Call for Proposals: WPAs in Transition
Courtney Adams Wooten, Jacob Babb, and Brian Ray, eds.
We seek proposals for an edited collection about WPAs transitioning into and out of administrative positions. Although scholarship has focused on a variety of WPA concerns – including assessment, identity, labor, faculty development, graduate education, and many other issues – the field has yet to turn its attention to WPAs during the times when they enter or leave a position. WPA positions typically represent a sort of transition between faculty or staff and administrative roles, but we are focusing on the particularly unstable moments of transition into and out of such positions. The editors have experienced how transitions into and out of such positions can be particularly fraught as WPAs and others in or linked to the program try to adjust to such changes. Building on the narrative structure used in Kitchen Cooks, Plate Twirlers, and Troubadours, this collection will provide portraits of WPAs in transition and contain starting points for considering how WPAs can best work through such often-difficult time periods.
We seek proposals from many kinds of WPAs, including first-year writing program administrators, writing across the curriculum administrators, and writing center administrators; from different types of positions, such as directors, assistant or associate directors, and graduate directors; and from people in different stages of their careers and at different types of institutions. Such variety speaks to the many kinds of transitions into and out of writing programs that those in our field experience and that become part of their professional identities. Proposals that focus on narratives of transitions as the basis for theoretical or practical propositions are particularly desired.
Possible topics could include (but are not limited to):
- Links between WPA transitions and theoretical frameworks, including leadership transitions scholarship, queer theory, feminist theory, or postcolonial theory
- Aspects of decisions to enter into or leave administrative positions (economic, curricular, personal, etc.)
- Real or perceived effects of transitions on various people involved (other administrators on campus, instructors, students, the community, families, etc.)
- Transitions between different types of programs or positions
- Transitions into first administrative positions
- Transitions out of final administrative positions
Proposals of 500 words should be submitted by January 31, 2014; include contact information and academic affiliation. Conditional acceptances will then be given by March 30, 2015, and complete essays of 15-20 pages solicited. Acceptance into the collection will be based on these drafts, which are due July 1, 2015.
Proposals Due: January 31, 2015
Conditional Acceptances: March 30, 2015
First Complete Draft due: July 1, 2015
Revised Drafts Due: October 1, 2015
Collection Submitted to Publisher: November 1, 2015
Prospective contributors may send proposals or queries to wpatransitions@gmail.com.