Klapper Hall, Room 712
Alwin.Harahap@qc.cuny.edu
Research Interests
I look at how writing is institutionalized in various spaces from academia to public spheres, in particular through familiar configurations such as first-year writing, writing across the curriculum/in the disciplines, writing centers, and writing fellows, as well as imagining new ones. I typically use critical theory and cultural studies lenses such as ecological/spatial theory, Foucauldian archaeology and genealogy, historiography/recuperation. I am developing a scalar methodology to locate and connect writing simultaneously in institutional, local, national, regional, global contexts.
Teaching Interests
My teaching first and foremost aims to demystify academia in general for marginalized student groups and specifically allay anxieties of language and writing by democratizing my course curricula, assignments, and un/grading. More recently, I feel an urgency to combat the public epistemological crisis by training future experts to communicate their niche academic ideas to public audiences. I also enjoy collaborating with colleagues across various communities, academic and otherwise, to co-create this curriculum. Past focused student learning communities I have taught include: athletes, business, first-generation, immigrants, non-native speakers, STEM, economically and racially marginalized students.
Selected Talks
Harahap, Al, Federico Navarro, and Alisa Russell. “The Future of WAC: Coloniality, Diversity, Sustainability.” Plenary address. International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, 2021.
Albracht, Lindsey, Sara Alvarez, Rachel Bloom-Pojar, Todd Craig, Al Harahap, Brian Hendrickson, Shereen Inayatulla, Sherita Roundtree, Amy Wan, and Anna Zeemont. “Sustaining Institutional Change and Antiracist Work as Writing Teachers and Administrators.” Conference on College Composition and Communication. 2022. Roundtable.
Harahap, Al. “Situating College Composition and the Academic Institution in the Political Economy.” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Kansas City, MO. 2018. Presentation.
Dolmage, Jay, Al Harahap, Stephanie Kerschbaum, Andrew Lucchesi, Neil Simpkins. “Cultivating Critical Connections: Case Studies and Micro-Histories of Composition and Corporatization, Disability, and Diversity.” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Portland, OR. 2017. Presentation.
Harahap, Al. “WPA as Bricolage and Bricoleur: An Identity Strategy toward Sustainability.” Council of Writing Program Administration. Boise, ID. 2015. Presentation.
Harahap, Al. “The Rhetoric of U.S. Education and Homeland Security as Cultural/Intellectual Border Patrol.” Rhetoric Society of America. San Antonio, TX. 2014. Presentation.
Harahap, Al, Karen Lunsford, Beth Leahy, Mary Soliday, Kenny Walker. “Reviving and Sustaining a WAC/WID Program: Traditions, Technology, and Multilingualism.” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Las Vegas, NV. 2013. Panel.
Selected Publications
Cicchino, Amy, Al Harahap, Christina LaVecchia, and Mandy Olejnik. “Blurred Boundaries: Sussing Out Thresholds between WAC and WPA in Administrative Professionalization.” IWAC 2021 Proceedings.
Harahap, Al. “The Promise and Perils of a Disciplinary Pipeline.” WPA Journal, Special Issue on Anti-Racism, Summer 2021. Eds. Sheila Carter-Tod, and Jennifer Sano-Franchini.
Basgier, Christopher, Michelle Cox, Heather Falconer, Jeff Galin, Al Harahap, Brian Hendrickson, Dan Melzer, Mike Palmquist, and Stacey Sheriff. “The Formation of a Professional Organization for Writing Across the Curriculum.” Diverse Approaches to Teaching, Learning, and Writing Across the Curriculum. WAC Clearinghouse. 2020.
Albracht, Lindsey, Al Harahap, Amanda Pratt, Ranmali Rodrigo, Clare Russell, and Virginia Schwarz. “Response to Inman and Powell’s ‘“In the Absence of Grades: Dissonance and Desire in Course-Contract Classrooms.'” CCC, Sep 2019.
