The Eighth International Literacy & Education Research Network Conference on

SPETSES, GREECE
4-8 July 2001

Abstract

This workshop takes as its primary focus the relationship between the development of academic subjectivity, writing practice and affective processes for undergraduate students in Australian universities.

Our investigation is broadly interested in the processes of subjectification through which tertiary students are discursively constituted through disciplines, within disciplines, within the institutions of higher education and those of the broader culture. In particular, we are interested in the subject positionings available through textual production (including written, spoken, visual and bodily) and their relationship to the affective experience of writers.

This focus allows us to explore the ways in which institutions attempt to 'discipline' students into their discipline as more than an experience of linguistic, cognitive and textual competence. Over and above these concerns, we can explore the ways in which new and developing subjectivities, far from being seamless and replicable, embody and challenge traces of the emotional, cognitive and experiential history of the individuals learning to be academics. In conclusion, we argue that writing pedagogies at an undergraduate level must take account of and work with this complex of informing and transforming conditions.

Bionote

Bronwyn James is a Lecturer in Learning Development at the University of Wollongong, with a brief to work in collaboration with faculty based academics to embed tertiary literacies into both undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. Her interests are in the area of student learning and literacy and in the connection between social identity and writing practice. A key concern is investigating the ways in which students are able to take up a critical stance in relation to their writing and the academy in general.

Dr. David McInnes is a lecturer in the School of Cultural inquiry at the University of Western Sydney. he teaches in the areas of language and discourse studies, psychoanalysis and feminisms, rhetoric, writing.

Dr. McInnes has been involved in various undergraduate learning support projects at UWS, including several which aim to provide support for the accumulation of discipline specific integrated writing skills in conjunction with a critical understanding of the process of subjective transformation which undergraduate study involves for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

His research also includes work in the HIV/AIDS field in Australia which has focused on the impact of HIV on gay communities Australia wide, theorisation of community, and positive experience, especially around treatment. A major area of focus has been on the community-based education workforce and pedagogy in Australia. To facilitate this last and largest area of research Dr McInnes has explored and developed a range of methodologies, including innovative action and collaborative research techniques.

Presentation Type
60 min. Workshop

Presentation Equipment and Other Requests

Speaking Date/Time Restrictions

Country
Australia