Programs and Initiatives
Writing for Social Justice: Writing for Social Justice (WRT 321) focuses on having students explore a range of social justice genres, for example: manifestos, petitions, editorials, posters, essays, etc. Students will learn how the rhetorics of advocacy and protest are constructed across genres, and will design a publicly shared writing outlet for the university community. This initiative is led by Dr. Laura Lisabeth and was developed collaboratively with Dr. Kristina Lucenko, Dr. Shyam Sharma, Dr. MaryAnn Duffy and Dr. Patricia Medved.
Reading Group: Led by Liz Kotseas, The Reading Is Fun Club (RIF) seeks to offer international students opportunities to gather and read for enjoyment. In weekly meetings, we seek to build confidence in English language skills by taking part in discussions, sharing ideas, and building vocabulary in a non-academic setting. The club began in Spring 2016 as a result of two international students’ interest in reading. Today, RIF partners with the Career Center in order to meet the mentoring demands, which are fulfilled by native English speaking peer mentors.
Implicit Bias Review: The PWR is conducting a review of its writing portfolio assessment process for signs of potential implicit bias. The objective is to use any findings from a review of potential correlation between student identity and our assessment in order to inform future faculty discussions and training.
AAPI Mentoring Network: The Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander Student Mentorship Network is a campus initiative led by Associate Dean Janet Clarke at the Library and supported by professors across campus including the PWR (Shyam Sharma is one of the founding members and helps to maintain the program website and develop resources). The program typically matches two students, who meet with their mentors at least twice a semester, seek academic and career advice, and use the support to create and meet their own academic and professional development milestones.
Faculty Professional Development Events: The Program includes DEI-focused sessions in its professional development events, asking faculty members to offer and lead pedagogy-sharing sessions around topics of their interest. Many of these informal exchanges are on topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We have held discussions on language, global issues/citizenship, support for international students, and so on.
Language and Social Justice Workshops: In conjunction with the Stony Brook University Multilingual and Intercultural Center, Dr. Sharma and Dr. Lisabeth have been involved with a variety of projects that support linguistic equity and justice within and beyond the campus community. These have included an international MIC workshop series devoted to different issues of inclusion and linguistic diversity. Future linguistic diversity workshops are planned for spring 2022 in partnership with the Stony Brook library.