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HWS News

31 March 2023 HWS Presents at Composition and Communication Conference

Faculty, students and alums from the Writing Colleagues Program presented at a national conference in Chicago.


The Conference on College Composition and Communication, sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English, is the largest national conference for the writing and rhetoric discipline, and at this year’s event, several HWS faculty, students and alums were invited to present their innovative research.

Held in Chicago, Ill., the 2023 conference theme was “Doing Hope in Desperate Times.”

Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric and Co-Director of the Writing Colleagues Program Ben Ristow spoke on the “Innovations in Creative Writing Studies: Methods, Methodologies, Practices” panel. He presented his book Craft Consciousness and Artistic Practice in Creative Writing, published by Bloomsbury Press (2022).

Book cover

Craft Consciousness and Artistic Practice in Creative Writing, published by Bloomsbury Press (2022).

Ristow’s book details the intersections of craft and creative writing and calls for a new view of craft as radical artistry.

Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric and Co-Director of the Writing Colleagues Program Hannah Dickinson and Director of the Writing Colleagues Program Amy Green presented on a panel with two current and two former students — Irini Konstantinou ’23, Kylie Rowland ’24, Bailey DiSanto ’21, MAT ’22 and Olivia Rowland ’21.

“This is the largest national conference in our discipline, so it was a pretty big deal to have undergrads presenting,” Green reflects.

The HWS group spoke on the “Changing from the Ground Up: Fostering Antiracist Writing Pedagogies in an Embedded Peer Tutoring Program,” panel. Their presentation voiced faculty, student and alum perspectives on the Writing Colleague Program’s role in antiracist writing and tutoring practices at HWS.

The conference also served as an opportunity for professional development, particularly for the student attendees. “It was really exciting to be able to hear and learn about new, emerging ideas and research in the field,” says Rowland. “Especially as a student, the opportunity to be together in that space with so many scholars and people who are passionate about writing was just really amazing.”