Weathering the Storm: Independent Writing Programs in the Age of Fiscal Austerity

Weathering the Storm assesses the socioeconomic and political conditions that have surrounded the rise of independent writing programs (IWPs) and departments. Chapter contributors look at the institutional conditions and challenges that IWPs have faced since the 1980s with a focus on enduring the financial collapse of 2008.

Leading writing specialists at the University of Texas at Austin, Syracuse University, the University of Minnesota, and many other institutions document and think carefully about the on-the-ground obstacles that have made the creation of IWPs unique. From institutional naysayers in English departments to skeptical administrators, IWPs and the faculty within them have surmounted not only negative economics but also negative rhetorics. This collection charts the story of this journey as writing faculty continually make the case for the importance of writing in the university curriculum.

Independence has, for the most part, allowed IWPs to better respond to the Great Recession, but to do so they have had to define writing studies in relation to other disciplines and departments. Weathering the Storm will be of great interest to faculty and graduate students in rhetoric and composition, writing program administrators, and writing studies and English department faculty.

Contributors: Linda Adler-Kassner, Lois Agnew, Alice Batt, David Beard, Davida Charney, Amy Clements, Diane Davis, Frank Gaughan, Heidi Skurat Harris, George H. Jensen, Rodger LeGrand, Drew M. Loewe, Mark Garrett Longaker, Cindy Moore, Peggy O’Neill, Chongwon Park, Louise Wetherbee Phelps, Mary Rist, Valerie Ross, John J Ruszkiewicz, Eileen E. Schell, Madeleine Sorapure, Chris Thaiss, Patrick Wehner, Jamie White-Farnham, Carl Whithaus, Traci A. Zimmerman

Richard N. Matzen Jr. is professor of writing at Woodbury University. His administrative experience includes creating an intensive English program and being a writing program director, writing center director, WAC/WID director, writing department assistant chair, and writing department chair. He has published journalism, academic articles, and poetry in a variety of venues and is coeditor of Reformation: The Teaching and Learning of English in Electronic Environments.

Matthew Abraham is professor of English, specializing in rhetoric and composition and the teaching of English at University of Arizona, where he also served as the chair of the Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure. He is coeditor of the September 2016 College Composition and Communication symposium ＂Independent Writing Programs in the Age of Austerity,＂ has published in a variety of journals, and is editor, coeditor, or author of four books.