For our Fall 2021 meeting, we invite our PWPA colleagues to consider the ways in which higher education writing instruction can address issues of equality and diversity in the classroom and in our students’ lives. With the ongoing pandemic and the national attention being paid to the Black Lives Matter movement, we can take this time to reflect on our own classroom practices, curricular choices, and assessment practices that affect our students and their experiences in the classroom.
Our Zoom-based gathering will feature a variety of sessions for learning and conversation.
Featured sessions include:
A workshop led by Dr. Sophie Bell (St. John’s University). The aim of this workshop is to expand racial literacy in school communities through faculty reflection on race in our homes and schools. Faculty in this workshop will expand our capacity for critical conversation about our roles in the legacies of racial inequity and division that surround us. Faculty will discuss any implications for their teaching.
Dr. Bell studies rhetoric and composition, culturally sustaining pedagogies, literacy and education, American literatures, and race, ethnicity, and culture. Her 2021 book, Mapping Racial Literacies: College Students Write about Race and Segregation, explores how her students’ writing contributes to and reshapes contemporary understandings of how US and global citizens are thinking about race. She has published articles in Composition Forum, Journal of College Literacy and Learning, Studies in American Fiction, and Radical Teacher. She is active in faculty collaborations for equity-focused professional development.
A separate reading discussion of April Baker-Bell’s 2020 book Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy. Baker-Bells’ book presents ethnographic research about how Black students experience and navigate schooling and other contexts where Black identities and language are marginalized. We ask that all participants in this discussion have read Baker-Bell’s book prior to our meeting, and we will be making PWPA-purchased digital copies available to part-time faculty members or graduate students working in our members’ programs. See the link below for requesting a digital copy.
Proposals
We invite proposals from writing programs or groups of colleagues to facilitate roundtable conversations, interactive workshops, or lightning talks related to any issues of teaching writing in the college classroom.
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- Roundtable Conversations (50 minutes). For Roundtable Conversations, we invite proposals for structured conversations co-facilitated by two or three colleagues focusing on a shared theme/question/issue. Proposals should detail the theme/problem/issue under discussion; the goals and structure of the roundtable conversation; and methods for engaging the audience.
- Interactive Workshops (50 minutes). For Interactive Workshops, we invite proposals for “hands-on” activities co-facilitated by two or three colleagues focusing on skills or practices related to the Spring 2021 meeting theme. Proposals should detail the goals and structure of the workshop and the methods for engaging participants in “doing” or “creating.”
- Lightning Talks (5 minutes). For Lightning Talks, we invite individuals to propose brief talks focused on one aspect of the Fall 2021 meeting theme. This is a good opportunity to share an assignment, an emerging research question, etc.
We encourage colleagues from multiple institutions or within the same institution to collaborate on these proposals. We encourage proposals from part-time faculty and graduate students.
RSVP and/or Submit Proposals
Registration is completely free and open to all writing program administrators, writing instructors, and related colleagues in the region.
We are especially interested in meeting faculty from two-year colleges, minority-serving institutions, and those located in our wider regional geography beyond the Philly area: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware.
You’re welcome to drop in for part of the day or to stay for everything. We’ll send the Zoom and other information to all registered participants as we get closer to the date of the event.
Please use the following links to RSVP for the PWPA Fall 2021 meeting and/or to submit a proposal: