Each semester at the University Writing Program's Writing Conference, the Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service hosts a special panel of students representing community engaged writing UW 1020 courses. This event is always a great opportunity to more deeply understand how students make meaning of their service-learning experiences, adding complexity and quality to their research and writing.
The panel, held Thursday, March 2, 5-6pm, was moderated by Wendy Wagner, Director of Community Engaged Scholarship at the Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service.
Student Panelists:
Both student panelists were enrolled in Phyllis Ryder's, UW 1020: Writing for Social Change in Washington, DC
Sneha Srivatsa"Power Structures and the Ability of Nonprofits to Initiate Policy Change"
Srivatsa served with Miriam’s Kitchen.
Miriam’s Kitchen (MK) is a unique organization in that it focuses not only on providing direct service to clients experiencing chronic homelessness in the form of serving meals and providing housing support services, but also on advocating for change on a policy level. A discussion in which we compared multiple nonprofits in the DC area revealed that while support from the government gave an organization such as MK more power to execute change, it also limited their ability to take more extreme political stances as their power was somewhat dependent on adhering more closely to the status quo. This led me to explore to what extent structures of political power in cities impact the ability of a nonprofit organization such as Miriam’s Kitchen to advocate for effective change in public policy. After analyzing several journal articles examining power structures and MK’s recent advocacy initiatives, I came to the conclusion that by positioning themselves within the legislative branch of the DC government, MK is in a position of greater power to successfully advocate for policy changes by becoming part of the elite decision-making group.
Taytum Valentine Wymer
"In Decadence and Decay: The Capitalist and Colonial Logics of Homelessness in Post-Industrial Washington DC"
Wymer served with Ward 2 Mutual Aid.
Homelessness exemplifies the violence of capitalism, it is the unavoidable contradiction of capitalism as it pushes forward into new epochs of production. This is particularly highlighted in Washington, D.C., the capital of the American Empire, with 5,111 people experiencing homelessness in D.C. in 2021. This paper works to understand homelessness as a socio-political concept. In an attempt to counter reductive understandings of homelessness, this paper looks to understand how the homelessness is not simply a phenomena of modern society but is based into the social, political, and economic structures that undergird America. This paper analyzes how capitalism and logics of colonialism structures homelessness and homeless policy, putting it in the context of DC homeless policy, encampment clearings, and DC urban development, ultimately highlighting how these structures of power materialize in the violence and dispossession homeless communities face. Drawing upon both classic understandings of capitalism and homelessness, in addition to a modern analysis of post-industrial cities, as well as an analysis of a long history of colonial logics, respectability politics, and white supremacy, this paper seeks to place modern homelessness in DC within historical context.
