My research addresses the in/accessibility of writing instruction, from first-year writing classrooms to technical and professional writing classrooms to graduate writing classes to writing centers. I’m interested in what researchers, instructors, and students can learn about rhetoric and writing from disability studies and disability justice.
Rhetorics of Overcoming
My book, Rhetorics of Overcoming: Rewriting Narratives of Disability and Accessibility in Writing Studies, was published by the National Council of Teachers of English in 2021 as part of the Studies in Writing & Rhetoric (SWR) Series. Rhetorics of Overcoming addresses the in/accessibility of writing classroom and writing center practices for disabled and nondisabled student writers.
I explore how rhetorics of overcoming—the idea that disabled people must overcome their disabilities in order to be successful—manifest in writing studies scholarship and practices. Specifically, I argue that rewriting rhetorics of overcoming as narratives of “coming over” is one way to overcome ableist curricular design and teaching practices. Whereas rhetorics of overcoming rely on medical-model processes of diagnosis, disclosure, cure, and overcoming for individual students, coming over involves valuing disability and difference and challenging systemic issues of physical and pedagogical inaccessibility. I call for developing understandings of disability that move beyond accommodation models in which students are diagnosed and remediated, arguing instead for collaborating with disabled instructors, administrators, consultants, and students to design more accessible learning and writing spaces.
Book Resources
I adapted ideas from this book into a zine that is free to download! You can download a single-page PDF (best for printing) or a spreads version (where the pages are side by side). Although I briefly discuss these ideas in the context of writing studies, the zine focuses on how overcoming narratives manifest more broadly in medical and health discourse, entertainment and news media, disability theory, and higher education. I also offer recommendations for further reading.
You can also access a PDF of the first chapter of Rhetorics of Overcoming through the NCTE website!
I chatted about this book for an episode of the writing studies podcast Pedagogue, which you can listen to or read the transcript.
Self-Care in the Writing Classroom
Increasingly, my research has focused on mental health, disability disclosures, and self-care in the writing classroom.
In 2015, the Center for Collegiate Mental Health reported that college students seek mental health services at 5x the rate of enrollment. From 2010 to 2015, “institutional enrollment grew by 5.6%, the number of students seeking services increased by 29.6%, and the number of attended appointments increased by 38.4%.” And according to the 2013 National College Health Assessment, more than one-third of U.S. college students reported depression. In response to these trends, researchers are collaborating with faculty to ensure that students are not just physically well but also emotionally and spiritually well.
Explicit attention to self-care encourages student and instructors to express their needs. With constant reports of racial, gendered, and disability violence within and beyond the classroom, there is a critical need for self-care in higher education. The ongoing pandemic, especially, has made this important to prioritize in my classes. I incorporate self-care in my writing classes, and I lead workshops for faculty and staff on self-care strategies for themselves and their students.
Talking to Your Students/Colleagues
If you’re teaching a class and assign my work to your students, I’m happy to Zoom in for a discussion of disability, rhetorics of overcoming, and/or accessible writing instruction.
If you work at a university or writing center and are working to prioritize accessibility at the programmatic and pedagogical level, I’m always happy to join your faculty, staff, and students to discuss disability justice, universal design for learning, self-care, cultivating accessible workplace cultures, or accessible writing instruction.
I frequently give my presentations to academic departments and learning communities across the university, to writing programs at other universities, and to organizations beyond higher education. Email me if you’re interested in collaborating: ahhitt @ bsu.edu