crosspol was developed after a year’s worth of conversations between Andrew and Colin that seem to have gone something like this —
ASH: I really want to do something that involves both high school teachers and college teachers.
CC: Sounds good. You totally should. I really want to make something that enacts the conversations we have...the ones we should be having more of.
ASH: Sounds good. You should do that. [repeat ad nauseam]
CC: Why don’t we start a journal?
ASH: We can just do that?
CC: Hands up — who says we can’t? There you go. Why not?
ASH: Cool.
CC: Cool.
ASH: So, we’re going to do it.
CC: We’re doing it.
BOTH: Really?
Meaningful conversations ensued about how, why, and for whom. And then we made a logo, a flyer, an even better logo, and started putting a team of like-minded experts together.
Sometimes the beginning is (almost) everything.
origins
Andrew Hollinger (a former high school English teacher) is the coordinator of (and teacher in) the first year writing program at
the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
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2017 began PhD in Technical Communication and Rhetoric at Texas Tech University
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MFA-Creative Writing from UTPA (2012)
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BA-History from Texas A&M University (2008)
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Teaching certificates in 4-8 generalist, 8-12 ELA, and ESL (active)
His interests include writing, interdisciplinarity, teacher engagement, educational reform, and the (re)professionalization of the teaching field. He has an amazing ability to listen (to anything, really anything, including Colin’s regular ramblings). This guy can draw, too. Just give him a surface, something pointy, and a line to something digital, and something crazy-wonderful gets made. [by Colin Charlton]
Colin Charlton is the chair of the Writing and Language Studies Department at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and an associate professor of rhetoric, composition, and literacy studies.
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PhD-Rhetoric & Composition from Purdue University (2005)
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MA-English (Literature) from Texas A&M University-Commerce (2000)
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BA-English/French from East Texas State University (1994)
His interests include writing pedagogy, invention strategies, writing program administration, developmental reading/writing, transdisciplinary knowledge, and rhetorical technology. He is an inventor and design machine: just name a material, a purpose, an audience, and point. Brilliance ensues. [by Andrew Hollinger]
