“What does it mean to build, hold, and use power ethically? Collectively, we have shouldered the weight of a global pandemic, a burden heavier for some than for others. Likewise, we have continued to battle entrenched systemic racism, combining present efforts in support of a centuries-long struggle. Globally, we face the existential threat of a worsening climate crisis. And in what many consider a “post-pandemic” world, we continue to confront capitalist values of productivity and profit at the expense of people.”

So began the call for proposals for the 2024 Mid-Atlantic Writing Centers Association (MAWCA) conference, People Power: Community and Care in the Contemporary Writing Center. Despite starting with these grim realities, the call ultimately aimed to foster hope and imagination. Grounded in antiracist and decolonial writing center scholarship, as well as the work of community organizers and activists, the conference invited tutors and administrators to consider how we can build life-affirming writing centers in spite of current conditions and in light of the institutional power we hold as university employees. 

Like SWCA, MAWCA is a regional affiliate of the International Writing Centers Association and hosts professional development opportunities for members across the United States’ mid-Atlantic region, which includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Northern Virginia. After many months of planning, we were thrilled to host the conference on Friday, March 22 and Saturday, March 23 at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC. Around 130 tutors and administrators from across the region convened to share and learn ideas and strategies for embedding collective care and community-building in our writing centers’ structures and practices. Our shared goal was to build life-affirming writing centers that are welcoming to all tutors, administrators, and writers, including international and multilingual students.

The conference opened with a workshop facilitated by this blog’s own editors, Anna Habib and Esther Namubiru. Entitled “‘Is this resistance?’ Negotiating resistance narratives while caring for material lives in the writing center,” the workshop called attention to the lived experiences of linguistically minoritized students to complicate current narratives of linguistic justice work in North American writing centers. Using an international writing center lens and drawing on real-life examples, Habib and Namubiru revealed how uncritical adoption of resistance narratives can backfire, causing unintended harm to linguistically minoritized writers navigating the US education system. The workshop generated lively discussion as participants reckoned with uncomfortable truths and brainstormed ways to balance meeting students’ practical needs without abandoning linguistic justice practices entirely.

The next day began with a powerful keynote address, “Building Community During the Apocalypse,”  by Dr. Eric Camarillo from Tarrant County College. Camarillo emphasized how writing centers’ liminal position within academia makes them ideal sites for building community and hope amid difficult conditions. Camarillo reminded us that, contrary to popular stories like Lord of the Flies, humans actually work together and care for each other in times of crisis. Drawing on activity theory, his own research on inclusive asynchronous pedagogy, and the work of organizers Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba, Camarillo articulated a vision for how writing centers can build communities that welcome difference, traverse different modalities, and cultivate a practice of hope. Ultimately, the keynote left attendees energized and eager to implement Camarillo’s vision in their own centers.

Creating a space to imagine ways of resisting, surviving, and even building something better than current systems–and doing so in community with others–was profoundly nourishing and revitalizing.

The remainder of the conference offered a host of thought-provoking sessions in various formats, including panel presentations, roundtable discussions, workshops, feedback on research in progress, and community incubators designed around specific themes or for particular affinity groups. 

Multiple sessions focused on the needs of international and multilingual writers. One such session was a panel on attending to power dynamics and practicing empathy and cultural sensitivity in sessions with multilingual writers, featuring presentations from Lisa DiMaio of Drexel University (Pennsylvania), Cecelia Combs of Rowan University (New Jersey), and Liz Weir of University of Maryland Baltimore County. Without such awareness and compassionate practice, panelists cautioned, tutors risk reinforcing hegemonic language ideologies and compromising students’ autonomy. Later in the day, Vanessa Petroj of Bryn Mawr College (Pennsylvania) facilitated a roundtable discussion on her development of a foundational writing skills course for multilingual students working on theses and capstone projects. These sessions highlighted the care, intentionality, reflection, and consistency required to ethically support multilingual and international students navigating US academic contexts.

In addition, numerous sessions focused on spaces or practices from beyond higher education and writing center scholarship. Highlights included a roundtable on developing communities of care in prison writing centers (Elaine MacDougall, University of Maryland Baltimore County), a zine-making session for peer tutors (Julia Pavlick, University of College Park), a rest session anchored in the work of Tricia Hersey’s Nap Ministry (Karen Bell and Catherine Kula, University of Pittsburgh-Bradford), and a feedback session grounded in physical therapy work and focused on promoting physical wellness in writing centers (Joanna Z. Ye, Rasul Wright, Allison Keyes, and Alexander Wang, University of Maryland-Baltimore). All of these sessions demonstrated the importance of caring for oneself and others, building reciprocal relationships with writers and colleagues, and focusing on more than just tutoring and writing in our daily practice.

The above examples are just a few of the day’s many enriching sessions. To see more, you can find the complete conference program here.

We saw and heard so many generative, nourishing, and supportive interactions throughout the day. It was a joy to witness, and we look forward to continuing these conversations and building these relationships long into the future.

On a personal note, hosting this conference was a true honor, especially given Mason’s position as the largest and most diverse university in Virginia. In our writing center, we work with large numbers of multilingual writers, first-generation students, adult learners, neurodivergent students, and many other marginalized populations. We think a lot about what it means to work in an institution that, while designed to increase access to higher education for populations who have historically been denied that access, is still a US academic institution with colonial roots and neoliberal mechanics. Creating a space to imagine ways of resisting, surviving, and even building something better than current systems–and doing so in community with others–was profoundly nourishing and revitalizing.

Finally, as the lead conference organizer, I am eternally grateful to all the fantastic humans who made this conference possible: our workshop leaders and keynote speaker, my co-organizers Stacey Hoffer (Delaware Technical Community College) and Carmen Meza (Towson University), the MAWCA executive board, Mason English Department chair Dr. Tamara Harvey, and the Mason Writing Center faculty and consultants who provided logistical and technical support. And as the conference hosts, my colleagues and I were delighted to share our on-campus space, the Lab for Writing and Communication, as a landing spot for conference attendees. It was heartening to watch tutors and administrators from different institutions connect over breakfast and lunch and between sessions. We saw and heard so many generative, nourishing, and supportive interactions throughout the day. It was a joy to witness, and we look forward to continuing these conversations and building these relationships long into the future.

About the author:

As the Assistant Director of the George Mason University Writing Center, Dr. Courtney Massie manages the writing center’s operations, and supervises and mentors the center’s staff alongside teaching Advanced Composition at Mason. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Texas at Austin, where she worked as a writing center consultant and graduate student administrator for several years. Dr. Massie’s research revolves around anti-oppressive and care-based writing center pedagogy, mentorship, and administration; her current project explores what writing center supervisors can learn from anarchist and abolitionist organizers. In the other parts of her life, Courtney is a community organizer, animal rescue volunteer, musician, and hiker.