Both initiatives aim to extend the reach of the Writing Center's resources beyond Brown, offering new perspectives on college writing and providing valuable insights to a wide audience.
The origin of the podcast can be traced back to Threatt's role as the Graduate Student Director for Excellence@Brown, a writing-intensive summer bridge program, in 2022. While compiling a multimodal resource list for students, she found a gap in the podcast realm—specifically, a lack of academic writing podcasts tailored for students. Threatt was eager to fill this space and conceptualized the idea for College Writing, Actually.
The idea was greeted with excitement by her colleagues at the Writing Center, and she ran with it, said Threatt. The podcast, with episodes released every other Wednesday while school is in session, caters to undergraduate students, writing tutors, and classroom instructors.
What sets College Writing, Actually apart, is its holistic view of college writing. Threatt addresses foundational writing topics while also challenging the conventional norms, acknowledging the bias in linguistic conventions and emphasizing the constructed nature of these norms. The podcast serves not only as a guide to writing but also as a platform to validate diverse writing styles, particularly those of multilingual writers.
Multilingual Mondays Instagram Series
The Instagram series, Multilingual Mondays, features tips and insights for multilingual writers. The series, which started in early November, is an extension of the Writing Center's goals to create an archive of useful resources for English language support.
Threatt has worked with Anne Kerkian, Associate Director for English Language Support and Shuyuan (Joy) Liu, Assistant Director of English Language Support to generate topics for Multilingual Mondays. Threatt then transforms their ideas into visually appealing and shareable posts, which will serve as an archive of tips for Brown students. The series will continue through the Spring semester. See the series on the Writing Center Instagram.
Future Work
As host of the podcast, Threatt interviews speakers from Brown and hopes to invite guests outside of Brown in the future.
“All of my work connected to the center, on and off campus, is mobilized by a desire to increase the accessibility of writing resources. I want to contribute to the development of greater consciousness for how racial and cultural biases absolutely inform our instruction and production of writing,” says Threatt.
Beyond her work on these projects, Threatt's dissertation research, titled "Monstrous Fugitivity: Reading Slave Legacies in Black Women's Speculative Fiction," explores representations of slavery in speculative fiction to reimagine Black subjectivity and liberty in the aftermath of slavery.
Britt Threatt's multifaceted contributions and her dedication to transforming the conversation around college writing highlight her as a trailblazer in the field of academic support and inclusivity.