The International Writing Centers Research Project was created by Pam Bromley, who currently teaches in the Core Interdisciplinary Humanities program and works with students and faculty at Scripps College in southern California. Pam has a Ph.D. in politics (international relations) from Princeton University. Before arriving at Scripps, she taught courses in writing and politics at Williams College, Pitzer College, and Pomona College and helped with the undergraduate teaching and learning program at the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning at Princeton.
Pam’s research focuses on the uptake and implementation of ideas, whether in the creation of international organizations, in student learning, and in writing centers. She has published research in a wide range of journals, including PS: Political Science and Politics, The WAC Journal (with Dara Regaignon), and Across the Disciplines and The Writing Center Journal (with Kara Northway and Eliana Schonberg), among others.
Because of her background in international relations and writing centers, Pam became interested in learning more about what happens in writing centers around the world. While on leave in 2013, Pam visited writing centers in Sweden and Germany. Inspired by what she learned from her visits, Pam decided that the first way to understand what was going on in writing centers around the world was to create a database of international writing centers – and the International Writing Centers Research Project (IWCRP) was born.
Pam created a comprehensive list of international writing centers – broadly understood as writing centers not in the United States – through internet searches. In May 2015, emails were sent to 300+ writing center coordinators found through an extensive web search; the survey closed in March 2016.
Raw results from the 2015-16 survey are available on the survey page. Findings have been published in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie (about Canadian writing centers) and Journal für Schreibwissenschaft (about global writing centers).
With Shareen Grogan, Pam repeated the census and survey, examining writing centers outside the United States and their work in the 2022-2023 academic year. In June 2023, emails were sent to 800+ writing center coordinators found through an extensive web search; reminders were circulated in winter 2024 and the survey closed in early April 2024.
Shareen and Pam co-presented preliminary findings from the census at WRAB and EATAW in 2023, and Pam presented preliminary findings from the survey at EWCA in 2024.