Third Annual

RACHEL CORRIE AWARD

FOR COURAGE IN THE TEACHING OF WRITING

2006



RACHEL CORRIE

Rachel Corrie was a 23-year-old peace activist and senior at The Evergreen
State College in Olympia, Washington. She was killed on March 16, 2003 in
Rafah in the Gaza Strip. She was on leave from school to work in Palestine
with the International Solidarity Movement, a group using and promoting
“nonviolent, direct-action methods of resistance to confront and challenge
illegal Israeli occupation forces and policies.” Rachel was attempting to
block an Israeli military bulldozer from demolishing the house of a
pharmacist and his family when the driver of the bulldozer ran over her,
then backed up and ran over her again. Wearing a bright orange jacket and
using a bullhorn, Rachel was, by all eyewitness accounts and in horrifying
photographs published on the Internet, exceptionally visible. Her parents,
some members of Congress, and grassroots organizations including several
Jewish peace groups have called for an independent U.S. investigation into
her death. Such an investigation has yet to happen, and the U.S. media
virtually buried the story—though it was featured prominently in the U.K.
and in many other countries.



Corrie took courses like “Labor and the Environment” and “Public Art and the
Middle East Conflict”; she also wrote detailed emails from Palestine. The
late Edward Said, who met with her parents in May, 2003, wrote, “Her letters
back to her family are truly remarkable documents of her ordinary humanity
that made for very difficult and moving reading....”



THE AWARD

The Progressive SIGs and Caucuses Coalition (PSCC) of the CCCC wishes to
honor the memory of this extremely courageous student by recognizing a
teacher in the CCCC who has taken professional risks in order to promote
social justice through the teaching of writing. It is well known that the
politics of hiring, tenure, and promotion often motivate graduate students
and junior faculty to write, teach, and serve in “safe” subject and project
areas; many are encouraged by mentors to shy away from genuinely
“controversial” or “risky” subjects until they are tenured. In making this
award, the PSCC hopes, conversely, to encourage writing teachers early in
their careers to take on research, pedagogy, and service projects that
promote commitment to peace, justice, and human dignity—even when hazarding
the ire of deans, chairs, editors, and hiring and review committees.



There will be one $500 cash award to an individual and up to two smaller
awards to individuals or groups. The prizes will be presented at the PSCC
Annual Event at CCCC in Chicago in March, 2006—the third anniversary of
Rachel Corrie’s death.



ELIGIBILITYAND NOMINATION

Graduate students and junior (untenured) faculty members are eligible to
apply for the award. To nominate an individual or a group, send an email of
500 words to Harriet Malinowitz at hmalinow@..., clearly explaining what
the nominee has done to merit this award. Include the following information
for both the nominator and nominee: name, academic rank and/or employment
status, telephone, email, institution, department, and any other
organizational affiliations relevant to the award. The award will recognize
a specific project—which may be, but is not limited to, a research,
pedagogical, or curricular project, service to institution or professional
organization, or partnership with a community organization—that serves the
goals discussed above and that, frankly, takes guts. Nominations that are
strong on specific information, rather than merely accolades, will receive
the strongest consideration. Finalists will be contacted to present further
evidence of their project: an article (not necessarily published), a
dissertation abstract and chapter, a syllabus, a new curriculum design, a
more detailed project description with appropriate documentation, etc. The
winners will be selected by a jury of three members of PSCC’s constituent
SIGs and caucuses. Nomination deadline: Friday, November 18, 2005. More
info: http://www.progressiveteachers.org/pt/corrieaward.html.











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