Assistant Professor of English and Director of Concordia’s John Bahr Writing Center Dr. Nathalie Virgintino was the keynote speaker at the 2019 SUNY Council on Writing Conference (SUNYCOW), along with Dr. Kate Hanzalik, co-editor of her 2019 anthology, Exquisite Corpse: Studio Art-Based Writing in the Academy (Parlor Press). Hosted by the Expository and College Writing department at Purchase College, this year’s SUNYCOW theme was “The Writing of Art/The Art of Writing.” Concordia alumni were also part of the presentation, "Studio Art-Based Writing in the Academy: Pedagogy and Scholarship as an Exquisite Corpse," both in person and via video. The event included a book signing.
The presentation to 200 writing, art and design professors highlighted methods Dr. Virgintino uses in her honors writing course, where students study and produce multimedia, multimodal and multigenre compositions using art-based processes. Concordia Fellows (honors) alumna Roshny Roy ‘18, currently studying composition theory at St. John’s University, concluded the presentation with a student’s perspective on the teaching methods. Two other alumni of the Fellows program, Estelle Bikibilli ’18 and Bianca Mark ’18, shared their own experiences in Dr. Virgintino’s class via videos included in the presentation. 
“The connections our graduates maintain with their Concordia professors are a wonderful part of the student experience here,” said Dr. Virgintino. “I was excited that so many of my former students responded to my request for their reactions to the innovative writing methods we used in class.”
John Bahr Writing Center specialist Alysa Hantgan also participated in the conference, collaborating with professors from other universities to present "The Art of Administration: Toward Collaborative, Departmental-Wide Labor Based Grading Contracts."