Identities are complex, multiple, contingent, and dynamic. We perform identities, try on identities, resist identities, mask identities, and showcase identities, identities such as student, tutor, mother, teacher, Catholic, Red Sox fan, biker, skier, cashier, bus driver. There are the identities we are born with or inherit—race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic class, language, religion. There are identities we create—straight-A student, athlete, musician, knitter. And there are identities that are constructed for us—the many assumptions people make based on our appearance, mannerisms, what we say, and how we say it. In this chapter, I explore the construction of identity in relation to second language (L2) writers and the writing center. While I have chosen this focus, you should know that identity and second language writing is a broad topic that includes discussions on how L2 identity impacts participation in academic (Chiang and Schmida 1999; Ortmeier-Hooper 2008) and workplace communities (Cox 2010), the flexible and dynamic nature of L2 identities (Harklau 2000; Kanno 2003; Shuck 2010), L2 identity in relation to social context (Ortmeier-Hooper 2010; Schwartz 2010), and issues of power and access in relation to L2 identity (Ibrahim 1999; Norton 2000). While all of these topics have implications for L2 writers in the writing center, identity construction is particularly salient.

In a tutoring session, the task of identity construction begins immediately. In fact, identity construction may start even before the session begins. If the writing center website features profiles of the tutors, the student writer may enter the session with certain impressions of and expectations for the tutor based on the identities represented by and interpreted from these profiles. If the writing center keeps files on