Tutoring Writing in the Disciplines
Project Description
This project, which requires a subscription to the WCOnline platform, provides both face-to-face and on-line peer tutoring opportunities for student writers in the disciplines. The tool is an essential piece for enabling not only online tutoring (synchronous and asynchronous), but also for collecting data on appointments, student users, session notes, etc. that will allow for assessment and innovation of the program. The academic units partnering with TWID include Sociology, Neuroscience, Earth & Environment, and History of Art & Architecture.
The posters created by the Tutoring WID students were initially displayed at Boston University’s Learning Assistance Poster Event on Friday, April 26, 2019 in SCI B23. This event highlights the work of the BU Learning Assistants and promotes and celebrates their projects. It was organized by Director of the LA Program, Prof. Kathryn Spilios, Senior Lecturer in Biology, who kindly invited students from the WR 597 course to share their posters, as well. Both the LAs and the TWID writing tutors are peers, who receive training in order to provide important disciplinary assistance to fellow students. Our TWID students, in particular, demonstrated through their posters the learning they experienced as discipline-based writing tutors, the kinds of assistance that they provided to fellow students in their majors, as well as recommendations for enhancing the TWID program.
The LA event was attended by the leadership board of the LA program, department coordinators, instructors of SED SC 521, LA faculty mentors, and members of the Provost’s office. There were more than 75 LA posters in addition to the two posters created by the TWID writing tutors.
Project Team

David Shawn
David Shawn is the Associate Director of Writing in the Disciplines and a Master Lecturer in the CAS Writing Program. Formerly, David held the position of CAS Writing Center Coordinator, managing a diverse staff of undergraduate peer writing consultants, graduate students, and ESL specialists. David has a PhD in American Studies from Boston University and teaches writing courses on rhetoric, oratory, the American presidency, politics, and the tutoring of discipline-specific writing.

Lawford Anderson
James Lawford Anderson came to BU in 2011 from the University of Southern California where he was on the faculty since 1975. He received his geology M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the latter also in 1975. His undergraduate studies in geology were at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, his home state.
His principal research interest is the evolution and construction of the Earth’s crust. As an igneous petrologist concerned with granitic magma genesis and mineral equilibria, much of his work and that of his students have been devoted to an understanding of the evolution of granite magma from its source to emplacement. The research is both field and lab oriented and has shared interests with other disciplines including geochemistry, structural geology and tectonics, and rock mechanics.
Lawford attempts to offer a balanced program of both teaching and research. Teaching a high quality course is a personal goal, regardless of the level of the class. He strives to make all of his teaching learner-centered in recognition that each student learns differently. In recognition of his teaching, Lawford has received nineteen university level teaching awards. At BU, he is currently the faculty advisor to the undergraduate student association, the Boston University Geologic Society, and to the sorority, Gamma Phi Beta.
At BU, Lawford is the Director of Undergraduate Students for the Department of Earth and Environment. At USC, he was a department chair for five years, Director of Faculty Affairs in the College of LAS, Director of the Center for Excellence of Teaching, President of the Faculty Council of the College of LAS, and President of the Faculty of USC and the Academic Senate. He is a Fellow of both the Geological Society of America and the Mineralogical Society of America.

Deborah Carr
Deborah Carr is Professor and Chair of the Boston University sociology department. She is a life course sociologist who has written extensively on health and aging among older adults, late-life family relationships, and death and dying. Dr. Carr has authored several books including the undergraduate textbooks Introduction to Sociology, Essentials of Sociology, and The Art and Science of Social Research (all with W. W. Norton). She is also editor-in-chief of Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. Dr. Carr has a BA in sociology from Connecticut College and earned her MS and PhD in sociology at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Joseph Harris
Joseph Harris is an Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Sociology at Boston University. He is a two-time recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship and a Henry Luce Scholar. In 2017, he was awarded the Gitner Award for Distinguished Teaching. He has been very excited about the contributions of the WID Tutoring Initiative to undergraduate learning in the sociology department.

Hannah Walters
Hannah Walters is a BU alumna (CAS ‘13; Environmental Analysis & Policy and History) and currently works as the Senior Program Coordinator at BU Sociology, while completing her MPH at BUSPH. As an undergraduate, Hannah was a Writing Fellow at the CAS Writing Center, which helped her develop not only her mentorship skills, but also her own writing and editing skills. Now, Hannah loves advising sociology students and supporting them throughout their time at BU, whether it be picking classes or finding research opportunities. When not in the sociology department or studying for her environmental health classes, Hannah is usually walking around Boston, hiking out in New England or cooking a special meal with friends and loved ones.

Becca Reynolds
Becca Reynolds is the Program Administrator for the Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience. She is a BU alum (Sargent’17; Health Science) and is currently pursuing her M.Ed in Higher Education Administration. Previously, Becca served with AmeriCorps as a college adviser at Snowden Int’l School in Boston Public Schools where she helped students dream up and embark on their post-secondary plans. She is passionate about serving students, increasing access and inclusion in higher education, and astrology.

Mario Muscedere
Dr. Mario Muscedere is a Senior Lecturer in Biology and the Director of the Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience. Dr. Muscedere received his PhD in Biology from Boston University in 2011 where, as a member of the Traniello lab, he investigated the physiological, neuroanatomical, and neurochemical underpinnings of social behavior in ants. Having developed a passion for undergraduate education during his graduate work, he joined the Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience as a Postdoctoral Faculty Fellow, a position designed to provide training in teaching, curriculum development, and student mentorship. Working with former Program Director Paul Lipton and other colleagues, he helped restructure the major and create a new set of core major courses: NE 101, NE 102, and NE 203. After helping to teach the first few iterations of those courses he left BU in 2014 to become an Assistant Professor of Biology at Hendrix College, where he taught courses in physiology, animal behavior, and neuroscience. At Hendrix Dr. Muscedere also served on the working group that created a new Neuroscience major at the college, which was approved and began accepting its first cohort of students in 2016. In 2017, Dr. Muscedere returned to the BU Biology Department and the Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience as a Lecturer, teaching BI 315 Systems Physiology and several upper-level neuroscience electives. Dr. Muscedere became the Director of the Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience in 2019. In addition to his teaching and administrative duties, Dr. Muscedere continues to collaborate on active research projects with the Traniello lab and researchers at other institutions, placing particular emphasis on mentoring undergraduate researchers. His students have presented their research at regional, national, and international meetings, received competitive intramural and extramural research grants, and 12 different students have been coauthors on peer-reviewed scientific publications.
Former partners

Paul Lipton
Prior to his departure from BU, Dr. Paul Lipton was director of the Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience in the College of Arts and Sciences, and an associate director in Boston University’s Kilachand Honors College. Dr. Lipton completed his PhD here at BU in 2000, and has been a member of the faculty since 2003 with current appointments in Neuroscience, Biology, and Psychological & Brain Sciences.

Shoai Hattori
Prior to his departure from BU, Shoai Hattori ws the Assistant Director of the BU Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience. He obtained his BA in Biology from BU and his PhD in Neuroscience from Northwestern University. Dr. Hattori taught three neuroscience courses, served as an academic advisor, and was a member of several academic committees. He was the recipient of the 2018 Academic Advising Award, 2017 CAS Templeton Award, and 2013 SfN Next Generation Award. Dr. Hattori strives to make scientific inquiry and verbal/written scientific communication core tenets of the courses he teaches.

Abhinav Prasad
Abhinav Prasad graduated from the Undergraduate Neuroscience Program in 2017 and has since served as the Program Administrator for the program prior to his departure from BU. He very much enjoys working with students. He taught a section of FY 101 in Fall 2018 and is the official academic advisor for many of the Neuroscience major Class of 2021 and 2022. He intends on pursuing a career in medicine and will begin medical school in Fall 2019.

Anthony Janetos
Prof. Anthony Janetos joined Boston University in May 2013 as Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and Professor of Earth and Environment. Dr. Janetos was most recently Director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute at the University of Maryland, and has held positions at The Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, WRI, NASA, and the EPA.
Professor Janetos received his A.B. in Biology from Harvard and his Master’s and Ph.D. in Biology from Princeton. Dr. Janetos has written and spoken widely on the need to understand the scientific, environmental, economic, and policy linkages among the major global environmental issues. In addition to his research interests in the interaction of land systems with human needs and climate change, he has been an IPCC Lead Author and Coordinating Lead Author, and has served on multiple National Research Council Committees and Boards.

Matt DiCintio
Matt DiCintio is Assistant to the Chair in CAS Earth & Environment. He holds a PhD in Drama from Tufts University and an MFA in Pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth. He has worked as a professional dramaturg for two decades and regularly consults with theatres across the country on new plays in development.