Hi Folks,
I’m pleased to share the news that another new open-access book has been added to the WAC Clearinghouse (https://wac.colostate.edu). This book appears in the Perspectives on Writing Series, which is edited by Rich Rice, Heather M. Falconer, and J. Michael Rifenburg.
Institutional Ethnography as Writing Studies Practice
Edited by Michelle LaFrance and Melissa Nicolas
The editors and contributors to this collection offer insights into the use of institutional ethnography for three primary purposes: to investigate and interrogate the cultures of work that are of interest to writing studies researchers, to understand more deeply what constitutes this work, and to consider how work takes shape within institutional contexts. Building on prior conversations about institutional ethnography, critical ethnography, and the complexities of writing programs, the editors and chapter authors consider their application to sites of writing and writing instruction. In doing so, they reveal the power of material conditions, institutional and field-based values, and the cultures of writing to shape how people carry out their everyday work in writing programs and other venues in which writing plays a central role. The findings shared in this edited collection provide insights into how institutional ethnography as a form of inquiry can make important contributions to the fields’ many ongoing conversations about the nature of our work, labor, and other writing-related interests.
You can find the book at https://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives/institutional/. This book, like other books published by the Clearinghouse, will be available in a print edition from University Press of Colorado in the coming months. Thanks to Michelle and Melisaa for their work on the book and for their decision to share it with us as an open-access publication. Thanks as well to the anonymous peer reviewers who contributed to its development.
(And a quick note: I realize we’ve been sending out quite a few books lately. Sorry for filling up your inboxes at the start of the semester. I took a long break this summer for travel, and I didn’t work on much of anything during the trip. Our authors and editors, however, continued to be their normal productive selves. I’m finally catching up. We have more on the way, likely next week, and then we’ll get back to our regular and much less frenetic schedule of open-access publications.)
All the best,
Mike
Mike Palmquist
Publisher, The WAC Clearinghouse
Professor of English
University Distinguished Teaching Scholar
Colorado State University
Email: Mike.Palmquist
“Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
