Carolinas Writing Program Administrators 11th Annual Fall Conference
Publishing What We Do: The WPA as Researcher
September 15-17, 2014
Little Switzerland, NC
CarolinasWPAFallRetreat2014 (PDF Version of Agenda)
Monday, September 15
4:00-5:30pm: Check-In | North Lodge Lobby |Light snacks will be available in the Canteen
6:30: Dinner | Cafeteria
7:45: Auditorium
Tony Atkins | Welcome & Opening Session
Mike House |“Need-to-know stuff” & the fascinating history behind The Wildacres Retreat Center
Featured Speaker: David Blakesley | “Researching and Publishing in the University”
As if the WPA’s job weren’t challenging enough! We also have the responsibility to ensure that our decisions are based on solid research from both internal and external sources, that our successes are public, and that we foster change with our results, both locally and in the WPA community at-large. How do we do it? I’ll tell the story of one dramatic institutional change in a time of crisis, how we approached the various problems faced by the writing program, and the university, and how we also pre-planned for publication of our story and the research that supported it. Jumping ahead, the presentation will then focus on the state of publishing in our field, how WPAs can find their niche, and what we need to do to ensure a bright future for research in the field.
Tony Atkins | Carolinas WPA President’s Report
9:00: Social/Networking | Canteen (South Lodge)
Tuesday, September 16
8:00am Breakfast |Cafeteria
9:00: Tony Atkins |Announcements & Agenda |North Lodge Meeting Room
Workshop Facilitator: David Blakesley: “Making Your Work as a WPA Public: A Workshop for the Carolinas WPA” (writing “charge” for the day)
The word publishing means “to make public.” For the long-term health of a writing program, there may be nothing more important than publishing your work as a WPA, as well as making the excellent teaching and writing of your instructors and students as public as they can be.
In this workshop, we’ll discuss the challenges of performing the public work of the WPA, opportunities and exigencies for publishing our own research and the writing of students and writing program faculty, the importance of managing our professional and programmatic identities, and of, in short and as Austin Kleon puts it, “showing your work.” Although it appears at first to be a daunting task, it needn’t be, and you’ll learn some secrets for building the profile of your programs, deepening the networks of collaboration in your university, and, in the end, making your job as a WPA easier and more rewarding.
10:00: Round-Table Discussions | Concurrent Session I (A&B)
Session A
- Patrick Bahls | UNC Asheville| “WAC/WID on the move: Charting the Changeover from one General Education Writing Requirement to Another”
- Gwendolynne Reid and Bridget Kozlow | NCSU | “Modularizing the Writing Program: Researching the Implications of the One-Credit WID Course”
Session B
- Megan Hall | NCSU | Activist Mentoring and Collaborative Teaching: Reinventing a GTA Program across Tenure Lines
- Jan Rieman | UNC Charlotte | “Assessment, Professional Development, and the Question of Expertise”
11:00: BREAK
11:15: Round-Table Discussions | Concurrent Session II (A&B)
Session A
- Susan Miller-Cochran | NCSU | “Examining Multilingual Writers’ Perceptions of an Ideal Classroom Space”
- Jessica Pisano | UNC Asheville | “Enhancing Connections: Two Service-Learning Based Approaches to Freshman Composition”
Session B
- Aaron Weekes | UNC Wilmington (UG Researcher) | “Truth is Dead: A Comparison of Gorgias and Nietzsche on Language and Truth”
- Collie Fulford | NCCU | “A Way Out of No Way: Program Development in Hard Times”
12:30pm: Lunch | Cafeteria
1:45: Workshop Facilitator: David Blakesley (Reading discussion) | North Lodge Meeting Room
2:30: Write/Hike/Retreat/Socialize |Carolinas WPA Board Meeting
6:00: Dinner |Cafeteria
7:15 Workshop Facilitator: David Blakesley: (Discussion of writing for the day) | North Lodge Meeting Room
9:00: Bonfire/Retreat/Networking/Music |Bonfire Pit: Below South Lodge
Wednesday, September 17
8:00am Breakfast |Cafeteria
9:00: Workshop Facilitator: David Blakesley |Final thoughts and discussion | North Lodge Meeting Room
Tony Atkins | Plans for SAMLA (2014/2015), MIM, Assessment Survey (2015)
10:00: Departures