Contact Us

Phone: 512-471-6222

Location: Flawn Academic Center 211

Address:
Undergraduate Writing Center
The University of Texas at Austin
2304 Whitis Ave. Stop G3000
Austin, Texas 78712-3000

General Inquiries:
coordinator@uwc.utexas.edu

Staff Contacts

Peg Syverson

Director
Office: FAC 211
Phone: 512-471-8734
Email: syverson@uts.cc.utexas.edu

Margaret Syverson, a Carnegie Scholar, is the Director of the Undergraduate Writing Center, former Director of the Computer Writing and Research Lab, and an Associate Professor in the Division of Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Texas at Austin. She teaches graduate level and undergraduate courses such as “Ethics and New Media,” “Zen Rhetoric,” Nonviolent Communication,” “Information Architecture,” and "Knowledge Ecologies" in computer networked classrooms, where students learn to communicate effectively in online environments.

Professor Syverson adapted for college-level students the Learning Record, a successful evidence-based assessment system originally developed in London and California for K-12 classes. Information about the Learning Record is available at http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olr. Her work on evaluating learning with the Learning Record has been supported through grants from DARPA, the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, the Institute for Teaching and Learning, the Department of Rhetoric and Writing, and the College of Liberal Arts at UT.

Professor Syverson’s book, The Wealth of Reality: An Ecology of Composition, was published by Southern Illinois University Press in 1999. She is former Chair of the Board of Directors for the Center for Language in Learning, and former Editor of Computers and Composition Journal’s online site.

She is also an ordained Soto Zen priest and resident teacher for the Ordinary Mind Zen center in Austin. To learn more, visit http://ordinarymindaustin.blogspot.com.

Alice Batt

Program Coordinator
Office: FAC 211
Phone: 512-232-2730
Email: abatt@austin.utexas.edu

Alice Batt is a graduate of UT’s English Department (MA, 91; Ph.D. ’96), a former Undergraduate Writing Center consultant, and a long-time lecturer at UT. She has taught an array of courses, including Advanced Writing, Intermediate Expository Writing, Rhetoric and Writing for Teachers of English, Women through the Life Cycle, Masterworks of Literature, her popular service-learning course Writing for Nonprofits, and Rhetoric Internship.

As a teacher, Alice finds joy in empowering people to make a difference in the world. She and her students learned an important lesson about the power of the written word in June 2006 when grant materials produced by her Spring 2006 Advanced Writing class helped The Miracle Foundation secure a $700,000 grant from the Sooch Foundation to build an orphanage in India.

Since then, Alice has continued developing productive partnerships between community groups and university classes—and also between students enrolled in different classes at UT. In May 2010, she and DWRL Assistant Director Sean McCarthy won an IITAP award for the wiki-sustained partnership they created between Alice’s Writing for Nonprofits class, Sean’s Writing in Digital Environments class, and three local nonprofits.

Alice has participated in panels and roundtables about service learning and community engagement, and she has conducted grant-writing workshops for K-12 educators. She is also a founding member and previous editor of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, and serves on the advisory board of Teatro Vivo, a bilingual theatre company in Austin.

Vicente Lozano

Systems Administrator
Office: FAC 211
Phone: 512-471-4031
Email: vtlozano@austin.utexas.edu

Michele Solberg

Administrative Associate
Office: FAC 211
Phone: 512-232-2725
Email: micsol@austin.utexas.edu

Tom Lindsay

Assistant Director (AD)
Office: FAC 211
Phone: 512-471-6222
Email: thomas.e.lindsay@gmail.com

Tom is a doctoral student in the Department of English. His research and teaching interests include English Renaissance literature as well as LGBTQ literature, politics, and culture. His dissertation will examine English popular drama in the early 17th century and its relationship with a specialized genre of aristocratic literature known as the “masque.”

Tom has worked in the UWC since 2009. Before becoming an AD, he worked as a consultant, as a consulting group leader, and in the presentations project group.

Mary Hedengren

Assistant Director (AD)
Office: FAC 211
Phone: 512-471-6222
Email: mary.hedengren@gmail.com

Gerald Tilma

Assistant Director (AD)
Office: FAC 211
Phone: 512-471-6222
Email: gtilma@utexas.edu

Gerald is a doctoral student and Assistant Instructor in the Department of English. His research interests are generally in historical linguistics and Old English. His dissertation project examines the history of grammatical categories, specifically with regard to grammatical mood in Old English syntax. He has also taught courses in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing and most recently served as Editorial Assistant for Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval & Renaissance Studies.

Gerald has worked at the UWC since 2009 as a consultant, a professional development group leader, and a reviewer for Praxis. He began his current role as an AD in 2012.

Elizabeth Goins

Praxis, Managing Editor
Office: FAC 211
Phone: 512-471-6222
Email: elizabethgoins@utexas.edu

Elizabeth is a doctoral candidate in the Communication Studies department, specifically in the organizational communication area. Her research examines how public and private organizations can adapt their communication strategies to succeed in an increasingly global culture. Current projects include the political implications of oil and gas development in the High North region of Norway, how health care organizations can use communication to improve patient satisfaction, and using social media to increase public compliance in risk communication.

Before coming to UT, Elizabeth worked in public affairs and event planning in the Washington, DC non-profit arena. After two years of consulting at the UWC, she now serves as the Presentations Group leader, coordinating campus speaking presentations and classroom trainings. She also serves as co-director of the Events Group, which produces the UWC's After Hours series.

Frederick Coye Heard

Praxis, Managing Editor
Office: FAC 211
Phone: 512-471-6222
Email: HeardFC@utexas.edu

Coye Heard is a doctoral candidate in English Literature at UT. His dissertation focuses on political significance of abstract narrative forms in postwar American fiction. His interest in the intersections of ethics, politics and literary/rhetorical form also influences his teaching, which has included an introduction to critical theory, a sophomore-level course on formal experimentation in American poetry, and a course on the rhetoric of violence in political struggles.

Coye has worked at the UWC since 2007. Before becoming a Praxis editor, he worked as a consultant and an Assistant Director. He enjoys information architecture and is passionate about training and mentoring writing center consultants.