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Spring 2008Challenges and Innovations of Thirty Top Two-Year College Writing CentersFeaturing-- Sarah Johnson Thursday, April 24, 2008 Description of the Colloquium-- As part of the NCTE Two-Year College Research Initiative, two colleagues and I conducted in-depth interviews of thirty two-year college writing center directors, collecting data on various aspects of writing center philosophy, practice, and administration. I will present a summary of our findings and include some of the insights I garnered about what it takes to grow and succeed as a two-year college writing center (not always the same thing). While four-year and two-year writing centers have more in common than not, there are specific challenges and opportunities that two-year college writing centers afford their directors, staff, and students. Fall 2007More Noise from the Writing Center: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Creating Our Writing Center PodcastsFeaturing: UW-Madison Writing Center Computer Classroom During this colloquium, we'll talk informally about our venture into developing educational podcasts for our Writing Center, explore some conventions of this new genre, sample some of our completed work, offer a behind-the-scenes look at some of the editorial choices involved in writing and producing our podcasts, and invite your feedback and suggestions for future podcasts. The Writing Center Way: How Writing Centers Can Influence Pedagogy and AdministrationFeaturing: Christine Cozzens, Professor of English & Director of the Agnes Scott College Writing Center in Decatur, Georgia Thursday, October 11, 2007 Writing centers help students learn to write—and in the case of the Center for Writing and Speaking at Agnes Scott College—to speak in public forums, but they also can offer model pedagogies and administrative philosophies that have the potential to change the academy in important ways. This presentation examines some of the principles that guide writing centers yet have a broader application in the context of the story of Agnes Scott’s combined center. Christine Cozzens has been working in writing centers since 1975, and she's a very accomplished and widely admired leader within the writing center field; she's the editor of Southern Discourse, a publication of the Southeastern Writing Center Association; she teaches a wide variety of writing courses; she's a widely published writer (her essays about travel and writing and Ireland have appeared in the the New York Times and the Baltimore Sun, e.g.); and she's a wonderful and fun speaker. Spring 2007"Library and Writing Center Collaboration: Another Alternative Model for Small Schools" Join Susan Nusser and the staff of the Carroll College Writing Center for a discussion about how being part of the library impacts the work of a writing center. **Pizza** and refreshments provided. Thursday, April 19, 2007 Please contact Brad Hughes for further information. Position in Process: Possibilities for Lead TAs, Graduate-Student Featuring: Andrea Benton, UW-Madison Writing Center Tuesday, March 27, 2007 Please join us for the first writing center colloquium of the semester, which promises to be fun and lively: "The Seamier Side of Things": A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Writing Center Administration Featuring: Monday, February 12, 2007 Fall 2006Please join us for a very special Madison Area Writing Center Colloquium, featuring one of the top writing-center theorists in the country--Christina Murphy -- Dean, College of Liberal Arts, Marshall University, Huntington, WV Co-editor of the new _Writing Center Director's Resource Book_ (Erlbaum, 2006), Christina Murphy will be joining our group by videoconference from her university! She'll be discussing her important chapter in that collection, "On Not 'Bowling Alone' in the Writing Center, or Why Peer Tutoring Is an Essential Community for Writers and for Higher Education." Wednesday, November 29, 2006 It's a wonderful honor to have Christina Murphy join us for
our colloquium, so I
very much hope that we can have a great turnout for this. I hope you'll
consider coming, for this chance to hear from and talk with such a
distinguished
writing-center colleague. She's very eager to talk with us. And it
will be fun ---->>If you're planning to attend on November 29th, would you tap me a quick reply to let me know? I need to have a reasonably accurate count of how many people will be there because of the technology and space involved. If you'd like, I'll be glad to send you a pdf copy of that chapter; just let me know. ---->>An extra special request--I'd like to have two or three people from our group offer c. 5-minute responses to this chapter and pose some questions as a way to launch our discussion. If you'd be willing to do this, would you let me know? Thank you for considering this. Best, "Collaborations Between Campus Libraries and Writing Centers"Featuring Ken Frazier, Director of the General Library System Thursday, October 5, 2006 With the publication of Centers for Learning: Writing Centers and Libraries in Collaboration (American Library Association, 2005), the opening of a new satellite location for the UW-Madison Writing Center at Memorial Library, and the increasing number of collaborations, locally and nationally, between writing centers and campus libraries, it's a great time to explore the opportunities and complexities of these partnerships. We're delighted to have Ken Frazier--a renowned leader in academic libraries, a past-president of the Association of Research Libraries, and a very engaging speaker, who's deeply interested in this topic--talk about current trends in academic libraries and join our conversation. "A Tale from the Front Line: Case Study of a New Writing Center Director"Tuesday, October 24, 2006 Featuring Nancy Linh Karls, Science-Writing Specialist, UW-Madison Writing Center In theory, years of training should prepare one to be an effective writing center director. But to what extent is this possible in practice? In this colloquium, Nancy Linh Karls will discuss her experience directing the writing center at the University of Colorado at Denver. Addressing such issues as budget, staff training, and program development, Nancy will focus especially on challenges she encountered as she worked to transform her center's mission and approach. Finally, she will invite participants to consider a set of "lessons learned" as they reflect on their own writing center roles. Spring 2006"Leveling Up: Imagining Ways to Use Videogames in Training Tutors."
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