Leadership
Chief Capacitator
Jenn Fishman, Professor and Ott Writing Center Co-Director, Marquette U
Steering Committee
- Cydney Alexis, Associate Professor and Graduate Faculty, Kansas State U
- Darci Thoune, Professor and Chair, UW-La Crosse
- Gitte Frandsen, Teaching Assistant Professor, Marquette U
- Hannah Locher, PhD Candidate, The Ohio State U
- Helen Plevka-Jones, Clinical Instructor and Coordinator of Clinical Experiences, Illinois State U
- Jessica Yood, Professor, Lehman College-CUNY
- Kaia Simon, Associate Professor and Blugold Seminar Writing Program Director, UW-Eau Claire
- Kelsey Otero, Chief Community Engagement Officer, Marquette U
- Maxwell Gray, Digital Scholarship Librarian, Marquette U
- Najma Ibrahim, PhD Candidate, Marquette U
- Natalie Taylor, Assistant Professor, U of Pittsburgh-Greensburg
- Olivia Stoltman, Assistant Professor, UW-La Crosse
- Sona Srivastava, Senior Writing Fellow, Ashoka U
- Susan Bernstein, Instructor, Queens C
Ott Memorial Writing Center Team
Aiden Oakey, Brenda Paredes, Frank Cobbe, Grace den Ouden, Leurah Duran, Miriam Bush
Typically, the WIS takes place in late January or early February, during the third week of Marquette’s spring semester. The second annual WIS coincided with a polar vortex, and the following year the symposium turned out to be the last in-person conference that many of us attended before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. In 2022, masks and vaxes were required of all onsite participants, and in 2023, our sophomore year as a hybrid event, we celebrated our fifth anniversary.
Over the years, WIS themes have included “Connect!,” “Just Writing,” and “Write It Out,” “Writing As _,” “Writing Human/s,” “Mise en Place,” and “Artifact.” While they different in considerable ways, all of our themes signal the signature WIS commitment to exploring the deeply human activity of writing as not only praxes and products but also lived experiences, relations, and related ethical considerations.
Although we initially imagined the WIS as a local, “drivable” event, we circulated the CFP widely, and our first proposal was from colleagues in New Jersey. Each year, we have registered approximately 100 people from across ranks and roles within and beyond higher education. To date, although many participants come from Wisconsin, WIS has involved writers and writing educators from across the country, the continent, and the world.