The Association for Writing Across the Curriculum

A working group of stakeholders has been meeting for the past several months to develop a framework for the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum (AWAC). AWAC would bring together the intellectual, human, political, and economic capital of the writing across the curriculum community to better support and grow WAC as a global intellectual tradition.

The working group was formed at the second gathering of stakeholders at two consecutive conferences, IWAC 2016 and CCCC 2017. An open invitation was offered on several listservs for volunteers to join the working group (names are listed below). Since that time, the group has drafted a mission and values statement and is now working on bylaws for 501(c)(3) status.

Please visit this page periodically for more information on AWAC. To learn more, please contact Michelle Cox at michelle.cox@cornell.edu, Jeff Galin at jgalin@fau.edu, and Dan Melzer at dlmelzer@ucdavis.edu.

Working Group Members

• Chris Anson chris_anson@ncsu.edu
• Melissa M. Bender mmbender@ucdavis.edu
• Ann Blakesley ablakesle@emich.edu
• Pamela Childers pam.childers@gmail.com
• Michelle Cox michelle.cox@cornell.edu
• Heather Falconer falconer.h@husky.neu.edu
• Jeff Galin jgalin@fau.edu
• Jonathan Hall jhall1@york.cuny.edu
• Al Harahap almharahap@gmail.com
• Brian Hendrickson bhendric@unm.edu
• Margaret Marshall mjm0030@auburn.edu
• Daniel L Melzer dlmelzer@ucdavis.edu
• Mike Palmquist Mike.Palmquist@ColoState.edu
• Joseph Pizzo joseph.pizzo@chester-nj.org
• Justin Rademaker jrademaeke@wcupa.edu
• Nicole Servino Nicole.Servino@ccd.edu
• Stacey Sheriff ssheriff@colby.edu
• Terry Myers Zawacki tzawacki@gmu.edu

Mission, Values, and Activities (Draft)

Mission: The Association for Writing Across the Curriculum brings together the intellectual, human, political, and economic capital of the writing across the curriculum community to better support and grow WAC as a global intellectual tradition.

Values: The Association for Writing Across the Curriculum promotes initiatives that support students’ writing across their academic careers, faculty development related to student writing and writing pedagogy, and research into writing across domains (e.g. disciplines, professions, communities, and academic levels) and transnationally. We value:

• Writing as a powerful mode of learning, inquiry, and communication
• WAC as a coordinated effort to transform the culture of writing across academic contexts rather than as a quick fix to the perceived “problem of student writing”
• WAC’s rich intellectual and pedagogical traditions and scholarly contributions
• An expansive vision of WAC as writing to learn, engage, and communicate within and across disciplines, in programs such as Writing in the Disciplines, Communication Across the Curriculum, Writing-Enriched Curriculum, and related efforts worldwide
• An inclusive vision of WAC that welcomes broad participation from diverse peoples, institutions, and organizations
• Equity and resources for stakeholders across all levels (i.e. students, faculty, program administrators, units)
• Collaboration across disciplines, institutions, and writing-related organizations in ways that respect differences in local knowledge and practices
• Sustainable development of individual programs and the field as a whole

Activities: Activities to promote our values may include:

• Formalizing connections among the different WAC and other writing-related organizations to reach mutual goals
• Promoting the dissemination and publication of scholarly work on WAC, through support of venues such as the International Writing Across the Curriculum conference and the WAC Clearinghouse
• Sponsoring research on WAC issues
• Supporting communication among the diverse stakeholders--teachers, students, administrators--engaged in WAC research, teaching, and learning
• Supporting existing mentorship opportunities related to WAC practices, program development, and research through coordination with such groups as the CCCC WAC Standing Group and WAC-GO as well as development of new mentorship initiatives
• Advocating for students, faculty, staff, and administrators through resolutions, statements, and studies on issues of importance to WAC programs
• Promoting the visibility and impact of WAC in the public sphere

Mapping AWAC

The following Coggle map was developed by Heather Falconer and other members of the planning group. Click it to view a larger PDF version.

Last updated August 12, 2017