The Writing Center, like UConn, is committed to critical inquiry and research. It is part of what we do and who we are; it complements and energizes how we tutor, promote writing across the disciplines, and serve both UConn and the State of Connecticut.

This scholarship takes several forms—books, articles, reviews, conference presentations—and involves undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty.

Below is a list of selected presentations and publications by Writing Center staff during the last several years. Much of this work is directly related to writing center theory and practice. For example, many UConn tutors have presented papers at the peer-reviewed Northeast Writing Centers Conference in recent years. Some scholarship listed is not directly related to writing center practices but instead reveals the varied intellectual interests of our staff.

 

Undergraduate Research

Basile, Richard A. “Intellectual Self Defense: Academe and the Martial Arts.” Northeast Writing Center Association 2009 Conference, Hartford, CT. April 2009.

Basile, Richard A. “The Collaborative Struggle: Being Controlled by Collaboration.” Northeast Writing Center Association 2008 Conference. Burlington, VT, April 2008.

Bottelsen, Alexandria.  “Writing Centers are Great, Just Not for My Students: The Dilemma of High School Writing Centers.”  Northeast Writing Centers Association 2016 Conference.  Keene State College, Keene, NH.  April 2016.

Bottelsen, Alexandria and Luke LaRosa. “After the Branding: Student Created Perceptions of University Writing Centers.” Northeast Writing Center Association 2015 Conference. Centenary College, Hackettstown, NJ. April 2015.

Briganti, Christine and Matthew Fuller. “Building and Rebuilding the Writer/Tutor Relationship: Investigating the Implications of Learning Styles.” Northeast Writing Center Association 2012 Conference. St. John’s University, Queens, NY. April 2012.

Bugdal, Melissa, Nellie Binder and Kyle Piscioniere.  “Translating Practices: Integrating Writing Center Tutor Training into First-Year Writing.”  10^th Annual Conference on the Teaching of Writing.  The University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT.  March 2015.

Bugdal, Melissa, Syeda Haider, Ricky Holtz, Michael Mei and Karen Ren. “Speaking Up: The Development of Voice of First Generation College Writers.” Northeast Writing Center Association 2014 Conference. Bryant University, Smithfield, RI. March 2014.

Bukowski, Noah. “On the Margin of the Margin: Embodying Physical Disability in the Writing Center as a Writing Tutor and Teaching Fellow.” Northeast Writing Centers Association Conference, April 2017.

Bukowski, Noah.  “The Disabled Body in the Public Sphere of the Writing Center.”  Northeast Writing Center Association 2016 Conference.  Keene State College, Keene, NH.  April 2016.

“Cella, Laurie, Tess Bird, Kellan Chatelain, Dajemie Rodrigues, Gabrielle Wilmont and Anna Vu. “Getting the (Creative) Word Out: Creating Connections with Creative Writers in Writing Centers at the University and High School Level.” Northeast Writing Center Association Annual Conference, Amherst, New Hampshire, April 2006.

Cullen, Jessica. “Thriving Transplants: High School Tutors and Their Transition to College.” Northeast Writing Center Association 2011 Conference, Manchester, NH. March 2011.

Gohel, Vishal and Thomas Teixeira. “Practical Approaches to Tutoring Philosophies.” Northeast Writing Center Association 2012 Conference. St. John’s University, Queens, NY. April 2012.

Johnkennedy, Rofina, Luke LaRosa, Sindhu Mannava, Yasemin Saplakoglu, and Nathan Wojtyna.  “Writing with the Disciplines: How Fellows Draw on Ways of Knowing from their Majors to First-Year Composition Discussion Sessions.”  Northeast Writing Center Association 2016 Conference.  Keene State College, Keene, NH.  April 2016.

Johnson, Dan, Joseph Greenwald, and Kaylee Thurlow.  “Cracking the Code: A Method for Designing and Implementing a Writing Center Honor Code.”  Northeast Writing Center Association 2018 Conference.  The College of Holy Cross, Worcester, MA.  April 2018.

Kane, Odia and Kharl Reynado.  “Assessing Our Practice:  A Writing Center  Fellow-to-Fellow Support System.”  Northeast Writing Center Association 2018 Conference.  The College of Holy Cross, Worcester, MA.  April 2018.

Koo, Jennifer. “Understanding Dyslexic Students’ Perspectives of the Writing Center. ”  Northeast Writing Center Association 2019 Conference.  Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT.  March 2019.

Lapides, Anneliese, Gabe Morrison and Kathleen Tonry. “Reassessing Our Responses to the Everyday Language of Oppression.”  Northeast Writing Center Association 2018 Conference.  The College of Holy Cross, Worcester, MA.  April 2018.

Morris, Faithlynn, John Beck, Ashantee Hyman, Ricky Von Holtz and Sarah Wylie. “Tutors Talk: Reflections of First-Year Writing.” 7th Annual Conference on the Teaching of Writing. University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. April 2012.

Praver, Noah, Alexander Solod, and Thomas Deans. “Don’t Fear the Future: How Should Writing Centers Respond to Artificial Intelligence/Text Generation Tools?” Northeast Writing Centers Association Annual Conference, UNH, 2023.

Rice, Sierra, Thomas Deans and Christopher Iverson.  “Why and How You Should Host a Secondary School Writing Center Conference.” Northeast Writing Center Association 2018 Conference.  The College of Holy Cross, Worcester, MA.  April 2018.

Rinaldo, Mary, Jackie Allard, Katrina Bafumi, Melissa Elmore, Andrew Garibay, Megan McHugh, Dimpi Parikh and Joseph Tarantino. “Sustainability: Outreach Writing Projects in the Margins or the Mainstream?” Northeast Writing Centers Association Annual Conference, Storrs, CT, March 2007.

Scott, Garon. “Forced Bulbs: Online Discussion Forums.” Northeast Writing Center Association 2011 Conference, Manchester, NH. March 2011.

Udler, Eli. Poster: “Large-Scale Analysis of Tutor Note Data.”  Northeast Writing Center Association 2019 Conference.  Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT.  March 2019.

Graduate Student Research

Bafumi, Katrina and Mary Isbell. Panel Discussion: “Writing Project Practices in Training Writing Center Tutors and Designing Centers.” Writing Centers Session. National Writing Project Annual Meeting. San Antonio, TX, November 20-22, 2008.

Bertekap, Sarah. “Centering Writing.” International Writing Centers Association Annual Conference, Vancouver, October 2022.

Bottelsen, Alexandria. “Image is Everything: The Data Behind Impressions and Perceptions.” WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship 43.5-6 (January 2019): 25-28.

Brown, Shan-Estelle. “Addressing Everyday Prejudices in Student Writing” Presentation for the Panel “PC and Prejudice: Negotiating Politics and Correctness in the Composition Classroom” at the University of Connecticut Freshman English Conference on the Teaching of Writing, University of Connecticut, March 27, 2009.

Brown, Shan-Estelle . “Integrative Medicine: The Whole Holistic Package.” Paper presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology/Society for Medical Anthropology Annual Meeting, March 26, 2008.

Brown, Shan-Estelle. “Authority and Writing in the Discipline: An Anthropologist’s Viewpoint.” Writing Lab Newsletter March 33:7 (2009): 14-15.

Brown, Shan-Estelle and Mandy Suhr-Sytsma. Poster: “Check Your Mirrors: Racial and Class Bias, Ethnocentrism, and Sexism in Undergraduate Student Writing.” International Writing Centers Association/National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing Annual Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada. October 29 – November 1, 2008.

Brown, Shan-Estelle and Molly Doub. “Annuals and Perennials: Working with Returning Writers. “Northeast Writing Center Association 2011 Conference, Manchester, NH. March 2011.

Bugdal, Melissa,  Kristina Reardon, and Thomas Deans. “Summing Up the Session: A Study of Student, Faculty, and Tutor Attitudes Toward Tutor Notes.” Writing Center Journal 35.3 (Fall 2016): 17-39.

Bugdal, Melissa, Tom Deans, and Kristina Reardon.  “Tutor Notes/Session Reports: A Study of Different Models and Their Effects on Stakeholders.”  International Writing Centers Association Collaborative.  Tampa, FL.  March 2015.

Bugdal, Melissa and Ricky Holtz. “When Writing Fellows Become Reading Fellows: Creative Strategies for Critical Reading and Writing in a Course-based Tutoring Program.” Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, Volume 12.1 (2014).  http://www.praxisuwc.com/bugdal-holtz-121

Czajka, Kaylee, and Garzi, Caitlin. “Training High School and Middle School Tutors: Deconstructing the Writing Center tutor Training Process.” The Northeast Writing Center Association Conference, Boston University, April 10, 2010.

Doub, Molly. “The Rhetorical is Ideological: Discipline Specific Approaches in the Writing Center.” The Northeast Writing Center Association Conference, Boston University, April 10, 2010.

Dunn-Lewis, Courtenay. “Web Statistics and the Effectiveness of Your Online Image.” The Northeast Writing Center Association Conference, Boston University, April 10, 2010.

Fraser, Gordon. “‘Is This Any Good?’: Reconciling Competing Visions of Writing Among First-Year Writers and Writing Center Staff.” The Northeast Writing Center Association Conference, Boston University, April 10, 2010.

Fraser, Gordon. “Finding a Voice: Reconciling Competing Discourses in Student Work.” The WAC Journal 20 (2009): 63-74. http://wac.colostate.edu/journal/vol20/fraser.pdf

Fraser, Gordon. “‘To be indifferent and to be young’: Disraeli, Sybil, and the Preservation of an American ‘Race,’ 1879-1912.” Victorian Literature and Culture (accepted for publication, forthcoming)

Fraser, Gordon. “Serial Monogamy.” Long River Review 11 (2009): 102-5.

Fraser, Gordon. “Woman/Man and Man/God: Hierarchy and Male Sexual Identity in Puritan New England.” Interdisciplinary Conference on “Bodies in Motion” at University of Rhode Island, 28 March 2009.

Fraser, Gordon. “Writing Gender/Writing Politics: Reconciling Competing Discourses in Student
Work.” Fourth Annual Conference on the Teaching of Writing at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, 27 March 2009.

Henderson, Brooke, Lauren Eichenbaum and Brigid O’Donnell. “Researching Out to the Sciences: how Can the Writing Center Extend to the Science Community?” Northeast Writing Centers Association Annual Conference, Storrs, CT, March 2007.

Isbell, Mary, Jason Courtmanche, Dimpi Parikh and Lydia Smith. “The UConn Writing Center and the Connecticut Writing Project: Partnership Possibilities for Outreach.” New England Writing Center Association Annual Conference, Burlington, VT, April 2008.

Isbell, Mary. “P(l)aying Off the Old Wagon: Amateur Theatricals in White-Jacket.” New England Modern Language Association Annual Conference, Buffalo, NY, April 11, 2008.

Isbell, Mary. “Beyond the Stage as Metaphor: Embedded Representation in Sister Carrie and Susan Lenox.” American Literature Association Annual Conference, Boston, MA, May 22, 2009.

Iverson, Christoper, Thomas Deans and Sierra Rice.  “Why and How You Should Host a Secondary School Writing Center Conference.” Northeast Writing Center Association 2018 Conference.  The College of Holy Cross, Worcester, MA.  April 2018.

Iwata, Miho, Thomas Deans, Jerry Jalette and Kristina Reardon. “Writing Support Across the Graduate Curriculum: Lessons from Year One of a Writing Center’s Efforts.” Northeast Writing Center Association 2013 Conference, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH. April 2013.

Lawrence, Patrick, Molly Tetrault, and Thomas Deans. “Intake and Orientation: The Role of Initial Writing Center Consultations with Graduate Students.”  Re/Writing the Center: Pedagogies, Practices, and Partnerships to Support Graduate Students in the Writing Center. Eds. Susan Lawrence and Terry Myers Zawacki. Utah State University Press, 2017.

Maloney-Mangold, Michelle. “From Teacher to Tutor: Exploring the Challenges of Being a Graduate Student Tutor in the Writing Center.” Northeast Writing Center Association 2013 Conference, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH. April 2013.

Morrison, Gabe, Anneliese Lapides and Kathleen Tonry. “Reassessing Our Responses to the Everyday Language of Oppression.”  Northeast Writing Center Association 2018 Conference.  The College of Holy Cross, Worcester, MA.  April 2018.

Petroj, Vanessa.  “Working with Multilingual Writers at the Sentence Level.”  Northeast Writing Center Association 2016 Conference.  Keene State College, Keene, NH.  April 2016.

Pipkin, Alisande, Thomas Deans and Mandy Suhr-Sytsma. Review of Anne Beaufort, College Writing and Beyond: A New Framework for University Writing Instruction in WPA: Writing Program Administration 31:3 (spring 2008): 110-115.

Reardon, Kristina, Thomas Deans, and Cheryl Maykel “Finding a Room of Their Own: Programming Time and Space for Graduate Student Writing.”  WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship 40:5-6 (Jan/Feb 2016): 10-17.

Reardon, Kristina, Melissa Bugdal, and Tom Deans.  “Designing Studies and Coding Data: Methods for Working with Archives.”  International Writing Centers Association Collaborative.  Houston, TX.  April 2016.

Reardon, Kristina, Nellie Binder, Jorge Santos and Jelena Runic. “Mediating Diverse Voices: The Role of Writing Centers in Personal Statement Drafting for ELL.” New England Writing Center Association 2014 Conference, Bryant University, Smithfield, RI. March 2014.

Reeds, Eleanor. “Graduate Students and the Labor of Writing: Supporting Emerging Professionals at the UConn Writing Center.” Northeast Writing Centers Association Conference, April 2017

Reynolds, J.A.  “Understanding predictors of help-seeking behaviors among tutors.”  A paper presented at the Northeast Writing Centers Association (NEWCA), Danbury, CT. March 2019.

Rich, Jason, Thomas Deans, Aaron Schultz and Nicholas Shunda. “Tutors, Researchers, and Emissaries: Experimenting with Roles For Writing Center Graduate Students in Sparking and Sustaining WAC and WID.” Northeast Writing Center Association Annual Conference, Storrs, CT, March 2007.

Rowe, Asia and Jorge Santos. “Identifying L2 Students: The Politics of Disclosure.” Northeast Writing Center Association 2012 Conference. St. John’s University, Queens, NY. April 2012.

Rowe, Asia. “John Skelton’s Proverbial Negotiations.” Seventh Annual Conference of the Early Modern Interdisciplinary Group of the City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, NY, April 2011.

Rowe, Asia. “The Role of Writing Centers in Deepening Self-Reflection.” Sixth Annual Conference on the Teaching of Writing at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, March 2011.
Rowe, Asia. “The Erasmian Adage in the Controversy with Luther.” Erasmus of Rotterdam Society Yearbook 30 (2010): 41-55.

Runic, Jelena. “The Inclusion of the Interdependent Self in Academic Writing.” Northeast Writing Center Association 2014 Conference, Bryant University, Smithfield, RI. March 2014.

Suhr-Sytsma, Mandy and Shan-Estelle Brown. “Addressing the Everyday Language of Everyday Oppression in the Writing Center.” The Writing Center Journal 31.2 (2011): 13-48. ***Winner of the 2012 Award for Graduate Writing in WPA Studies from the Council of Writing Program Administrators***
Suhr-Sytsma, Mandy. “Challenging Inequitable Relations: The Composition of Antiracism and Indigenous Self-Determination in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Atlanta. 9 April 2011.

Suhr-Sytsma, Mandy. “Bottom-Up Collaborations between Writing Centers and First Year Composition.” Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference. Sheraton Society Hill, Philadelphia. 17 July 2010.

Suhr-Sytsma, Mandy. “Real Texts: Reading and Writing across the Disciplines.” Edited by Elizabeth Vander Lei and Dean Ward. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. Contributed to textbook apparatus and assignments.

Wenz, Christopher and Kathryn Warrender. “Measuring Motivation in Writing Center Research.”  Northeast Writing Center Association 2018 Conference.  The College of Holy Cross, Worcester, MA.  April 2018.

Zagreb, Robert. “I’m So Sorry, English Is Not My First Language” Another Word blog, University of Wisconsin Writing Center, March 2023.

Faculty & Staff Research

Bugingo, Margaret. Writing Around the Globe: English Language Writing Centers in Rwanda. Connecting Writing Centers Across Borders/A WLN Blog. 20 September 2022

Bugingo, Margaret, Robert Zagreb, Lizzy Irizarry, and Eunice Kim. “Multiculturalism and Multilingualism in Writing Centers.” Northeast Writing Centers Association Annual Conference, UNH, 2023.

Deans, Thomas, and Kathleen Tonry. “University of Connecticut Writing Center.” Writing Program Architecture: Thirty Cases for Reference and Research. Eds. Bryna Siegel Finer and Jamie White-Farnham. Utah State University Press, 2017.

Deans, Thomas. Series Editor, with Mya Poe, of Brief Guides to Writing in the Disciplines. Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/content/series/s/brief-guides-to-writing-in-the-disciplines-sgwd/?cc=us&lang=en&

Deans, Thomas.  “1-Credit Writing-Intensive Courses in the Disciplines: Results from a Study of Outcomes in Four Disciplines.”Across the Disciplines 14:1 (March 2017). http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/articles/deans2017.cfm

Deans, Thomas, Barbara Roswell, and Adrian Wurr, Eds. Writing and Community Engagement: A Critical Sourcebook. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010.

Deans, Thomas. “Talking During the Test” (essay co-authored with Jamie Frueh). Inside Higher Ed. Views section. 2 April 2010. Online. http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/04/02/deans

Deans, Thomas. “Managing the Freshman Year: Review of My Freshman Year and The First Year Out.” College Composition and Communication 61:2 (Dec 2009).

Deans, Thomas.“Richard Rorty’s Social Hope and Community Literacy.” Community Literacy Journal 3.2 (spring 2009): 3-18.

Deans, Thomas. “Shifting Locations, Genres, and Motives: An Activity Theory Analysis of Service-Learning Writing Pedagogies.” The Locations of Composition. Eds. Christopher Keller and Christian Weisser. Albany: State University of New York Press. 2007. 289-306.

Deans, Thomas. “Genre Analysis and the Community Writing Course.” Reflections 5:1&2 (2006): 7-25.

Deans, Thomas. “Writing, Revision and Agency in Hamlet.” Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies 15.1 (spring 2003): 223-243.

Deans, Thomas. Writing and Community Action: A Service-Learning Rhetoric and Reader. NY: Longman, 2003.

Deans, Thomas. Writing Partnerships: Service-Learning in Composition. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English Press, 2000.

Tonry, Kathleen. Form and Reform: Reading Across the Fifteenth Century. Edited by Kathleen Tonry and Shannon Gayk. Forthcoming Spring 2011 from Ohio State University Press.

Tonry, Kathleen. “Reading the Polychronicon from Manuscript to Print.” Invited speaker, English Medieval Colloquium, Harvard University. February 26, 2009.

Tonry, Kathleen. “Reproducing Print’s Histories.” Invited speaker, History of the Book Seminar, University of Cambridge. November 20, 2008.

Tonry, Kathleen. “Metaphor and the Ages of Print.” Invited speaker, Medieval and Renaissance Studies Colloquium, Yale University. October 23, 2008.

Tonry, Kathleen. “The Redynge of Histories’: Caxton’s Polychronicon,” New Chaucer Society Conference. Swansea, UK, July 2008.

Tonry, Kathleen. “Skelton and the New Fifteenth Century,” Literature Compass 5 (2008): 721-39.

Tonry, Kathleen. “Before Reform: Langland and Skelton at the End of the Middle Ages.” 4th International Piers Plowman Conference. University of Pennsylvania, May 2007.

Tonry, Kathleen. “Fynyshyng’ Caxton’s Books.” 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo, MI, May 2007.

Tonry, Kathleen. “Caxton’s Golden Legend: The Translation of Saints into Early Print.” 41st International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo, MI, May 2006.

Tonry, Kathleen. “Split Positions and Split Histories: A Medievalist in the Writing Center.” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Chicago, March 2006.

Tonry, Kathleen. Review of Laura Hodges, Chaucer and Clothing: Clerical and Academic Costume in the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, in The Medieval Review, (April 2006). Online. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=tmr;cc=tmr;q1=tonry;rgn=main;view=text;idno=baj9928.0608.011