The Featured Scholars Series focuses on scholars who have made significant and enduring contributions to WAC and, more broadly, to the field of writing studies. It is designed to continue preserving the stories of our field, particularly as they pertain to the teaching, research, and leadership practices of the teachers, researchers, and scholars who make up our discipline.
Like our other interview projects, we are currently inviting nominations for the series. Self-nominations are encouraged.
In this interview, Christopher Basgier, Director of University Writing at Auburn, and Heather Falconer, Associate Professor at the University of Maine, discuss their perspectives on WAC, their development as WAC scholars and program directors, and the future of WAC and writing studies. The conversation took place on July 7, 2025.
Christopher Basgier is Director of University Writing at Auburn, which won the 2025 Award for Exemplary Enduring WAC Program. He consults with departments about integrating writing and high-impact practices throughout undergraduate and graduate curricula. His research, which spans writing across the curriculum, writing centers, genre, threshold concepts, and digital rhetoric, has appeared in venues including Across the Disciplines, College Composition and Communication, Composition Forum, Studies in Higher Education, The WAC Journal, and The Writing Center Journal. He is active in national organizations like the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum, the Conference on College Composition and Communication, and the WAC Clearinghouse, and he is a founding member of the RhetAI Coalition.
As a Writing Studies scholar, Heather Falconer is deeply committed to work and inquiry that serves a larger purpose. Primarily, this larger purpose has been educational and disciplinary reform as it relates to inequity. Falconer’s research focuses on the intersections of culture, discipline, and pedagogy, with a special emphasis on discursive identity development and disciplinary enculturation.
Recent research projects have involved participatory action research with neurodivergent students to explore their experience learning college-level reading and writing skills, as well as a project aligning core concepts from first-year composition to other courses in the undergraduate curriculum. This Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) research considers self-efficacy and performance with writing as it relates to knowledge transfer.
Falconer earned her doctorate at Northeastern University, a Master’s of Letters (MLitt) from the University of Glasgow, and a Master’s of Fine Arts (MFA) from Emerson College. In addition to teaching, she is an Associate Publisher with The WAC Clearinghouse, Incoming Chair for the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum, and serves on multiple editorial boards.
Video Production: Mike Palmquist and Zakery R. Muñoz
Closed Caption Editing: Camaryn Wheeler
Additional credits are provided at the end of the video.
In this interview, Michael Pemberton, Emeritus Professor of English and past Director of the Writing Center at Georgia Southern University, is interviewed by Pamela Childers, former Director of the Caldwell Writing Center at the McCallie Schools. The interview was conducted June 17, 2025.
Michael Pemberton is Emeritus Professor of English at Georgia Southern University and former director of the writing centers at GSU and, earlier, the University of Illinois. A past president of the International Writing Centers Association, he has published six books and more than 100 articles on writing center theory, tutoring ethics, text recycling, and writing technologies in journals such as College Composition and Communication, Computers and Composition, the Writing Center Journal, and numerous book chapters in edited collections. He co-founded and edited the journal Across the Disciplines and is Editor of the WAC Clearinghouse book series Across the Disciplines Books. Currently, he is also Co-Director of the CWPA Consultant Evaluator Service as well as the Associate Publisher for Journals at the WAC Clearinghouse. He has been honored with multiple awards for his scholarship and service contributions including the IWCA Muriel Harris Outstanding Service Award, the IWCA and CWPA Best Book Awards, and the GSU College of Arts & Humanities Ruffin Cup for excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service over the course of his career. In 2021, he was named a Distinguished Fellow of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum (AWAC).
Video Production: Mike Palmquist and Zakery R. Muñoz
Closed Caption Editing: Camaryn Wheeler
Additional credits are provided at the end of the video.
In this interview, Pamela Childers, former Director of the Caldwell Writing Center at the McCallie Schools, is interviewed by Michael Pemberton, Emeritus Professor of English and past Director of the Writing Center at Georgia Southern University. The interview was conducted June 20, 2025.
Pam Childers has dedicated five decades to secondary and postsecondary educators and students to develop WAC programs. In a New Jersey public school, she launched an innovative history-English four-year team-teaching program for at-risk students, directed a WAC-based writing center, taught English and writing, and founded the creative writing curriculum for a state-designated Performing Arts School. Her national involvement began with her co-leadership of an NCTE two-day workshop to introduce secondary teachers to WAC. As Caldwell Chair of Composition at the McCallie School in Tennessee, she initiated a second WAC-based writing center program, team-taught a senior science seminar for over a decade, and started an independent study program. She also consulted with secondary and post-secondary schools after serving as president of the National Writing Centers Association (now IWCA).
Childers has presented workshops and keynotes at the IWAC, CCCC, IWCA, European Association for Teaching Academic Writing (EATAW), European Writing Centers Association (EWCA) and other regional, national and international conferences. Her works include her dissertation, Creating a Model WAC Program for Secondary School Teachers, books (WAC Clearinghouse), chapters, articles, and columns. Her work has often been co-authored with students, cross-disciplinary scholars, and colleagues at all academic levels. For over a decade she also served as Executive Editor of The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues, and Ideas for Middle & High School Teachers. She has received the IWCA Scholarship Award, Muriel Harris IWCA Outstanding Service Award, and AWAC Distinguished Fellows Award. Through her work on WAC in secondary schools, WAC-based writing centers, and WAC partnerships, Dr. Childers continues to influence educators internationally.
Video Production: Mike Palmquist and Zakery R. Muñoz
Closed Caption Editing: Camaryn Wheeler
Additional credits are provided at the end of the video.
