English Department Faculty
Jessica Pauszek
Assistant Professor
Jessica Pauszek
Ph.D.
Contact
Stokes Hall S405
Email: jessica.pauszek@bc.edu
Education
- B.A., Stetson University
- M.A., Northeastern University
- Ph.D., Syracuse University
Biography
With training in Composition and Cultural Rhetoric, Professor Pauszek brings together interests in community literacy, working-class studies, archival methods, and digitalhumanities. Growing up in a predominantly Polish, working-class, community near Buffalo, NY, shaped her interest in writing about labor, deindustrialization, and immigration. Her current book project centers on the curation of print and digital archives of the Federation of Worker Writers and Community Publishers (FWWCP), a network of working-class writersfrom 1976 - 2007 that began in London and grew transnationally. She is the Project Director for The FWWCP Archival Project which has curated a print collection of over 2,350 community publications in London, as well as a pilot digital archive athttp://www.fwwcp-dc.org. With Vincent Portillo and students from multiple universities, she developed an introduction to the collection including finding aids and reading guides. Pauszek was awarded a CCCC Emergent Researcher Grant for this work and HonorableMention for the CCCC James Berlin Outstanding Dissertation Award. This project was alsofeatured by the Coalition of Community Writing.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
- “Preserving Hope: Reanimating Working-Class Writing through (Digital) Archival Co-Creation,” Across the Disciplines, eds. Gesa Kirsch et al., 2021.
- “Writing From ‘The Wrong Class’: Archiving Labor in the Context of Precarity,” Community Literacy Journal, Spring 2019, pp. 48-68.
- “Early Career Scholars’ Encounters, Transitions, and Futures: A Conversation on Community Engagement," Co-authored with Charles Lesh, Megan Faver Hartline, and Vani Kannan. Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing, v. 18.2, 2018-2019, pp. 116-150.
- “Alliances, Assemblages, and Affects: Three Moments of Building Collective Working-Class Literacies.” Co-authored with Jenny Harding, Nick Pollard, and Steve Parks. College Composition and Communication, 70.1, Sept 2018, pp. 6-29.
- “‘Biscit’ Politics: Building Alternative Educational Spaces From the Ground Up,” College Composition and Communication, 68. 4, June 2017, pp. 655-683.
EDITORIAL WORK:
- The Best of the Journals in Rhetoric and Composition Series, Co-editor with Kristi Girdharry and Charles Lesh, Parlor Press, 2017-present.
- Writing and Working for Change Series, Co-editor with Steve Parks, Parlor Press, 2017-present.
- Writing Democracy: The Political Turn in and Beyond the Trump Era. Co-edited with Shannon Carter, Deborah Mutnick, Steve Parks. Routledge, 2019.
PUBLIC WORK:
Archival and Community Publications: PUBLIC
- “The Federation of Worker Writers and Community Publishers Collection: An Introduction to the Trades Union Congress Library holdings, including the FWWCP Publications and Administrative Documents. Co-edited with Vincent Portillo. August 2019. This publication includes 18 Reading Guides/Finding Aids and a full overview of the collection contents.
- “Preserving Hidden Histories.” Ed. Jessica Pauszek. A community publication created by students and community members from a study abroad course in London, England. 2019.
Podcasts and Blogs:
- “Voices of Exiled Iranian Workers.” With Marzieh Keshavarz and Reza Panahi. Labor History Today Podcast. Georgetown University Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. June 7, 2020.
- “Tough Annie and the Suffragettes.” Labor History Today Podcast. March 29, 2020.
- “Striking Miners.” Labor History Today Podcast. February 2, 2020.
- “Collective Actions: Pecket Well College.” Labor History Today Podcast. December 2, 2019.
- “FWWCP Beginnings and Sally Flood.” Labor History Today Podcast. November 24, 2019.
- “Collaborative Preservation of Working-Class Histories: Migration, Food, and Cultural Heritage in the FWWCP Collection (Part 3)." Co-authored with Vincent Portillo. Trades Union Congress Library blog, August 30, 2018.
- “'Cultural Protection' and Working-Class Agency.”Co-authored with Vincent Portillo. Bedford Bits, Macmillan Publishing, August 28, 2018.
- “Collaborative Preservation of Working-Class History: Social Concerns in the FWWCP Collection (Part 2).” Co-authored with Vincent Portillo. Trades Union Congress Library blog, August 6, 2018.
- “Collaborative Preservation of Working-Class Writing,” Co-authored with Vincent Portillo. Trades Union Congress Library blog, July 16, 2018.