University writing center prefers applicants have experience in anti-racism

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), lists “Previous anti-racist coursework or activism” as a preferred qualification to be hired as Writing Consultant at its Writing Center.

Writing consultants’ primary duties include providing various educational assistance such as assisting with cover letters, publications, and grant writing.

“For students committed to anti-racist action in your own professional practices and communities, the rigorous preparation will be a major benefit of this campus job,” the Writing Center website states.

Far from being limited to this job application, “anti-racism” is a ubiquitous feature of all UMB’s Writing Center does and believes.

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The Writing Center states in their ‘About Us’ section, for example, that they approach their work “with writers with an anti-racist lens.” They are not shy to mention that writing consultants must practice “language justice theory” and “challenge racializing language ideologies.”

“We acknowledge the cultural and linguistic complexity and diversity of professional and academic work today,” the ‘About Us’ section reads.

“In response, we see ourselves as collaborators across borders shaped by language, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, mobility, culture, citizenship and nationality, dis/ability, socio-economic status, class, and indigeneity,” the section continues.

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UMB’s Writing Center also, paradoxically, eschews notions of objective standards in writing.

“We know that writing is way more than words on the page or the arrangement of grammatical units,” the Center asserts. “Writing is therefore always social, negotiated, and contextual—a process that fundamentally resists standardization and attitudes about language ‘correctness.’”

In the job application, the section titled “Justice & Equity” asks candidates to write a 250-400 word essay expressing their “commitment to interrogating racism and white supremacy and injustice broadly.”

Campus Reform reached out to UMB’s Media Relations, UMB’s Public Relations, and the Director and Associate Director of UMB’s Writing Center for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.