The Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) invites scholars, educators, practitioners, students, and community partners to submit proposals for ATTW 2027, taking place June 10–11, 2027, at Bowie State University.
This year’s conference theme, Insurgent Legacies & Liberated Futures: Technical and Professional Communication in Marginalized Communities, directs us towards the rhetorical and technical communication practices that marginalized communities have long used to pursue justice. As such, it invites us to ground our conference, literally and figuratively, in Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and the marginalized communities they aim to serve. Our host institution, Bowie State University, is Maryland’s oldest HBCU, and its campus is located nearly equally distant between Washington, DC, and Baltimore, MD, which is one of the most diverse stretches of the mid-Atlantic region. Selecting a Historically Black University as the host site for this theme creates an ideal opportunity for collaboration among academic experts in technical communication, community/industry practitioners, and leaders who might not otherwise be legible to the field. Building on the recovery and reclamation work of the Black Technical and Professional Communication Position Statement and Resource Guide, and the body of scholarship that grew from it, this theme seeks to engage all MSIs in recognizing how their histories—often rooted in vocational and trade education—shape our field and its futures.
In the introduction to their special issue of TCQ (McKoy et al., 2022), the Black Technical and Professional Communication Task Force members insist that their work “not [be treated as] a niche or add-on subfield of the discipline of TPC” (221). We extend that imperative to include the work of other globally historically marginalized groups and their cultural institutions and organizations, and we call on members affiliated with them to draw creatively and capably from their archives, customs, traditions, and histories. More broadly, we call on all members of ATTW to reflect on practitioner identity, institutional affiliation, community engagement, and the implementation of ideas outside the mainstream as important topics that align with this focus.
We invite 500-word abstracts (plus references) proposing presentations that engage with the legacies and futures of TPC in globally, historically, and multiply marginalized communities. We encourage proposals that take up capacious definitions of TPC and explore opportunities to study its role in shaping the (formal and informal) institutions, organizations, community dynamics, and embodied rhetorics that have sustained marginalized people groups. We welcome submissions that deviate from or interrogate the norms of academic and professional discourse, including standardized English, respectability, and “professional” attire. To make space for the various kinds of meaning-making practices that this call invites, we offer the following presentation formats:
• Panel Discussions featuring collaborative presentations around a shared topic.
• Roundtable Discussions that encourage conversation through short presentations and audience dialogue.
• Embodied Knowledge Sessions (#ForTheCulture), interactive spaces that center movement, music, storytelling, games, and other cultural practices as meaningful forms of technical and professional communication.
• Graduate Student & Early Career Scholar Support Sessions focused on publishing, dissertation writing, the academic job market, professionalization, and mentoring.
• Community & Industry Mentor Sessions, where practitioners and community leaders share historical, strategic, and creative insights from their lived expertise.
Proposal deadline: September 1, 2026
Acceptance notification: November 16, 2026
Learn more and submit your proposal: https://attw.org/2027-attw-cfp/
Conference Co-Chairs: Dr. Temptaous McKoy (tmckoy) and Dr. Cecilia D. Shelton (sheltonc).
We look forward to seeing the conversations, collaborations, and innovative work that will make ATTW 2027 an inspiring conference.
#ATTW2027 #ForTheCulture #TechnicalCommunication #ProfessionalCommunication #CFP #fortheculture