks want to participate. We’ll send a schedule, and like a regular conference, folks are welcome to come to some talks/presentations and not others. 

WHY: We all do a lot of great work, but sometimes, we don’t get to share it with each other. This is a chance to share what we’re doing in a very low effort (but Biobib-able) free event. For this mini-conference, presenters do not need to edit their presentations – presenters can begin by providing context for the presentation’s original/intended audience if needed.

HOW: If you have an existing presentation to share with your colleagues, please complete this Google Form, which asks for: 

  • the presentation/talk title
  • a very short description of presentation/talk 
  • the original/intended audience and year 
  • presentation/talk length 
  • availability on March 4 

ACCESS: We welcome active and passive participation from audience members. If you are presenting, prepare to share your notes, outline, and/or text of your talk. Also, prepare to share links to slides or handouts. If you need accommodations for this event, please contact avidali@ucsc.edu with what you need. (Disclosing why you need this accommodation is not required.)

This is a single frame of the Head and Heart comic, which features a brightly drawn brain (with arms and legs) and heart (with arms, legs, eyes). The brain says, "I have a confession...Sometimes I avoid learning new things because I'm so afraid of acknowledging how little I really know. Heart says, "I also have a confession...I am super awesome and I couldn't be less awesome if I tried..."

Announcements