The month of May always feels like a time for recommitting and reconnecting: recommitting and reconnecting to creative work, to writing projects (especially those set aside), and to ourselves and the people we write with and for. There's an invitation to start again, as spring is in full bloom and the promise of summer awaits. It's not that the everyday efforts end, but there's the potential of more levity with longer days stretching ahead. There's the potential for ... Read more ...
teaching
Writing Support for Your Campus? The Case of the UNT CLASS WRite Program
This fall, I am beginning the second year of a faculty writing and mentoring program with the University of North Texas (UNT)’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS). The program was proposed by Priscilla Ybarra, Ph.D. (Associate Professor, Department of English) and is sponsored by Steve Cobb, Ph.D. (Associate Dean, CLASS). I share a description of the program here to give a sense of what’s possible for tailored writing support: support customized to meet ... Read more ...
Highlighting a New Publication: Chapter and Supplementary Material in Best of Journals in Rhetoric and Composition 2021
I am writing to share a new publication: a chapter in Best of Journals in Rhetoric and Composition 2021, edited by Kristi Girdharry, Charles Lesh, Jessica Pauszek, David Blakesley, and Steve Parks and published with Parlor Press (2023). This chapter includes both a reprint of my previous article “Rhetorical and Pedagogical Interventions for Countering Microaggressions” co-authored with Rasha Diab and with contributions by Cedric Burrows and Thomas Ferrel. It also ... Read more ...
Q&A with Candace Epps-Robertson: On Seasons of Life, Writing, and Career
This interview introduces Candace Epps-Robertson, Ph.D., a collaborator with Heart-Head-Hands, facilitator of writing groups, and co-creator of the new offering, “Pathways Through Burnout: A Cohort Experience.” Candace is a writer, researcher, and educator with deep commitments to justice and more than twenty years of experience in literacy education. She is also Associate Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she ... Read more ...
Intervening into Burnout, Building a Sense of What’s Possible
A new article, “Intervening into Burnout,” appears in Inside Higher Ed today. In this follow-up piece to “Honoring Ourselves and Each Other Through Burnout,” I offer examples of creative interventions into burnout. These examples are gifted to me through coaching, so I write with deep gratitude for people who are trying different ways of being, doing, feeling, thinking, relating and imagining in higher education. Here’s an excerpt: “Burnout is also never ... Read more ...
Writing Support for the School Year (and Year-Round)
With the school year starting, many of my recent coaching conversations have focused on writing.Some conversations have addressed genres of writing related to schooling: assignment design, teaching portfolios, tenure and promotion materials, cover letters, dissertations, and grant applications. Some conversations have focused on prioritizing research during the school year, especially how to write in the midst of burnout and productivity pressures. Some conversations ... Read more ...
Q&A with Chloe de los Reyes: Teaching as Continued Learning and Unlearning
This interview with Chloe de los Reyes highlights connections among language and literacy education, lived experiences and positionalities, and striving for social justice. Chloe is a faculty member (Assistant Professor of English) at Crafton Hills College in Southern California. Prior to this position, she worked as and advocated for adjunct faculty for many years. We met almost two decades ago when both teaching and researching in campus writing centers. And we’ve ... Read more ...
Reframing Burnout and Recognizing the Collective Experience
Today, I have a new article published in Inside Higher Ed: “Honoring Ourselves and Each Other Through Burnout.” Here’s the opening: In the past few months, nearly all my conversations have focused on burnout. One friend is running on fumes, another wonders how to keep teaching when her body says no and still another rattles off a near-endless list of what’s not getting done. Such stories are nearly endless, too. The recent Inside Higher Ed opinion piece “Academe, Hear ... Read more ...
Grief and Gratitude: Reflections on a 3-Year Anniversary
This Saturday (December 13th) was my 3-year anniversary as a Patreon creator, and this week I'm reflecting on how much has happened and changed over these three years. In the midst of this internal review, I am grieving bell hooks, who I know will continue to guide so many of our lives, though I'm experiencing her loss as magnifying the many losses of this year and the last. I recognize again—through emails and text messages and phone calls and blog posts (like this one ... Read more ...
Walking Meditation for Writers: A Contemplative Writing and Walking Practice
Sometimes serendipity and unexpected connections make for excellent contemplative writing moments. To close this series of posts on contemplative writing (for now—more posts are sure to come in 2022), I want to share another guided meditation: a walking meditation for writers. I was presented with the unexpected opportunity to record this meditation during a recent writing retreat. A participant asked for guided meditation during a mid-day walk. I love walking and ... Read more ...
