Stevie Bell
Associate Professor
Head, McLaughlin College
Office: Ross Building, S378
Phone: (416)736-2100 Ext: 77471
Email: stepbell@yorku.ca
Stephanie (Stevie) Bell joined York University's Writing Department in 2012 after graduating with a PhD in rhetoric and composition design from the University of Waterloo. She teaches academic and professional writing in the Professional Writing Program and as a one-to-one instructor in the Writing Centre. Her research interests include writing program administration, civic engagement education, academic integrity with a specific emphasis on understandings and treatments of student plagiarism, digital writing pedagogy, and the complicity of writing higher ed curricula in Western neocolonialism. She spends much of her energy advocating for enhanced writing support for students across disciplines.
Degrees
PhD, University of WaterlooBA, Wilfrid Laurier University
Professional Leadership
Co-founder & Managing Co-Editor, SKRIB: Critical Studies in Writing Programs & Pedagogy
Conference Co-chair, Canadian Writing Centres Association
Vice President, Canadian Writing Centres Association
Canadian Writing Centre Review. Co-founder, Co-Editor
Community Contributions
Writing Centre Resource Specialist - Check out our writing resources! https://www.yorku.ca/laps/writing-centre/resources/
Research Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
Advancing Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization (EDID) in Latin American Writing Centres is a 1-year outreach project for writing centre teachers and scholars centred in Latin American institutions of higher education, focusing on Colombia. This outreach project aims to create opportunities for critical reflection on pedagogy and practice with the goals of incorporating EDID approaches that help to diversify and expand ways of knowing among student writers and teachers of writing. The project mobilizes the complementary research programmes of Dr. Stevie Bell, a Canadian writing centre scholar whose work exposes the US-centric nature of writing-related EDID theory and practice and Dr. Violeta Molina-Natera, whose work on the emergence of Latin American writing centres calls for the centralization and development of distinct Latin American practices and pedagogies.
Despite employing egalitarian rhetorics in offering support to student writers, writing centres have been critiqued for exclusionary and colonial pedagogies geared to student acculturation into the academy’s hegemonic Western-centred ways of knowing and communicating. These conversations have been at the forefront of Canadian writing centre praxis for the last five years with a growing focus on the limitations of US-centric EDID pedagogy in light of international writing centre contexts (Hotson & Bell, 2021; Hotson & Bell, 2022). This Canadian research is distinct, as it draws attention to the need for greater awareness of the global context of EDID, which brings the elite, English academy controlled by scholars of the Global North into focus. Colombia is an ideal site to expand Canadian EDID research due to its burgeoning community of Spanish writing centers that are increasingly interested in EDID development (Molina-Natera, 2021). It is currently unclear how Colombian and other Latin American writing centre professionals are adapting US-style institutions to reflect and support the diversity of cultural and linguistic values, perspectives, and knowledge-making practices of Latin American students. This outreach initiative opens space for writing centre professionals to engage critically with questions of EDID and develop pedagogical approaches suited to Latin American students and instructional contexts using three strategies:
A 3-part workshop series that engages small groups (5-7 participants each) of Colombian & other Latin American writing centre professionals in EDID-centered reflection, critical theory & strategy development, and policy writing.
The practical outputs of these workshops will produce a bilingual (English-Spanish) online repository of critical pedagogy, pedagogies of resistance, and decolonizing approaches produced by and for Latin American writing centre professionals.
A virtual webinar for Latin American writing centre professionals that mobilizes the outputs of workshops and the co-applicants and completes the outreach initiative with an empowered Latin American community of writing centre professionals engaged in questions of EDID.
The initiative’s success depends on in-kind contributions from York University and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana - Cali to support graduate student training and mentorship, video editing and graphic design, translation, and research support, we are seeking SSHRC support for essential research assistant support in Spanish from PUJ-Cali students as well as support for web design and development.
This initiative mobilizes the development of EDID writing pedagogy in Latin America contributing to its expansion beyond the Global North.
Advancing Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization (EDID) in Latin American Writing Centres is a 1-year outreach project for writing centre teachers and scholars centred in Latin American institutions of higher education, focusing on Colombia. This outreach project aims to create opportunities for critical reflection on pedagogy and practice with the goals of incorporating EDID approaches that help to diversify and expand ways of knowing among student writers and teachers of writing in light of U.S. dominance in the field.
Start Date:
- Month: Dec Year: 2022
End Date:
- Month: Dec Year: 2023
Collaborator: Violeta Molina-Natera
Collaborator Institution: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali
Collaborator Role: Co-Investigator
Funders:
SSHRC
Hotson, B., & Bell, S. (2022). Writing Centers and Neocolonialism: How Writing Centers Are Being Commodified and Exported as U.S. Neocolonial Tools. Writing Center Journal, 40(2), 50-69.
Bell, S., & Hotson, B. (2021). Where is the support? Learning support for multimodal digital writing assignments by writing centres in Canadian higher education. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 12(1).
Bell, S., & Hotson, B. (2020). Defining Our Digital Identities. WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship, 45(1-2).
Bell, S., & Hotson, B. (2020). Tooling up the Multi: Paying Attention to Digital Writing Projects at the Writing Centre. Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie, 30, pp. 19-42.
Bell, S. (2019). Learner-Created Podcasts: Fostering Information Literacies in a Writing Course. Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie. 29, 51-63.
Bell, S. (2018). Addressing student plagiarism from the library learning commons. Information and Learning Science, 119(3/4), 203-214.
Bell, S. (2017). High impact creative pedagogy using a maker model of composition. Journal of Faculty Development, 31(1), 19-24.
Bell, S., & Lewis, J.P. (2015). A survey of civic engagement education in introductory Canadian politics courses. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 6(1), 1-19.
Lewis, J.P. & Bell, S. (2015). The place of civic engagement in introductory Canadian politics and government courses in Canadian universities. Journal of Political Science Education, 11(2), 157-173.
Lewis, J.P., & Bell, S. (2014). Mapping the civic education policy community in Canada: A study of policy actors’ attitudes. Citizenship Teaching & Learning, 9(3): 297-315.
Schryer, C., Bell, S., Spafford, M., & Lingard, L. (2011). Professional citation practices in child maltreatment forensic letters. Written Communication, 28(2), 147-171.
Stephanie (Stevie) Bell joined York University's Writing Department in 2012 after graduating with a PhD in rhetoric and composition design from the University of Waterloo. She teaches academic and professional writing in the Professional Writing Program and as a one-to-one instructor in the Writing Centre. Her research interests include writing program administration, civic engagement education, academic integrity with a specific emphasis on understandings and treatments of student plagiarism, digital writing pedagogy, and the complicity of writing higher ed curricula in Western neocolonialism. She spends much of her energy advocating for enhanced writing support for students across disciplines.
Degrees
PhD, University of WaterlooBA, Wilfrid Laurier University
Professional Leadership
Co-founder & Managing Co-Editor, SKRIB: Critical Studies in Writing Programs & Pedagogy
Conference Co-chair, Canadian Writing Centres Association
Vice President, Canadian Writing Centres Association
Canadian Writing Centre Review. Co-founder, Co-Editor
Community Contributions
Writing Centre Resource Specialist - Check out our writing resources! https://www.yorku.ca/laps/writing-centre/resources/
Research Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
Advancing Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization (EDID) in Latin American Writing Centres is a 1-year outreach project for writing centre teachers and scholars centred in Latin American institutions of higher education, focusing on Colombia. This outreach project aims to create opportunities for critical reflection on pedagogy and practice with the goals of incorporating EDID approaches that help to diversify and expand ways of knowing among student writers and teachers of writing. The project mobilizes the complementary research programmes of Dr. Stevie Bell, a Canadian writing centre scholar whose work exposes the US-centric nature of writing-related EDID theory and practice and Dr. Violeta Molina-Natera, whose work on the emergence of Latin American writing centres calls for the centralization and development of distinct Latin American practices and pedagogies.
Despite employing egalitarian rhetorics in offering support to student writers, writing centres have been critiqued for exclusionary and colonial pedagogies geared to student acculturation into the academy’s hegemonic Western-centred ways of knowing and communicating. These conversations have been at the forefront of Canadian writing centre praxis for the last five years with a growing focus on the limitations of US-centric EDID pedagogy in light of international writing centre contexts (Hotson & Bell, 2021; Hotson & Bell, 2022). This Canadian research is distinct, as it draws attention to the need for greater awareness of the global context of EDID, which brings the elite, English academy controlled by scholars of the Global North into focus. Colombia is an ideal site to expand Canadian EDID research due to its burgeoning community of Spanish writing centers that are increasingly interested in EDID development (Molina-Natera, 2021). It is currently unclear how Colombian and other Latin American writing centre professionals are adapting US-style institutions to reflect and support the diversity of cultural and linguistic values, perspectives, and knowledge-making practices of Latin American students. This outreach initiative opens space for writing centre professionals to engage critically with questions of EDID and develop pedagogical approaches suited to Latin American students and instructional contexts using three strategies:
A 3-part workshop series that engages small groups (5-7 participants each) of Colombian & other Latin American writing centre professionals in EDID-centered reflection, critical theory & strategy development, and policy writing.
The practical outputs of these workshops will produce a bilingual (English-Spanish) online repository of critical pedagogy, pedagogies of resistance, and decolonizing approaches produced by and for Latin American writing centre professionals.
A virtual webinar for Latin American writing centre professionals that mobilizes the outputs of workshops and the co-applicants and completes the outreach initiative with an empowered Latin American community of writing centre professionals engaged in questions of EDID.
The initiative’s success depends on in-kind contributions from York University and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana - Cali to support graduate student training and mentorship, video editing and graphic design, translation, and research support, we are seeking SSHRC support for essential research assistant support in Spanish from PUJ-Cali students as well as support for web design and development.
This initiative mobilizes the development of EDID writing pedagogy in Latin America contributing to its expansion beyond the Global North.
Advancing Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization (EDID) in Latin American Writing Centres is a 1-year outreach project for writing centre teachers and scholars centred in Latin American institutions of higher education, focusing on Colombia. This outreach project aims to create opportunities for critical reflection on pedagogy and practice with the goals of incorporating EDID approaches that help to diversify and expand ways of knowing among student writers and teachers of writing in light of U.S. dominance in the field.
Project Type: FundedRole: Co-Investigator
Start Date:
- Month: Dec Year: 2022
End Date:
- Month: Dec Year: 2023
Collaborator: Violeta Molina-Natera
Collaborator Institution: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali
Collaborator Role: Co-Investigator
Funders:
SSHRC
All Publications
Hotson, B., & Bell, S. (2022). Writing Centers and Neocolonialism: How Writing Centers Are Being Commodified and Exported as U.S. Neocolonial Tools. Writing Center Journal, 40(2), 50-69.
Bell, S., & Hotson, B. (2021). Where is the support? Learning support for multimodal digital writing assignments by writing centres in Canadian higher education. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 12(1).
Bell, S., & Hotson, B. (2020). Defining Our Digital Identities. WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship, 45(1-2).
Bell, S., & Hotson, B. (2020). Tooling up the Multi: Paying Attention to Digital Writing Projects at the Writing Centre. Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie, 30, pp. 19-42.
Bell, S. (2019). Learner-Created Podcasts: Fostering Information Literacies in a Writing Course. Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie. 29, 51-63.
Bell, S. (2018). Addressing student plagiarism from the library learning commons. Information and Learning Science, 119(3/4), 203-214.
Bell, S. (2017). High impact creative pedagogy using a maker model of composition. Journal of Faculty Development, 31(1), 19-24.
Bell, S., & Lewis, J.P. (2015). A survey of civic engagement education in introductory Canadian politics courses. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 6(1), 1-19.
Lewis, J.P. & Bell, S. (2015). The place of civic engagement in introductory Canadian politics and government courses in Canadian universities. Journal of Political Science Education, 11(2), 157-173.
Lewis, J.P., & Bell, S. (2014). Mapping the civic education policy community in Canada: A study of policy actors’ attitudes. Citizenship Teaching & Learning, 9(3): 297-315.
Schryer, C., Bell, S., Spafford, M., & Lingard, L. (2011). Professional citation practices in child maltreatment forensic letters. Written Communication, 28(2), 147-171.
