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"Subterranean Fire: The Percolating Currents of Graduate Labor Activism in Rhetoric and Composition"

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About the Authors

Andrew Bowman is a PhD student in the Center for Writing Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His scholarship reconstructs the rhetorical histories of campus student activism through archival research. His current project examines the work of queer students on the University of Illinois campus in the height of the AIDS crisis and the administration’s response to their push for inclusion in campus life. Andy is the current Co-Steward for the English department in the Graduate Employees’ Organization and former Stewards’ Chair, Officer-at-Large, and a member of the Communication, Personnel, and Work Action Committees. He also serves as the part-time staff organizer for the Campus Faculty Association at the University of Illinois.

Bruce Kovanen is a PhD candidate in the Center for Writing Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research uses cultural-historical activity theory to explore connections among writing, talk, and embodied action. His dissertation focuses on organizing and how labor activists coordinate chains of text and talk to create social change. Bruce is a Vice President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, a member of the American Federation of Teachers Higher Education Program and Policy Council, and an Officer-at-Large in the Graduate Employees’ Organization Local 6300, where he previously served as grievance officer, bargaining team member, and co-president.

 

Contents

Introduction

Our Organizing Model and Collective Action

Take a Stand

References

References

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Bradbury, A., Brenner, M., & Slaughter, J. (2016). Secrets of a successful organizer. Labor Notes.

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Cox, A., Dougherty, T., Kahn, S., LaFrance, M., & Lynch-Biniek, A. (2016). The Indianapolis Resolution: Responding to twenty-first-century exigences/political economies of composition labor. College Composition and Communication, 68(1), 38-67. https://csal.colostate.edu/docs/cwpa/syllabus/Indianapolis-Resolution.pdf

Gaines, L. V. (2018, March 12). U of I provost apologizes after GEO strike. Illinois Public Media. https://will.illinois.edu/news/story/u-of-i-provost-apologizes-after-geo-strike

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Heller, J., Jenkins, T., Mechenbier, M., Moeller, M., Doe, S., & Palmquist, M. (2011). Forum on organizing. College English, 73(4), 450-465. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23052351

Johnson, R. (2018). Illinois grad students are on strike to make the university accessible for the working class. In These Times. http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/20960/illinois_grad_students_strike_uiuc_working_class_west_virginia

Kahn, S., Lalicker, W., & Lynch-Biniek, A. (Eds.). (2017). Contingency, exploitation, and solidarity: Labor and action in English composition. WAC Clearinghouse. https://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives/contingency/

Kimutis, P., & Kovanen, B. (2017, September). GEO’s fight for tuition waivers. The Public I. http://publici.ucimc.org/2017/09/geos-fight-for-tuition-waivers/

Kumari, A., Baniya, S., & Larson, K. (2020). The necessity of genre disruption in organizing an advocacy space for and by graduate students. [Symposium on the status of graduate study in rhetoric and composition]. Xchanges, 15(1), 1-8. LINK

McAlevey, J. (2016). No shortcuts: Organizing for power in the new gilded age. Oxford University Press.

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Miller, L. (2020). Mental health in a disabling landscape: Forging networks of care in graduate school. [Symposium on the status of graduate study in rhetoric and composition]. Xchanges, 15(1), 1-7. LINK

Murphy, J. (Ed.). (2012). A short history of writing instruction from ancient Greece to contemporary America. Routledge.

National Labor Relations Board. (2019, September 20). NLRB proposes rulemaking concerning students [Press release]. https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/nlrb-proposes-rulemaking-concerning-students

Parker, M., & Gruelle M. (2019). How to use grievances to organize. Labor Notes, 480. https://www.labornotes.org/2019/03/how-use-grievances-organize

Reilly, K. (2019, May 7). Here’s what 5 teachers in different states Are fighting for a year after walkouts and protests. Time. https://time.com/5583760/what-teachers-want-national-teacher-day/

Robertson, L., Crowley, S., & Lentricchia, F. (1987). The Wyoming Conference resolution opposing unfair salaries and working conditions for post-secondary teachers of writing. College English, 49(3), 274-280. https://www.jstor.org/stable/377922

Semuels, A. (2018, June 27). Is this the end of public-sector unions in America? The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/janus-afscme-public-sector-unions/563879/

Sledd, J. (1991). Why the Wyoming Resolution had to be emasculated: A history and a quixotism. JAC, 11(2), 269-281. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20865795

Strauss, V. (2019, April 10). Teachers in Sacramento and North Carolina are planning actions. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/04/10/historic-strikes-protests-by-teachers-around-country-arent-over/

Writing Program Administrators Graduate Organization. (2019). Report on graduate student instructor labor conditions in writing programs. https://csal.colostate.edu/docs/cwpa/reports/wpago-gsi-2019.pdf

Wright, A. L. (2017). The rhetoric of excellence and the erasure of graduate abor. In S. Kahn, W. Lalicker, & A. Lynch-Biniek (Eds.), Contingency, exploitation, and solidarity: Labor and action in composition. WAC Clearinghouse. https://csal.colostate.edu/docs/cwpa/syllabus/Rhetoric-Excellence-Erasure-Graduate-Labor.pdf

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Posted by xcheditor on May 17, 2021 in article, Issue 15.1

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