[ATTW-L] An ATTW Thread

Mon Jul 13 13:44:44 UTC 2020

This doesn't surprise me.  About ten years ago, I had this quote in my
email signature:

"While not all conservative scholars are dull, all dull scholars are
conservative."  Anton-Hermann Chroust

She saw it on an ATTW post, wrote to me, and ordered me to take it off, as
a senior member of the field.  I informed her I had been in the field since
the mid 80s and to mind her own business.

Tim

On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 7:54 AM Eble, Michelle <EBLEM at ecu.edu> wrote:

> 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
>
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> _______________________________________________
> ATTW-L mailing list
> ATTW-L at attw.org
> http://attw.org/mailman/listinfo/attw-l_attw.org
>

-- 
Tim Giles, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Writing & Linguistics
Box 8026
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, GA 30460-8026

912-478-0229

tgiles at georgiasouthern.edu
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