Next-Gen Perspectives on Leadership

Early-career academics in writing studies are not waiting for tenure before they lead, and this collection sets out what that looks like in practice. Its contributors write about labour organising, culturally responsive curriculum design, the care work of academic parents and the running of writing programmes, all against the backdrop of the pandemic, the rise of new majority students and the growing reach of authoritarian politics.

The book is built as a conversation between generations. Mid-career leaders Jennifer Sano-Franchini, Christina Cedillo and Staci Perryman-Clark respond to each section, and Carmen Kynard closes with an essay tracing how these collective, justice-minded approaches carry forward the field's activist traditions. Graduate students and new faculty get a model of leadership they can practise now, and senior colleagues a clear account of the work already happening around them.