The Washington State University Writing Program’s spring 2019 guest lecture, “Signs of Disability: Perception, Materiality, Narrative,” will be presented by author Stephanie Kerschbaum at 2 p.m. Thurs., Feb. 7 in CUE 518 in Pullman. The presentation is open to the public.
“Dr. Kerschbaum is an emerging thought leader and researcher into ‘markers of difference,’ cues that people intentionally display as they communicate as well as interpret from others’ communicative choices,” said Writing Program Director and Regents Professor Victor Villanueva.
He said that, as a deaf person, Kerschbaum has a hard time thinking of deafness as a disability that is ‘invisible’ given that she interacts with the world while using very visible cues, like wearing hearing aids, staring at faces while people talk, and working with sign language interpreters.
“In her presentation, she will not only explore what people say when confronted by disability but also other markers of difference.”
Kerschbaum’s first book, Toward a New Rhetoric of Difference, won the 2015 Advancement of Knowledge Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication. In it, she addresses conversations about diversity in higher education, institutional racism, and the teaching of writing by looking at the ways people define themselves and are defined by others within institutional contexts.
Kerschbaum, an associate professor of English at the University of Delaware, teaches courses on first-year writing and introduction to disability studies, and graduate seminars on writing and rhetoric.
The WSU Writing Program has provided for more than 25 years time-tested and innovative instructional theories and practices to teach, tutor, and assess writing. For more information, visit https://WritingProgram.wsu.edu.
