You must write, and read, as if your life depended on it. -Adrienne Rich

Tracy Hamler Carrick works in the field of Composition and Rhetoric, exploring relationships between language and power; literacy and access to social and political institutions; and critical/popular education and activism. In courses that analyze the diverse circumstances in which people read and compose, she challenges students to critically examine the functions and uses of text (fiction and non-fiction, public and private) and to produce writing themselves which is rhetorically effective in myriad personal, professional, and civic contexts. She previously taught composition at Syracuse University, where she trained new teachers and was recognized with a teaching award; Ithaca College; and San Francisco State University, where she co-directed the English Tutoring Center and piloted coursework for what became an award-winning basic writing sequence. As Colby’s Farnham Writers’ Center Director and Co-Coordinator of Writing Across the Curriculum, she works to support writers in their efforts to compose strong and meaningful prose, and to promote e/quality in the recognition of diverse writing styles and language practices.

She is the co-editor of Authorship in Composition Studies (2006), and has published essays on progressive pedagogy, community-based learning, writing center administration, and institutional activism. Her current work examines relationships between literacy education and social change efforts and co-authorship in the academy.