Dr. Stephanie Vie of the Department of Writing and Rhetoric was invited to give the keynote speech at the 2017 Mid-Atlantic Writing Centers Association (MAWCA) Conference. Stephanie first became associated with the International Writing Centers Association (IWCA) while at her previous institution—Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO—where she spent several years as the Director of the Writing Center. UCF is part of the Southeastern Writing Center Association (SWCA), just one of the several regional chapters to support the work of writing centers nationwide.
This was Stephanie’s first time attending this conference, and she was excited to visit Penn State Berks where the conference was held. Stephanie learned more about how their writing center operates under the leadership of Dr. Holly Ryan, an amazing colleague and supporter of writing center work.
This was Stephanie’s fourth invited keynote speech. Last year she took the opportunity to speak at the national Computers and Writing conference in Rochester, New York, and previously gave keynote speeches at the Humanities Unbound Conference at Old Dominion University and the Electrifying English Conference at University of North Florida. The focus of her speech at MAWCA was the connections between augmented reality games (such as Pokémon Go) and writing center research. She emphasized R.A.D. research (Replicable, Aggregable, and Data-Driven scholarship) and how it can bring game studies and writing center research together.