Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Carolinas WPA
Making Connections: The WPA as Worker, Writer, and Scholar
September 16-18, 2013 | Wildacres Retreat, Little Switzerland, NC (Directions)
*Proposal deadline: Monday, August 26, 2013
Conference Theme and Design– The Carolinas Council of Writing Program Administrators will hold its annual fall gathering at Wildacres Retreat Center celebrating our 10th Anniversary of Affiliate Status. While the group met before earning affiliate status, we find this the occasion to celebrate! Come and celebrate with us the change of seasons and the sustainability of the Carolinas Writing Program Administrators with Featured Speaker Doug Hesse who will provide a keynote address and facilitate a writing workshop.
This year we want to celebrate the work that we do as WPAs. We invite proposals that consider the writing, service, and work that we do. How do you represent that work in your scholarship? Facilitated by Doug Hesse, we plan to conduct a writing workshop that helps us as researchers and scholars to consider all of the work that we do and how we write and research about that work.
Conference Schedule and Format– The format of the conference will encourage full engagement of participants from a broad variety of institutions and programs. We will mix small, working group discussions with larger presentations/conversations about who we are as writers, researchers, and WPAs.
Featured Speaker
Doug Hesse: “Writers or Administrators? Writerly Identities v. Bureaucratic Gravities.”
This talk will include an exploration of three kinds of core identities for WPAs: writer, scholar, and administrator. These certainly can and do overlap, and to assert that any one of them predominates in a WPA’s work (or in the orientation of the field of WPA work) is to risk a false trinary. We are in an historical moment in which the administrative identity threatens to swallow the others, with detrimental effect. Much of this is due to strong forces in higher education and beyond, and some of it, to the professionalization of the WPA position. Hesse will make a case for countervailing writerly identities that complicate and enrich administrative roles, roles certainly vital but also dangerously beguiling.
The conference will begin at 5:00 pm on Monday, September 16, and will conclude at 10:00 am on Wednesday, September 18.
Proposals – We invite proposals from individuals or groups from schools across the Carolinas. Each proposal should be no more than 500 words and should contain the following:
- One paragraph that describes your project
- One paragraph about your intended audience or publication/presentation venue
- A sentence or two about how the writing workshop might advance your project
Proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis pending space. Provide the names and contact information (email, phone, professional affiliation) for each person associated with your proposal. Be sure to title your proposal and submit it via email to Lynne Rhodes (lynner@usca.edu) and Anthony T. Atkins (atkinsa@uncw.edu) by Monday, August 26, 2013.
Titles and authors of accepted proposals will be included on the conference schedule as formal presentations or contributions. We hope this will open up travel funding for all participants. NOTE: You do not need to present to attend the conference, but if presenting will help you secure funding, we hope you will consider submitting a proposal either individually or with colleagues from your institution.
Registration and Cost – The registration price of $165 includes lodging and 5 meals at Wildacres, as well as all conference materials. The registration deadline is Friday, August 30, 2013, with no refunds after September 7, 2013. Prior to September 7, 2013, you may cancel and receive a full refund.
This year while registering for the conference you will have an option to purchase a $10.00 Carolinas WPA 10th Anniversary Commemorative Long-sleeve t-shirt. Be sure to indicate the size shirt you prefer.
Questions or Comments? – Contact Lynne Rhodes at lynner@usca.edu or Anthony T. Atkins at atkinsa@uncw.edu.