Wits Writing Festival Day1: Welcome
Channel: Wits Writing Programme
Date: 2023-11-10

Pamela Nichols is an Associate Professor and head of the Wits Writing Programme. Her PhD in Comparative Literature (New York University) was guided by the work of Edward Said. Said’s understanding of the institutionalization of knowledge as well as her expe- riences of working with major writing teachers in the US, influenced her establishment of the Wits Writing Centre (WWC) in 1998. Nichols also spear-headed Writing Intensive courses at Wits, through the Wits Writing Programme (WWP), formalised in 2018. Her recent publications have focussed on listening, the development of the citizen scholar, and the deepening of critical thinking within WI courses.

Prof Diane Grayson
I am passionate about promoting success for all students through good teaching, sound curriculum design and holistic support. I believe higher education has a vital role to play not only in providing life-enhancing opportunities for students but also in addressing the many challenges to society and the planet in equitable and sustainable ways. I have worked in higher education in various capacities for over 30 years, as a senior director, university Prof, researcher, physicist, manager, director, vice-principal, consultant, academic faculty de- veloper, curriculum designer, textbook author, teacher educator and mentor. Currently I am Senior Director: Academic Affairs at the University of the Witwatersrand, a research-intensive university with a highly di- verse student population, and Personal Prof of Physics. I have oversight at institutional level of university teach- ing, student learning and success and quality. I make extensive use of systems thinking in my work, and work in a highly collaborative way with students and academ- ic and support staff across the institution.

The 2023 Wits Writing Festival 
This festival marks 25 years of the Wits Writing Centre (WWC). The idea of the WWC emerged in 1995 and since 1998, the WWC has cast a wide net. We helped to set up the writing centres at the University of Stellenbosch and at the University of Johannesburg, and at Wits were involved in the establishment of the early Law Writing Centre and, more recently, assisted Professor Laura Dison to establish the School of Education Writing Centre. We have co-organized 6 literary festivals and since 2007 have run the writing component of the Wits school project, Targeting Talent. Most recently, we have devel- oped the Wits Writing Programme (WWP), formalized in 2018, which takes writing centre strategies of listening to thinking into mainstream teaching. The WWP is the first formalized Writing Intensive programme in South Africa, and currently comprises 40 discipline-specific WI courses across the university, supported by approximately 400 Writing Fellow tutors. The WWP is now the umbrella pedagogical programme; the WWC falls within the WWP as a resource for writers.
Writing and networks are natural partners in terms of growing thinking and institutional capacity. They create significant opportunities for international conversations and collaborations. We worked with the Ford Foundation Scholarship programme from 2005 to its conclusion in 2011, and conceived and launched its South African legacy book in 2013. More recently, we have worked with Gillian Attwood and the Canon Collins Scholarship programme and are very pleased to welcome their representative, Catherine Sofianos, to this festival. Most recently, we have begun to work with the Open Society of Universities Network, have presented at their international conferences and workshops, with two of our consultants being selected respectively as an International CLASP Writing Fellow (Fouad Asfour), and as a lead scholar in OSUN civic engagement projects (Kgomotso Moshugi).
We hope that this festival will strengthen and expand networks and will be a happy and grateful reunion with the people who created the WWC as well as a fertile thinking ground for those involved in the process of creating our futures.
We also want to recognize, among many others, the significant contribution of the following people to the journey of the WWC so far: Hawa Monier, Liz Trew, Mbongisi Dyantyi, Ishtiyaq Shukri, Marion Drew, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, Makhosazana Xaba, Siphiwo Mahala, John Rowett, Kgaogelo Lekota and Lerato Seohatse. To partnering with me on the establishment of WI courses, we recognise Professor Liz Brenner, for her generous guidance on ways to establish the WI programme, Professor Martha Townsend.