Speaking Back

Working and Writing For ChangeSeries Editors: Steve Parks and Jessica Pauszek

What People Are Saying"At the beginning of this wonderful, affirming collection, Kate Kostelnik asks us to imagine a more mobile, engaged version of writing studies and tutoring. In the essays that follow, student contributors bring this vision to life as they describe the spaces, identities, and practices of writing partnerships across curricular and extracurricular contexts. In these contexts, we see a possible future for writing partnerships emerge, one built on listening, collaboration, and respect. This is a future worth imagining."

-Charles N. Lesh, author of The Writing of Where: Graffiti and the Production of Writing Spaces

DescriptionIn the aftermath of the 2017 Summer of Hate, University of Virginia scholars resolved to fight bigotry and promote justice and equity in the community. At the direction of Dr. Kate Kostelnik, aspiring writing center tutors enacted these values by volunteering in schools, hospitals, and community centers. Drawing parallels from disciplines such as Speech Therapy, Gender Studies, and scientific writing, these students reflect upon their experiences with community engagement, linguistic justice, and interdisciplinary inquiry. Offering sharp insights into inclusive practices that enrich tutoring, writing centers, and community engagement, they create writing projects that are "brave, honest, and important." These multifaceted essays, Kostelnik asserts, "consider how our past as writers affects our present as tutors [and] speak back to the troubled world. . . . I'm awestruck by what students can do on the page and in communities. It's a kind of poetry I can't teach; I can only learn from it."