Category: meeting in the middle

Our 17th Annual Meeting in the Middle will take place in person from at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, March 3, 2023. Please see the CFP below for more information. You can register and submit a proposal to present using this Google Form and submit a payment by visiting this website and selecting the “BOGO” option. Registration is $30 and, as in years past, this is a “Buy One/Get One” cost, covering two persons’ conference registration and membership in Carolinas WPA.

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When: March 3, 2023, 10:00am EST (full schedule to come)

Where: UNC Charlotte, Center City Campus 320 E 9th St., Charlotte, NC 28202

We are beyond thrilled to announce that this year’s Carolinas WPA Meeting in the Middle Conference will be held in person! We return to UNCC’s beautiful uptown campus in Charlotte, and we invite you to join us (CFP details below). Our keynote speaker this year is Kevin Gannon. 

About our keynote speaker: Kevin Gannon is the Director of the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence and Professor of History at Queens University Of Charlotte, in North Carolina. He is the author of Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto, published in April, 2020, as part of the Teaching and Learning in Higher Education series from West Virginia University press. He is a regular contributor to the Chronicle of Higher Education, and his work has appeared in outlets such as Vox, CNN, and The Washington Post. In 2016, he appeared in the Oscar-nominated documentary 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay. You can find Kevin online at his blog, thetattooedprof.com, and on Twitter: @TheTattoedProf

Keynote Presentation:  “Sustaining Communities of Hope”

It might seem perverse to talk about something like “Sustaining Communities of Hope” in our current context, shaped as it is by racism, violence, economic dislocation, political rancor, and—oh, by the way—a global pandemic. In higher education, we find ourselves in an environment of crisis, in teaching and learning spaces that are unfamiliar to many of us and significantly more difficult for all of us. This session WILL NOT talk about “silver linings” or “making the most of the new normal.” In fact, one of the crucial elements of acting with hope is an honest acknowledgement that “normal times” were unsatisfactory and unsustainable. The session will, however, offer some avenues to ground our pedagogy in an ethic of hope, as opposed to a program dictated by fear. In doing so, this session will also critically interrogate the current fascination with “innovation” in higher ed, and think about ways to reclaim that discussion for meaningful, sustainable teaching and learning. 

Conference Theme: In the pandemic, we reached for technology to help us adapt to the new landscapes of learning as classes went from an embodied experience in a classroom to modalities that embraced both synchronous and asynchronous online spaces. We hi-flexed, we hybrid-ed, we pivoted so, so many times! With that memory still very fresh in our minds, we introduce you to this year’s conference theme:

Beyond Resilience: Moving from Reactive to Sustainable Spaces 

How do we process our experiences of the last two years and use what we learned to create sustainable teaching practices?

The global pandemic created such upheaval in academia, and institutions everywhere scrambled to react to unprecedented times. Faculty and staff embraced new technologies, proving we can learn new tricks. But this was all done in reactive space–adjusting the ship to traverse the uncharted waters we found ourselves navigating. It seems we’ve docked on dry land now, after three years braving the wilds. Only now are we reckoning with the collective and individual trauma of the last three years. In processing what we’ve come through, we have an opportunity to consider what kind of learning spaces we want to usher in. We have an opportunity to reframe innovation, think less about the fancy tools we want to use, and focus on ways to bolster sustainability in our programs and courses. How do we take the lessons learned from the pandemic and develop teaching strategies that can weather future storms?

Carolinas WPA welcomes proposals that address this topic, share ideas, insights, reflections that inspire us to process, to move away from reactive spaces into sustainable landscapes. How do you reconsider technology and innovation? What strategies position us to deliver quality instruction regardless of external factors?

We welcome proposals for traditional presentations, where presenters share pedagogies, ideas, experiences from the field. These individual or group/panel presentations are slated for 45-60 minutes total.

Returning this year will be roundtable discussion proposals–you might not have material to present in a traditional sense, but you might be interested in leading, or at least starting, a conversation about a particular issue relating to this question. We’re planning to organize the day based on conceptual groupings for discussion.

To help with considerations for potential discussion concerns, we’ve provided a few broad topics/ideas, but you’re more than welcome to suggest your own. Roundtable discussions are expected to run for roughly 45-60 minutes. 

•  “How do I leverage technologies used during online modalities now that we’re back in person?”
• “I’d like to learn what HIPs (High Impact Practices)  others are seeing success with.” 
• “I’ve made the switch to upgrading, but hitting some road bumps. . I’d love to talk shop with others and trade strategies.” 

Deadline: 11:59pm, Feb. 10th, 2023

We are excited to offer BOGO registration this year for all participants: $30 for two attendees: the registration fee for the paying applicant also covers the cost of annual membership dues for both attendees. To register for the conference, please complete this form AND THEN visit the following page, where you can select the “BOGO” registration for a pair of registrants: http://www.carolinaswpa.org/join-carolinas-wpa/. (If you are registering more than two persons, please be sure to submit a BOGO payment for each pair of registrants.)

Want to bring a TA or graduate student? We might have funds to offset or waive the registration fee. Please email bowerss@queens.edu to inquire about this offer. 

More information about the event and the Carolinas WPA organization can be found at https://www.carolinaswpa.org; Questions about the event can be sent to Shawn Bowers at bowerss@queens.edu. Questions about registration/payment specifically can be sent to Patrick Bahls at patrick.bahls@gmail.com.

Conference theme: Language, Translingualism, and Multilingualism

We are excited to send out this call for proposals to present at the Carolinas Writing Program Administrators’ fourteenth annual spring conference, “Meeting in the Middle,” to be held from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on February 14, 2020, at UNC Charlotte.

Our theme for the meeting is language, particularly translingualism and multilingualism, and how the complex systems of meaning we use to communicate inform our composing practices as well as the teaching thereof.

How do students employ their languages and literacies in different situations and environments? For that matter, how are we doing so? How can we recognize and discuss code-switching, code-meshing, and translanguaging as they relate across a variety of contexts? How can we help our students, and learn with them, about how to do so in more rhetorically effective fashions?

Jennifer Eidum from Elon University will present a morning workshop that presents key theories of translingualism and multilingualism as they play out in higher education, with particular focus on first-year writing classrooms. Then, we will shift from theory to practice, exploring specific linguistic & cultural challenges WPAs and writing faculty might encounter in writing spaces (including their own). With an emphasis on collaboration and community-building, participants will leave the workshop with resources, connections, and new ideas for recognizing (and building upon) the linguistic and cultural diversity in their writing programs.

Time will be provided for participants to begin planning activities and assignments for their courses and/or to sketch out structures for relevant language-focused faculty workshops or projects.

Proposal Details

Proposal Deadline: Wednesday, January 29, 2020. We have a quick turnaround and presenters will be notified by Monday, February 3, in order to have as much time as possible to make travel arrangements.

You do not have to present to attend! We welcome you regardless! That said, those whose proposals are accepted will be listed on the formal agenda for the conference–which might help you advocate for travel funding. Proposals will also help us plan appropriate groups and design activities around members’ goals.

We encourage both individual and team proposals from people in the Carolinas who are working in any teaching or administrative positions related to writing. We also welcome creative interpretation, and deviation, from this year’s theme.

Three different presentation types reflect members’ interests:

1. Problem: Describe a teaching, program leadership, or research problem that you would like help thinking about with other attendees. 10-15 minutes includes feedback time.
2. Showcase: Share a teaching method or writing program leadership strategy that is working well at your site. Or present findings from a study you’re involved in that would interest writing teachers and WPAs. 10-15 minutes includes feedback time.
3. Other: You have an idea that doesn’t fit either category. Explain! You still have 10-15 minutes to present.

Proposals should include:

• Name and contact information (email, phone, home institution) for each person associated with your proposal
• Type of presentation (problem, showcase, other)
• Title and brief description of your presentation for the conference agenda
• Your specific goals for presenting

Please use this proposal form.

Registration

The registration price of $40.00 includes lunch and the opportunity to bring a guest for free (who also gets lunch!). Parking options are limited near the building (see “Parking” below). Carpooling is encouraged!

The registration deadline is Friday, February 7, 2020. Registration is now open on the Carolinas WPA website.

When you “bring a guest for free,” you must register the guest when you register yourself.

Parking

In the past, attendees had the option to purchase event parking passes as part of conference registration. Unfortunately, event parking is currently unavailable, although there are several pay-to-park options nearby. From the UNC Charlotte Center City website:

“Due to construction and other activity surrounding UNC Charlotte Center City, parking is extremely limited. The parking lots adjacent to Center City (422 E. 9th Street and 319 E. 9th Street) are currently reserved for faculty, staff and students with a University-issued parking permit.  Please encourage visitors to prepare and plan for their visit to Center City, including consideration of carpooling and ride services.”

“Visitor parking for events is currently not available. There are a number of pay-to-park options within walking distance of Center City.  Seventh Street Parking Deck is a short walk through First Ward Park. Visitors can pay to park by the hour. Additional pay-to-park options can be found on the Preferred Parking website. The closest of these is 422 E 9th Street on the corner of 9th and Brevard Street. Other nearby lots are at 8th & College, 9th & College, and 9th & Tryon. There are metered spaces on Brevard and 8th Street to pay during the day. These meters are free after 6pm weekdays and all day on weekends.”

Map (in .png image form) of parking options in the Center City vicinity.

Hotels

Google map of hotels near the conference.

Questions or comments? Direct them to Kevin Brock at brockkm2@mailbox.sc.edu.