First Impressions

From our first class, I was able to glean a little more about what our class will be about. I like looking at WPA from a feminist rhetorical lens because there is so much of WPA and writing program works rooted with women. It is interesting to read texts that are over a decade (or more) old calling for a change in the field, and then seeing the same or similar conversations still happening in more recent articles. I also find a lot of this information really interesting because a lot of the history I know stems from technical and professional writing (which is also typically female-dominated).

From last week, I think what I took as a takeaway was “Care” and benevolent and hostile sexism. Care has been something I have been pondering over for the past week. For me, when reading Leverenz’s piece, I find that Care relates about not only helping the student, but looking at them as a whole and advocating for improving programs and the institution to help that whole of them. When we discussed “selling out,” this was something I really struggled with. My husband is in a higher education field where he works with disenfranchised students, and he see’s how poorly they are treated, and many times, I hear about these horrible instances; not going to lie, they put a bad taste in my mouth. But, am I doing anything to change it? No. Is it because I’m a graduate student? Maybe. Would I take that extra step further if I was tenured? I don’t know. When I think about the one time I tried to advocate for a fellow student who was definitely being used by the university, it was extremely disheartening. Long story short, I tried to advocate for an international graduate student who was being required to work way above the maximum, federally-mandated hours. This was not the first time I heard about this issue, but this was definitely one of the worst cases. When I went to go to speak to International HR services, they claimed naïve that this even occurs on our campus (even though it’s a pretty common unethical practice) that college campuses across the country practice in. In the end, I was asked to supply the student’s name so that the student and their supervisor could sit down and discuss this, I refused to. This students VISA was on the line, as well as their work, and their PhD. When I spoke to the student, they said they didn’t want to pursue it any further because it wasn’t worth it. Again, this was super disheartening. When I think about Care, I think I have to weigh the good and the bad. But how do we do this? When is enough, enough and we decide to leave and find something else? Or do we go the radical route and try to enact change? Where are other places to start?

For this week, from the readings I took two main points away: First writing studies have a long, entrenched history with white masculinity taking positions of power and authority, whereas females (typically white females) have been in “lesser” positions. Firstly, before I go on further, I think it is important to note the lack of people of color in the history of writing studies. So, even while white women have been in these “lesser” positions, they still typically have had a privileged role in comparison to men and women of color. The second point I took was the division of labor that is routed in writing studies has created a mechanical view of writing and pushed us away from the typical humanist and more-encompassing teaching of writing that uses content from several areas of writing.

For a question based on last week’s reading: If we’re really going to put our mouths where our hearts are, what can each of us do (many of us being TA’s) to make a change to Care more or create beneficial change for our students, if anything? Or are we willing? If not, why?

For a question based on this reading: Do we think that we have these circular conversations because most of our scholarship favors theoretical pieces rather than practical pieces? I am just curious what would happen if more pieces focused on how to recruit and invite more marginalized groups into these leadership positions and what happened from those changes? I am not sure if this paper could be even be published because hiring confidentiality, but I think we need more pieces that are show practical applications such as institutional change that had occurred and how others can do it at their university.