On Wednesday, April 16, the UW-Madison Writing Center and the Greater Madison Writing Project (GMWP) hosted the first annual Linguistic Justice Symposium at Helen C White Hall. The symposium brought together 50 K-12 educators and university staff and faculty for a day of talks, workshops, and discussions about how we can support and prepare students from linguistically diverse backgrounds to thrive in all educational settings.
The day featured two incredible keynote talks: UW-Madison Professor LJ Randolph’s “Languaging as an Act of Liberation and Joy”and Madison College Writing Center Director Sarah Z Johnson’s “Generative AI: Linguistic Justice Friend or Foe?”
In addition to the keynote talks, faculty and staff from the Writing Center, ESL program, School of Education, Madison College, and the WI Department of Public Instruction facilitated breakout sessions throughout the day. The breakout sessions offered symposium attendees presentations and opportunities to have small group discussion about instructional practices, classroom activities/assignments, writing center pedagogies, conferencing, and standards.
The Linguistic Justice Symposium is one of numerous GMWP events that bring K-12 educators and university faculty and instructors together in collaborative spaces dedicated to advancing the teaching of writing at all levels and in all content areas. The next symposium will be the Teaching Writing in the Time of ChatGPT Summer Symposium July 29-30 at the Madison College Goodman South Campus.
If you are interested in knowing more about the Linguistic Justice Symposium or similar events, please visit the GMWP website, join the GMWP mailing list, or contact GMWP at gmwp@english.wisc.edu.