OWCA’s Third Annual Virtual Conference 2024
The Vital Writing Center: Evolution and Endurance
11-12 April 2024
Call for Proposals
The OWCA invites proposals for its third annual virtual conference focused on the evolution and endurance of the writing center. How can writing centers go further? How has the writing center evolved, and how does it continue to evolve? How does the writing center endure in the face of barriers, criticisms, and misunderstandings? How do we become vital?
Areas to Consider
Proposals for this theme may consider, but are not limited to, the following areas:
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Administration: Budgeting, institutional support, the writing center’s parent department, marketing and branding, physical location, etc.
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Writing Center Staff: Employment, contingency roles, staff professional development, graduate student professionalization, tutor hiring and training, emotional labor, etc.
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Student Populations: Overall enrollment, graduate v. undergraduate, STEM writing, multilingual writers, etc.
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Diversity & Social Justice: Marginalized groups, race/ethnicity, gender and sexuality, diversity, accessibility, access, etc.
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Questions of Value: Misconceptions of the writing center, skills transfer, the writing center and other academic support resources, student retention, writing center assessments, etc.
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The 21st Century: AI (ChatGPT, Grammarly, etc.), multimodality, online v. in person tutoring, synchronous v. asynchronous tutoring, pandemics and other major national or global events/crises, etc.
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Online Writing Centers: Administration, technology, barriers, populations served, synchronous v. asynchronous tutoring, etc.
Submit a Proposal
See the attached CFP for more information about the conference theme, session types, accessibility, and proposal evaluation criteria. Conference proposals are due on 15 October 2023. We encourage all writing center folk to participate, including writing center professionals, graduate students, and undergraduates.
Learn more about submitting your proposal on owca-conference with any questions.
Sincerely,
Erika Maikish, OWCA Conference 2024 Chair
Spencer Harris, OWCA Conference 2024 Co-Chair
OWCA Conference Committee