On Friday, 22 February, the WPA Metropolitan Affiliate along with Bedford/St. Martin’s Publishers will sponsor a day-long mini-symposium to address current issues in composition and rhetoric: disciplinary identity, “standards” policies, research in the field, contingent labor, and support services. We propose this free day of interactive sessions as one of exchange and discussion between graduate students, adjunct instructors, full-time faculty, writing program administrators, and any one else interested in the instruction of writing. See workshop descriptions below.
The day will consist of morning and afternoon sessions where attendees will participate in hands-on workshops, a lunchtime speaker talk with Susan Miller-Cochran (North Carolina State University), and the day’s event will conclude with the Mina Shaughnessy Speaker Series featuring Linda Adler-Kassner (UC, Santa Barbara) and Peter Gray (Queensborough Community College/CUNY).
Please join us on Friday, 22 February 2013 at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in N.B. 9.64 from 9:30AM – 3:15PM. (Mina Shaughnessy Speaker Series begins at 3:30PM.) This FREE full-day event (including breakfast, lunch, and reception) will be supported by Bedford/St. Martin’s Publishers. Please RSVP Mark McBeth at JJMark.McBeth@yahoo.com if you (or a group with a proposed number of attendees) plan to attend.
See attached event flyers!
John Jay College of Criminal Justice 524 59th Street (between 10th & 11th Aves.) Take the 1, A, B, C, or D to Columbus Circle and walk west to 10th Ave.
WPA Metropolitan Affiliate: A Mini-Symposium Schedule
9:30 – 10:30AM Breakfast and Introductions to the Day’s Activities New Building 9.64
10:30 – 11:45AM Morning Discussion/Workshop Groups
1)Cultivating the Writing Studies Tree
Facilitators: Ben Miller/CUNY Graduate Center & Amanda Licastro/CUNY Graduate Center
Explore your past, connect to colleagues, and trace your intellectual lineage in this interactive computer classroom. The Writing Studies Tree is an open-access web-based platform that will, with your help, enable all members of our profession to centrally record their lines of influence as mentors and students, and thus to uncover a history that has until now remained either anecdotal or invisible. Our goal is to create a comprehensive genealogy of writing studies, identifying academic “ancestors,” “descendants,” and “siblings.” Who are yours?
2) Investigating the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing
Facilitators: Peter Khost/Stony Brook, SUNY & Mark McBeth/John Jay, CUNY
The Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing, developed by members of the Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA), the National Writing Project (NWP), and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), offers guidelines that support productive habits of mind in college writers. These presenters provide a critical overview of theFramework, and ask participants to consider how it fits into the writing missions of their own institutions.
3) Researching as a Writing Teacher/WPA
Facilitator: Risa Gorelick/College of St. Elizabeth
Research in the writing classroom has driven the impetus of our field, turning our interests in the processes of writing into the disciplinary field of composition and rhetoric. In this sessions, participants discuss aspects of the design, methods, and policies of research.
4) Considering Contingent Labor Issues for Writing Programs
Facilitator: Nicole Wallack/Columbia University
Non-tenure track faculty comprise approximately 75% of the academic workforce in the United States, many of whom work in part-time positions. As writing program faculty and administrators know well, many institutions increasingly depend upon part- and full-time faculty to staff writing courses and centers, but do not provide people in these positions with the material and professional support on which the best teaching and learning depends.In this workshop we will identify current issues in our home departments that pertain to contingent faculty members and consider their impact on writing curricula and services. We will examine current reports on the conditions faced by professional organizations including the Modern Language Association (MLA), the New Faculty Majority (NFM), and others, and identify positive models for non-tenure track faculty. We will identify how the WPA-Metro Affiliate Group and tenure-track allies can support part and full-time non-tenure track faculty and administrators.
5) Fashioning the Writing Center as an Institution-wide Program”
Facilitator: Brian Fallon/Fashion Institute of Technology/SUNY
This session is about thinking big when it comes to writing center administration, and positioning your writing center at the heart of teaching and learning conversations on campus. Many WAC/WID focused writing centers are already invested in this type of cross-institutional, interdisciplinary effort; however, writing center professionals and tutors often have special insight into teaching and learning practices that are valuable to other departments at your institution. This session will explore how to capitalize on this knowledge in order to effect institutional change and to position your writing center in a leadership role when it comes to writing, thinking, learning, researching, and teaching on campus.
Noon – 1:30PM
Lunchtime Presentation by Susan Miller-Cochran, Director of Freshman Year Program at North Carolina State University
New Building 9.64
2 – 3:15PM Afternoon Discussion/Workshop Groups
1) Cultivating the Writing Studies Tree
Facilitators: Ben Miller/CUNY Graduate Center & Amanda Licastro/CUNY Graduate Center
See description above.
2) Investigating the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing
Facilitators: Peter Khost/Stonybrook/SUNY & Mark McBeth/John Jay/CUNY
See description above.
3) Researching as a Writing Teacher/WPA
Facilitator: Risa Gorelick/College of St. Elizabeth
See description above.
4) Considering Contingent Labor Issues for Writing Programs
Facilitator: Nicole Wallack/Columbia University
See description above.
5) Fashioning the Writing Center as an Institution-wide Program
Facilitator: Brian Fallon/Fashion Institute of Technology/SUNY
See description above.
3:15 – 3:30PM Afternoon Snack/Mingling Time
4:00PM Mina Shaughnessy Speaker Series:
Linda Adler-Kassner and Peter Gray
General Education: Who Decides and Why?
New Building L.61
Enter John Jay College at 524 W. 59th Street (@ 10th Avenue)
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