Developing Academic Literacies
This open Learning Circle is led by Laura Gelhaus and Romain Chenet.
Please note any Staff or Students who are not a WIHEA Fellow, Alumni or current WIHEA Member who wish to join an Open Learning Circle, are required to become a WIHEA Member. This will enable you to be kept informed of WIHEA activities and progress on a range of Learning Circles and Projects, so that understanding of WIHEA’s strategic aims and links to other similar work in this area can be made more easily. Please see further information on our WIHEA Membership.
Reading and writing are fundamental to academic practice. The aim of the (Academic) Literacies Learning Circle is to investigate and challenge the ways staff and students think about reading and writing in academia. The Learning Circle hopes to:
- Cultivate an understanding amongst students and staff that academic writing is negotiable and creative.
- Challenge the ways we think about reading and writing in academia.
- Offer a space for rethinking how we teach, assess, and produce writing.
- Rekindle joy and passion in reading and writing.
The goals of this Learning Circle include:
- Making explicit and critically evaluating the literacies we wish to nurture at Warwick.
- Identifying (systemic) barriers to success in academia through a critical examination of academic reading and writing requirements amidst rapid technological change.
- Connectedly, removing barriers related to academic literacies, and considering how a re-evaluation of academic literacies could foster collective staff / student identities and 'belonging' across the University.
- Establishing pedagogic practices and research through a reimagining of academic reading and writing.
For 2026/27, our aims are to maintain and build core group cohesion across the Learning Circle, making the most of members' own aims and priorities to achieve subsequent and meaningful impact. We therefore invite your interest in joining Literacies, remaining an 'Open' group by design and format.
Our general areas of interest include debating open questions such as:
How is academic reading explicitly taught or discussed across Warwick? What are the implicit assumptions in such reading, and are these appropriate? How is academic reading inclusive or exclusive? How can we navigate feelings of anxiety and uncertainty that arise in our reading, and the embodied effort it can involve? How can we foster joy and belonging in/via our reading? These and many more can form our discussions, based on members' interest, and subsequently inform practical group outputs and events.
Our ongoing aims are also to grow institutional work on professional development through proposals and talks about 'Literacies' across University settings, alongside continuing work in projects, conference panels, and eventual publications that contribute to our shared priorities under WIHEA auspices.
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Members of this Circle include:
- Bhushan Atote
- Deborah Biggerstaff
- Andrew Calvert
- Juliana Carneiro
- Romain Chenet (co-lead)
- Susie Cowley-Haselden
- Ethan Dommett
- Fiona Farnsworth
- Laura Gelhaus (co-lead)
- Reece Goodall
- Karen Jackson
- Harriet Richmond
- Sanchia Rodrigues
- Alexander Smith
- Cleo Tilley
- Matthew Voice
- Chelsea Wood
Members of this Circle include:
- Bhushan Atote
- Deborah Biggerstaff
- Andrew Calvert
- Juliana Carneiro
- Romain Chenet (co-lead)
- Susie Cowley-Haselden
- Ethan Dommett
- Fiona Farnsworth
- Laura Gelhaus (co-lead)
- Reece Goodall
- Karen Jackson
- Harriet Richmond
- Sanchia Rodrigues
- Alexander Smith
- Cleo Tilley
- Matthew Voice
- Chelsea Wood
