Brown Bag Biography: “Indigenizing the Writing Center”

The Center for Biographical Research presents / “Indigenizing the Writing Center” / Georganne Nordstrom, Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa; Vice President, International Writing Center Association / Kalilinoe Detwiler, MA Candidate, English; Center Coordinator, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Writing Center / Kayla Watabu, MA Candidate, English; Research/Workshop Coordinator, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Writing Center / Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, the School of Communications, and the Departments of Ethnic Studies, Political Science, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies / Thursday, March 24 at 12PM to 1:15PM (HST) on Zoom / Zoom Meeting ID: 954 9657 0215 / Password: 975259 / Meeting link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/95496570215 / One of our goals at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Writing Center is to counter the consequences of occupation by embodying Indigenous practices like ea, and in extension, kuleana and laulima. In this presentation three writing center practitioners from the UHM Writing Center will engage the question: How can the writing center serve our students by participating in the re-centering of sovereignty and decolonization of educational institutions? We will trace the evolution of the center since 2012 and discuss specific practices enacted to recognize and act out our kuleana to the Mānoa lāhui and at the same time support writing across the campus. / Dr. Georganne Nordstrom is an Associate Professor of Composition and Rhetoric and Associate Chair of the English Department at UHM, where she directed the UHM Writing Center for seven years. Georganne currently serves as the Vice President of the International Writing Center Association, and her recent book, A Practitioners Inquiry into Collaboration: Research, Practice, & Pedagogy (Routledge Press 2021), draws from Kanaka Maoli concepts to foreground ethical approaches for conducting empirical work in writing centers. / Kalilinoe Detwiler is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi Graduate Assistant at the UHM Writing Center where she serves as a writing consultant, Center Coordinator, and Web/PR Coordinator. She proposed the project “A Decolonial WC: Sustaining Ea” to familiarize consultants with ʻŌiwi knowledge and resources that support student writing in Hawaiʻi. / Kayla Watabu is a second-year Master’s student working with the UHM Writing Center as a writing consultant and Research Coordinator. Her current research is focused on reimagining and transforming the silences present in her family (hi)stories by engaging with cultural practices rooted in her Japanese, Chinese, and Kanaka ʻŌiwi heritage.

Event Sponsor
Center for Biographical Research, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Zoë E. Sprott, (808) 956-3774, gabiog@hawaii.edu, https://blog.hawaii.edu/cbrhawaii/

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