C’s Workshop Proposal Draft at EtherPad

I created a very rough workshop proposal by rewording Chris Anson’s C’s CFP to reflect the issues raised at panels and our SIG meeting. The list is long with several overlaps. I hope we can narrow the list down to a smaller number of major themes. I also hope many of us will submit individual proposals or collaborate on panels. This is just conversation starter, so Please! Please! add/change/tweak cut as you like.

Clicking on this link (http://ietherpad.com/ewY7cikwJI) will take you the proposal at Etherpad.

EtherPad is a web-based word processor. Similar to Google Docs, multiple people can contribute to the document and all changes are archived. Each contributor’s changes show up in a new color. It can be edited synchronously or asynchronously.Please pass share this link as you like. If interested, it’s possible to make this online document private.

I propose a Wednesday morning half-day workshop. What do you all think? 

Call for Participants

A Decade of War:
Institutional and Civic Responsibilities to “Warrior Writers” in the Writing Classroom

· Are you a college writing instructor?

· Are you a writing program administrator?

· Are you a writing center consultant?

· Is your institution actively recruiting veterans of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

· Do you have students in your classes/programs/tutoring sessions who are veterans?

· Are you aware of any policies or procedures within your department or institution that specifically address veteran writers?

· Are you aware of any sites of writing for veterans outside of writing classrooms that writing faculty participate in or lead?

If you answered “yes” to more than one of these questions, if you have found ways to respond to veteran issues in the writing classroom, or if you are aware of any institutional commitment to veterans on your campus, please contact us.

This study, funded by a CCCC Research Initiative Grant, aims to provide guidance to writing program administrators and instructors about how to address the growing population of veterans of the "War on Terror" in college writing classrooms in order to fulfill, in the words of past CCCC President Marilyn Valentino, our "ethical obligation to react responsibly" to this expanding student demographic. While we have contacted a preliminary group of research participants, we are aware that many initiatives or activities that aim to address the needs of veterans are not yet visible outside individual institutions or communities, so we would like to hear from you.

We thank you in advance for your contributions to this research.

Please contact us via the email addresses listed below.

Research Investigators:

Alexis Hart hartda@vmi.edu

Roger Thompson thompsonrc@vmi.edu

Call for Workshop Facilitators

If you are interested in forming a workshop at the 2012 C's, post your ideas for presentations as a comment to this post. Does anyone know the process for submitting a workshop? Is the date the same as the May 6th  proposal deadline?

CFP: 2012 CCCC St. Louis, Missouri • March 21-24

Proposal Deadlines: Online, by 11:59 p.m. Central Time, May 6, 2011 Mailed, postmarked by April 29, 2011

Writing Gateways

In March of 2012, we will convene in the elliptical shadow of one of the world’s great structures, the St. Louis Gateway Arch—at 630 feet, the tallest human-made monument in the United States. Designed by futurist architect Eero Saarinen and dedicated in 1968, the arch was constructed as a testament to what the Hartford Courant described as “the pioneer spirit of the men and women who won the West, and those of a latter day to strive on other frontiers.” A symbol of hope and progress, the starting point of Lewis and Clark’s expedition and the threshold of the Louisiana Purchase, the arch was designed to represent the triumph of American expansionist ideology. But the arch’s symbol of manifest destiny and westward expansion also has its down side. Through its door to history, we see the subjugation and exclusion of indigenous people. We see the unbridled imposition of makeshift law. We see the exploitation of foreign and migrant workers. And we see the eventual destruction and overdevelopment of unspoiled land. Just as we often associate movement through a gateway with gain (enlightenment, wisdom, employability), a successful passage can also mean loss: leaving behind one’s culture or language, taking on questionable new roles, or joining exclusionary communities of practice. Like the portals in many literary, artistic, and faith traditions, gateways are both transition points and checkpoints—thresholds that promise a welcome transformation, new state of being, or a journey onward, and borders that can block, reject, and turn away. 

The history of composition reflects a spirit of continuous exploration. We’ve seen movements through methodological and (inter)disciplinary orientations, and expansions into new specialized areas of inquiry. We’ve experienced new territories of literacy: digital and multimodal forms of communication, rapidly expanding contexts of activity, and the formation and transformation of genres. In practice, our field is fundamentally about the transitions that literacy brings to individual lives and collective destinies, in the embodied work of turning thought into words and other media. The very act of writing has been theorized as both inwardly and publicly transformative, the inscription of language yielding to the recursions of contemplation, reconsideration, rhetorical deliberation, and change. Such transitions lead us to higher levels of knowledge and awareness—and to action. But the progress they represent is never ideologically neutral. Welcoming us to consider what it means to move into and through our work with writing and rhetoric, in all its forms, purposes, and contexts, the Gateway Arch offers an apt metaphor for our conference. What gateways are rhetoric and composition now creating? How does our field monitor gateways created by others? Who is passing through these gateways, and toward what future? Who or what is turned away or left behind? 

As we look ahead to the 2012 convention, I invite you to consider some of the following questions occasioned by our conference theme. As always, we will feature some sessions that explore and advance the theme and others that explore and advance the many areas of vigorous research, theorizing, and practice in our field at large. 

• How is writing related to transition—within courses and majors; between disciplines and curricula; across structurally distinct systems such as high school, community college, college/university, and workplace; from work, retirement, or post-military service to school; and from self-sponsored, non-academic worlds to classrooms, and back? How do we facilitate and study such transitions, and with what effect? 

• What do writers bring with them (or leave behind) as they pass through discursive and rhetorical gateways defined by multiple contexts for writing? 

• What do we still need to know about transitions in the acquisition of writing ability, especially in a digitally-mediated world?

• How are institutional and programmatic policies affecting gateways to access? How can writing assessment welcome students into higher literacies instead of serving as exclusionary or discriminatory checkpoints?

• What legislation—at all levels—is creating new gateways for employment, research, teaching, and learning, and how should we respond?

• What new global and international gateways are opening up for literacy research and teaching, and with what new challenges?

• How are emerging digital technologies and multiple modes of communication becoming new rhetorical and informational gateways?

• What scholarly and methodological gateways has the field constructed, and do they limit or open up possibilities for inquiry?

• What else can we learn about the discipline from studying its past transitions and the consequences of those who moved into new territories of inquiry and teaching? 

• How does the discipline welcome in new teachers, scholars, and students? Who among all our publics—scholars in other disciplines, policy- and lawmakers, business leaders, and the general public—are turned away, and why?

Further, I urge you to consider revitalizing our field’s historic roots in inter- and multidisciplinary inquiry. Scholars in many areas continue to produce new knowledge greatly relevant to our own paths of research, and teachers in more and more areas of the curriculum continue to develop interests in the pedagogies of writing. In addition, CCCC members are pursuing exciting new collaborations with people in contexts beyond higher education, such as K-12 schools, business and industry, nonprofits, government agencies, and prisons, to name a few. For this reason, you’ll find an additional category for proposals: “interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and cross-contextual perspectives.” Proposals in this category don’t need to include presenters from other fields or settings, but, of course, we warmly welcome them.

This call is being issued far enough ahead of the current annual convention to allow CCCC members to meet and plan their panels, SIGs, workshops, and other proposals on site. For those who will gather in Atlanta, please use this opportunity to look ahead to the 2012 convention in St. Louis. To facilitate on-site meetings among those with similar interests who want to plan sessions, we’ve set up a special Connected Community site where you can post queries or link up with others. Please find a dedicated space at the new Connected Communities site www.ncte.org/cccc/connectedcommunity

I eagerly look forward to receiving your proposals and seeing you in St. Louis in 2012.

Chris M. Anson

North Carolina State University

2012 Program Chair

For a link to a downloadable version of the 2012 C's CFP, click here. 

CFP: Generation Vet:Composition, Veterans, and the Post-911 University

Since the “Post-9/11” GI Bill, intended to subsidize tuition for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, passed in 2009, colleges and universities have been preparing for a potential 25% increase in the number of vets attending their institutions. Significant preparation is, indeed, necessary: According to a 2009 ACE survey, only 57% of all colleges and universities provided services for vets, and only 40% offered faculty training for working with vets. Composition classes are an important location for addressing these pedagogical and administrative issues, and the presence of veterans in our composition classrooms presents both opportunities and challenges that demand our attention.

Yet there is a paucity of scholarship that addresses the needs and interests of vets enrolled in today’s composition courses. We need a greater understanding of the literacy expectations and experiences vets bring to campus, particularly as they transition from active duty to student status. This collection will address these issues. Possible topics might include but are not limited to:

Transitional Literacies: What do we need to know about the literacy practices most common for active military personnel? How do those literacy practices inform student-veterans’ approaches to and processes of composing as they transition to college writing? How can writing teacher/scholars negotiate the common challenges that veterans face during their transition from active duty, such as changing family relationships, shifting experiences of authority and leadership, and the feelings of alienation as veterans are placed in classes with students of traditional age and faculty whose political perspectives may be radically different from veterans’?

Life-Writing and Autoethnography: How might writing about the experiences of war or of returning from war assist the veteran writer in transitioning to civilian life? How might autoethnographic writing help student-veterans place themselves and their experiences against the backdrop of culture and history? At the same time, what are the risks of such writing for student and faculty alike, and what supports are needed for student-veterans who, having been invited to do so, lay bare their experiences, often to the shock of civilian faculty and students? What professional development might faculty need to understand the ethical implications of writing thus invited and composed? What are the best forms of life-writing assignments for student-veteran audiences?

The “Signature Wounds” of Iraq and Afghanistan Wars: What do writing teachers need to know about Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? How might these conditions affect cognitive processes, interpersonal communication skills, etc.? What pedagogical approaches best address the needs of students experiencing TBI or PTSD?
Collaborations with Veterans Services Offices in the University/College and Community: Given that 94% of student veterans who have an active mentor are more likely to “succeed” or complete the curriculum they are enrolled in, collaboration between institutional programs is essential. As more post-secondary institutions develop programs for student-veterans, what kinds of productive collaborations can compositionists forge with those offices? What are the advantages of veteran-designated writing courses? How might compositionists contribute to faculty development regarding veteran populations? What are the intersections between student-veterans’ needs and those of the general adult student population?

Gender,Sexuality, Race and Class: How can compositionists identify and address the educational needs of the 18% of veterans who are women? How can GLBT students and faculty negotiate queerness, given the current political climate surrounding the revocation of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policies? Since military recruits are drawn overwhelmingly from the South and from rural areas and that both African-American and Latino/a students are statistically over-represented in the military, how do issues of race and class impact student-veterans’ educational experiences? How can composition teacher/scholars develop curricula and pedagogies that address the needs and best interests of first-generation student-veterans?

Multimodal Composition: How might emerging forms of text production and circulation offer new opportunities for student-veteran writers? To what extent have student veterans already used multimodal composing processes while on active duty? Might multimodal composing processes provide a generational link between civilian and veteran student audiences? How might technology and multimodal composition help to bridge instructional gaps when veterans are deployed midsemester?
We welcome writing in a variety of genres, as well as pieces authored by student-veterans or co-authored by student-veterans and faculty. Essays should be between 5,000-7,000 words.

Send abstracts (title, 500 word description, and brief author bio) or requests for further information to by May 1, 2011 to Lisa Langstraat (lisa.langstraat@colostate.edu or Sue Doe (sue.doe@colostate.edu).

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