Writing centers exist in overlapping and dynamic ecosystems. Interconnected in these ecosystems are living actors—like consultants, campus collaborators, community partners, and land—and non-living actors—like buildings, cities, and material objects. However, there are also other actors, similar to coral or fungus, that aren’t really living or non-living—articles, blogs, journals, texts, posters, and conference presentations. Each writing center’s ecosystem has a unique environment shaped by lived experiences, personal studies, and institutional realities and obligations that result in different writing center expressions. Like all ecosystems, writing centers are not static—they change, grow, recede, mature, and bloom.
We invite you to think critically about what it means to grow within a writing center, writing program, or other writing-related initiative and what have been the actors and influences that have shaped your own writing center, or your experience within your writing center. Explain how the actors within your ecosystem blend to create your writing center or shape you. Consider the expected or unexpected details that have allowed you and your writing center to bloom and develop. At the same time, explore what factors have caused your center to recede or what you feel has been missed.
When the Wabash Writing Center considered this, we found a number of possibilities to explore:
Interaction with Actors
Challenges
Opportunities
| Philosophical
Training
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