The Things We Carry: Strategies for Recognizing and Negotiating Emotional Labor in Writing Program Administration

The Things We Carry: Strategies for Recognizing and Negotiating Emotional Labor in Writing Program Administration

Description

Emotional labor is not adequately talked about or addressed by writing program administrators. The Things We Carry makes this often-invisible labor visible, demonstrates a variety of practical strategies to navigate it reflectively, and opens a path for further research. Particularly timely, this collection considers how writing program administrators work when their schools or regions experience crisis situations.

The book is broken into three sections: one emphasizing the WPA's own work identity, one on fostering community in writing programs, and one on balancing the professional and personal. Chapters written by a diverse range of authors in different institutional and WPA contexts examine the roles of WPAs in traumatic events, such as mass shootings and natural disasters, as well as the emotional labor WPAs perform on a daily basis, such as working with students who have been sexually assaulted or endured racist, sexist, homophobic, and otherwise disenfranchising interactions on campus. The central thread in this collection focuses on "preserving" by acknowledging that emotions are neither good nor bad and that they must be continually reflected upon as WPAs consider what to do with emotional labor and how to respond. Ultimately, this book argues for more visibility of the emotional labor WPAs perform and for WPAs to care for themselves even as they care for others.... [From the publisher]

ISBN

9781607329466

Publication Date

11-2020

Publisher

University of Utah Press

City

Salt Lake City, UT

Disciplines

Rhetoric and Composition

The Things We Carry: Strategies for Recognizing and Negotiating Emotional Labor in Writing Program Administration


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