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North Hall 117 or join online

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Title: Wellness in Context: Articulating and Actualizing Emotional Support in Learning Commons and Writing Centers (In-person)                

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Presenters: Aliyah Ali (Learning Commons Tutor), Catherine Bai (Writing Center Tutor), Ryan Bhagwandeen (Learning Commons Tutor), Andrea Efthymiou (Writing Center Director), Brian Flores-Casiano (Learning Commons Tutor), Ming Lei (Learning Commons Tutor), Arina Logosh (Learning Commons Tutor), Ye Htut Maung (Learning Commons Tutor), Boguslaw Mitrega (Writing Center Tutor), Donna Smith, Learning Commons Director (Queens College)

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Administrators from our campus’s learning commons and writing center—two independently operating divisions at our college—partnered to collaboratively design a survey asking consultants how they have supported students beyond academic work and how our respective centers have reciprocally supported consultants in their labor with students. Undergraduate and graduate student tutors from both centers will present their interpretation of our dataset, considering its relevance to learning commons and writing center work and invite audience participation.

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Moderator: Christopher Moseley

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North Hall 120 or join online

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Title – Writing Centers as Shapeshifters: Temporalities, Healing and Community           

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Presenters: Nidhi Gandhi (Tutor/Faculty), Stephanie Gaitán (Administrator), Mona Schnitzler (Administrator/former tutor), Jade Cooper (Tutor), Sarah Perez (Faculty/former tutor)

(City College of New York)

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During the Covid-19 pandemic, students, tutors, and administrators struggled to engage with their communities as well as their academic duties because of the isolation and uncertainty surrounding the world. Despite these challenges, writing centers have persevered because of their inherent abilities to serve as shapeshifters because they are temporalities. This panel will offer moderated discussions on how the reciprocal relationships between tutors-tutees, administrators-tutors, and tutors-tutors create and foster safe and nurturing communities as well as promote learning beyond the traditional academic experience.

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Moderator: Nidhi Gandhi​

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North Hall Room 131 or join online

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A. Title-Feminist Ethic for Care in Graduate Student Tutors (Online)

Presenter: Jaclyn Henegar, Graduate Assistant Director of the Old Dominion University (ODU) Writing Center (Old Dominion University)

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Derek M. Sparby (2022) presents a feminist ethic of self-care as "deliberate acts of caring for ourselves as whole beings, as resisting institutional ideologies of productivity and our worth as scholars and teachers" (p. 53). I use this framing to construct an ethic of care for graduate student writing tutors in university writing centers, who often occupy tenuous and/or precarious positions in the university.

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B. Title-All Ifs and Buts: Multiracial Identity in the Writing Center (Online)

Presenter: Jacqueline Borchert (Purdue University)

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In an increasingly multiracial society, tutors must extend their understandings of racial diversity beyond monoracism and binary conceptualizations. As inherently racialized places, writing centers must center the intersections of individual and social contexts that create complex identities within multiracial students. This presentation offers a brief literature review of multiracialism and identity in academia and writing centers along with a variety of strategies and responses to integrate into their tutoring practices that will benefit multiracial students.

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MODERATOR: Raul Cobeo

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North Hall Room 133 or join online

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A. Title: Holistic Support Through Peer Tutoring (Online)

Presenter: Elizabeth Taylor (Miles College)

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The presentation will address manners in which to train and provide resources to peer tutors and student leaders so they can more meaningfully address more than just academic concerns. In providing these resources, student leaders can holistically respond to and guide students towards resources which they may benefit from.

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B. Title: Intentional Blank Spaces Project: A Writing Center’s Model for Well-being Practices (Online)            

Presenter: Joelma Sambdman (Daytona State College) 

           

We commonly use words such as wellness, self-care, personal time, and mindfulness. Yet, despite the increased awareness surrounding mental health, it seems that avoiding burnout has become harder than ever. Perhaps, we have not embraced those concepts in tangible ways. Daytona State College Writing Center has implemented the Intentional Blank Spaces Project. This initiative goes beyond awareness to model well-being practices within the workplace. This presentation explains the concepts and strategies behind that initiative.

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Moderator: Kenisha Thomas