MLA Teaching Institutes on Reading and Writing at Access-Oriented Institutions

The first two MLA Teaching Institutes—aimed at strengthening the teaching of English at access-oriented institutions—were offered this summer in Seattle and Amherst. The institutes are funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

This year’s thirty-two participants, a mix of faculty members at access-oriented institutions and advanced doctoral students at regional universities, received $2,500 stipends to support their attendance at the five-day institutes. Pedagogical research projects developed by participants during the institute will be conducted during the fall of 2019 and presented at the MLA Annual Convention in January 2020. Participants’ convention travel will be covered by the grant. Completion of the institute, the research project, and the convention presentation will qualify the participants to receive the MLA Certificate in Reading-Writing Pedagogy at Access-Oriented Institutions.

Institute Teachers

The institute teachers were Stacey Donohue, professor of English at Central Oregon Community College, member of the MLA Committee on K–16 Alliance, and former president of the Association of Departments of English; Howard Tinberg, professor of English at Bristol Community College, former chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, and coeditor of Deep Reading: Teaching Reading in the Writing Classroom; and Nicole Wallack, director of the Undergraduate Writing Program at Columbia University, senior associate at the Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College, and author of Crafting Presence: The American Essay and the Future of Writing Studies.

Institute Participants

University of Washington Institute

University of Massachusetts Institute