Document Actions
Chris Thaiss showcases UWP programs at international conference
Professor and former UWP Director Chris Thaiss represented UC Davis and the University Writing Program at the 11th International Conference on Writing across the Curriculum (IWAC) held in Savannah, Georgia in early June. He presented as part of two featured panels at the conference—each talk describing aspects of the nationally-ranked writing in disciplines (WID) work being carried out at UC Davis.
On the first panel, “From Resistance to Reaffirmation: A New Trend in WAC?” Thaiss presented a review of the independence and dramatic growth of the University Writing Program at UC Davis and the whole UCD faculty’s affirmation of the principles of WAC/WID via its ambitious new General Education program.
As part of the panel, “Leveraging Place-Based Approaches to Sustain WAC,” Thaiss’s second presentation, “Realizing Place-Based WAC: California Cultures Meet a Rural Ecology,” combined photos of people and places at UC Davis and descriptions of examples from Native American Studies, the University Writing Program, and Plant Sciences/Biotechnology. With these, he argued that WAC/WID programs need to follow two divergent but often complementary aims: adopting consensus “best practices” of teaching and organization from across the country and the world, while also respecting the particular ecology—peoples, traditions, ethos, and geography—of the campus locale.
Thaiss coordinates the International Network of Writing-across-the-Curriculum Programs (http://wac.colostate.edu) and the International WAC/WID Mapping Project (http://mappingproject.ucdavis.edu).