First Paragraphs
There are perennial topics of conversation for writing center professionals: assessment, accreditation, status, staff development, general tips and tricks, and the tools necessary for writing center work. These discussions frequently reappear on the community’s listserv and in writing center publications. However, no conversation is more pervasive than writing center space: where a center should be located, what a center should look like, what a center should feel like, what should happen in the space, and what should be the uses of the space. The scope of the conversation treats space as though it’s neutral territory. Writing centers are sites of practice or places in which things happen; predominantly, tutors work one-on-one with students on their textual projects. We tend to ignore how our spatial arrangements enable certain practices and suppress others; our treatment of space-as-neutral hides the consequences from us.
Only recently has the community problematized space, moving the dialogue from what a center should do to what it means when a center does. In this critical vein, we approach our review of writing centers as spaces that impact their participants. Our treatment of writing center spaces follows a continuum. We move from the material, tangible, physical writing center to the more ethereal, digital space. We explore what it means to occupy a particular space and what identity constructions are possible in our physical and digital spaces.
Citation Information
Type of Publication: Journal Article
Authors: Nathalie Singh-Corcoran, Amin Emika
Year of Publication: 2011
Title: “Inhabiting the Writing Center: A Critical Review”
Publication: Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, Volume 16, Issue 3