Why We Must Meet in 2026
The American two-year college is currently a site of intense struggle. We see it in the legislative surveillance of our syllabuses, the increasing labor burdens on our working conditions, and the political pressures that threaten to erase the humanity of our students and our disciplines. In an era of declining enrollment and government push for "efficiency," the act of being present—for our students and for each other—is an urgent act of emboldening ourselves and self-care.
We invite you to move beyond the screen
TYCA-Southwest 2026 is a call to move from observation to action. We are gathering in Austin to build pedagogical sovereignty. This is a high-impact, professional training ground designed to provide a direct pedagogical and social return on investment (ROI) for your classroom, your students, and your institution.
TYCA-Southwest is not a destination for passive observation. It is an invitation to the front lines of our expertise and experiences. We will gather in Austin, Texas, to reclaim the essential nature of the humanities and to build a pedagogical sovereignty that protects our classrooms and our communities. Whether you are a veteran faculty member, an adjunct colleague, or a graduate student, we invite you to share the research and strategies that keep you present and the innovations that keep your students seen.
Two Days — Two Modalities — Two Genres
Friday: The Praxis Circle Model
To maximize the value of your time and travel, Friday’s sessions will center on praxis circles. These are not traditional presentations; they are intensive, 90-minute collaborative design labs.
We invite you to say what you need to say, work what you need to work, ask what you need to ask. We invite you to bring your challenges and work shoulder-to-shoulder to make change in your classes and in your college.
In a praxis circle, you don’t just take notes—you build. Moderators will drive conversation about one of the four topic strands below. Participants will arrive with current course materials and instruments and leave with a peer-reviewed curriculum that is resistant to surveillance, optimized for student labor schedules, and designed to drive engagement through community relevance.
Saturday: Innovation Panels
Saturday’s innovation panels reject the passive lecture. These video-enabled sessions are forums designed to scale our collective response to institutional crises.
And so we invite you to show how you are changing your pedagogy, your department, your professional life, your self care to protect yourself and your students. Your discussion is essential for the larger conference theme of “being present” and returning our lives as human-centered
Rather than presentations, moderators offer a ten-minute "lightning provocation" on a specific challenge—enrollment, surveillance, or labor, for example—followed by facilitated, multi-campus dialogue.
Whether joining in Austin or virtually, Saturday focuses on high-impact knowledge sharing. We are not just presenting research; we are crowdsourcing survival strategies and bringing more voices into the fight for the future of the community college.
Four Strategic Strands for Submission
We invite proposals for praxis circle moderators (Friday) and innovation panels (Saturday) in the following tracks:
1. Curriculum Redesign: Building the Audit-Resistant Syllabus
How do we maintain critical, inclusive rigor in a climate of surveillance? We seek proposals for labs that "cross-walk" inclusive pedagogy with state mandates, creating creative and inclusive syllabi that satisfy institutional requirements while protecting the human-centered inquiry essential to the Southwest. Possible topics:
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Designing AI-resistant prompts that require embodied knowledge
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Drafting "safe harbor" syllabi and reading lists using translingual strategies to protect critical pedagogy
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Using GIS mapping to incorporate spatial data and counter-mapping into our curriculum
2. Reading Instruction: Literacy for the Students’ 40-Hour Work Week
How do we teach deep reading when time is a scarce resource? This strand focuses on high-impact reading strategies—utilizing AI-scaffolded support and mobile-synchronicity—to ensure our students achieve cognitive gain without sacrificing their livelihoods. Possible topics:
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Reading in/ via AI
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Cognitive development and endurance
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Justify that reading (including contra mis/disinformation) is literally an essential practice for a liberated society
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Non-English natives developing English reading expectations
3. Human-Centered Pedagogy: Counter-Surveillance and Ethics of Care
How do we protect our students’ privacy and presence? We seek labs focused on the liberative mission of education for the classroom against LMS- and PDS-based* surveillance and automated auditing. This includes developing labor-based grading contracts and trauma-informed feedback protocols that support our first-generation-in-college students. Possible topics:
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Teaching in migration threats
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Food insecurity
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Social alienation and isolation
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Brain development v/v screen addictions
4. Narrative Sovereignty: Making Literature and Creative Writing Essential
How do we reverse the decline of the humanities? We seek proposals that reposition Literature and Creative Writing as tools for civic survival. By integrating "testimonio" and documentary poetics, we show our communities—and our administrators—that these courses are the intellectual self-defense necessary for a functioning democracy. Possible topics:
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Guerrilla humanities
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Creative writing as advocacy
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Literature from the borderlands
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Literature as equipment for living (Burke)
Contact us with questions and ideas about your participation: TYCA.so…@gmail.com
Bruce J. Martin
TYCA-Southwest 2026 Conference Chair