A Decade of Pioneering Writing Pedagogy: The Impact of Ashoka’s Centre for Writing & Communication

The first Centre at Ashoka – the Centre for Writing & Communication has grown with the University – meeting its interdisciplinary pedagogical needs. With our mandate of ‘writing’ and ‘communication’, we are in the unique position of engaging with all the stakeholders in the university. Over the last decade, CWC has emerged as a pioneering centre for writing pedagogy in India – whose initiatives in teaching, research and outreach have set the agenda for other writing programmes in India and South Asia.

From a centre that initially only conducted one-on-one tutorial sessions for first-year undergraduates, the Centre for Writing & Communication now teaches students across disciplines and levels, from the UG, PG to PhD, and from Sciences, Humanities and the Social Sciences. Our academic workshops, some of which are embedded in the existing courses at Ashoka, address the most fundamental aspects of critical thinking and academic work required at the university.

The Centre’s extra-curricular and outreach activities are extremely popular among learners in and outside Ashoka. The short courses offered in the summer, open to the public are much in demand. They combine innovative themes with intellectual rigour, such as explorations on science fiction, diary writing, and converting one’s work into popular formats, to name a few. CWC is also the only writing centre with an active English language teaching programme.

CWC is doing exceptional research work in the field of writing, communication and pedagogy, seeking to address current issues in the larger field of higher education. The book Inclusive Pedagogies: Teaching & Learning Practices in Higher Education in India (ed. Kanika Singh) which emerges from the centre’s work at Ashoka has been published in 2024. The essays in this volume offer a range of perspectives ranging from an ideological vision for inclusive pedagogy, critically analysing policy and disciplinary discourses, to individual experiments in syllabi-making and classroom interaction. A recent research project: Language, Pedagogy and Inclusion in Higher Education: A Case Study of Ashoka University (led by Kanika Singh & Shivani Nag) examines the role of language in teaching-learning practices in Ashoka and provides recommendations on policy and pedagogy, to support inclusive education where inclusion goes beyond ensuring entry and is translated into academic participation. Most recently, CWC has initiated a research project examining the use of generative AI in academic writing. Our annual conferences deliberate upon the questions faced by teachers and learners today in the fast-changing landscape of higher education in India.

This exciting work is made possible by the diversity of the CWC team. We have historians, translators, geographers, anthropologists, musicians, and artists – all of whom have worked on different ways of writing and communication and whose interdisciplinary expertise enriches the centre.

(Written by- Kanika Singh, Director, Centre for Writing & Communication)