Today a public/private partnership between New America, Arizona State University and the online magazine Slate will hold an event called “Trust But Verify: The Crisis in Biomedicine.” The ‘crisis’ the title refers to results from a recent, widespread realization that important research in the field may be fundamentally flawed, a majority of it impossible to replicate for various reasons. This same crisis is occurring in the field of psychology, causing practitioners to question some of their basic clinical assumptions. An obvious question presents itself: is there a reproducibility crisis in writing center research?

I’ve spent a lot of time as the only man in the room. Having worked (mostly with infants) in early childhood education after earning my English degree, and having attended a master’s program in feminist theory, spaces where women are the norm are familiar and pleasant places to me. Maybe this is why I like writing centers.