A photo of candidate Megan Busch

How would your studies and / or your professional experiences advance the goals of WPA-GO? These goals may be found in the About Me section of WPA-GO’s website: http://wpacouncil.org/wpa-go (no more than 150 words) *

My professional and academic experiences have prepared me to advance two specific goals of WPA-GO: Mentoring with Scholar-Professionals and Attention to Writing Instruction, Assessment, and Program Administration. Prior to beginning my PhD program, I was the editor of a local magazine; there, I had the opportunity to mentor younger writers and interns working under my leadership. I enjoyed teaching them the context of the business and watching them learn from new experiences, grow as writers, and eventually become successful professionals in ways that far exceeded my expectations. I believe I am at the point in my graduate career where I can form and help facilitate similar mentoring relationships with and among new and seasoned scholars. Furthermore, my extensive research in translingualism has allowed me to understand the importance of fair assessment practices, which I put into action in 2018 by participating in my university’s assessment of its first-year writing program.

What kinds of support do you value as a graduate student and how would you further those forms of support for others through WPA-GO? (no more than 250 words) *

I have always needed a cheerleader (or ten), and I think every graduate student does. The labor associated with graduate education is difficult, and it is easy for us as graduate students to see ourselves as not-quite—that is, not-quite professionals, not-quite scholars, not-quite experts. What support I have appreciated (and continue to appreciate) most comes from those cheerleaders reminding me that a perceived status of not-quite is not-quite right. The mentors who have taken on this role for me and encouraged me to think more critically, to ask the tough questions, to write the book review, to apply for the national fellowship, and to generally be bold enough to do big things have been the most valued part of my education (from high school to terminal degree). I am a first-generation college student, and I am confident that I would not have made it to this level of study without the supporting guidance of my mentors along the way. Leadership in WPA-GO would allow me to help current graduate students find mentors who will support them, and it would allow me to have a more active role as a mentor to fellow students.

CWPA pledges to “foster inclusion more generally; promote research into student diversities; promote policies that increase diversity in our membership and in the population of people who administer writing programs; and explicitly act against the structures that cause injustice today,” and WPA-GO is dedicated to supporting this mission. How will your selection to the WPA-GO Graduate Committee advance these goals? Please answer this question by choosing one barrier you identify to meeting these goals in writing studies. How would your work within WPA-GO specifically address this barrier? (no more than 500 words) *

Writing about diversity and inclusion in composition studies, assessment, and instruction is particularly kairotic, given the heated discussion just now fizzling out on the WPA Listserv. For this topic, I want to focus on a portion of Asao B. Inoue’s CCCC keynote address that sparked that listserv thread because it was meant to be uncomfortable and controversial in a way that moves our field to change toward greater equality. Inoue says, “If our goal is a more socially just world, we don’t need more good people. We need good changes, good structures, good work that makes good changes, structures, and people” (Inoue 8). With scholars working together, organizations like CWPA and WPA-GO have a rich opportunity to enact structural changes that affect institutions across the nation.

While Inoue’s speech addressed specifically racial barriers and language biases, a promising step forward he provides, that applies to an even broader context, is the concept of “deep and mindful attending” (18). The lack of this type of attending, that encourages us to “understand others without trying to control or change them,” is a current barrier that hinders our field from being truly inclusive, not only along the lines of race, but at the multiplicitous locations of difference (Inoue 18). Inoue suggests that deep and mindful attending cannot be completed alone, and that we “must ask the other for help” in order to “[grow] the patience in all of us that is needed when we confront students who are different from us” (18). I contend that this attending is necessary to understand and to show compassion toward anyone (not just students) who thinks differently, and it is a required ethos for bringing about new structures for composition pedagogy and assessment.

For CWPA and WPA-GO, this deep and mindful attending should be remembered and actively pursued in every policy made, in every research project, in every meeting, and in every discussion. Without it, the dominant ideologies of the field will continue to out-shout the minority. As for my part, I want to listen, and I want to attend. A few weeks ago, the current WPA-GO committee released a “Report on Graduate Student Instructor Labor Conditions in Writing Programs,” and the study revealed a lack of diversity in graduate writing programs. What happens when we attend to the needs of those in a minority—our 1.45% who identifies as Black or African-American, our 1.16% who identifies as non-binary or gender non-conforming, our colleagues who identify as mothers or who have outside family obligations, or our fellow scholars with health concerns who are suffering without adequate insurance? (“Report” 3-5). Understanding the challenges and positions of those different from ourselves within our field through deep and mindful attending can lead to collaborative work that changes the structure of the composition-and-rhetoric ecology in academia. Changing that ecology will not only create a more equitable community for professors and graduate students, but for the undergraduates we teach and assess in our classrooms.