‘I do have a place here’: The writing centre as a site of belonging and epistemic justice in a South African university

Belonging is central to student success and wellbeing yet unevenly experienced in the everydayness of students navigating historically unequal and linguistically stratified universities. This qualitative case study examines the writing centre as a site of belonging and epistemic justice in a South African university. Drawing on a reflective, practitioner-based approach and informed by Tinto’s theory of student integration and the academic literacies framework, the study explores how writing centre practices shape students’ sense of belonging. Interview data from undergraduate students and writing centre practitioners show that belonging is fostered through relational, dialogic, and linguistically affirming pedagogies that position students as legitimate knowers. Writing centre engagement shifts students from alienation and deficit views to confidence and epistemic affirmation. However, practitioners navigate tensions between enabling access to dominant academic norms and resisting epistemic hierarchies that marginalise diverse ways of knowing. This study advances writing centre scholarship by framing belonging as an epistemic, relational process essential to socially just academic participation