As an associate professor in English, she regularly teaches courses in writing ethnography, advanced writing for the social sciences, first year composition, and graduate courses in composition theory and the teaching of composition. As former directory of the University Writing Center, she also developed and teaches the experiential course Peer Tutoring in Writing in the Disciplines. Her publications include Engaged Writers and Dynamic Disciplines: Research on the Academic Writing Life, co-authored with Chris Thaiss, along with articles on academic writing and second language writers, writing centers and writing fellows, writing in the disciplines (WID), alternative discourses, writing in learning communities, feminism and composition, and writing assessment. Her current research interests focus on WAC/WID programs and writing instruction transnationally, global Englishes, and what WAC programs and writing centers must learn from second language scholarship and practice to work effectively with multi-lingual writers. Related to the latter, she serves on the Conference of College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Committee on Globalization of Postsecondary Writing Instruction and Research.
Dr. Zawacki is on the Consultants Board of the International WAC Network and a section editor for the Writing Fellows pages of the national WAC Clearinghouse, an online repository of information on WAC programs and a resource for books, journals, and teaching materials focused on writing in the disciplines. She also serves on the editorial board of Across the Disciplines: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Language, Learning, and Academic Writing and the Digital Books series published by the WAC Clearinghouse.
In addition, she is an editorial consultant and writing in the disciplines specialist for the Diana Hacker series of handbooks on writing published by Bedford/St. Martin's, among these A Writer's Reference and The Bedford Handbook. She consults and gives presentations nationally and internationally on WAC, writing in disciplines, writing center work, and assessment.