Hello all –
I hope this email finds you well, and I hope the last of the papers that need to be read or scored goes smoothly for everyone.
It’s with excitement that I share the Call for Proposals for our Annual Meeting in the Middle Conference. Building off of our Wildacres Retreat, we invite everyone to consider the "Power of Praxis." You can read more about the call at the google doc below, but let me highlight a couple of things the board is excited about:
- New Venue: We’re grateful for our UNCC members who have been such gracious hosts and partners, but this year, we’ve moved Meeting the Middle to Furman University in Greenville, SC. We feel this move helps us engage our southern members and both Furman and Greenville make fantastic hosts. As the conference nears, we’ll share maps, places to visit and eat and more information on that front.
- Our keynote speaker is Dr. Al Douglass who comes to us from Wofford College. Her invitation to play is compelling, and I’ll just drop this quote here to tease you: "Freedom, though, is not simply the absence of restriction – our relative sense of freedom to create, to invent, and to reinvent comes out of the conditions in which we write and work, conditions which inevitably include boundaries, expectations, and limits." Open the link below to read more!
We hope you’ll be able to join us next year in Greenville. The links to the website will go live sometime after the holiday break, but if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wBCoA04AdF5HB5IhJjnT4bwQOqLxmvqtU6vuSywgQiY/edit?usp=sharing
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Meeting in the Middle 2025 CFP Draft When: FEB 7, 2025, 9:00am registration; 9:45am start time EST (full schedule to come) Where: Younts Conference Center, Furman University 2005 Rugby Rd, Greenville, SC 29613 We cordially invite you to Carolinas WPA Meeting in the Middle Conference, and we’ve got some BIG news to share. We… docs.google.com |
Finally, I want to thank everyone for their kindness and support during my tenure as president. As a Latinx educator, I often find myself in liminal spaces, operating out of the margins, which often results in big-time imposter syndrome. I’ll never forget Kevin Brock’s invitation to be nominated for this role. I agreed with some reluctance because I felt the shoes too big to fill. You beautiful souls made it easy to be vulnerable. I am so grateful for your grace, for the way you’ve cheered me on, and for the kinship you’ve offered. This is one of the best groups to be affiliated with, and I’m so lucky to be a member. Thank you, truly, from the bottom of my heart.
In kindness,
Shawn
Shawn Bowers (she/her/ella)
Associate Professor, English Department
President, Carolinas Writing Program Administrators
www.queens.edu | 1900 Selwyn Avenue, Charlotte, NC 28274