Biography
Lisa E. Wright is a Lecturer in the University Writing Program. Her research interests and courses center antiracism, and Black maternal health, with a particular focus on Black midwives. Her course is titled Writing and Black Birthing Women.
Wright is currently 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.
In 2018, 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 has been invited for peer review at Utah State University Press.
Wright was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. She holds a B.A. in English from Coppin State University and a MA from The Ohio State University in African and African American studies. Wright did her doctoral work at Oklahoma State University in English, specializing in Creative Writing Nonfiction and Black feminist literature.
Teaching
Reintroduction to Writing: Writing and Black Birthing Women
Publications
Book Chapter
“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
Peer-Reviewed Publications
- “Radical Writing Center Praxis: A Paradigm for Ethical Political Engagement.” The Writing Center Journal, with Dr. Anna Sicari, 2021.
- “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.
Creative Nonfiction Essay
- “According to the Record.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, Currently under review.
- “Mourning What I Barely Had, Flushed.” Hippocampus Magazine. September 2018.
Current Project
- 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. Invited for peer review at Utah State University Press.
Expertise/Research Interests
- Black Maternal Health
- Writing Centers
- Writing Studies
- Black Feminist Studies
- Anti-racism
- Creative Writing Nonfiction