Director, OU Writing Center
Director, Expository Writing Program
Associate Professor of Writing
Affiliate Faculty of English
she/her
Dr. Talisha Haltiwanger Morrison serves as Director of the OU Writing Center, Director of the Edith Kinney Gaylord Expository Writing Program, Associate Professor of Writing, and affiliate faculty in the OU English Department.
Dr. Morrison’s research and administration interests span writing center theory, mentorship, community-based writing, and Black feminist studies. In particular, her research focuses on intersectional approaches mentoring and administration.
As an administrator, Dr. Morrison centers the mentoring, support, and professional development of student consultants and the value of cross-campus partnerships. As Director of the OU Writing Center, she has fostered relationships with units such as OU Libraries, the OU Graduate College, Diversity Enrichment Programs, the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity office (UReCA), and Cosmic Flora, a local community wellness space.
Dr. Morrison regularly presents at national and international conferences including the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the Conference on Community Writing, and the International Writing Centers Association Conference. She is co-editor of Writing Centers and Racial Justice: A Guidebook for Critical Praxis (2023), and more of her work can be found in publications such as the Writing Center Journal, the Journal of Multimodal Rhetoric, and the award-winning collection, Out in the Center. Her current projects include Making a Way: Black Women Navigating Graduate School and Early Careers in Rhetoric and Writing Studies and Social Justice in the Center: A Guide for Writing Tutors.
Haltiwanger Morrison, Talisha. Making a Way: Black Women Navigating Graduate School and Early Careers in Rhetoric and Writing Studies. In progress.
Haltiwanger Morrison, Talisha and Deidre Anne Evans Garriott. Social Justice in the Center: A Guide for Writing Tutors. In progress.
Haltiwanger Morrison, Talisha and Deidre Anne Evans Garriot (Eds). (2023). Writing Centers and Racial Justice: A Guidebook for Critical Praxis, Utah State University Press.
Haltiwanger Morrison, Talisha. (forthcoming, 2025). “Understanding the Rhetorical Function of Writing Center Employee Handbooks.” Writing Center Journal.
Haltiwanger Morrison, Talisha. (2023). “Tutors Matter, Too: Supporting Writing Tutors Through Racial Justice.” Writing Centers and Racial Justice: A Guidebook for Critical Praxis, Talisha Haltiwanger Morrison & Deidre Anne Evans Garriott, eds.
Haltiwanger Morrison, Talisha and Sherri Craig. (2023). “Imagine We Knew All Our Names.” Journal of Multimodal Rhetoric. Special Issue “Fantasies and Futures.”
Haltiwanger Morrison, Talisha. (2022). “Making and Taking up Space as a Black Woman at a Predominantly White Institution.” Praxis: A Writing Center Journal. Special Issue “Have We Arrived? Revisiting and Rethinking Responsibility in Writing Center Work: The Need for Transformative Listening and Mindfulness of Difference.” Invited Column.
Haltiwanger Morrison, Talisha. (2021). “A Balancing Act: Black Women’s Negotiation of Racial Tension in the Center.” Writing Center Journal, 39(1-2), 119-141.
Haltiwanger Morrison, Talisha. (2019). “Being Seen and Not Seen: A Black, Female Body in the Writing Center.” Out in the Center: Public Controversies and Private Struggles, Harry Denny, Robert Mundy, Liliana M. Naydan, Richard Sévère, & Anna Sicari, eds.
Nominated for 2020 Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA) Outstanding Scholarship Award. (individual)
Winner of 2019 International Writing Centers Association (IWCA)Outstanding Book Award. (collection)
“Agentic Mentoring: Black Women Graduate Students Countering Discrimination and Scarcity” with Malina Anderson, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Spokane, WA, April 2024.
“Motherscholaring & Resilience: Collective Action Toward Social Justice” with Sandra Tarabochia, Teara Lander, Annemarie Mulkey Sibbet, and Laurel Smith, National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education, New Orleans, LA, June 2023.
“Unmasking Violence and Hostility at the Writing Center” with Isaac Wang and Jasmine Kar Tang, International Writing Centers Association, Vancouver, BC, October 2022 (accepted).
“The Waymaking Promise of Black Women in the Academy: Failed Attempts and Lessons Learned” with Sherri Craig, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, IL. (virtual), March 2022
“How do we do this, the Antiracism, like for Real, from the Center?” Questioning as Antiracist Praxis for WPAs. Sponsored Panel for Untenured and Alternative-Academic WPA Standing Group with Stacy Kastner, Angela Mitchell, Amy Columbo, Amilia Evans, Sarah Polo, and Iris Ruiz, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, IL. March 2022 (virtual, invited)
“Designing and Delivering: Improving Writing Center Administration through Consultant Feedback” with Ashton Foley-Schramm, South Central Writing Centers Association, Baton Rouge, LA (virtual), February 2022
“Weaving Inclusive Communities through Black Feminist Waymaking” with Sherri Craig, Conference on Community Writing, Washington DC (virtual), October 2021
“Creating Counterspaces as Homeplaces” Building Homeplaces when the Commonplace is not Enuf, with Zandra L. Jordan and Sherri Craig. (canceled due to COVID-19), Conference on College Composition and Communication, Milwaukee, WI, March 2020
“Rhetorical Pedagogies: Centering Local Community Perspectives and Considering Indignation as a Rhetorical Virtue” with Jessica Shumake, Conference on Community Writing, Philadelphia, PA, October 2019
“Interruptions/Reimaginings: An Afrofuturistic Call and Response on the Citizen Center” with Zandra L. Jordan and Neisha-Anne S. Green, International Writing Centers Association Conference, Atlanta, GA, October 2018
“Frameworks for Disability: A Service-Learning Partnership with a Campus Disability Resource Center” at Conference on Community Writing, Boulder, CO, October 2017 (accepted)
