CALL FOR PROPOSALS
We invite proposals for workshops, roundtables, posters, and panel
presentations that encourage audience interaction and highlight
innovation, novel perspectives, or going against the current.
Proposals may explore such themes as these:
“Work in progress” is both a noun and a verb. A “work in progress” is
quite distinct from the idea of the process or practice of work itself.
What does it mean to “work” in a writing center setting? What is the
everyday “work” of writing center life? Why do we work in the ways we
do? What is working and what is not? How does “work” function
metaphorically and materially? How do we acknowledge and further our
“work” to diverse audiences? How do we imagine new ways of “working”
together?
A work in progress suggests the act of writing and the writing
process, which are major emphases in writing center pedagogy and
tutoring practice. But we sometimes overlook our identities as writers
when we teach. How can we bring writing as a verb back to the center,
and provide the space and community for writing to take place in our
writing centers? How do directors foster the growth of their staff as
writers?
How is our profession itself a “work in progress”? What critiques,
revisions, and creative new work does our profession need for the
future?
Where are we progressing to? If we continue our work, where is it
leading us? How do we want to change our “work” to go further, to newly
envisioned locations and destinations? What does it take to get from
here to there?
How creative is writing center “work”? How can we connect more
creativity and invention into our practices and theories? How can
creative writing become associated with teaching and practicing writing
in writing centers?
What does the “Cosmos” hold for us? Where are the new connections
and relationships that will expand our field intellectually and
socially? Where do we look for future growth and new journeys of
discovery: off-campus? on an international field? in a political arena?
in a prison? in virtual reality?
Aiken divided his life between England and the United States: where
do we divide our time and work? What geographical, intellectual, or
professional divides do we cross or maintain in our work? How
satisfying or beneficial are these divisions? How do we bridge
divisions of teaching, service and research—or writing, working, and
playing? How does each location influence and add to the other? How can
we use cross-knowledge from two disparate places?
Aiken is also well-known for his role as an editor of The Dial
and of Emily Dickinson’s Selected Poems, contributing to the
literary reputations of many young or underappreciated writers. How do
our writing centers play a role in the literary and writing lives of
others? How does our work contribute to larger writing projects and
reputations? How do we send our student writers onto their own
journeys, and toward what destinations do we prepare or inspire them to
seek? Aiken’s two daughters became writers as well. How does our work
serve to model and mentor the next generation? What kind of legacy does
our work describe? What kind of legacy do we want to leave for future
generations of writers, tutors, teachers of writing?
In addition to workshops, roundtables, panels, and featured
speakers, this year’s conference will offer two Poster Sessions. In
your proposal, please indicate which session your abstract is intended
for.
Poster Session One: LOCAL DESTINATIONS
—multimedia or visual texts and presentations that address
individual centers with a focus on the past and/or present-day (spaces,
practices, projects, research, administration); or institutional
histories of one school or program from past to present (first year
composition, TESOL, basic writing, creative writing, WAC, WID, CAC,
CTTW, teaching with technology, OWLs, virtual teaching spaces); or oral
or pictorial or textual histories of the SWCA since its founding in
1982.
Poster Session Two: FUTURE DESTINATIONS
—multimedia or visual texts and presentations that emphasize
innovation and research in practice, and focus on the future of:
individual centers (funding, budgets, grants, research, relocations,
alliances and partnerships, particularly interdepartmental or
cross-institutional ones; tutor-sponsored programs and events;
non-tutoring uses and applications of writing center spaces and staff;
tutor training programs or models that are cutting-edge); or regional
efforts through coalitions or collectives for enhancing our profession
and professional working conditions and standards through joint
research, political activism, community service, and other activities
on- and off-campus.
The deadline for submissions has passed, and acceptance notices have been sent out. If you submitted a proposal but did not receive a notice, please contact Dr.
Deborah Reese, deborah.reese@armstrong.edu.
