Writing Across the Curriculum:

Challenging Boundaries

Writing HubFaculty of Arts and Social SciencesSchool of Letters, Art and Media

Tuesday 27 October 201510am-5pm

Veterinary Conference CentreJD Stewart Building B01

Seminar Room 115

Presenters

Associate Professor Karen Orr Vered, from the Department of Screen & Media at Flinders University, teaches Convergence Cultures, Television Studies, and Kids’ Media Cultures. Karen completed her PhD at The University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television before taking up her current position at Flinders.  Her disciplinary research encompasses children’s media, often with an emphasis on what children do with media, and feminist television studies. She is the author of Children and Media Outside the Home: Playing and Learning in After-school Care (Palgrave, 2008), Co-editor with Sal Humphreys of two journal special issues: Television & New Media, Vol. 15, No. 1 (January, 2014) and Continuum, Vol. 28, No. 2 (March, 2014). Her essays appear in Camera Obscura, Continuum, Convergence, Screening the Past, Television & New Media, Velvet Light Trap and several anthologies. In the last few years she has reclaimed her initial academic passion for teaching and shifted her research attention to questions of reading, writing, and thinking, particularly in the context of First Year studies. Earlier this year she established a Writing Across the Curriculum & Inside the Disciplines Community of Practice at Flinders. And, with Rowena Harper, she is currently completing an essay asking why Australian discourse on university writing hasn’t been in dialogue with the US scholarship on Writing Across the Curriculum. In answering this question, they explore the different intellectual lineages and political contexts that have shaped approaches to writing in the different systems and look for points of potential convergence. Karen is the recipient of a Carrick Institute Citation for “Sustained Innovation in Student-centred Learning and Formative Assessment Practices in Screen Studies” (2008) and a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2007).

Professor Chris Anson is University Distinguished Professor and Director of the Campus Writing and Speaking Program at North Carolina State University, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in language, composition, and literacy and works with staff across the curriculum to reform undergraduate education in the areas of writing and speaking.

Chris has received numerous awards, including the North Carolina State University Alumni Association Distinguished Graduate Professor Award, the State of Minnesota Higher Education Teaching Excellence Award, the Morse-Alumni Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education, and the Governor's Star Service Award for his service-learning work at Minnesota. He was an NCTE Promising Researcher Award Finalist and has received or participated as a co-principal investigator in over $1 million in grants.

An avid writer, Chris has published 15 books and over 100 journal articles and book chapters and is on the editorial or reader's boards of ten journals, including College Composition and Communication, College English, Research in the Teaching of English, Across the Disciplines, Written Communication, Assessing Writing, and The Journal of Writing Assessment. He is currently working on research exploring the effect of teachers' oral screencast responses on students' understanding and improvement of their writing. Chris has given over 500 conference papers, keynote addresses, and invited lectures and faculty workshops.He has served as Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, President of the Council of Writing Program Administrators, and has spent seven additional years on the WPA Executive Board. He has also served on the CCCC Executive Committee and eleven other CCCC committees, as well as several NCTE committees. He chaired the NCTE Assembly for Research in 1992-3 and was program co-chair of the NCTE Global Conference on Language and Literacy in Utrecht, Netherlands. He chaired the WPA Task Force on Plagiarism and the WPA Task Force on Internationalization, and formed the MMLA's Writing-Across-the-Curriculum section.

10:00-10:30 Registration (Free)

Coffee and biscuits on arrival

10:30-11:00 Welcome and Introduction

Associate Professor Susan Thomas

11:00-1:00 Professor Chris Anson

Master Class and Workshop

1:00-1:45 Lunch (Provided)

1:45-3:00 Associate Professor Karen Vered

Presentation and Discussion

3:00-4:00 Workshop in small groups

4:00-5:00 Discussions continue over afternoon tea

5:00 Conclusion

This symposium will bring together Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) researchers from the University and across Australia to share best practice and participate in a master class and workshop with one of the most renowned scholars in the field, Distinguished Professor Chris Anson from North Carolina State University. Associate Professor Karen Orr Vered will consider Writing Across the Curriculum research from an Australian perspective, sharing preliminary findings from her WAC-based research at Flinders University. The symposium aims to help participants identify common research interests, establish the aims of an Australian WAC Research Network, formulate strategies for achieving a vibrant WAC research culture in the Southern Hemisphere, and assemble interdisciplinary teams for ARC and other large grant applications around writing.

Over the last twenty years, Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) has become a major research area within the broader discipline of Writing Studies, largely in North America. Within the last five years, however, the emphasis has shifted to focus on WAC research beyond North America, which has resulted in the expansion of the International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference (IWAC) and the establishment of related journals and book series.

Given the recent changes across Australian universities, both in terms of academic divisions and degree structures, which have blurred disciplinary boundaries, a considerable interest in Writing Across the Curriculum research has taken shape, with many Australian academics having expressed interest in forming an Australasian chapter of IWAC and creating a rich culture of interdisciplinary writing research in the Southern Hemisphere.

For more information

The Writing Hub

School of Letters, Art & Media

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

T +61 2 9351 2309

F +61 2 9351 2597

http://sydney.edu.au/arts/writing_hub/index.shtml

As language evolves in the twenty-first century, the University of Sydney is adapting its approach to writing for a new generation of media-literate, globally networked students. The Writing Hub contributes to this important task by helping students, staff and businesses cultivate the digital literacies necessary to turn their writing into action, both in the university and beyond. We join with leading universities around the world in teaching rhetoric as a way to improve critical literacy in both print and digital communication. We offer courses to help students develop abilities in argumentation, composition, cross-cultural communication and critical thinking. Writing mentoring is also available for all Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences students and students enrolled in WRIT units. We believe that through collaborative learning and reflection on their work, students can achieve their writing goals and reach their potential at university.

Our academic staff are engaged in numerous research projects, providing a foundation for innovative teaching grounded in rhetorical theory and practice. In addition, we run workshops and events designed to promote discussions about rhetoric and writing in the university and in the community. 

We also offer a range of courses and workshops specifically designed for secondary students and school leavers around HSC writing and transitioning from high school to university writing.

In addition to our roles within the university, our academic staff are also involved in a number of corporate projects, collaborating with organisations to improve the effectiveness of their internal and external communication. 

What our students say….

“I was motivated to engage with this unit of study because I knew the content was relevant outside of the course.” “This subject has given me a way to re-evaluate things that once held sway over me.”  “The global focus on writing studies makes this course particularly useful for the information/digital age.”