Finding Our Shared Humanity in an Academic Writing Community

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Presented by Karen Hoelscher, Professor of Education, Western Washington University

As university faculty, we advance through the academic review process in large part by developing personal habits and skills as writers. In characterizing this challenge, Toews and Yazedjian (2007) compare faculty life to a three-ring circus, where the demands of writing compete for the spotlight with teaching and serving. In this session we’ll explore how a monthly writing series and multi-day writing residency provides our faculty colleagues with the stamina and structure to operate effectively under the academic big-top. Foremost in this model: the importance of aligning writing projects with departmental expectations, sustaining the motivation to write among critical friends, and using writing as a way of finding our shared humanity in the academy.

Karen Hoelscher

Karen Hoelscher is a Professor of Education at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. She co-facilitates the WWU Faculty Writing Series and Residency aimed at increasing tenure-line faculty members’ confidence, skill, and production in a community of writers. A recreational soccer player, kayaker, and swing dancer, Karen co-authored Managing Diversity Flashpoints in Higher Education (American Council on Education/Praeger Series on Higher Education, 2008).

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