English Language and Literature Commons^™

Book Review: Vigil: A Novel, Stephen Woodgeard

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

George Saunders’s Vigil is presented as a sharp, unsettling novel about climate ethics, corporate power, and the stories people use to excuse harm. The review argues that the book’s magical-real realist structure turns a dying oil executive’s final night into a moral reckoning, while also showing how family myth, corporate language, and public discourse shape denial. It also notes that the novel’s allegorical design can feel heavy-handed at times, but its central strength is its forceful critique of complicity and the difficulty of moral awakening.

Call To Submissions, Cinde Wollenberg

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Creating A Sense Of Belonging For Immigrant And Refugee Students, Emma L. Johnson

Virginia English Journal

This review examines Creating a Sense of Belonging for Immigrant and Refugee Students, by Mandy Manning, Ivonne Orozco Sahi, Leah Juelke, and Sarahí Monterrey, which explores strategies to foster inclusive classroom communities that support newcomer and multilingual learners. The authors argue that belonging is foundational to students' academic success and outline personal anecdotes that influenced the authors' instructional methods. This review considers the book's key themes: community-building practices, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and the role of schools in supporting students navigating displacement and resettlement. It evaluates the text's anecdotal evidence as support for expanding the ELA curriculum to better serve …

Race, Identity, And The Classroom: How Young Adult Literature Can Help Students And Teachers Explore Belonging In The School Environment, Madyson A. Mcray

Virginia English Journal

Contemporary classrooms are not necessarily reflective of the curriculum written to support them. Classroom demographics have shifted and student populations are more diverse. Because of this, the implementation of dominant white-narrative curricula has become ineffective in keeping students engaged with the material. Teaching “the classics” becomes irrelevant when students cannot see themselves represented in the text. Young adult literature, however, allows students to relate their own experiences to the text to engage more deeply in content. This paper examines four novels: New Kid by Jerry Craft, This is My America by Kim Johnson, The Secret Battle of Evan Pao by …

Again And Again Of “Never Again”: Teaching Holocaust And Genocide Literature In Ela, Sarah J. Donovan

Virginia English Journal

This article explores the evolution of genocide education in the secondary ELA classroom, tracing how foundational Holocaust literature has expanded into a broader, transnational framework of global witness. Drawing on two decades of teaching experience, the author argues that while the Holocaust canon remains essential to genocide education, contemporary classrooms also require literature that helps students engage ongoing and intergenerational atrocities in places such as Rwanda, Ukraine, Sudan, and Gaza. The article examines how teachers can thoughtfully adapt established literacy structures—such as rhetorical reading, literature circles, and response journals—into practices of ethical witnessing that center critical empathy, harm, healing, and …

Decreasing Barriers To Learning: Understanding Cognitive Load In The Modern Classroom, Rory Cantwell

Virginia English Journal

This article applies Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) to investigate current classroom uses of technology and how these may support or hinder student learning. First, the article explores the current understanding and application of CLT. Then, focusing on cell phone and laptop computer use, it examines how current evidence surrounding the most prevalent educational technologies may suggest strategies for classroom technology use. The article concludes by offering implications for current practitioners, including a decision tree educators can use to determine situational classroom technology usage.

Moving Forward In Education, Reese Whitlock, Hannah-Evette Burruss, Kiley Mccleary

Virginia English Journal

This article examines the growing presence of artificial intelligence in secondary English Language Arts classrooms and argues that educators must approach AI integration through a human-centered framework. While technological advancements continue to reshape literacy instruction, the role of teachers as guides and relationship-builders remains essential. Drawing on educational research and classroom examples, the article explores how tools such as generative AI and audiobooks can support student learning when used intentionally rather than as replacements for critical thinking or teacher involvement. The discussion highlights concerns surrounding overreliance on AI, including diminished writer’s voice, reduced cognitive engagement, and ethical issues such as …

From Pack Horse Librarians To Large Language Models: Grounding Ai Literacy In Appalachian Place And Community, Amanda Biviano, Anna Marie Rayne, Paige Hubbard, Maya Alvarez, Brooke Stiles, Isabella Giocondo

Virginia English Journal

As artificial intelligence reshapes literacy education, teachers face the challenge of preparing students to engage critically with new technologies while honoring the cultural and community knowledge they bring to the classroom. This article proposes a critical, place-based pedagogical framework rooted in rural Appalachian literacy traditions as a means of guiding students toward reflective engagement with AI — particularly large language models (LLMs). Drawing on the theoretical foundations of Freire's critical pedagogy, Giroux's cultural literacy framework, and place-based education, we examine historical Appalachian literacy practices as models for resisting the standardizing and dehumanizing tendencies of AI-generated writing. We then outline a …

A Media Literacy Approach To Ai In Secondary Ela, Matthew Korona

Virginia English Journal

The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into academic, civic, and personal contexts requires students to develop the skills and dispositions necessary for ethical and critical engagement with AI‑mediated texts. While AI literacy is often framed as a technical competency associated with computer science, this paper argues that secondary English language arts (ELA) classrooms are uniquely positioned to support AI literacy through media literacy practices. Drawing on constructivist pedagogy, existing research on media literacy and AI literacy, and the Virginia English Standards of Learning, the article presents a framework that aligns core media literacy competencies with human–AI interaction. To …

Letter From The Editor's Desk, Cinde Wollenberg

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

Engl 426: Editing And Production Workshop (Syllabus), Lytton Smith Ph.D.

School of Arts & Sciences

This syllabus was developed by SUNY Geneseo Professor Lytton Smith for the fall 2026 semester.

Course Learning Outcomes

1. Students will demonstrate knowledge of editing practices, including manuscript review and selection, and correspondence with contributors.
2. Students will show proficiency at a variety of practical aspects of publishing such as copyediting, proofreading, layout, creating advertising, and soliciting work from SUNY writers and artists.
3. Students will demonstrate knowledge of contemporary literary journals.
4. Students will show ability to work collaboratively.

Featured Archivist: Phillip Fitzsimmons, University Archivist And Special Collections Librarian, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, Scene Savers, Phillip Fitzsimmons

Faculty Articles & Research

"In 2007, as a newly minted librarian fresh from completing his Master of Library and Information Studies at the University of Oklahoma, taking every archiving class that was available at the time, Phillip was given a straightforward assignment: scan or photograph everything in a conference room and make it available online."

Remixing Dialogue: A Case Study On Perceptions Of Hip Hop Pedagogy In A Professional Learning Course, Kelly J. Thelen

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This qualitative case study examines how teachers’ decision-making and professional autonomy shift while participating in a Hip Hop Pedagogy Professional Learning course supported by structured FIXIT (Lo & Wachter, 2023a, 2023b, 2023c, 2023d; Wachter & Lo, 2024) game-facilitated dialogue in a rural, culturally and linguistically diverse Midwest community. Grounded in Freire’s (1970) Critical Pedagogy, Ladson-Billings’ (1995) Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (Paris and Alim, 2017), and Adult Learning Theory (Knowles et al., 2005), the study explores the reclamation of agency by teachers in a time of constrained creativity and educator autonomy shaped by strict policy environments, an emphasis on …

Secondary English Teachers' Experiences Of Supporting Literacy Using Books That Support Diversity And Inclusion: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology, Tremonisha L. Putros

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the use of supporting BIPOC students’ literacy with books that support diversity and inclusion for secondary English teachers in the United States. The theory guiding this study is Bandura’s social cognitive theory, as it stresses personal student engagement in individual learning tasks. The Central Research Question asks: What are the lived experiences of secondary English teachers who support BIPOC students’ literacy with books that support diversity and inclusion by teaching a novel with a BIPOC protagonist in a predominantly BIPOC class? Employing a qualitative methodology, this hermeneutic phenomenology examined the …

Nice White Ladies: Exorcising The Ghost Of Lady Bountiful, Renee Lynch

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

This article explores how individuals with racial privilege can both acknowledge and start to move beyond the ways they are implicated in systemic injustices in internationalization through collaboration. The study examines how the author acted in complicity with colonial power in an international collaborative research project in English language education at a university in Tanzania. Critical ethnographic data was analyzed using positioning theory and applying the archetype of Lady Bountiful - a “nice white lady” who graciously participates in the civilizing work of colonization. This construct illuminates how the author perpetuated colonialism at the intersection of whiteness and femininity while …

A Poetic Call For And A Reflection And Commentary On Clarity, Understanding, Hope, Courage, And Compassion, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

Finding a published poem I had written as a teenager, titled “The Heavens Weep.” this article uses that poem as the basis for a commentary that reflects on the state of the world today (2026),  As a commentary, the article uses the poetic and metaphoric words in the poem as a relevant "reality check" for what is still going on today.  In essence, the commentary is about a call for Clarity, Understanding, Hope, Courage, and Compassion, or what I call Archetypal Energies, Higher Vibrational Energies that operate deep within our individual and collective psyches to creatively urge us to "see" …

Final Master's Portfolio On Writing Transfer, Clarence Snell

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This final portfolio shows how gauging student interest can help to transfer their knowledge from subject to subject, whether it be by using Resident Evil to help with ethics or creative writing to help with grammar. The first essay goes into detail on the ethics of Resident Evil: The Official Strategy Guide, written for the original 1996 game. It elaborates on the guide and the game itself, using framing systems like that of Kant to gain a deeper understanding of the source material. Then, the second essay explains how creative writing can help students learn grammar, showing how both …

Neurodivergent Peer Tutoring And Anti-Ableism: Two High Schoolers’ Lived Experiences While Working In A Neurodiversity-Based Writing Center, Daniel S. Harrison

The Writing Center Journal

Neurodivergence is naturally present in the writing center and most often recognized by labels like ADHD, autism, OCD, dyslexia, and so on. However, neurodivergent voices in writing center scholarship have been few and far between in postsecondary institutions (Babcock, 2017; Batt, 2018; Kleinfeld, 2023), and in the secondary writing center even less so. Therefore, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the personal, relational, and formative aspects of the lived experiences of two neurodivergent students through a critical disability theory lens as they provided writing consultations to their neurodivergent peers in a Mid-Atlantic, independent special education school. …

Front Matter

The Writing Center Journal

Front matter for The Writing Center Journal 44:1 (2026).

Back Matter

The Writing Center Journal

Back Matter for Writing Center Journal 44.1.(2026)

Convenience And Communication: Students’ Experiences In Synchronous Online, In-Person, And Asynchronous Consultations, Carolyn Wisniewski

The Writing Center Journal

Writing center tutorial modalities have proliferated in recent years, yet research has not kept pace. Students’ experiences in online writing tutorials remain understudied (Denton, 2017; Hewett & DePew, 2015). Better understanding students’ experiences across session modalities is critical to achieving an inclusive and accessible writing center (Martinez & Olsen, 2015). This study used a mixed-methods, comparative design to determine how students selected, experienced, and perceived the accessibility of synchronous online, in-person, and asynchronous modalities. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of 138 surveys and 22 interviews indicated students perceived each modality to provide effective writing support. They report selecting tutorial modality based …

Editors' Note, Sherry Wynn Perdue, Isaac K. Wang, Georganne Nordstrom

The Writing Center Journal

Editors' note for Writing Center Journal 44.1 (2026).

The Self-Identified Strategies Of Asynchronous Writing Tutors, Eric C. Camarillo

The Writing Center Journal

This study explores the self-identified strategies of asynchronous writing tutors, focusing on how they provide feedback in an online environment. The research addresses the underexplored area of asynchronous writing tutoring, which is often marginalized due to its perceived lack of interpersonal interaction. Through semi-structured interviews and screen recordings of seven writing tutors from three different institutions, the study identifies key strategies employed by tutors. These strategies include managing workloads, relying on intuition, building rapport with students, and seeking support from other tutors. The findings highlight the complexity and labor-intensive nature of asynchronous tutoring, emphasizing the need for thoughtful evaluation and …

“Like Learning To Play Chess”: Relationality And The Development Of Interpersonal Communication Skills In Writing Center Consultants, Kara Poe Alexander

The Writing Center Journal

This study explores how writing center consultants develop interpersonal communication (IPC) skills through relational interactions during peer tutoring sessions. Grounded in the theoretical framework of relationality, which views learning as emerging through relationships, I analyze interviews with undergraduate and graduate consultants at a private R1 university. The findings demonstrate that one-on- one conferences foster a broad spectrum of IPC skills, including adaptability, listening, intercultural communication, asking questions, building rapport, giving constructive criticism, setting boundaries, empathizing, and patience. The development of these knowledge and skills is cultivated through collaborative, meaning-making interactions with writers. As such, writing centers emerge as dynamic, relationship-driven …

A Pedagogical “Eras” Tour: Thirteen Years Of Evolving As A Writing Methods Instructor [Special Issue], Susanna Benko

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

ABSTRACT: This reflective essay uses Taylor Swift's Eras Tour as a conceptual framework for examining thirteen years of teaching a writing methods course for preservice teachers. Drawing on longitudinal reflection, I identify four distinct pedagogical eras in my practice, each representing shifts in how I conceptualize what preservice teachers need to learn about teaching writing and how clinical experiences shape that learning. Through this extended reflection, I argue that meaningful pedagogical change becomes visible only across time, not semester-to-semester. Key insights include the sustained centrality of writing practice in methods courses and the influence of institutional changes on course design. …

"We Can't Shut The Classroom Door": Crossing Borderlands Of Practice In The Writing Methods Course, Vanessa C. Sullivan

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article shares the findings of a qualitative study that engaged ten writing teacher educators from across the United States in interviews, curriculum submission, and a mapping practice to explore the ways that they perceive and enact the teaching of the writing methods course within dynamic and complex settings. Using a conceptual framework of borderlands of practice to gain insight into the discourses and value systems that surround the course, findings revealed the overlapping domains that impact the preparation of teachers in the field of writing, the key values that guide the way that participants approach their teaching, and the …

Teaching (In) Community: Reflection And Relationship In The Writing Methods Course, Kristie Jolley, Emily Stephens Kasper, Meridith Reed

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this article, three writing teachers, one a writing teacher educator, reflect on how the writing methods course has shaped their work as teachers and helped them build community and identify resources to adapt to new teaching contexts and challenges.

Our Journeys As Teachers Of Writing: Learning From Our Mentor, Tracey T. Flores, Cecilia Espinosa

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Written in two voices, we reflect on our journeys as teachers of writing and teacher educators shaped by transformative mentoring in literacy methods courses at Arizona State University and community embedded learning at William T. Machan School. Weaving together sociocultural and translanguaging theories, we explore how being invited to write from our lives reshaped our identities as writers and educators. In our work, we draw on strength-based approaches to teaching writers that centers voice, meaning making, multilingualism, and funds of knowledge. In the midst of an increase in the use of a scripted curriculum, we argue for reclaiming writing as …

Writing Workshop Methods Course As Catalysts For Long-Term Pedagogical Identity: A Co-Authored Narrative Of Resonance, Resilience, And Effects, Elsie L. Olan Dr., M.Priscilla Develder

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Writing workshop methods courses introduce teachers to foundational practices for teaching writing, yet their long-term influence on teacher identity and instructional decision-making often remains underexamined. This co-authored narrative explores how experiences within a graduate-level writing workshop shaped the pedagogical development of two educators: a professor who designed and facilitated the course and a former graduate student who went on to teach English Language Arts (ELA) in both elementary and higher education settings. Drawing on a 60-hour shadowing experience, the narrative analyzes classroom observations, reflective writing, and dialogic exchanges to illuminate three central themes: resonance, resilience, and effects that demonstrate how …

Strengthening Our Pedagogy Together: A Methods Instructor And Her Former Student Partner To Promote Agency In The Secondary Writing Classroom [Special Issue], Michael Rojas, Kate Sjostrom

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In many English classrooms today, writing instruction is reduced to templates and formulas, robbing students of agency, voice, and transferable skills. This article describes a collaboration between a writing methods course instructor and one of her former students bent on proving that what they believe makes for solid writing instruction—a sometimes messy process involving choice and authentic purpose and audience—works. Documenting development of a new secondary writing course and a project to introduce the course’s methods to pre-service teachers, the authors recount barriers they encountered, strategies they developed for overcoming them, and issues they are still grappling with. In the …