Friday, January 19, 2024
The Writing Program is pleased to be hosting Genie Giaimo for two professional development events, both held remotely: a morning writing retreat and an afternoon talk with Q&A. 
10:10-11:00 AM, “Writing Retreat: Connect to Your Practice, Connect to Your Workplace Needs”
This event is a chance for writing instructors to get together and talk about their work. We will engage in several activities around work, workplace experiences, worker identity, and one’s needs. From there, we will develop worker plans for the new academic semester and, perhaps, into the future. This retreat is ideal for new instructors looking to develop their personal career plans and goals as well as more senior instructors who are looking to reconnect and/or interrogate their working lives. In short, however, this is an opportunity for the retreat participants to lead the conversation and identify what they need from the facilitator, who works with academic workers around the country to develop their personal and collective workplaces.
Limited to 16 participants; please register in advance for the Zoom link.
4:00-5:00 PM, “Wellness Challenges in Writing Spaces”
In this talk with Q and A, Genie Giaimo will share their research on academic workplaces, published recently in the book
Unwell Writing Centers, including a longitudinal study on workers in a Big 10 writing center. They will also identify some of the major challenges academic workers are facing today, including higher levels of stress and burnout. And they will share some of the workplaces interventions they developed. Additionally, there will be opportunities for participants to reflect on their workplace experiences, to connect with other participants, and to identify the kinds of needs they have to make their writing spaces (and their jobs) sustainable.
Talk will be held during the Writing Program all-faculty meeting at the same Zoom link.
Genie Nicole Giaimo is assistant professor and director of the Writing Center at Middlebury College in Vermont. The author of over two dozen peer reviewed articles and chapters, their work has been published in Praxis, Journal of Writing Research, The Journal of Writing Analytics, Teaching English in the Two-Year College, Research in Online Literacy Education, Kairos, Across the Disciplines, The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics, and several edited collections. They are also the editor of Wellness and Care in Writing Center Work, an open-access digital book and Unwell Writing Centers (Utah State UP, 2023). Originally from New York City, Genie enjoys open water swimming, hiking, and advocating for fair labor practices in academia.
If you require accommodations, please contact writing@bu.edu.