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• Molly-Claire Gillett, Concordia University

Writing has always been one step in the future. From emojis to slang to song, writing has momentum, and it is up to educators to find ways of moving with it. In the light of current concerns about natural language processing algorithms, how can writing assignments, as well as our pedagogical investment in them, change and adapt, especially in the Fine Arts university classroom? How does the protean nature of writing influence our conception of originality and our methods of teaching core techniques, such as citing, composition, and researching? How (and why) do we engage students in practice based streams in developing writing skills? Finally, how would a focus on composition, instead of writing, change the way we teach core skills in the classroom?

In this panel, we will explore expanded practices of research and writing in postsecondary Fine Arts, with an emphasis on foundational, interdisciplinary, and practice-based courses. Writing has always been a changeable medium with an ambiguous role in arts practice — how can we as educators work and adapt with it in a classroom context while inviting students to do the same?

keywords: pedagogy, writing, postsecondary, practice-based, research-creation

session type: panel

Joyful Composition: Pleasure Reading and Personal Writing in ENGL 1004

• Michelle Miller, OCAD University

This paper investigates two successful techniques in my practice of teaching first year composition classes to English Language Learning (ELL) students at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. Rather than focusing class on disciplinary language or issues of grammar and syntax, I focus on two essential skills: pleasure reading and personal writing. Together we read poetry, fiction, comics and nonfiction texts. Rather than critiquing or deconstructing these, treating them as tools, we treat them as art forms. Together, we build writing capacity and confidence through unstructured responses (rather than academic essays) and in writing personal narratives.

My goal in foregrounding pleasure reading and personal writing is threefold: to help ELL students see themselves as capable scholars of English literature; to encourage a sense of the classroom as a place to play with ideas rather than labour over them; and to work against the writing anxiety that emerges when students prioritize perfection over process. The class helps students build strength in reading and writing in English, but does so in ways that also facilitate a sense of being welcomed into a community of writers and scholars. In this presentation, I will share a sense of what these two approaches look like in my classroom. While I don’t hold myself up as a perfect teacher (if only such a thing existed!) I will discuss how my own love of literature and my joy in teaching inform the ways I integrate these approaches, and how this manifests in student work, engagement, and success.

keywords: pedagogy, pleasure reading, ELL language instruction, memoir

The Writing Process and Artistic Ideation: Helping Gen-Z Find their Writer’s Voice

• Gregory Blair, University of Southern Indiana

As an educator that has been teaching a variety of art history, philosophy, and gender study courses over the last fourteen years, I have gone through ever-changing permutations of writing projects and assignments. One of my main goals has always been to help students find their voices as writers. Art students are often confident in their voices as artists, but when it comes to writing, their self-assurance seems to dwindle. Many of the writing assignments that I utilize focus on practice-based or experiential learning strategies, which emphasize the thoughts, interpretations, and articulations of the individual student rather than relying on a hefty amount of historical research. This paper will share some of the successes and hiccups in the various writing projects that I have experimented with over the years. I will also share my philosophy of how teaching writing about art needs to transform and adapt to meet the needs and competencies of Gen Z students as we near the one quarter mark of the 21^st century. Some educators might call this pandering and advocate for an unchanged Platonic ideal of how to teach writing, after all, it worked for most of us, didn’t it? There will always be a place for knowing a proper citation style, but I will also make a case that teaching practices need to evolve and adapt over time so that we are effectively helping students find their own writing voices, so they can become the next generation of historians, critics, curators, poets, or philosophers.

keywords: writing, art history, practiced-based, experiential, Gen-Z

Translating the Untranslatable: Cultivating Creative Resilience Through Artistic Writinge

• Sandrine R. Schaefer, Coastal Carolina University

If an artwork could be understood through the written word, it would be a sentence. If an artwork could be understood verbally, it would be a conversation. The translation of artistic expression into written or verbal forms of documentation can be perceived as an impossible task – an attempt to translate the untranslatable. However, embracing curiosity and a supportive mindset can cultivate creative resilience in this process. In this talk, artist and professor Sandrine Schaefer shares experimental and trauma-informed strategies for writing texts that accompany artworks and explores the symbiotic relationship between writing and artistic critique. Schaefer's method integrates somatic practices, nimbly builds trust and prioritizes play. Practical approaches are additionally explored to support artists whose work does not easily conform to the constraints of the traditional art market, expanding the possibilities of what it means to sustain a creatively fulfilled life.

keywords: writing, pedagogy, play, trauma-informed, critique