REGISTER NOW! for this year's Writing Across Institutions conference will be on March 28, 2024 from 9am - 4pm. We're excited to feature Dr. April Baker-Bell from the University of Michigan. You can view the day's agenda, presentation descriptions, and other shared resources on the WAI 2025 website.
Dr. April Baker-Bell's morning talk, "Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy" will discuss how anti-Black linguistic racism and white linguistic supremacy get normalized in teacher attitudes, curriculum and instruction, pedagogical approaches, disciplinary discourses, and research, and she will discuss the impact these decisions have on Black students’ language education and their linguistic, racial, and intellectual identities. Dr. Baker-Bell will introduce a new way forward through Antiracist Black Language Pedagogy, a pedagogical approach that intentionally and unapologetically places Black Language at the center to critically interrogate white linguistic hegemony and anti-Black linguistic racism. Her afternoon workshop, "Linguistic Justice: From Theory to Praxis" deepens Linguistic Justice practice with an interactive session that supports participants in thinking about how to integrate the ideas from Linguistic Justice into their curriculum and instruction. This guided workshop will include activity-based exercises, such as reflection/preflection activities, syllabus design, and strategies for teaching. Workshops come with a digital workbook that participants can download to continue to learn from.