Reading club provides a space to discuss writing center scholarship. Based on the article or chapter chosen, participants will share experiences, ideas, strategies, and questions about online writing centers (OWCs). This Reading Club will discuss “Toward a Rhetoric of Labor Activism in College and University Writing Centers” by Liliana M. Naydan in Praxis: A Writing Center Journal.

Reading Abstract

This essay considers the present degree of the writing center field’s engagement with labor activism in the age of the corporate university and argues that writing center practitioners are well positioned to reconstitute their identities: to re-envision themselves and their colleagues as poised to engage in activist rhetorics and live lives as academic activists. By employing a rhetoric of labor activism and thereby addressing labor issues in more robust ways alongside professional organizations that represent them, writing centers can work to revitalize shared governance and academic freedom, both of which are threatened by corporatizing forces, and they can influence emergent institutional and professional histories.

Guidelines for Participating

Reading Club is currently held in a Zoom Pro room. Participation is open to everyone, including not-yet OWCA members. To ensure a safe space for open communication and interaction, these sessions will not be recorded.

Register

You can register for a reading club through the scheduling system below. Follow these steps:

1. Select your time zone from the drop-down menu
2. Click the “Register” button next to the event you’d like to attend
3. Fill out the registration form and click “Complete Registration”
4. Save your confirmation email to have the Zoom information or cancel your registration later. You can also respond to this email to contact the event organizers.

A reminder email will also be sent the morning of the event.