CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR 2016 CCCC WRITING DEMOCRACY POSTER SESSION

Writing Democracy 2016 | Documenting Our Place in History: The Political Turn, Part II

We invite proposals for a poster session on “Documenting Our Place in History: The Political Turn, Part II,” at Writing Democracy workshop at CCCC 2016, April 6, 2016, in Houston, Texas. This poster session will showcase research, teaching, and community-based activities that addresses one or more of the following themes, especially as they might contribute to CCCC 2016 theme, “Writing Strategies for Action”:

Details of the most pressing issues that a “political term” might address, including a critical lens and vocabulary through which to understand these issues and the role of writing teachers within them.

Accounts of Composition/Rhetoric’s political commitment to underrepresented populations before, during, and after they reside in our classrooms.

Insights from recent political movements (local, national, and transnational) as models for the type of political literacy and writing practices which our classrooms might support.

This poster session is organized by a team of faculty and graduate students involved with the Writing Democracy project, an annual This afternoon workshop extends a conversation about the 1930s Federal Writers’ Project begun informally at CCCC 2010, expanded in a conference on Writing Democracy held at Texas A&M University-Commerce in March 2011, and extended still further at three CCCC Workshops (2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015) to return in 2016 to the 2013 workshop’s focus on the “political turn,” specifically the issues around which rhetoric and composition might productively organize. Attendance at each of these annual events has been strong and grows stronger every year. This year, we invite new voices to join our conversation about the role writing can play in a participatory democracy.

For additional information, please visit our blog at http://writingdemocracy.wordpress.com. There, you will find the proposal for this Writing Democracy workshop, including the workshop’s schedule.

After the CCCC review process concludes for the 2016 conference, we will circulate this “call for posters” inviting concrete examples of a “political turn,” expanding upon one or more of the themes listed above. The Poster Session resulting from this open call will include two parts: presentations of posters by their authors (Part I) and a panel of respondents (Part II).

To be considered for this poster session, please submit a 250-word proposal that:

Identifies your presentation title, Explains your project, Indicates the anticipated status of the project by April 6, 2016 (note that projects may just be

beginning, or still in-progress, when you submit this proposal; we are happy to invite poste presentations in its early stages, but we need to know the status to plan), and

Discusses your interest in sharing your research with Writing Democracy workshop attendees.

Submit .doc or .pdf proposals to Shannon Carter via email (Shannon.carter@tamuc.edu or cartershannon@gmail.com) before midnight CST on January 15, 2016. Include contact information for all proposal authors in the body of the email. Proposals will be reviewed by the Writing Democracy Team identified below, and applicants will be notified by January 30th.

To help accepted presenters prepare for the poster session, the planning team will share strategies for designing posters. Accepted presenters also will be invited to participate in a peer review of poster drafts in late February.

We look forward to learning about your work!