UGA doctoral student wins multiple accolades during 2023-24

Saurabh Anand, a multilingual rhetorician, and an ESL writing pedagogue originally from India, has enjoyed a tremendous academic year with state and international awards for his scholarship. In 2023 he was awarded the John R. Stowe Cultural Immersion Grant by The Georgia TESOL Association and a Future Leader Award from the International Writing Center Association. 

2024 brought a Short-term Research Grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Scholar of Dream Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Anand was also named a Bedford St. Martin's Fellow by the Writing Innovation Symposium and a Digital Rhetoric Collaborative Graduate Fellow, 2023-2024 by the Sweetland Center for Writing, University of Michigan.

A Rhetoric and Composition studies Ph.D. student in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of English, Anand is focused on researching writing center tutoring and administrative strategies and practices American writing centers could adopt from multilingual writing centers, usually outside the U.S.

"This is a truly impressive list for anyone—not to mention a graduate student," said Roland Vegso, professor and head of the department of English. "Anand's work in Composition and Rhetoric and Writing Center Studies serve the entire university and reach thousands of students through their services every year. In other words, he works in a truly "high-impact" field that has a real effect on our students' education."

Anand conducts ethnographic, storytelling, and interview-based research at the writing centers in the ESL (English as Second Language) and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) countries, where writers and writing consultants are usually multilingual, to explore ways in which American writing centers can explore pedagogical practices and contextualized language scaffolds to support multilingual writers studying in the U.S.

"Historically, U.S. writing centers were designed to support mainly monolingual English language writers," Anand said. "The landscape of writing centers is changing, however, and American institutes of higher education are reflecting on how to provide decided support to multilingual writers through collaborations and learning from multilingual writing programs outside the U.S.

As assistant director of the UGA writing center, Anand's pilot research to develop empirical and research-driven implications for transforming the current culture of writing on the UGA campus is supported by the writing center director, the department of English, the Franklin College of Arts, and the UGA department of International Student Life. "I hope my research will immensely benefit all writers on the UGA campus and beyond, especially multilingual writers," he said.

"Saurabh is a truly exceptional tutor, teacher, scholar, and team member, " said Rebecca Hallman Martini, associate professor of English and director of the Willis Center for Writing. "He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to his work, all the while being generous with his time and attention. Since he stepped foot in the Willis Center for Writing, Saurabh has been critically investigating his work through writing and research, always attempting to improve his practice. 

"What I find especially impressive about Saurabh's research project is that he is set to actively shape the future development of his field," Vegso said. "It is clear that both national and international organizations in his discipline have already recognized that his contributions will be transformative."

Image: Saurabh Anand