Student Heather Haueter and Learning Center Coordinator Wendy Pfrenger from Kent State University at Salem presented at the Eastern Central Writing Centers Association conference held on the Miami (Ohio) University campus. The title of their presentation was “Locating Places and People at the Center: Cross-pollinating Literacies on a Rural Campus.”
Haueter is a junior on the Salem campus, majoring in human services. She also serves as a peer tutor in the Learning Center.
Pfrenger explained that their presentation focused on ways that writing tutors can help students make use of their community-based literacy practices as they learn to write academically.
“Heather shared her own literacy narrative and reflected on how her experiences as a writer, both outside the university and within it, help her assist other students in becoming more successful writers,” Pfrenger said.
“We proposed that hybrid literacies grounded in both local and academic practices may be more robust than monocultural literacies grounded solely in the academic. Her portion of the presentation was very well received and many in the audience encouraged her to publish her work.”
The conference attracts students and faculty from all across the country. Among the colleges represented at this year’s event were Ohio State University, Clarion University, Indiana University, Michigan State, Case Western, University of Indianapolis and Ohio Wesleyan.
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Media Contact:
Tina Smith, 330-337-4274, tsmit170@kent.edu