Symposium looks at how public engagement transforms writing
Public engagement has the potential to invigorate how and where writing instruction is conceived and practiced. A March 18-19 symposium – the Public Literacies Symposium – will examine exactly how public engagement and concern for the public good could potentially transform how writing gets taught, where it gets taught and with whom it is taught.
In the last decade, as the discussion of community engagement and public scholarship in higher education has expanded its reach and deepened its articulation of its philosophical foundations, conceptions of college and university faculty work have begun to change. Though the traditional divisions of faculty work into research, teaching and service constitute a still-familiar triad, rhetoric and composition faculty and writing program administrators are developing new descriptions of their work that emphasize integrating these elements and communicating rationales that argue for the contributions their work makes to the public good.
This symposium also will examine how we think about what needs to be happening whenever and wherever writers learn.