Charles Bazerman and David R. Russell
In this video, Charles, Bazerman, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Education at UC Santa Barbara, and David R. Russell, Professor Emeritus of English at Iowa State University, reflect on their journey from literary scholars to writing scholars, their early and current work with WAC, and the challenges facing the field of writing studies. The conversation took place on January 16, 2026.
About Charles Bazerman
Charles Bazerman (Ph.D, Brandeis, 1971; Doctor Honoris Causa, Universidades Nacionales de Cordoba, Entre Ríos, Río Cuarto, y Villa María), is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of California Santa Barbara. He holds lifetime achievement awards from the National Council of Teachers of English and the Conference on College Composition and Communication, Fulbright Scholarships, and Researcher of Excellence from the University of the Lorraine. He is founder and former Chair of the International Society for the Advancement of Writing Research and former Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. He has been a visiting professor in Portugal, Denmark, the Czech Republic, France, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Nepal, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, and the US. His current projects use writing and rhetorical knowledge to address climate change in practical ways.
About David R. Russell
David R. Russell is Professor Emeritus of English at Iowa State University, where he taught in the Rhetoric and Professional Communication graduate program, served as co-director of the ISUComm Advanced Communication undergraduate program, and for 12 years edited the Journal of Business and Technical Communication. His book, Writing in the Academic Disciplines: A Curricular History, examines the history of United States writing instruction since 1870. He has published more than 80 refereed journal articles and chapters in edited collections on writing in the disciplines (WID) and professions, drawing mainly on cultural historical activity theory and rhetorical genre theory. He has recently published articles on the phenomenology of writing, the felt sense of writing under surveillance, embodied cognition in reflection, and genre as social action in relation to recent theories of motivation.
Credits
Video Production: Mike Palmquist and Zakery R. Muñoz
Closed Caption Editing: Camaryn Wheeler
Additional credits are provided at the end of the video.