What's Happening
In Spring 2024 the Center for Excellence in Writing is focused upon disability justice with special professional development workshops and a Disability as Diversity week. We are educating ourselves about disability experience, sharing perspectives, and reviewing our environment, policies, messaging and practices. Please give us feedback! We want to hear from you.
Disability as Diversity Week 2024
Monday, March 4 - Friday March 8
We will have awareness events and activities, give-aways and special events to promote disability justice, including inclusive language. Keep an eye out for these special events in 17 Norton.
Monday, 3/4 3:00 - 4:00 pm. We will kick off our week with some fun awareness activities and then the Center for Assistive Technologies (CAT) will visit our Center (17 Norton) to inform us of some technological supports that can make a difference to writers with disabilities.
Wednesday, 3/6, 5pm - 7pm - Movie Night! We will be screening the critically acclaimed documentary Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, executive produced by Michelle and Barack Obama. Pizza and popcorn provided!
Friday, 3/8, 12pm - 1pm, Reception. We will finish off the week with some time to mingle, share perspectives, take a breather, eat some snacks....oh and and more opportunities to take home some well deserved little prizes.
Please join our fight against ableism!
Disability Justice - Kick-off workshop with Dr. Aley O'Mara, Monday 2/5 5pm - 6:30
Dr. O'Mara provided a powerful workshop to members of CEW and TASS staff to help us better support our neurodivergent students.
Gender Inclusivity and Belonging
Derived from the perspectives of transgender and non-conforming members of our community, you will be introduced to some principles of gender inclusive language and a engage in a nuanced discussion of classroom practices which create space and comfort for students who identify outside of the gender binary. See resources on this topic in the Linguistic Justice reading group.
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Antiracism Pedagogy Reflective Circle
As a follow-up to April Baker-Bell’s presentation on linguistic justice which took place in Fall of 2021, the CEW will be hosting a series of reflective workshops to explore how the principles of antiracism and linguistic justice presented in Baker-Bell’s book and presentation might create antiracist change by impacting us in four domains: attitude, concepts, linguistic habits, and practice. The reflective questions provided by Dr. Baker-Bell will guide the discussion.
An Introduction to Translingualism
Focused upon discussing the article “Language difference in writing: Toward a translingual approach” (see citation below) this session will explore the overlaps between antiracist approaches to language difference and translingual approaches to working with multilingual writers, which posit language difference as an asset to be engaged rather than a deficit to be overcome. We will explore the potential for change in the four domains (attitude, concepts, linguistic habits, and practice) with several examples of classroom practices that reflect the translingual approach.
Horner, Lu, M.-Z., Royster, J. J., & Trimbur, J. (2011). OPINION: Language Difference in Writing: Toward a Translingual Approach. College English, 73(3), 303–321.
Available online through UB Libraries
Workshop with April Baker-Bell
The Center for Excellence in Writing, in collaboration with Undergraduate Education and the Office of Inclusive Excellence is pleased to host Dr. April Baker-Bell for a workshop on antiracist practices in writing instruction and support.
The workshop will be Wednesday, November 17, 2021 from 11:00am – 12:30pm and will be conducted over Zoom. RSVP HERE
Copies of Dr. Baker-Bell’s book Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy are available in the Center for Excellence in Writing as well as in Academic and Professional Writing. The book is also available in electronic format with unlimited access through UB Libraries.
Reading groups of the book will be hosted by the Center for Excellence in Writing on October 6th and 25th. Email writing@buffalo.edu to get more information on these reading groups. All UB students, faculty and staff are welcome to participate.
Please join us as we put our commitment to antiracism into practice in the important area of language development.
Dr. April Baker-Bell is a transdisciplinary teacher-researcher-activist and Associate Professor of Language, Literacy, and English Education in the Department of English and Department of African American and African Studies. A national leader in conversations on Black Language education, her research interrogates the intersections of Black language and literacies, anti-Black racism, and antiracist pedagogies, and is concerned with antiracist writing, critical media literacies, Black feminist-womanist storytelling, and self-preservation for Black women in academia, with an emphasis on early career Black women.
Baker-Bell’s book, Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy, brings together theory, research, and practice to dismantle Anti-Black Linguistic Racism (a term Baker-Bell coined) and white linguistic supremacy.
