Deborah Crusan – författare

Writing groups often fly under the radar in academia, but they can make a big difference. Faculty are under constant pressure to publish while juggling teaching, research, and service. Add packed schedules and limited time, and writing can easily get sidelined—especially for women balancing work and family. Breaking Boundaries: How Writing Groups Fuel Women’s Academic Success explores how writing groups offer support, structure, and community to help navigate these challenges.

Whether you’re a grad student trying to finish a dissertation, a stuck faculty member, or someone newly tenured wondering what’s next—you’re in the right place. This book shares honest stories, insights, and encouragement from women who have found strength in writing together. Each chapter highlights real experiences with writing groups—what helped, what didn’t, and how these groups shaped the authors’ scholarly identities. They discuss topics such as overcoming imposter syndrome, access to writing resources, navigating the stress of tenure, making academic contributions outside traditional paths, and creating sustainable writing habits. The contributors come from diverse disciplines and deliver practical advice for making writing fit into a hectic academic life. Their message is clear: when scholars support each other in writing, they not only grow their own careers, but also become mentors, leaders, and role models in the academic world.

Reflecting the internationalization of the field of second language writing, this book focuses on political aspects and pedagogical issues of writing instruction and testing in a global context. High-stakes assessment impacts the lives of second language (L2) writers and their teachers around the world, be it the College English Test in China, Common Core-aligned assessments in the U.S., English proficiency tests in Poland, or the material conditions (such as access to technology, training, and other resources) affecting a classroom. With contributions from authors working in ten different countries in a variety of institutional contexts, the chapters examine the uses and abuses of various writing-related assessments, and the policies that determine their form and use. Representing a diverse range of contexts, methods, and disciplines, the authors jointly call for more equitable testing systems that consider the socioeconomic, psychometric, affective, institutional, and needs of all students who strive to gain access to education and employment opportunities related to English language proficiency.