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Full Chapter The Writing Center As Cultural and Interdisciplinary Contact Zone 1St Edition Randall W Monty Auth PDF
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THE WRITING CENTER
AS CULTURAL AND
INTERDISCIPLINARY
CONTACT ZONE
Randall W. Monty
The Writing Center as Cultural and
Interdisciplinary Contact Zone
Randall W. Monty
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
2 Discourse as Framework 17
Situatedness 17
Locations 18
Theoretical Framework 20
Critical Discourse Analysis 21
Contact Zone 25
Mixed Methodology 30
Definitions 31
Rhetoric and Discourse 31
References 33
ix
x CONTENTS
Analysis 43
Analysis 44
Discussion 53
Built Theory and Possible Applications 55
Safe Place and Spaces 56
References 60
Index 141
LIST OF FIGURES
xiii
LIST OF TABLES
xv
CHAPTER 1
SITUATEDNESS
The first time I walked into a writing center was the first day I had ever
heard of a writing center. It was on the first week of class, and my com-
position instructor had required everyone to find the center as a home-
work assignment. Conveniently enough, the center was housed on the
ground floor of the same building as my class, although the arbitrarily
sloped topography of the campus rendered designations like that in the
abstract. I was in my first week as an undergraduate student at a medium-
sized, private institution in the northeast USA, before the winter began
work individually and collectively to create writing center place and space.
Over the subsequent chapter, I will go into greater detail to explain what
I think all of these things mean, but before delving into that deeper analy-
sis, I’d like to talk a little bit about cells.
Small Rooms
Writing centers, also referred to as “writing labs,” “learning centers,”
“tutoring centers,” “writing studios,” “student support centers,” “writing
across the curriculum centers,” and by other names, were initially modeled
on science labs, places where investigative, collaborative, and thorough
inquiry would take place (Boquet, 2002). This theme has persisted within
the scholarship of rhetoric and composition, a discipline with close profes-
sional and theoretical ties to WCS, for instance, as some have borrowed
terminology from ecology to develop useful models for understanding
systems of writing (Dobrin, 2001; Keller, 2001; Reynolds, 2004), while
others have used botany-influenced metaphors, like rhizome (Deleuze &
Guattari, 1987) and crosspollination (Goggin, 2000), to describe the
seemingly naturally occurring network of interactive exchanges among
writers. Clearly, the natural sciences have provided compositionists with
fertile ground for metaphor making.
In order to add to this lineage, I propose a schematic model that draws
from Biology, itself a discipline concerned with negotiating and rational-
izing its own disciplinarity and the intertwining theoretical concepts in its
discussions of physical spaces. Illustrating these points directly, biologist
and naturalist Edward O. Wilson (2005) wrote:
Biology is a science of three dimensions. The first is the study of each species
across all levels of biological organization, molecule to cell to organism to
population to ecosystem. The second dimension is the diversity of all spe-
cies in the biosphere. The third dimension is the history of each species in
turn, comprising both its genetic evolution and the environmental change
that drove the evolution. Biology, by growing in all three dimensions, is
progressing toward unification and will continue to do so. (p. 1)
It is with this image in mind that I argue that by thinking about WCS as a
system of individualized but nevertheless interconnected cells, we can move
it toward a more unified disciplinary identification, one that more actively
embraces and supports the diversity of localized places and spaces, as well
as those people that do work as part of the larger disciplinary organism.
4 R.W. MONTY
moment (Abkarian & Viallat, 2008). Most significantly, plant cells do not
function in spite of the wall’s variance, but because of it. As surrounding
contexts change, cells—and the organisms they combine to form—can
also change.
Cell walls naturally serve as apt metaphors for the boundaries separating
groups such as academic disciplines, as they likewise function with a great
deal of variability. Considering an academic discipline in biological terms,
then, the cell wall is the contact zone that separates one discipline from the
next and provides its definition. Mary Louise Pratt (1991) seminally recog-
nized a tension in this place, which would result in both contacted cultures
hashing out their perimeters and defining themselves on their own terms,
as well as in contrast with each other. This latter characteristic, as noted by
Janet Alsup (2011) and indicative of the cell wall’s selective permeability,
represents “a consensus in ideas and opinions” between different groups
(p. 47). In other words, when functioning on the contact zone, groups
necessarily act in reaction to and in concert with those other groups that
they contact. Academic disciplines are also defined by their own cultures—
histories, social norms, vocabularies and jargons, modes of discourse, and
so on—and as such, according to Rolf Norgaard (1999), it is valuable to
use these physical metaphors of the contact zone when discussing them.
The cultural contact zones that are academic disciplinary boundaries func-
tion similar to cell walls: they provide shape and definition, and they serve
as demarcations of what is included and excluded.
Animal cells provide their own applicable metaphors for disciplinary
critique. Lacking the rigid wall of plant cells, animal cells are surrounded
by an armored membrane that is comparably less adhesive. They are struc-
tured in their own right, but more fluid and capable of movement than
their plant counterparts, traits that result in noticeable spaces between
individual cells when viewed through a microscope. These spaces contrib-
ute to important functions in animal systems, such as blood coagulation,
and they allow individual cells to move to different areas of the organ-
ism as needed. However, the lack of a cell wall in animal cells also leaves
them susceptible to invasion and outside influence. As with the example
of cell walls in plant cells, there are drawbacks as well as advantages to the
animal cell’s structure that are comparable to those noticed on disciplin-
ary contact zones. When academic disciplines engage in interdisciplinary
collaborations, the negotiation can result in the emergence of “a common
interest that might connect and advance a variety of pedagogical and cur-
ricular experiments” (Norgaard, 1999, p. 45). Yet, in situations where
6 R.W. MONTY
cellular activity, and it holds the chromosomes which contain the coded
information that guide cell structure and function not only of the cell but
of the entire organism. These parts could be employed in analogies of dis-
ciplinary center and periphery and of disciplinary scholarship, respectively.
Likewise ripe for investigation is the fact that academic disciplines often find
themselves in states of flux, adapting to ideologies, technologies, contexts,
institutional and social expectations, changing demographics, and numer-
ous other factors. This concept can be related to the functions of cells that
are constantly changing and reacting in order to achieve a stabilized state of
homeostasis. Both academic disciplines and cells exist in unstable and ever-
changing environments, and therefore are consistently acted upon.
Of course, academic disciplines are not cells exactly, and it is important
to recognize instances where this analogy does not hold. While both cells
and academic disciplines have variable functions and structures, it is only
with academic disciplines that these changes occur as the result of consci-
entious agents purposefully acting to define and realign the boundaries.
So, even though academic disciplines are ostensibly open to critique and
can change in order to better meet their needs, and even if they first are
able to understand the possibilities and limitations of their own definition,
individuals working within the disciplines still must make these things hap-
pen. Therefore, when we talk about the resulting shape as a critical factor in
determining and maintaining the success and sustainability of the discipline,
we are talking about something that was at once acted upon and acted out.
Historically speaking, comparisons among cells and academic disci-
plines, and within the sciences and rhetoric and composition, are analo-
gies that drive in both directions. In fact, it was Hooke who first used
examples from everyday human interactions to describe what cells were
and what they did. When he sought to describe his discovery to the public,
he explained cells and their functions using language his audience would
more easily understand, a rhetorically savvy move in any context. The name
“cell” itself was borrowed from the Latin cella, meaning “small room,”
which is what Hooke decided these microscopic units resembled. When
describing how cells functioned collectively to achieve certain purposes, he
compared them to groups of people working together. So much for not
meddling with rhetoric.
Inversing these metaphors some centuries later, cells and cell theory can
be used to understand how groups function, and in the particular case of this
project, how academic disciplines work and are structured. Furthermore,
the image of the “small room” is one with historical significance, as the
8 R.W. MONTY
Mary Louise Pratt (1991) in her initial discussion of contact zones (p. 6).
This metaphor has been modified by WCS scholars like Twila Yates Papay
(2002), who repositioned writing centers as “comfort zones” (p. 5).
Examples like these illustrate how writing centers have cultivated iden-
tifications as places and spaces where cultures and disciplines can interact
freely and without judgment.
Of course, when saying “cultures and disciplines,” the connotation
is that writing centers are safe and welcoming places for the people who
occupy those places. Purposeful use of the first-person plural pronoun
marks an intentional and rhetorically savvy move that performs the dis-
cursive function of promoting community, association, and togetherness.
These are among the traits that could be considered shared among dispa-
rate local writing centers, and in that spirit, I will embrace the first-person
plural when appropriate in this book.
However, such linguistic maneuvers can also function, in both intended
and unintentional ways, to exclude those not within the WCS discourse
community. Jackie Grutsch McKinney (2013) pointed out that using “the
‘we’ assumes there will be a consensus” and “that homes are culturally
marked,” so even as we try to promote a welcoming culture in our writing
centers, we are forced to ask questions like Who decides what constitutes
a consensus? Whose culture are we promoting? (pp. 89, 25). With that
in mind, our objectives must expand to find productive ways to not only
allow for, but actively invite in stakeholders from different cultural, lin-
guistic, and gender identity positions.
In order to enact their roles as interdisciplinary and cultural contact
zones, writing centers discursively construct representations that reflect and
reproduce contextually defined missions and objectives. In order to pro-
mote identifications of WCS, those missions are aligned with disciplinary
norms. Even though no two centers can have exactly the same context or
mission, WCS can find common ground in its epistemologies and method-
ologies. In this book, I present different strands of CDA as viable theoreti-
cal frameworks for conducting research in and of writing centers. Through
these shared approaches and common goals, stakeholders establish disci-
plinary place and space both locally and within the academy at large.
As you read this book, you will invariably think of things that I should
have thought of, identify rocks I should have looked under, and point out
paths I should have followed. My hope is that in the places I did investi-
gate, in the spaces I did visit, that I was able to explore those locations with
the thoroughness and sincerity that they deserve. The fact that I missed
INTRODUCTION: LITTLE ROOMS 13
REFERENCES
Abkarian, M., & Viallat, A. (2008). Vesicles and red blood cells in shear flow. Soft
Matter, 4, 653–657.
Alsup, J. (2011). Seeking connection: An English educator speaks across a disci-
plinary contact zone. English Education, 34(1), 31–49.
Applebaum, B. (2003). Social justice, democratic education and the silencing of
words that wound. Journal of Moral Education, 32(2), 151–162.
Bazerman, C. (2011). The disciplined interdisciplinarity of writing studies.
Research in the Teaching of English, 46(1), 8–21.
Bergmann, L. S., & Conrad-Salvo, T. (2007). Dialogue and collaboration: Writing
lab applied tutoring techniques to relations with other writing programs. In
W. Macauley & N. Maurillo (Eds.), Marginal words marginal work? Tutoring
the academy in the work of writing centers (pp. 183–196). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton
Press.
Boquet, E. H. (2002). Noise from the writing center. Logan, UT: Utah State
University Press.
Cogie, J., Janke, D., Kramer, T. J., & Simpson, C. (2007). Risks in collaboration:
Accountability as we move beyond the center’s walls. In W. Maccauly &
N. Maurillo (Eds.), Marginal words marginal work? Tutoring the academy in
the work of writing centers (pp. 105–134). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Cooper, M. (1994). Really useful knowledge: A cultural studies agenda for writing
centers. The Writing Center Journal, 14(2), 97–111.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus. Capitalism and schizo-
phrenia. (B. Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis, MN: The University of Minnesota
Press.
Dobrin, S. (2001). Writing takes place. In C. Weisser & S. Dobrin (Eds.),
Ecocomposition: Theoretical and pedagogical approaches (pp. 11–26). Albany,
NY: State University of New York Press.
Driscoll, D. L., & Perdue, S. W. (2014). RAD research as a framework for writing
center inquiry: Survey and interview data on writing center administrators’
beliefs about research and research practices. The Writing Center Journal,
34(1), 105–133.
Ede, L. (1989). Writing as a social process: A theoretical foundation for writing
centers. The Writing Center Journal, 9(2), 3–15.
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Angiostomum, 134
Angler-fish, Trematodes of, 62, 72
Anguillula aceti, 125, 154;
A. tritici, 125;
A. diplogaster, 155
Anguillulidae, 137, 154
Anguinella, 532
Annadrilus, 386
Annelida, 241
Anocelis, 42
Anonymidae, 19
Anonymus, 16, 18, 19, 20;
penes, 27
Anopla, 109
Anoplocephala, 91;
characters, 90:
A. mamillana, 90;
A. perfoliata, life-history, 83;
specific characters, 90:
A. plicata, specific characters, 90
Anoplodiscus, 73
Anoplodium, 50;
A. parasiticum, occurrence, 45
Antaeus, 388
Antedon, as host, 342
Antenna, of Rotifers, 215
Anthobothrium, 76 n., 91
Anthocotyle, 73
Antinoë, 298
Antipathes, as host, 298
Anuraea, 225, 226
Anuraeidae, 201, 205, 225, 226
A'oon, an edible worm, 297
Apel, on Priapuloidea, 433
Aperture, of zooecium, 468, 517, 523, 524
Aphaneura, 353, 374
Aphanostoma, 49
Aphanostomatidae, 49
Aphelenchus, 131, 155, 157
Aphrodite, 312;
shape, 258;
head, 260;
peristomium, 263;
chaetae, 268;
felting, 312;
intestine, 271;
genital cells, 273;
colour, 291:
A. aculeata, 312;
distribution, 299;
A. echidna, 299
Aphroditidae, 258, 309;
frontal ridge, 260;
parapodium, 264;
elytra, 266, 309;
chaetae, 266
Apical plate, of Trochosphere, 245
Apodina, 235
Apodoides, 225
Apogon, Scolex polymorphus in, 77
Apsilidae, 201, 203, 214, 220, 221
Apsilus, 201, 212, 213, 214, 221
Arabellites, 302
Arachnidium, 532
Archiannelida, 241;
anatomy, 243 f.;
nerve cords, 255;
development, 243, 245
Archigetes, 5, 74, 76, 91;
significance of, 77
Area, of zooecium, 523, 524
Arenicola, 333;
perienteric sinus, 252;
nephridium, 253, 254, 269;
prostomium, 259;
body, 259;
head, 264;
gill, 265;
chaetae, 266 f.;
genital organs, 273;
otocyst, 273;
burrows, 285;
pigment, 291;
colour, 293;
A. marina, 333;
habits, 301;
in brackish water, 284;
as bait, 297;
eggs, 314
Arenicolidae, 258, 333
Argilophilus, 372
Arhynchidae, 185
Arhynchus hemignathi, 181, 185
Aricia, otocyst, 273;
eggs, 275
Ariciidae, 258, 321;
gill, 265
Aristotle, on Earthworms, 347
Armata, 445, 446
Arthropoda, absence of cilia in, 124
Articulata, 517, 518
Ascaridae, 131, 138, 163
Ascaris, 139, 163;
A. acus, 130;
A. alata, 140;
A. depressa, 141;
A. ferox, 141;
A. incurva, 141;
A. leptoptera, 141;
A. lumbricoides, 125, 134, 135, 139, 163;
A. megalocephala, 125, 127, 128, 131, 136, 140, 163;
A. mucronata, 141;
A. mystax, 125, 130, 140;
A. nigrovenosa, 155;
A. rubicunda, 141;
A. suillae, 139;
A. sulcata, 141;
A. transfuga, 125, 126, 141
Ascodictyon, 521 n.
Ascomorpha, 223
Ascopodaria, 488 n.
Asellus, Rotifers attached to, 227
Asexual reproduction, in Triclads, 40;
in Rhabdocoels, 44;
in Cestodes, 80;
in Trichoplax and Salinella, 96;
in Polychaeta, 278 f., 279, 280, 282, 340;
in Oligochaeta, 374, 375, 377;
in Polyzoa, 496, 514
Aspidobothridae, 73
Aspidocotyle, 73
Aspidocotylea, 73
Aspidogaster, 63, 73
Aspidosiphon, 421, 423, 424, 425, 428;
commensalism of, 429
Asplanchna, 200, 205, 210, 213, 215 n., 223, 226
Asplanchnaceae, 203, 212, 220, 222
Asplanchnidae, 200, 201, 203, 205, 211, 212, 216, 223, 226,
230
Asplanchnopus, 201, 211, 222, 223, 226, 230
Ass, parasites of, 140
Association, of Rhabdocoels with Lamellibranchs and Sea-
urchins, 45;
of Monotus fuscus with littoral animals, 46;
significance, in Turbellaria, 51—see also Commensal and
Parasitic
Asteroids, as hosts, 341
Asterope, 315
Astropecten, as host, 297, 309
Atokous phase, 277 n.
Atractonema, 131, 150, 152, 153
Atrium (genital), in Planaria, 38, 39;
in Oligochaeta, 361, 378
Atrochus, 201, 213, 214, 221
Auditory organs, of Turbellaria, 26;
of Hoplonemertea, 106, 110;
of Nematoda, 128;
of Polychaeta, 273
Aulastomum, 393, 399, 403
Auricles, of Rotifers, 205
Autolytus, 308;
eye, 255;
denticles, 270;
brood-sac, 275, 276;
reproduction, 278, 279;
sexual dimorphism, 281;
A. ebiensis, eggs, 276
Automolos, British species, 50
Avenella, 533
Avicularian zooecium, 482, 524
Avicularium, 466, 467, 468, 482 f., 482, 516, 517, 522 f., 524;
adventitious, 482;
vicarious, 482;
vibraculoid, 484, 485;
structure, 483;
movements, 485;
function, 486
Axine, 56, 73
Axiothea, 332, 333