Category: conferences

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 10^th 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 10^th 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. 

Ninth Annual CarolinasWPA Fall 2012 Conference

Tapping Institutional Opportunities

September 17-19, 2012 | Wildacres Retreat, Little Switzerland, NC (Directions)

*Proposal deadline: Friday, August 24^th

Conference Theme and Design – The Carolinas Writing Program Administrators will hold its annual fall gathering at Wildacres Retreat Center with occasion for attendees to reflection on a variety of local priorities, providing possibilities for advancing goals associated with local writing programs. Those local priorities might range from QEPs to program collaborations to strategic planning initiatives to any number of other partnerships. We especially invite proposals that focus on ways that regional WPAs have established partnerships among their writing programs.

We will also offer time at Wildacres for WPAs who are planning to attend SAMLA in November to meet and discuss, so if you are part of a SAMLA panel, please let us know how much time you would like to have for a planning session.

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 about tapping institutional opportunities.

The conference will begin at 5:00 pm on Monday, September 17, and will conclude at 10:00 am on Wednesday, September 19.

Featured session leaders to be announced.

Proposals – We invite proposals from individuals or groups from schools across the Carolinas. Each proposal should be no more than 700 words and should contain the following:

Include a description of some local priority that you have as a WPA:

• Are you presenting as part of the Carolinas SAMLA clusters? If so, what is your focus?
• Are you working on a QEP, a professional development initiative, or a programmatic collaboration?
• Are you involved with a strategic planning initiative or a partnership?
• Can you share any heuristics or programming strategies of interest to other regional WPAs?

Provide the names and contact information (email and phone) for each person affiliated with your proposal. Be sure to title your proposal and submit it via email to Lynne Rhodes (lynner@usca.edu) and Tony Atkins (atkinsa@uncw.edu) by Fri., Aug. 24, 2012.

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 some colleagues from your institution.

Registration and Cost – The registration price of $170 includes lodging and 5 meals at Wildacres, as well as all conference materials. Registration will open August 3rd, and registration is due by September 3rd; space is limited, so register early.

Questions or Comments? – Contact Lynne Rhodes at lynner@usca.edu or Tony Atkins at atkinsa@uncw.edu.