Protests against police violence that took place during the summer of 2020 inspired many of us to participate in ongoing conversations about the prison industrial complex. These conversations consider punitive approaches the justice system takes regarding people who break the law (especially those with marginalized identities) and non-punitive responses to state violence, like restorative justice work.

You might ask what these conversations have to do with teaching writing. In this workshop, we will make historical links between the policing of marginalized bodies (specifically black bodies in the South) and the policing of language use in schools; we will also examine how current iterations of this legacy play out in the writing classroom. This workshop invites instructors to reflect upon their own writing practices as writers and instructors and supports the development of an evaluative approach to writing rooted in the restorative and affirmative.

Our primary aim in this workshop is to develop evaluative writing practices that acknowledge the varied languages spoken by students (these practices include principles like accessibility, flexibility and small actionable goals) while drawing out the writing goals of the course in student writing.

To RSVP, please complete this form: https://cuny.is/tlc-spring-21.

An email with the zoom link will be sent on 4/4.