Power relations and hierarchies, as well as spaces for freedom and change, are created through language and shared through writing practices. Writing centers are often seen as mechanisms for norming or conventionalizing academic discourse, but they are also spaces for transformative dialogue, community development, and individual voices. Knowing the simultaneously repressive and liberating nature of our work, we have established four pillars to guide our practice toward liberation:
1. Antiracism: Rethinking practices that sort minority discourses to the bottom of the linguistic hierarchy and subject them to eradication pedagogy, we work to cultivate antiracist linguistic practices. We are particularly concerned with the stigmatization and oppression of Black language.
2. Translingualism: Integrating multilingual students into the academic community and creating space for their evolving Englishes and practices, we aim to support them in their academic journeys and cultivate a community that values their global perspectives.
3. Gender Inclusivity: Fostering an environment that creates more inclusive and affirming communities for gender-expansive individuals, we aim to loosen the restrictions and limitations of gender normative and binary language conventions.
4. Disability Justice: Valuing differences and self-determination, creating access and accommodation, and working to find new language and reduce the harms of ableist language, we integrate disability perspectives into our research, messaging, policies and practices.
Through these areas of focus, we work to build communities and learning spaces that are comfortable and affirming to all students and provide appropriate, responsive support for their developmental trajectories and the realization of their goals.
Through welcoming new members, honest dialogue, soliciting feedback, and ongoing research, our goal is to continually improve our ability to make our community work for everyone.
Our writing center is situated on land in the territory of the Seneca Nation. The Seneca Nation is part of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy, a region still home to the Haudenosaunee people. We are thankful that our community is situated in this territory and hope to contribute to its wellbeing through the dialogue that occurs here.