In this article, we study the oral history interviews of eight survivors of Auschwitz-Birkenau. We give a detailed analysis of a central narrative in their life story, the “selection narrative,” the experience of being forcibly separated from family into groups for labor or death, as it is told in the late 1970s-to-early 1980s and again in the 1990s. We study patterns of structure and variation in the referential aspects of narrative, how narratives recapitulate past actions, and the evaluative aspects of narrative, how narratives are interpreted. Our analysis of these eight sets of repeated narratives focuses on four processes that help structure consistent accounts over time: the past, previous tellings, culture and the interview situation. In each set of repeated narratives, the selection narrative maintains significant portions of the complicating action and evaluations over time. At the same time, various changes are evident that alter the style or interpretation of the narrative. In other words, changes were, in large measure, observed in “how” or “why” the narrative was told but not in “what” was recounted. Our data suggests that despite changes in context, critical aspects of our identities endure over long periods of time.

This essay examines the beginnings of first-year writing programs in the academy and the early history of the essay to reveal how and why a particularly limiting range of allowable subjectivities entered into the writing classroom through the essay’s form. Most college first-year writing courses privilege a thesis-driven form of the essay that is much closer to Bacon’s (1592/1966) collection of essays, in contrast to those written by Montaigne (1575/1965), who is often referred to as the “Father of the Essay.” Reasons for this practice include the writing curriculum’s seeming alliance with classical rhetoric’s definition of both essay and student writer. The concept of ideology as conceived by Althusser (1968/1971) proves useful for understanding the essay’s implications in subjectivity formation. Although all essay forms are informed by ideology, the act of privileging thesis-driven forms in schooling practices can also privilege the practice of requiring students to take on subjectivities allowed only within those forms. Expanding the writing forms assigned within first-year writing programs can offer writers more open, contradictory possibilities for expressing authority, resistance, critical inquiry, creativity, and difference.

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This article documents the partnership and collaborative SoTL research investigating the intersectionsbetween and among contemplative practices and reflective writing for deepened learning. This SoTL investigation interrogated the problem involving students (both undergraduate and graduate) not valuing themselves as writers. In addressing this problem, a series of assignments were designed where contemplative practice was done via reflective writing at the beginning of each class session. Data were collected on how these new practices and assignments in these two courses affected student learning.