Writing, Research, and Discourse Studies (WRDS) operates on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory and stolen lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) First Nation.
In our approach to the teaching and assessment of writing at UBC, we acknowledge the role WRDS has played, and continues to play, in upholding harmful colonial systems and structures. We also acknowledge the value and vitality of diverse ways of knowing, which have thrived despite their lack of recognition within writing studies. Through both accountability and concrete changes, we will contribute to ongoing efforts to reshape the field of writing studies as diverse and inclusive.
WRDS takes responsibility for the epistemological violence and exclusion that our specific approaches to language and writing have perpetrated on diverse Indigenous voices and ways of knowing as well as the knowledge and experiences of many historically, persistently, and/or systematically marginalized communities. We have been complicit with colonialist higher educational standards and processes that explicitly work to include and privilege some voices while systematically excluding other, diverse voices. For example, our writing assessment and syllabi design often presuppose and reproduce a standardized Euro-centric notion of the English language and research methodologies.
We understand that these harms of exclusion are not experienced equally among all students and that they disproportionately impact some students based on their diverse intersectional identities. Students can often experience multiple and compounding forms of oppression based on intersections of racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, xenophobia, transphobia, among others. These impacts shape the experiences of students in the writing classroom.
We are aware that acknowledgments and statements of commitments such as these can be performative in that they often do not lead to meaningful action. Our process of accountability to these commitments include a yearly reflection by WRDS instructors on what we have achieved, what concrete goals we have for the coming year, and specific actions that we will take to meet those goals. In addition, we will formally revisit these commitments and our goals and actions at the end of every academic year.
As part of the long-term work of addressing the harms identified above, WRDS faculty are committed to:
- Continuing to critically examine the harms that are the result of colonial and oppressive writing standards and to shift to pedagogical practices that reflect the value and richness of writing practices and ways of knowing of diverse communities.
- Ensuring that our teaching, including our course design and writing assessments, are accessible and inclusive to all ways of knowing, particularly to students who have been traditionally marginalized within the post-secondary writing classroom.
- Working towards the Indigenous Strategic Plan (ISP) goals that we have collectively identified to be within the mandate of WRDS as a writing studies program. These include: Goal 2 (Advocating for the truth): Actions 11, 12, 13; Goal 3 (Moving research forward): Actions 15 & 16; and Goal 4 (Indigenizing our curriculum): Actions 24 & 25.