MAWCA and the Baltimore Writing Center Project Present:

Wednesday, April 29, 2026, 6:00-8:00 PM

Counterstory workshop for graduate students

Presenter:

Dr. Aja Y. Martinez, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

In this moment of rapid political, institutional, and technological change, graduate writers face profound uncertainties. Shifts in funding options, research and publication processes, professional identities, and employment prospects accompany seemingly intractable and multiple global crises, including ongoing oppression and violence rooted social injustice, catastrophic diplomatic failures, impending climate disaster, unabashed militarization of law enforcement, and advancement of increasingly sophisticated surveillance technologies.

What does it mean to proclaim and reclaim your life, learning, identity, and humanity as a graduate writer and writing center tutor in these times?

The counterstories only you can tell matter now more than ever.

The Mid-Atlantic Writing Centers Association (MAWCA) invites graduate student tutors and administrators in writing centers to join the Baltimore Writing Center Project (BWCP), an interdisciplinary group of graduate writing tutors, for an online workshop facilitated by globally renowned counterstory scholar, Aja Martinez.

By participating in the workshop, you will …

• Join a network of care and support for expressing your truth as a graduate student and tutor
• Dialogue and learn directly with counterstory scholar and practitioner, Dr. Martinez
• Learn about counterstory as a methodology and method for resistance and social change
• Develop strategies for writing your own counterstory.

Space is limited to 20 participants, so don't wait to join us for this one-of-a-kind professional development opportunity.

Format: Virtual on Zoom (Link sent after registration)

Date and Time: Wednesday, April 29, 6:00-8:00 PM

Required Preparation: In advance of the workshop, read selections from Dr. Martinez’s scholarly work and submit a rough sketch of your own counterstory by 5:00 PM on Wednesday, April 22 at this link.

Have questions about this event? Please contact James Wright at james.wright@umaryland.edu.

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Aja Y. Martinez (she/her) is an associate professor of Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and author of the multi-award-winning book Counterstory: The Rhetoric and Writing of Critical Race Theory (now in its second edition).

Together, with Robert O. Smith, Martinez is the co-author of The Origins of Critical Race Theory: The People and Ideas That Created a Movement (NYU Press, 2025) and Harmony and Harassment: A New Critical Race Theory Story (UC Press, 2026). Described as the “Bonnie & Clyde of CRT,” Martinez and Smith have several more books forthcoming on CRT and other topics.