Past Conferences

2011 Conference Reflections

Theme

Turning the Tide

After four decades of the “modern” Writing Center, we are awash in tides of tired thinking, ways of seeing and being that we need to move beyond so that we can move forward. For example, we often claim to understand Writing Center work as “local”; we privilege “the writer, not the writing”; we view outreach as vital; we see connections between tutoring and teaching; we struggle with how to teach sentence-level topics. While these ideas do contain some valuable truths, they are also shopworn. SWCA 2011, then, is an opportunity to turn this tide, an invitation to think anew about what we do. The conference program will feature select, high-quality presentations that interrogate current conceptions of Writing Center work and extend our theory and practice in fresh, provocative, and compelling ways.

Location

The University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, AL

Date

February 17-19, 2011

Keynote Speaker
Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton
Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX

Chair
Luke Niiler, Director of the University Writing Center
The University of Alabama

Conference Center

All sessions, a Thursday reception, and breakfasts and lunches will be held at the Bryant Conference Center on the University of Alabama campus. Parking is available on-site.

SWCA

Conference Schedule

2011 Conference

Theme

Back to the Tutor

Six years ago, the classic 1985 film Back to the Future, which won 13 awards and was nominated for an additional 23, was released on DVD with a new retrospective documentary about its making, gaining it new audiences and media attention. In the film, Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox), a high school senior, time-travels back to 1955 to his parents’ senior year to save the future for himself and his siblings, and in the end makes his parents’ lives better too.

Significantly, Marty serves as a peer tutor to his father, guiding

him to become more confident to act and think for himself. Most

notably, by the film’s end, we see the tangible results of Marty’s

peer tutoring: George grows up to be a published writer of science

fiction novels.

Coincidentally, the year the film hit theaters fell in the middle of a

decade that gave rise to a wave of writing center publications,

specifically texts about peer tutoring. As Harvey Kail notes in his

editor’s remarks for the Fall 2008 special issue of The Writing

Center Journal, dedicated to Kenneth Bruffee and the Brooklyn

Project, “Bruffee publishes in the mid-1980s a series of essays

that famously theorize peer tutoring as a paradigm of social

constructionist pedagogy”(3). Moreover, Kail’s assertion about the

essays is proved by the example of Marty and George from 1985’s

Back to the Future: “Together and separately, they make a

compelling argument for the value of organizing students to take

each other seriously as writers and readers” (3).

As the end-note speaker at the joint IWCA/NCPTW conference in October 2008, Harvey Kail spoke of how far our profession has drifted from talking about what tutors do in tutorials and what they achieve and learn from being tutors. He issued a call to explore and recognize the contributions of our tutors.

The SWCA saw this year as the ideal one to return our focus to our tutors’ voices and experiences, and to look ahead to how their voices create our futures.

Location(s)

Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA (Feb. 12-13)

Mississippi College, Clinton, MS (Feb. 12-13)

Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale-Davie, FL (March 5-6)

Wingate University, Wingate, SC (Feb. 5-6)

2010 Conference– Statewide Conferences (The Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi-Alabama)

MS-AL_Conference_Program

Theme

The Writing Center’s Role in Student Success: 21st Century Strategies for Empowerment Rooted in Culture and Diversity

Location

North Carolina A&T University

Greensboro, NC

Date

February 26-28, 2009

Keynote Speaker

Keith Gilyard

Penn State University

Chair

Hope Jackson, NC A&T University

Conference Program

2009 Conference

2009_SWCA_Conference_Program.pdf

2012Richmond, KY

2011Tuscaloosa, AL

2010(Statewides) Decatur, GA; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Clinton, MS; Wingate, SC

2009Greensboro, NC

2008Savannah, GA

2007Nashville, TN

2006Chapel Hill, NC

2005Charleston, SC

2004Marietta, GA

2003Charlotte, NC

2002Savannah, GA

2001Auburn, AL

2000Savannah, GA

1999Charleston, SC

1998Macon, GA

1997Augusta, GA

1996Myrtle Beach, SC

1995(Conference changed semesters)

1994Winter Park, FL

1993Atlanta, GA

1992Williamsburg, VA

1991Birmingham, AL

1990Washington, D.C.

1989Knoxville, TN

1988Charleston, SC

1987Jacksonville, FL

1986Mobile, AL

1985Chattanooga, TN

1984Columbia, SC

1983Columbia, SC

1982Tuscaloosa, AL

1981Tuscaloosa, AL

SWCA Conferences

Theme

Work in Progress, Destination Unknown

Location

Armstrong Atlantic State University

Savannah, GA

Date

February 7-9, 2008

Keynote Speakers

Christine Cozzens, Agnes Scott College

Kevin Dvorak, St. Thomas University

Michelle Eodice, The University of Oklahoma

Chris Ervin, The University of South Dakota

Chair

Debi Reese

Armstrong Atlantic State University

Web

http://www.llp.armstrong.edu/swca/index.html

2008 Conference

SWCA_Florida_Conference_Program

Dates: February 16 – February 18

Host Site: Noel Studio for Academic Creativity at Eastern Kentucky University

Keynote Speaker: Cynthia L. Selfe

Conference Chair: Dr. Russell Carpenter

Program Coordinators: Shawn Apostel, Trenia Napier, Leslie Valley

Connect with SWCA and the Noel Studio!

SWCA Conference Facebook: www.facebook.com/SWCAConference2012

Noel Studio Facebook: www.facebook.com/noelstudio

Twitter: @noelstudio or #swca2012

Skype: Rusty Carpenter

Conference Photos!

Theme: Next-Gen WC: Composing Spaces, Exploring Ideas

The conference theme encourages us, as individuals and as a field, to think generatively about writing center spaces and the compositions that create and shape them. Let’s reconsider familiar conversations—staffing, budget, and perception—while composing next-generation spaces and exploring new ideas in writing center theory and practice. In true writing center fashion, we encourage a variety of submissions with broad interpretations of the theme.

Types of Submissions

Think creatively about the way you arrange your sessions. Your session is an opportunity to contribute to, and build upon, writing center scholarship. Moreover, we hope you use this conference opportunity to create, invent, and pilot new or provisional ideas. We encourage a variety of modes and media, including hands-on sessions that recognize multiple learning styles and collaboration as key components. Proposals for individual sessions, panels, posters, and multimedia installations are welcome!

Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

We encourage suggestions for SIGs that you would like to facilitate as part of the conference. SIGs are typically informal conversations with your writing center colleagues and peers. If you’re interested in facilitating a SIG at this year’s conference, email russell.carpenter@eku.edu with your idea and a brief description and overview of how participants will be involved. Think creatively about your SIGs! Consider including manipulatives. Encourage innovative conversations and activities. SIGs will last one hour.

Pitch Your Project

Do you have a research topic, dissertation or thesis concept, consulting strategy, theory that needs testing, or any other idea that you’d like feedback on? Consider “pitching your project.” We’ll have a panel of friendly respondents at this session to give you feedback and help you build momentum.