[ATTW-L] An ATTW Thread

[Eble, Michelle]

Dear ATTW Community,

First, I want to thank Angela and Natasha for their leadership in making sure that the ATTW listserv and organization continues to be a place that is welcoming and inclusive. I hope we will continue to share ideas, resources, concerns, etc. and that we use ATTW and its resources to support each another. Thanks to all of you (too numerous to name, which is great!) for amplifying their labor and the labor of those who contributed to making sure the values of ATTW are heard and enacted. This is important, visible support.

Characterizing the ATTW listserve as “trash” is upsetting to me. For those just tuning in (and thanks to those who have spoken to this), ATTW leadership stepped in quickly and reminded folks that the ATTW listserv and the organization will not be a place for hate speech or oppression. Period. If you aren’t a member of this listserv, I encourage you to join and see for yourself (https://attw.org/about-attw/subscribe-to-mailing-list/). You can also check out the archives, but due to a server failure, they only go back to 2018. http://attw.org/pipermail/attw-l_attw.org/ ☹

Second, I think historical context matters. Elizabeth Tebeaux was ATTW President from 1993-1995 and continued as a member (as immediate past president and past president) of the ATTW Executive Committee until 1999. She was elevated to ATTW fellow in 1998 and chaired the ATTW Fellow committee for several years. (For a reference point, I began my PhD program in 1998).

The last known formal association with ATTW (as a member of the ATTW Fellow Selection Committee) was 2014. As an ATTW Fellow, she may have participated in the deliberation of new fellows after 2014, but that I don’t know. The ATTW Fellows operate on their own, so current and past leadership did not and don’t participate in the process of selecting and elevating members to ATTW Fellow status (and by the same accord, removing that status). For more information on ATTW Fellows, https://attw.org/about-attw/attw-fellows/. We have many great people who have been honored by ATTW “for their major contributions to the organization and to the discipline of technical communication” so I don’t want to see this honor, as a whole, be tarnished.

As for Tebeaux’s editorial influence, she has not served on the Technical Communication Quarterly (TCQ)’s editorial advisory committee in the last decade and likely longer but I can’t find documentation to verify this at the moment. I know that she has certainly had influence in other realms, and I am appreciative of those working on addressing these spaces.

If you have followed the field of technical communication and read its scholarship over the last 10 years, you know that her influence, opinion, and racist ideas are not the dominant ones as we’ve made the social justice turn in technical communication. I can assure you that there are many people who resisted this turn and will continue to resist it as the field moves towards more anti-racist and inclusive frameworks for our programs, in our teaching, and in our scholarship. While I, too, am upset to see that she is writing to people on our listserv who have been supportive of our international students and faculty and she has recently been spouting hate on Inside Higher Ed (and likely other places), I am also concerned with the people among us who share some of these views but aren’t saying them out loud.

I do not write to call out, call in, or shut down critique, conversation, or dialogue related to ATTW. I say it to remind folks that the ATTW of today is not the same ATTW when she was President. I encourage any of you reading this to look for the gatekeepers in the field—those who are among us in our departments, colleges, universities, and beyond—and work to intervene in a variety of ways that go beyond calling out or calling in. (And since drafting this message over the weekend, I know there are many people currently doing this work, so thank you!)

I can assure you, FWIW, that the current ATTW leadership have done and are doing their part in making our field more just and inclusive. I provide this historical context and information because it is harmful to ask that our current ATTW President and Vice President, two BIWOC, to address racism that preceded them especially because they already always have to deal with white supremacy in all aspects of their lives. The irony that they are the ones having to do this emotional, mental, and intellectual labor at this particular moment is not lost on me. So again, my heartfelt thanks for their leadership, vision, and their scholarship and the scholarship of so many who have contributed to inclusive practices in our field. (If you’re interested in a list, I think folks are working on various iterations. Please share them to ATTW-L).

Perhaps this moment provides us all with a chance to reflect on our own actions. The key here is that we all have a role to play in our own spheres of influence by reflecting on our own complicity, and my hope is that our outrage leads to continuing actions we can all be proud of as members of ATTW, the field of technical communication, and beyond.

Thanks,
Michelle


----
Michelle F. Eble, PhD
Past President, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW)
Chair, Behavioral and Social Sciences Institutional Review Board
Associate Professor, Department of English
Bate 2112, East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858
252.328.6412, direct
eblem at ecu.edu<mailto:eblem at ecu.edu>










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