New publications from First Year Writing Program faculty members and instructional librarians highlight the diversity of scholarship and creative work being produced by the University Writing Progam. 
Writing against the Curriculum has been "a UW20 labor of love," according to Professor Randi Gray Kristensen. "It was born and built out of the series of convivial summer gatherings, the Cultural Studies and Critical Pedagogies Symposia, organized by our own Associate Professor Rachel Riedner and Byron Hawk, Associate Professor of English at George Mason University and editor of Enculturation, a Journal of Cultural and Rhetorical Studies."
Writing Against the Curriculum is co-edited by current faculty Randi Gray Kristensen and UW20 emeritus Ryan Claycomb, now tenure-tracking at West Virginia University. They co-wrote the introduction and separately contributed a chapter each. Chapter one was co-written by Rachel and Ryan, and University Resesarch and Instructional Librarians Cathy Eisenhower and Dolsy Smith co-wrote a chapter that challenges disciplinary conventions in form and content. These UW20 contributions are in conversation with terrific articles by colleagues who work as administrators and faculty at public and private universities around the US. Nationwide, Writing Across the Curriculum and Writing in the Disciplines programs offer significant opportunities for thinking critically about the role of introductory and advanced writing classes in the development of knowledges and writers; our contributors consider and act on these opportunities in the context of the economics of higher education, public discourses, legal challenges, emerging technologies, and shifting disciplinary boundaries.
Praise from GW's own Robert McRuer: "This volume is the guidebook to anti-disciplinary living and teaching that we've been waiting for. Composition and cultural studies come together here to expose the fractures in the corporate university, with its efforts to streamline production, contain difference, and turn out recognizable, disciplined commodities. Writing against such a limited curriculum, the scholar-activists included in this volume collectively seek to unleash all that is excessive and unruly about learning, teaching, and writing. In doing so, they position the writing classroom not as a mere gateway to disciplinarity and professionalization. Instead, the writing classroom becomes a resistant location where new forms of knowledge, new ways of thinking and writing, and unexpected but vital forms of critical conviviality are generated."
More about the book and its authors at Lexington Books and on Facebook
Professor Cayo Gamber’s publications highlight her work in Holocaust studies, writing pedagogy, and their practical points of intersection in a writing classroom. “Designing the Holocaust at the Sites of the Shoah and Museum Stores” (in Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal:3.6 (2009): 1-14) and “Engaging the Art of Peritext: From the Promise of the Index to the Allure of the Footnote” (in The International Journal of the Book 6.4 (2009): 55-66) are out now. “From Photographs to Elegies: Engaging the Holocaust in a Writing Course.” Teaching English in the Two-Year College, is forthcoming in March 2010.
Three short pieces of fiction by Professor Peter Levine will appear in the spring. - "La Jolla" in The Southern Review, "Ribbon, Tree, Father, Son" in Mid American Review and "Havasu" in Slice Magazine. 
Professor Levine’s short story "How Does Your Garden Grow?" (which originally appeared in The Missouri Review (2008) has also been recognized as a notable story by a new anthology published by The University of Texas Press, titled Best of the West: New Stories From the Wide Side of Missouri.
Friday, January 29, 2010
New Publications From Our Faculty
Friday, April 10, 2009
UW20 Prof. Caroline Smith Named "Phenomenal Professor" by Student Organization
According to the GW Hatchet, Prof. Smith received the award from Phenomenal Women of GW, because of "her accessibility to students and her extraordinary teaching style." The Phenomenal Women of GW work to give "voice to the idea of resilience, success and leadership among women." Congratulations to Dr. Smith!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Prof. Zachary Wolfe's New Book on Hate Crimes Law Published
UW20 Prof. Wolfe will appear in the Gelman Library GW Luminary Faculty Authors Signing Reception series. Hate Crime Laws is a key legal resource for lawyers, activists, and judges.
The Faculty Authors series is open to students, faculty, staff and the public. It is an opportunity for the community to learn about GW faculty research and their experiences in writing the book. There will be presentations by panelists and questions from the audience. Coffee and refreshments will be served.
When & Where:
Thursday, March 5, 2009
3:00 p.m. - 4:30 PM
The Gelman Library, Room 207
Hate Crimes Law provides current analysis and expert legal guidance concerning the federal and state statutes that were enacted to punish or enhance the punishment of bias-motivated crimes.
Prof. Wolfe will be appearing with Prof. Melani McAlister and Prof. Phyllis Palmer, both of the GW American Studies Department.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Prof. Robin Marcus's New Short Story is Published
In It's All Love, Black writers – including the Writing Program's own Robin Marcus – celebrate the complexity, power, danger, and glory of love in all its many forms: romantic, familial, communal, and sacred. On February 24th, see Professor Marcus speak with other contributors.
Where & When:
Busboys and Poets
2021 14th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
February 24, 2009
6:00 PM-8:00 PM
More about the book:
Editor Marita Golden recounts the morning she woke up certain that she would meet her soul mate in "My Own Happy Ending."
Memoirist Reginald Dwayne Betts, in a piece he calls "Learning the Name Dad," writes stirringly about serving time in prison and how that transformed his life for the better.
New York Times bestselling author Pearl Cleage is at her best in the delicate, touching "Missing You."
DC-area resident Robin Marcus explains how "Becoming A Grandmother Becomes Me – Finally"
Award-winning author David Anthony Durham enraptures readers with his "An Act of Faith."
New York Times bestselling author L. A. Banks is both funny and wise in her beautiful essay on discovering love as a child, "Two Cents and a Question."
The poetry of love is here, too-from Gwendolyn Brooks's classic "Black Wedding Song" to works by Nikki Giovanni, E. Ethelbert Miller, A. Van Jordan, and Kwame Alexander.
It's All Love is a dazzling, delightfully diverse exploration of the wonderful gift of love.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Two UW20 Faculty Win Bender Awards for Excellence in Teaching
Professors Lauren Sallinger and Derek Malone-France honored for excellent teaching.
The Bender Teaching Awards, endowed by friend of the University Morton Bender, recognize teaching excellence at GW. Recipients receive a $500 prize to be used for travel to a professional meeting, the purchase of equipment, or some other activity related to faculty development. The recipients are selected by a committee of faculty each spring semester based on letters of support from students and faculty, student teaching evaluations, and examples of teaching materials and completed student work.
From the Bender Award Committee's commendation:
Lauren Sallinger: After receiving a B.A. from Harvard University in English and American Literature and Language in 1995, Lauren Sallinger earned her M.A. in nonfiction writing from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University in 2002.
Lauren began teaching at GW as an Adjunct Instructor in Writing in the University Writing Program in the Fall of 2006. Her central research is on Middle East politics, particularly the intersection of religion and politics.
One of Lauren’s colleagues notes that "Lauren’s students were genuinely attached to her. Her classroom persona is much like her personality outside of class: Lauren is sincere, sweet-natured, and patient with her students. She treats her students with respect, and they respect her in turn. The class atmosphere was trusting and amicable; they all clearly have a good rapport with Lauren and with each other."
Another colleague writes: "Her teaching is engaging and thoughtful; her class exercises a focus on making the relevance of what she is teaching visible to the students; and her student evaluations have consistently been among the strongest in the program."
And still another colleague writes that "Lauren’s University Writing 20 class, Imagining America; Social Reflection and the Politics of Place,, encourages students to look at the way that activists use language to try to change the world….it encourages students to study writing not only as readers and critics but also as aspiring writers themselves: the skillful use of language is the object of study, the method through which the object is studied, and the goal."
One student writes that, "Professor Sallinger is a rare type of professor who goes beyond classroom basics and fully educates her students, not just through books but through first-hand experience as well. She encouraged us to explore this cultural Mecca that is Washington, D.C. She shared stories of her travels to the Middle East and her personal experiences with protests, showing us that the outside world is an exciting place and that we can all make a difference if we make our voices heard… She has left a lasting impression on me that will positively influence my future, and I am sure that many of her other students share my sentiments."
Derek Malone-France: Derek Malone-France has been working at GW since 2005 as an Assistant Professor of Writing teaching in the University Writing Program. Professor Malone-France received his B.A. in Philosophy in 1995 from Wofford College and his Ph.D. in Religion from the Claremont Graduate University in 2001.
He has published many articles, in addition to his first book, Deep Empiricism: Kant, Whitehead, and the Necessity of Philosophical Theism, which was published in 2006. He has just completed the first volume of a two-volume edited anthology of The Global Literature of Political Dissent, to be published in spring of 2009.
Comments and reviews from colleagues and students alike convey a glowing and enthusiastic picture of Derek Malone-France. His teaching is described by a colleague as “innovative, challenging, and rigorous,” while a student’s evaluation states that, “Professor Malone-France is the ideal professor: knowledgeable caring, challenging, and fair.”
Another colleague observes, “Professor Malone-France is not just an exemplary professor, he also embodies the very qualities he asks of his students – diligence with care, intellectual rigor with curiosity, and dedication with discovery – to show through truly authentic example, as the best teachers in our lives do, the excitement and deep value that can come of the active life of the mind…knowledge is a great gift to students.
Student praise does not lag behind that of colleagues as one student writes, “Despite the innate difficulty of studying the subject, Philosophical Explanations of Religion, Professor Malone-France makes his students want to come in and participate day after day. He does this by recognizing and respecting his students as intellectuals.”
Students continuously praise his innovative and motivating University Writing 20 course and his personal integrity. One student writes of his “respect for Professor Malone-France not only as a professor, but also as a person…his quality of character is truly admirable.”
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Media Fandom is More than Just a Hobby
UW20 Prof. Kathy Larsen Never Knew Research Could be Such Fun.With her colleague Dr. Lynn Zubernis (a clinical psychologist and professor at West Chester State University in Pennsylvania), Prof. Larsen is currently working on a book titled Stalking Fandom, an exploration of media fandom from the inside.
Prof. Larsen says: “Henry Jenkins and those who followed him have done some ground breaking work in establishing fan culture as a viable area of academic research. But as we read the scholarship, we felt that as intellectuals started to take fan culture seriously, something--someone--crucial was being lost in translation. No one was talking directly to either the creators or to the consumers of media culture. We wanted to put real people back into the discussion.”
The first step was to choose a fandom small enough to get to know thoroughly, and active enough to demonstrate a range of fan practices. They decided on the cult hit series Supernatural.
For the last year and a half they have been interviewing everyone connected with the fandom: the fans themselves, the creator of the series, writers, directors, actors, journalists, bloggers and fan convention organizers.“We didn’t count on the effect we would have on the fandom. In one case we explained fan fiction to an actor and a week later he turned up at a fan convention wearing a teeshirt announcing that he read fan fiction – just to see what the fans would do. The fallout from that lasted for days!”
For more on Prof Larsen’s project, check out her blog (http://spnfans.wordpress.com/). She’ll also be screening My Big Break, a documentary about making it and not making it in Hollywood featuring Chad Lindberg (Fast and the Furious, October Sky, Supernatural), on January 30 at 7:00pm in the Marvin Center Amphitheater at GWU. Both the director and producer of the film will be available for a Q&A after the screening.
Friday, November 21, 2008
For UW20 Prof. Cayo Gamber, Herstory Matters
In three pieces of nonfiction published in the Journal of The Association for Research on Mothering, Cayo Gamber discovers that it is through the stories she tells herself about her mother and through the act of story-telling itself that her relationship with her mother is both revealed and redeemed.
Prof. Gamber says: These three pieces of creative nonfiction attempt to capture the relationship between a mother who was ingenious, dramatic, and subversive and her daughter who found her inspiring, perilous, and furtive.
Lee Gutkind, editor and founder of the journal, Creative Nonfiction, argues that "[w]hat is most important and enjoyable about creative nonfiction is that it not only allows but also encourages the writer to become a part of the story or essay being written. The personal involvement creates a special magic that alleviates the suffering and anxiety of the writing experience; it provides many outlets for satisfaction and self-discovery, flexibility and freedom." (http://www.creativenonfiction.org/thejournal/whatiscnf.htm)
I agree with Gutkind that there is a special magic in this genre. For me, it was what I would call an "emotional truth-telling" that made these pieces magical for me in performing both as a participant in the story and a writer of that story.
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