Opening Plenary Session: Peter Elbow

Biographical Information

PETER ELBOW's ideas about freewriting and responding to writing have shaped the way writing has been taught for the past few decades, both in the United States and in an increasing number of international settings. His perspectives on issues like academic discourse, evaluation, the nature of binaries, voice, dialect, and standard English have helped to define the theoretical concerns of the profession of Composition Studies. Elbow is the author of many books, including Writing Without Teachers, Writing With Power, Embracing Contraries: Essays in Learning and Teaching, Everyone Can Write: Essays Toward a Hopeful Theory of Writing and Teaching Writing, and others, and he is co-author of a textbook, A Community of Writers. He has also published many essays in composition and English journals, and given countless presentations and workshops all over the world. He has taught at various colleges and universities, and directed the writing programs at SUNY Stony Brook and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he is now a Professor Emeritus.