Lisa E. Wright is a Lecturer in the University Writing Program. Her research interests and courses center on Black maternal health, with a particular focus on Black midwives.
Lisa is working on a manuscript “The Ring of Fire: A Memoir” which chronicles her home births with her midhusband. It further examines Black women’s birthing choices, with a particular focus on the delegitimation of Black midwives, and on creating safe birthing spaces inside, and outside medical institutions. Her work has been supported by the New York State Summer Writers Institute. She received the 2022 Women’s Faculty Council Student Research Award at Oklahoma State University, and the 2022 Geneva Smitherman Award for Research in Black Language, Literacies, Cultures, and Rhetorics.
Prior to joining Hopkins, Wright co-founded the Talking Justice Project, an interactive workshop that teaches antiracist strategies for writing center consultants and teachers. Using antiracist pedagogy and inclusive writing center pedagogy, they provided attendees with strategies to address problematic ideas while also maintaining a learning environment. Her current project intersects faith and religious identities in our writing spaces. The co-edited collection The Politics of Faith and Secularism in Writing Centers and Writing Studies is under review at Utah State University Press.
Lisa was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. She holds a B.A. in English from Coppin State University and an M.A. from The Ohio State University in African and African American studies. Lisa completed her doctoral work at Oklahoma State University in English, specializing in Creative Writing Nonfiction and Black feminist literature. Her work has appeared in College English, The Writing Center Journal, Praxis, Axis, and Hippocampus Magazine.
- The Mothers of American Gynecology
- Birthing Justice: The African Diaspora
- Decoding College Writing: Black Midwives and American Gynecology
- Reintroduction to Writing: Writing and Black Birthing Women
Edited Book
The Politics of Faith and Secularism in Writing Centers and Writing Studies, Edited by: Hadi Banat, Andrea Efthymiou, Liliana Naydan, Anna Sicari, and Lisa E. Wright. Under review with Utah State University Press.
Edited Journal Issue
Coenen, Hillary., Sicari, Anna., Tinsley, Natasha., and Wright, Lisa E. Peitho Special Issue: Addressing The Barriers Between Us and that Future: Feminist Activist Coalition Building in Writing Studies. Peitho Cluster Conversation. Forthcoming in Fall 2023.
Peer-Reviewed Articles in Journals
“According to the Record.” Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism. Fall 2024 Issue (Volume 23, no. 2).
“Renewing our Feminist Efforts Through Relationship and Coalition-Building from Difference: What Can Happen at the Center” College English, With Anna Sicari and Claire Tower, January 2023.
“Establishing and Maintaining a Sustainable AntiRacist Writing Center at a PWI Writing Center: Our Journey of Becoming.” Axis: A Writing Center Blog, Spring, 2022.
“Talking Justice: The Role of Antiracism in the Writing Center.” Praxis: A Writing Center Journal. With Fehintola Folarin, Natasha Tinsley, and Hillary Coenen. Spring, 2019.
“Mourning What I Barely Had, Flushed.” Hippocampus Magazine. September 2018.
Essays in Books
“I Feel Most Black in my Hijab: Navigating Race and Faith in Writing Spaces,” in The Politics of Faith and Secularism in Writing Centers and Writing Studies, Edited by: Hadi Banat, Andrea Efthymiou, Liliana Naydan, Anna Sicari, and Lisa Wright. Utah State University Press. Under Review.
“Stay Alive: A Black Mother’s Responsibility to Ride Griefs Hills and Live ” in Parenting while PhDing: Surviving and Improving the Working Conditions of Graduate Student Parents Edited Collection by Jenna Morton-Aiken and Jackie Hoermann-Elliott. Under Review.
“Creative Writers Teach Techniques for Analyzing Any Text.” Who Teaches Writing? (Oklahoma State University Libraries), Co-authored with Natasha Tinsley, Fall, 2021. Open Access URL: https://doi.org/10.22488/okstate.22.000003.
Book Review
“Radical Writing Center Praxis: A Paradigm for Ethical Political Engagement.” The Writing Center Journal, with Dr. Anna Sicari, Fall, 2022. 39.½: 426-428. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27172235.
- Writing Studies
- Black Maternal Health
- Black Birthing Justice
- Black Midwives
- Creative Writing Nonfiction
- AntiRacism
- Writing Centers
- NCTE/CCCC Black Caucus
- National Women’s Studies Association
- National Council of Teachers of English
- Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition
- Rhetoric Society of America