by Sarah Tinker Perrault, WIC Director

This fall I am happy to introduce the WIC team, celebrate WIC faculty seminar graduates, let you know about the extra faculty seminar being offered this year and next, and preview the exciting talk and workshop on AI being given by our winter visiting speaker. 

Each year WIC welcomes a new Graduate Assistant, and this year we have the pleasure of having Casey Dawson move into the role from her previous position as a graduate intern. Casey is a second-year MA student in the School of Writing, Literature, and Film (SWLF). We also welcome back two other team members from last year: J Webster, also a second-year MA student in SWLF, is continuing as an intern, while Philosophy, Pre-Education, and English major Elizbeth Nguyen is in her second year as the WIC undergraduate assistant. In addition, thanks to a temporary funding boost related to the Core Education initiative, Dennis Bennett has joined us as Assistant Director (see “An Interview with our New Assistant Director: Dennis Bennett”). 

One of our top priorities in WIC is the WIC Faculty Seminar, which thirteen faculty members completed this fall; we celebrate their accomplishment in “Fall 2023 Highlight: Faculty Seminar.”  

While the seminar is normally offered once a year, the extra funding mentioned above is allowing us to offer it multiple times this year and next year, including with offerings in winter and spring. If you are interested in the seminar but have not been nominated by your unit head, please direct them to the Faculty Seminar page and ask them to email your name to WIC Director Sarah Perrault (sarah.perrault@oregonstate.edu). 

Finally, we are excited to bring Dr. Scott Graham of the University of Texas-Austin as our Winter visiting speaker. Dr. Graham will give a talk entitled “AI has Entered the Chat: Promise, Peril, and the Future of Writing in Higher Ed” and a workshop on “ChatGPT in the Classroom: Practicalities & Pedagogies.” To learn more about both, including dates, times, and registration information, please see our Upcoming Winter 2024 Events post