Innovation Award Recognizes Linguistic Justice Initiative
Ghada Gherwash works to foster an inclusive learning environment for all language speakers
The world’s linguistic diversity includes more than 7,000 languages and thousands of dialects. Students at Colby reflect a fraction of this global diversity, yet multilingual speakers comprise perhaps as much as 30 to 40 percent of the student population.
In an age of globalization when standardized English is increasingly seen as dominant, Colby has a champion working to ensure students’ language identities are neither hidden nor neglected.
The Small Liberal Arts Colleges-Writing Program Administrators (SLAC-WPA) recently honored that champion, Farnham Writers’ Center Director Ghada Gherwash, with its Martinson Innovation Award for her work to ensure that language diversity is visible and respected in all social and educational contexts at the College.
Since 2021, Gherwash has worked strategically to establish a Linguistic Justice Group at Colby to foster discussions about linguistic justice and equity across campus. She won the award for her careful and intentional work outlined in her piece “On Linguistic Justice in the Writing Center: A Genesis Story,” which she was invited to write after presenting on the topic at the International Writing Center Association conference a year ago.
“Gherwash’s project shows how meaningful and sustainable linguistic justice efforts can grow from grassroots efforts to cross-campus conversations—fostering, in documented ways, a more inclusive learning environment,” said the SLAC-WPA.
The genesis story
Gherwash has been fascinated by language since childhood. Born in Italy to parents who spoke multiple languages, she grew up “all over” and came to the United States in 2006 as a Fulbright Fellow fluent in Arabic. She taught Arabic and started an Arabic program at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, where she earned her master’s in English literature.
For her doctoral work, she pursued applied linguistics with a focus on second language writing at Purdue University. Her expertise lies in ways we understand how people who speak English as an additional language acquire and write in English, and how to support them.
The goal is to think critically about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. Why is standardized English seen as the end-all, be-all?
Ghada Gherwash, Assistant Professor of Writing
Her linguistic justice project originated during the Black Lives Matter movement when Gherwash asked herself what social justice looks like in her profession and in the writing center. She had recently transitioned from her role as the multilingual writing specialist at Colby to the director position at the Farnham Writers’ Center. At the center, student tutors are trained to work collaboratively with student writers to help them build autonomy as writers with a distinct voice. The focus is on the writer, not the writing, something Gherwash emphasizes to her tutors.
“I started thinking about the larger impact I can make training tutors to think a little differently about language acquisition and issues of equity, linguistic equity in particular,” said Gherwash. By beginning her linguistic justice work with tutors, she recognized how broad of a reach her initiative could have.
She began slowly. Initial conversations included just a few tutors in leadership positions. At first, they wondered why she brought the concept forward.
“They saw themselves as gatekeepers of the English language, and rightfully so,” said Gherwash, who is also an assistant professor of writing. However, the more they talked about it, the more interested and invested the tutors became. She explained that the goal was “to think critically about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. Why is this form [standardized English] seen as the end-all, be-all?”
Over the next few years, Gherwash included more tutors in her conversations; two faculty members and one staff member drawn to the work joined as well. Now, the group has crafted a mission statement and strategic plan, supported a student-oriented speaker series, and provided training opportunities for faculty and staff. They’ve also identified short- and long-term initiatives designed to encourage active participation across campus, including forming a Linguistic Justice Committee, offering more cultural classes taught in non-English, and exploring the idea of a bilingual student residence hall.
A blueprint for transformative change
Today, all Farnham Writers’ Center tutors are trained in linguistic justice principles. The topic is first introduced in the course Tutoring Writing in Theory and Practice, which all tutors must take.
For tutor Aubrey Adkins ’25, an English and art history double major, the class was her first introduction to the term—but not the phenomenon.
“It made a lot of sense to me,” said the senior from Roanoke, Va., in southern Appalachia. “There’s a specific Appalachian English that if a lot of people heard it or saw it, there’s this immediate assumption that you’re less intelligent because you speak this way. I think that’s really harmful.” As a tutor, writing fellow, and co-editor-in-chief of the Echo, Adkins understands that embracing different ways of speaking is just one application of linguistic justice.
She defines linguistic justice as “accepting that varieties of English exist and that there is not one truly correct way to speak or express yourself in that language.” She added that “the way you speak English doesn’t have any bearing on your intelligence, value as a person, or as a writer.”
Judging someone based on how they speak or write is called linguistic profiling, said Gherwash. Awareness of such judgments gets to the root of her work.
“It’s really important for all of us to think about these implicit biases we have. We all label people. We all stereotype. This is the way humans make sense of things, but you want to know when it becomes dangerous.”
Linguistic justice is “accepting that varieties of English exist and that there is not one truly correct way to speak or express yourself in that language.”
Aubrey Adkins ’25
While Gherwash remains committed to building awareness of linguistic justice and establishing an inclusive attitude toward language and language pedagogy at Colby, the innovation award acknowledges her desire to inspire others.
The ultimate goal of sharing her genesis story is “to provide a blueprint for transformative change,” she said. “Particularly to other writing centers aspiring to embark on a similar journey toward linguistic justice.”
