Rethinking our Narratives of “Development”
Tuesday, December 11th | York University
Featured talk
Dr. Karen-Elizabeth Moroski, Reconsidering Our Rhetorics: Recentering Writing Centre Work To Support Translingual Writing
Please register by Friday November 16th.
Registration
The notion of the “development” of the student writer runs through writing centre narratives. Here at York University’s Writing Centre, our department’s constitution, mission statement, and practiced introductions with new students all clarify that we’re interested in supporting the development of student writers rather than the perfection of student writing. This frees us from taking on the urgency of our students’ deadlines, and serves as a straightforward rationale for our refusals to proofread work on behalf of student writers. However, it raises significant questions about how we conceptualize “development.”
- What are the assumptions about “good” or “acceptable” writing that inform our understandings of “development”?
- How are we communicating these standards to our students?
- What are we telling them they need to learn or do in order to “become better writers”?
- What forces pressure us to act as gatekeepers, helping to strip away the aspects of student writers’ languages, cultures, or identities that don’t belong in the academy, and what opportunities do we have to resist these pressures?
Program
9:30 Refreshments & Registration
10:00 Revising Our Welcome: Rethinking Approaches to Translingual Writing and Tutoring
Talk & Workshop
Karen-Elizabeth Moroski, Co-Curricular Programs Coordinator, Writing and Language Communities, Penn State Learning
1:00 Writing Assignments, Expectations, Outcomes, & Pedagogies with Faculty representatives from STEM disciplines
Moderated Panel Discussion
Boba Samuels, Director, Health Sciences Writing Centre, University of Toronto
2:30 Exploring Genre in Engineering Documentation
Talk
Ali Hadidi, York University
3:15 Exploring Digital Frontiers of Scholarly (Classroom) Writing with Students
Talk
Brian Hotson, Director, Student Academic Learning Services, Saint Mary’s University & Stephanie Bell, LA&PS Writing Centre Director, York University
Land Acknowledgement
We recognize that many Indigenous nations have longstanding relationships with the territories upon which York University campuses are located that precede the establishment of York University. York University acknowledges its presence on the traditional territory of many Indigenous Nations. The area known as Tkaronto has been care taken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat, and the Métis. It is now home to many Indigenous Peoples. We acknowledge the current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. This territory is subject of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to peaceably share and care for the Great Lakes region.