We are pleased to welcome new and returning members of the Executive. The Executive met recently to discuss plans for the coming year, namely more serious commitment to diversity and inclusion in Writing Studies and related fields.

Joel Heng-Hartse, Vice President and Conference Program Chair, is working with the program committee on an exciting conference for 2021 (updates to come) and will be in touch with last year’s scheduled presenters. Congress will issue a decision on Nov. 1 to indicate whether the 2021 conference will be hybrid or virtual. Please contact Joel at Joel_HengHartse@sfu.ca if you have any questions about the conference.

Also, Kim Mitchell and Sean Zwagerman, co-editors of the Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie, are currently fielding three submissions, so keep your eyes out for those.

Best wishes as we continue to unite through these times,

Dana Landry, CASDW-ACR President

The Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy (ISUP) at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) is searching for six new faculty members in Writing Studies in Higher Education. These six positions include:

• Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream (3 positions)
• Assistant Professor (2 positions)
• Associate Professor (1 position)

The ISUP was established in July 2020 to promote the study of university pedagogy, especially the experiences of undergraduate students, through collaborative research, instruction, training, scholarship, and assessment.

The ISUP builds on the success of the UTM Teaching and Learning Collaboration and the Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre (RGASC). It is also home to the new Foundational Writing Skills Initiative and other writing programs previously administered by the RGASC. Foundational Numeracy Skills courses are being developed.

A new book in the Inkshed: Writing Studies in Canada series has just been released by Diana Wegner (faculty emerita, Douglas College and CASDW-ACR member).

Wegner’s book, titled A Genre Analysis of Social Change: Uptake of the Housing-First Solution to Homelessness in Canada (Parlor Press), contributes to current scholarship in rhetorical genre studies and discourse analysis in contexts of social change. More specifically, it explores the ways that historical genre systems can be transformed through the process of discursive uptake across genres and their spheres of activity. In this study such cross-genre uptake is pursued from its beginning in advocacy genres to its incorporation into higher-level, institutional genres.

A Genre Analysis of Social Change represents the summation of Wegner’s work over many years on how systems of genre can adapt to change as groups and institutional systems negotiate the uptake of solutions to major social challenges, in this case study the Canadian “Housing First” solution to ending homelessness. Her study shows how rhetorical genre analysis can offer insight into issues related to social justice for marginal groups within society.

As previously announced, Inkshed Publications is able to support the publication of additional monographs and edited collections. Please contact the publishers of Inkshed Publications, Heather Graves and Roger Graves, for information.