CFP: TYCA-SE Conference Call on “Rest and Play”

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Dearest colleagues!

We are delighted to invite y’all to submit a proposal for TYCA-SE’s Feb 11-14, 2026 Conference, which will be held in Richmond, Virginia. Please keep reading or click here for the full CFP and submission link.

The 2026 TYCA-SE conference theme is "Rest and Play: Teaching for Student Success in the New Era." We are excited to explore the intersections of REST, as articulated in Tricia Hersey’s Rest is Resistance, and PLAY, as explored in Lynda Barry’s work in Syllabus.

Proposals due by November 15, 2025.

Submit your proposal here: https://forms.gle/aETii216TmamnUZ18

Cheers!
Indigo

Rest and Play: Teaching for Student Success in the New Era

Faculty are experiencing burn out and overwhelm across the country as educators respond to shifts in post-pandemic student learning; crackdowns on inclusive pedagogy; and increasing challenges facing our teaching. TYCA National’s White Paper on Two-Year College English Faculty Workload confirms intensive teaching labor, many uncompensated tasks, and other inequities resulting in an unsustainable workload. Individually, we may feel powerless to support student writers in the age of AI, new communication styles of Gen Z, and unclear global shifts. Collectively, however, we can come together to create sustaining communities that support student success and each other.

What happens if we pair rest and creativity? How might rest and creativity help us shift our teaching practices to better engage students? How might rest and creativity allow us to take care of our teaching selves?

Tricia Hersey, founder of The Nap Ministry and author of Rest is Resistance, offers rest as the antidote to burn out and exploitation. She invites us to explore rest as a “portal to imagine, invent, and heal.” Lynda Barry, MacArthur Genius, professor, writer, and artist, shows how creativity and neuroscience connect to spark authentic learning and critical thinking. In her book, Syllabus, Barry offers classroom activities that create spaces for imagination that lead to inquiry. Taken together, Lynda Barry and Tricia Hersey demonstrate the potential power of innovative approaches to teaching and community. Could this be the kind of magic we all need right now? We invite you to attend TYCA-SE 2026 in Richmond, Virginia and find out!

The 2026 TYCA-SE Conference, held Feb 11-14 in Richmond, VA, invites sessions that explore strategies, ideas, and manifestos for teaching two-year college writing and literature that connect rest and play for improved student outcomes as well as strategies for creating and sustaining community among educators. For example, we invite session proposals about

  • ideas to integrate mental wellness and college composition and literature

  • innovative ways to create community among beleaguered colleagues and students

  • departmental, college, or statewide initiatives and projects that build partnerships and/or reinvent the writing curriculum

  • ways to resist and/or integrate AI in teaching writing that supports student growth and autonomy

  • strategies to support student success in English courses through a “less is more” model

  • innovations in post-pandemic college composition courses

  • models for combining creativity and college writing

  • integrating wraparound services into the compassionate writing classroom

  • methods to reduce the labor and stress of teaching while maintaining deep teaching practices

  • pedagogies for resisting exploitation and oppression

  • strategies for strengthening dual enrollment students and programs

  • sessions that explore creative writers we might turn to in this new era of teaching

  • other emerging approaches that promote engagement and critical thinking

  • & more!

We invite you to be creative and share innovative ideas that encourage faculty and students to rest and play while we all grow as learners. We are seeking submissions for traditional, 45-minute sessions and interactive workshops from all two-year faculty, whether from the southeast region or elsewhere, and we welcome contingent voices (e.g. adjuncts, graduate teaching assistants, dual enrollment) to share their valued perspectives.

Proposals due by November 15, 2025.

Submit your proposal here: https://forms.gle/aETii216TmamnUZ18

Questions? Please email:

  • Dr. Indigo Eriksen (ieriksen) at Northern Virginia Community College; or

  • Dr. Tom Geary (Tgeary) at Tidewater Community College

J. Indigo Eriksen, Ph.D
Director of Faculty Professional Development (interim), NOVA
Professor of English, NVCC Woodbridge

Pronouns: she/her/they