Series Editors

Steve Parks, University of Virginia
Jessica Pauszek, Texas A&M University - Commerce

Associate Editor: Justin Lewis, Olympic College

Vlad Tchompalov

View the Books in the Series

THE WORKING AND WRITING FOR CHANGE series began during the 100th anniversary celebrations of NCTE. It was designed to recognize the collective work of teachers of English, writing, composition, and rhetoric to work within and across diverse identities to ensure the field recognizes and respect slanguage, educational, political, and social rights of all students, teachers, and community members. While initially solely focused on the work of NCTE/CCCC Special Interest Groups and Caucuses, the series now includes texts written by individuals in partnership with other communities struggling for social recognition and justice.

Current Publications

CCCC/NCTE Caucuses

• Viva Nuestro Caucus: Rewriting the Forgotten Pages of Our Caucus edited by Romeo García, Iris D. Ruiz, Anita Hernández and María Paz Carvajal Regidor
• History of the Black Caucus National Council Teachers of English by Marianna White Davis. Download the free PDF.
• Listening to Our Elders: Working and Writing for Social Change by Samantha Blackmon, Cristina Kirklighter, and Steve Parks. Download the free PDF 
• Building a Community, Having a Home: A History of the Conference on College Composition and Communication Asian/Asian American Caucus edited by Jennifer Sano-Franchini, Terese Guinsatao Monberg, K. Hyoejin Yoon

Community Publications

• The People Demand Democracy: Voices from the Myanmar Spring Revolution, edited by Pratha Purushottam, Peyton Russell, Lauren Taylor, Gloria Wu, Jessica Lin, and Kendall McDonald
• A Parent's Power by Silvia P. Simms. Edited by Lori Shorr
• Visibly (and Invisibly) Muslim on Grounds: Classroom, Culture, and Community at the University of Virginia, edited by Wafa Salah and Fawzia Tahsin (2023)
• The Lived Experience of Democracy: Criticizing Injustice, Building Community, edited by Kaitlyn Baker, et al. (2023)
• Inventing the Discipline: Student Work in Composition Studies, edited by Stacy Waite and Peter Wayne Moe (2022)
• Steal the Street: The Intersection of Homelessness and Gentrification by Mark Mussman (2022)
• Literacy and Pedagogy in an Age of Misinformation and Disinformation edited by Tara Lockhart, Brenda Glascott, Chris Warnick, Juli Parrish, and Justin Lewis (2021)
• Faces of Courage: Ten Years of Building Sanctuary by Harvey Finkle (2021)
• Equality and Justice: An Engaged Generation, a Troubled World by Michael Chehade, Alex Granner, Ahmed Abdelhakim Hachelaf, Madhu Napa, Samantha Owens, and Steve Parks (2020)
• Other People's English: Code-Meshing, Code-Switching, and African American Literacy by Vershawn Ashanti Young, Rusty Barrett, Y’Shanda Young-Rivera, and Kim Brian Lovejoy (2019)
• Becoming International: Musings on Studying Abroad in America edited by Sadie Shorr-Parks (2019)
• Pro(se)letariets: The Writing of the Trans-Atlantic Worker Writer Federation edited by Audrey Burns, Alicia Landsberg, Evan Smith, Jesse Uruchima (2019)
• Dreams and Nightmares: I Fled Alone to the United States When I Was Fourteen by Liliana Velásquez. Edited and translated by Mark Lyons (2017)
• The Weight of My Armor edited by Peter K. McShane, Ivy Kleinbart, and Eileen Schell (2017)
• Crossroads: The Writing of the Trans-Atlantic Worker Writer Federation, Volume II, edited by Zachary Barlow, Rafeala Evans, and Molly Velazquez-Brown (this title is no longer in print)
• PHD to PhD: How Education Saved My Life by Elaine Richardson (2013)

Journals and Podcasts

Pedagogue: Teachers Talking Writing

Pedagogue is a podcast about teachers talking writing, dedicated to building a supportive community, committed to facilitating conversations that move across institutions and positions, and designed to help celebrate the labor teachers do inside and outside the classroom. Each episode is a conversation with a teacher (or multiple teachers) about their experiences teaching writing, their work, inspirations, assignments, assessments, successes, and challenges. The podcast is meant to promote diverse voices at various institutions and help foster community and collaboration among teachers of writing. 

Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric

Reflections publishes  academic research that emerges from community-engaged writing projects as well as the non-academic genres produced by project participants—the poetry, essays, photographs, and memoirs that often emerge from such work. We invite submissions from anyone who has been involved in a service-learning, community literacy, or community writing project, including community members, university, college, or public school faculty, students, and activists.https://reflectionsjournal.net/

Spark: A 4C4Equality Journal

Spark: a 4C4Equality Journal  is an open-access, online, annual journal that provides a community for activist students, teachers, and researchers in writing, rhetoric, and literacy studies to argue for the public and disciplinary value of their social justice pursuits. Such justice work may be localized within a public school, neighborhood, or campus, or as far-reaching as regional and international efforts. It may intersect with movements such as Black Lives Matter, or campaigns, such as Immigrant Rights. Ultimately, the work should speak to the power of intersectional and collaborative efforts at political change. https://sparkactivism.com/

Creating Coalitional Gestures

Creating Coalitional Gestures is A BIWOC Podcast by and for Black, Brown, and Indigenous Women of Color in Writing Studies. The digital space is by and for self-identified women, both cis and trans, as well as non-binary scholars of color. The podcast is a collaboration between Spark, the Writing and Working for Change Series, and scholars in Rhetoric and Writing in an effort to create resilient strategies for surviving, changing, and thriving in academia. We are pro black, pro brown, pro women, pro indigenous. We envision this podcast as a healing justice project seeking to transform the impact of BIWOC on the field of Writing Studies. https://sparkactivism.com/ccgpodcast/

Submission and Contact Information

Proposals should be sent to Steve Parks (sjparks@syr.edu).

Review our full submission guidelines here

Your proposal should outline the rationale and projected audience for the book and its relation to other books in the field; include the book's table of contents or a chapter outline, the estimated length and the timetable for completion, and the introduction and (if available) a sample chapter. Please also send the CV of the author(s) or editor(s).

About the Series Editors

Steve Parks's initial entry in the field of composition and rhetoric was to explore the history of the “Students Right To Their Own Language,” an effort to link classroom practice, institutional resources, and broad calls for social change in support of non-traditional students. As a result of this work, Parks has become increasingly interested in the ways in which the academy defines and relates to its surrounding communities, exploring what it might mean to draw the resources of the university into alignment with community-defined needs. The central themes in his work explore how the field has authorized a particular type of “community” and “nontraditional” student as one means to support a disciplinary identity. In Steve's words, "As a writer and publisher, I try to produce work which asks us to consider what types of individuals, groups, knowledges, and literacy practices and partnerships are left behind within the narrow confines of our field."

Jessica Pauszek is currently the Director of Writing and Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University – Commerce. She I earned my PhD in May 2017 from Syracuse University. In addition to her co-editorship of the Working and Writing for Change series, she is co-editor of the Parlor Press series, Best of the Journals in Rhetoric and Composition. In Jessica's words, "I’m interested in how marginalized communities deploy literacy for social and political purposes, and how communities can also create ideological and structural change through such practices. This work encourages the blending of theory and practice, in which writing and literacy are embodied through the lived experiences and actions of myself and others. In other words, I see writing and literacy as practices that have a civic dimension, meaning they occur beyond the classroom in public spaces and across multiple (local, national, and international) communities. My commitment to such community-based work extends to my research, teaching, editorial, and service responsibilities, and manifests in multiple venues and across scholarly and non-scholarly networks. It relies on collaboration and a commitment to expanding how we understanding literacy within and beyond traditional learning spaces."