Main content

College Writing Faculty News

Orange pepper being sliced.

 

Faculty News

Congratulations to Professor Will Borger for earning a Pushcart Nomination at the end of 2020 for his short story, “The Story of That Time Al Ralstein Built a Concrete Fortress as Told, Badly, by the Local Reporter to the Town Bartender,” published by Purple Wall Stories. 

In the summer of 2020, Professor Ellen Brooks completed the facilitator training program for Narrative 4, a global organization that brings people together to share personal stories with the intention of building empathy and understanding. The training includes a close look at what empathy is, why it matters and how the story exchange works to build empathy. Other topics include tools for deep listening, strategies for setting the tone in the group (easily adapted to classroom and other settings on campus), basic facilitator skills, and strategies for responding to challenging behaviors. Ellen reflects, “Through Narrative 4, I’ve met educators, students, and artists from all over the world, and this experience has influenced my teaching in big and small ways.” Ellen facilitated her first story exchange in July, and is currently integrating this work in her College Writing classes.  

Professor Alysa Hantgan participated in a virtual writing residency, a two-week master fiction workshop, with the St. Petersburg Review. The program included seminars with international writers and editors, writing workshops and feedback sessions, and culminated with a public reading. Alysa read the story “Twirl,” which is part of a short story collection she is working on.

On Friday, February 12, 2021, College Writing Chair and Professor John Mitchell Morris will speak at the English Composition Summit hosted by Westchester Community College ​via Zoom. The Summit will examine various composition sequences and consider ways to align learning outcomes and support institutions’ composition requirements, with a focus on the experiences of transfer students and best practices for teaching writing. Morris will represent Purchase College at the noon panel, consisting of four-year college program directors, who will discuss the components and learning outcomes of their composition sequences.

Professor Emily Sausen began working with the Learning Center to provide Senior Project and Senior Capstone support through beginning of semester presentations and one-on-one tutoring throughout the semester, as well as presenting to Liberal Studies Junior Seminar students.

Professor Amy Beth Wright has co-curated an anthology of poetry entitled Wayfinding with her husband, Derek Wright, which will be published later this spring by Finishing Line Press.

Conferences and Calls for Proposals

Special thanks to Professor Alysa Hantgan for her help in co-curating the below.

Conferences and Conventions

  • The Conference on College Composition & Communications (CCCC) will host its annual conference April 7-11 in Spokane, Washington. Read more about the conference theme here. View Asao Inoue’s keynote from the 2019 conference here.

  • The National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) will host its Annual Convention November 18-21,2021, focused on the theme of “Equity, Justice, and Antiracist Teaching.” Visit the NCTE website to learn more.

  • NEMLA, the Northeast Modern Language Association, will host its 52nd annual convention virtually, March 11-14, 2021. Read more about this event here.

  • The sixth annual Southern Regional Composition Conference will take place April 21-23, 2021, via Zoom, and is titled “Antiracist Pedagogy, Practices, and Assessment in Writing Courses.” Asao B. Inoue will deliver the keynote address. Please note the Call for Proposals is open until January 31, 2021.

Calls for Proposals

  • The Coalition for Community Writing will host its Conference on Community Writing online, October 21-23, 2021, along the theme of “Weaving Narratives For Social Justice Action In The Local, National, Global.” The deadline for proposals for workshops, individual and full panel presentations, roundtable discussions, and creative displays is February 5. Find the call for proposals here.

  • Teacher2Teacher will also be accepting proposals through February 5, 2021, as part of a multi-session event at CCCC’s April conference. Read more here. Please note the deadline has been extended from the date posted on the website.

  • To learn more about the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Clearinghouse, an open-access collaborative publishing network for educators, read more here: https://wac.colostate.edu

  • SUNY Council on Writing’s online blogzine SUNY Writes! accepts rolling submissions of craft-of-pedagogy essays, first-person reflections on teaching, interviews, and researched and reported essays; email all submissions and a short bio to SUNY CoW board member Amy Beth Wright, amy-b.wright@purchase.edu.