Our 18th Annual Meeting in the Middle will take place in person from at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, February 9, 2024. Please see the CFP below for more information. You can register and submit a proposal to present using this Google Form and submit a payment by visiting this webpage and selecting the “BOGO” option.

Registration is $30 and, as in years past, this is a “Buy One/Get One” cost, covering two persons’ conference registration and membership in Carolinas WPA.

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Call for Proposals: Carolinas Writing Program Administrators – Meeting in the Middle 2024

When: February 9, 2024, 10:00am EST (full schedule to come)

Where: UNC Charlotte, Dubois Center, 320 E 9th St., Charlotte, NC 28202

We cordially invite you to Carolinas WPA Meeting in the Middle Conference which will be held at UNCC’s uptown campus in Charlotte. 

Keynote Presentation:  “Then & Now”

Almost always, you need to know where you’ve been in order to know where you’re going. In 2023, Carolinas WPA celebrated twenty years of existence, twenty years of fostering mentorship, support, continuing education, allyship, and friendship for writing program centers, programs, instructors, and students. It’s been a long journey, and now is a good time to revisit our past in order to re-envision our future. 

This call extends the work begun at Wildacres this past fall. Nestled in the cocoon of the Blue Ridge mountains, we considered what it means to renew ourselves in the context of our profession and explored how the places we abide change as we change. So then, how has Carolinas WPA changed over time and how can we ensure  this space continues to be a place of invention, invigoration, and support?

We can think of none better to lead on this introspective look than Tracy Ann Morse and Wendy Sharer. They’re both a fundamental part of this organization. Drawing on their article, “The Affiliate as Mentoring Network: The Lasting Work of the Carolinas WPA,” which was co-written with Carolinas WPA co-founders Meg Morgan and Marsha Lee Baker and published in WPA: Writing Program Administration (2020), Tracy and Wendy will share a history of the organization and point to the many gaps it has filled for WPAs and writing instructors across North and South Carolina over its twenty-year history. They will also guide us in discussions about how the organization can grow and change to meet the current and future needs of members and their writing programs.  

Keynote Speakers:

Tracy Ann Morse is the Director of Writing Foundations at East Carolina University, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in rhetoric and composition. Her research focuses on disability studies and writing program administration. Her recent work has been published in Composition Studies, WPA: Writing Program Administration, and College English. Along with Patti Poblete and Wendy Sharer, she currently edits the journal WPA: Writing Program Administration. She served as President of Carolinas WPA from 2015-2017.

Wendy Sharer teaches writing and rhetoric at East Carolina University and specializes in feminist rhetorics, the history of rhetoric, and writing program administration. Along with Tracy Ann Morse and Patti Poblete, she currently edits the journal WPA: Writing Program Administration. She is also the Immediate Past President of the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition (CFSHRC). She has previously held the positions of Director of ECU’s Quality Enhancement Plan, “Write Where You Belong” and Director of Writing Foundations in the Department of English. Additionally, she has served as President of the Carolinas Writing Program Administrators (2009-2012), as a member of Executive Committees of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) and as the Associate Editor for Peitho (the peer-reviewed journal of the CFSHRC). Her current research project is a study of writing instruction in the camps of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the 1930s.

Conference Theme: In a post-pandemic world, the spaces and places where we learn and teach have drastically changed. Hybrid, in-person, synchronous online, asynchronous online – these modalities have extended the classroom in far-reaching ways, which necessitates new lenses in the profession we hold so dear.

Blueprints & Visionboards: 

How do we bring the lens of place, especially as place has changed so much, as a way of mindfulness in our teaching?

In order to move forward, we might have to deconstruct and reconstruct the blueprints of our classroom spaces. What is the essence of what we do? What pillars of our pedagogy stay essential, regardless of the evolving context; what changes are necessary? How has technology, new approaches to the work we do, and emerging research make us better teachers and administrators?  How have our students, and their shifting experiences as learners, impacted the ways we approach our work as we attempt to create invitational spaces for teaching?

Carolinas WPA welcomes proposals that address this evolving landscape alongside the immovable foundations we squarely root into. We invite reflections of this topic, the sharing of ideas and insights that inspire us to process new visions of our classrooms. 

We welcome proposals for traditional presentations, where presenters share pedagogies, ideas, experiences from the field. These individual or group/panel presentations are slated for 45-60 minutes total.

Returning this year will be roundtable discussion proposals–you might not have material to present in a traditional sense, but you might be interested in leading. , or at least starting, a conversation about a particular issue relating to this question. We’re planning to organize the day based on conceptual groupings for discussion.

To help with considerations for potential discussion concerns, we’ve provided a few broad topics/ideas, but you’re more than welcome to suggest your own. Roundtable discussions are expected to run for roughly 45-60 minutes. 

• How can I incorporate location – where might I situate learning beyond my physical or digital classroom?
• “I’d like to create a more inviting LMS for my students and would love to share ideas!”
• “I’ve made the switch to upgrading, but hitting some road bumps. . I’d love to talk shop with others and trade strategies.” 

Deadline: 11:59pm, January 31, 2024

We are excited to offer BOGO registration this year for all participants: $30 for two attendees: the registration fee for the paying applicant also covers the cost of annual membership dues for both attendees. To register for the conference, please complete this registration form (including the names of all registrants) AND THEN visit the following page, where you can select the “BOGO” registration for a pair of registrants: http://www.carolinaswpa.org/join-carolinas-wpa/. (If you are registering more than two persons, please be sure to submit a BOGO payment for each pair of registrants.)

Want to bring a TA or graduate student? We might have funds to offset or waive the registration fee. Please email bowerss@queens.edu to inquire about this offer. 

More information about the event and the Carolinas WPA organization can be found at https://www.carolinaswpa.org; Questions about the event can be sent to Shawn Bowers at bowerss@queens.edu. Questions about registration/payment specifically can be sent to Kevin Brock at brockkm2@mailbox.sc.edu.

17th Annual Fall Carolinas Writing Program Administrators Conference
September 12-14, 2022

Proposal deadline: 11:59 p.m., Thursday, September 1, 2022

Visit this link to register and submit a proposal to speak and visit the Fall Conference website to pay for your registration.

Theme: Presence, Attendance, and Engagement

As we attempt to live and work through difficult times, many of us struggle with questions about how to get by as teachers and scholars, let alone how to persevere or thrive.

Even when students are physically or virtually present, they may not be attending to the concerns we want them to in order to succeed in class. Asking for them to engage with us and with their peers in that work, as important and necessary as it may be, can feel even more daunting, especially when we can barely summon the strength to engage them or our work ourselves. Recognizing and embracing reciprocal teaching and learning invites students to not only be active learners, but also invites them to be teachers. This is a critical component in reciprocity and one that serves everyone that crosses the threshold of a classroom.

And yet we need to do so in order to perform the critical work of our profession: reciprocal teaching, learning, administering programs, and sharing knowledge as well as administrating our writing programs. 

Beyond the classroom, we are members of our local communities. How can we similarly be present in our communities, attending to their–and our–needs, and also engaging them in beneficial, productive, and supportive ways? How can we locate what we need to thrive and how can we offer contributions that, in turn, support our communities?

Put more briefly: how do we facilitate presence, attendance, and engagement?

Carolinas WPA invites submissions for presentations, discussion roundtables, workshop ideas, or other forms of conversation-starters to be held at our fall conference at Wildacres Retreat in Little Switzerland, NC, on Sept. 12-14, 2022.

• Presentations can include (but certainly are limited in imagination!) traditional presentations of research, concepts you’ve tried with meaningful success in the classroom, ideas around pedagogy and teaching you feel are worth sharing, reflections from the field, and so much more! (30 or 60 minute presentations, including Q&A) 
• Discussion roundtables involve large or small group dialogue around a central theme or subtopic. These can include case studies, “problem/solution” scenarios, or practical applications that benefit from group discussions. Responses to published think pieces related to our field or provoking questions that help usher meaningful reflection are also invited. (45 or 60 minute presentations, including Q&A) 
• Workshop ideas are more participatory. These might include developing assignment concepts, revising syllabi based on research, reflection, or new pedagogical approaches, exploring new classroom activities, etc.  (45 or 60 minute presentations, including Q&A) 
• Other possibilities are concepts that are still in creation mode. Maybe it’s an idea you have brewing for publication, or a larger conference. Maybe it’s the beginning stages of IRB study that you’d like feedback for. Maybe it’s just space to share reflections on the past few years and hear, “me, too.”  (30 or 60 minute presentations, including Q&A) 

Proposals include:

1. Names and contact information (email, phone, home institution) for each person associated with your proposal
2. Type of presentation/roundtable/workshop/etc. and time requested, if any
3. A title and 200-word (more or less) description for the program

Deadline for proposals: Thursday, September 1, 2022

We recognize that there are many reasons for caution about an in-person conference, especially a rural retreat, during the COVID pandemic. Wildacres has available at the top of its home page a “Commitment to Care Plan” document outlining the protocols the staff has in place for visitors: https://wildacres.org/ . Additionally, we will look at CDC recommendations leading up to Wildacres. At the moment, we will ask participants to mask indoors during presentations and group meetings. Outdoor and inside personal occupancy spaces (bedrooms) will be left to participant discretion. Please note, masking policies are subject to change. Our wish is to be respectful and safe!

Questions can be sent to Kevin Brock (brockkm2@mailbox.sc.edu) or Shawn Bowers (bowerss@queens.edu).

Registration is now open for this year’s virtual spring gathering of the Carolinas Writing Program Administrators, the 16th Annual Meeting in the Middle. This meeting will take place on Friday, March 4, 2022, beginning at 10:00 a.m., via Zoom. The theme of the conference is “Staying the Course: Where to Find Motivation and Keep It” and the meeting will feature a panel keynote given by Courtney Adams Wooten, Jacob Babb, Kristi Murray Costello, and Kate Navickas, the editors of the book, The Things We Carry: Strategies for Recognizing and Negotiating Emotional Labor in Writing Program Administration.

To register for the conference ($30 covers two persons!), view the CFP, and propose to present, please visit the Meeting in the Middle website. The deadline to register or submit a proposal is 11:59 p.m. on Friday, February 25, 2022.

Please contact Shawn Bowers (bowerss@queens.edu) with questions about the event and Patrick Bahls (pbahls@unca.edu) with questions about registration and payment. We look forward to seeing you in March!

Carolinas WPA Call for Nominations

President-Elect and Executive Board At-Large Representatives for SC and NC

The Executive Board of Carolinas Writing Program Administrators invites nominations for three positions: 1) President-Elect, 2) At-Large South Carolina Representative, and 3) At-Large North Carolina Representative.

 

The Carolinas WPA serves as an affiliate of the Council of Writing Program Administrators. All Executive Board members should be members of both the Council of Writing Program Administrators and the Carolinas WPA (or be willing to obtain such memberships upon election to the board).

 

Nomination Process

Review the open positions below. You may nominate yourself or someone else with their permission. Those elected are expected to attend our upcoming February “Meeting in the Middle” at UNC-Charlotte and the annual fall conference.

 

This nomination requires the nominee’s name, role at their institution (assistant professor, doctoral student, etc.), their institutional affiliation, the role for which they are nominated, and a brief biographical statement from the nominee to be included on the ballot.

 

• Nominations close October 28.
• Online ballots will be available October 31.
• Voting will end November 14.

 

The Executive Board will announce the new board members and their respective positions after the votes have been verified.

 

Nomination form

Open Positions

1. President-Elect

This person will serve a term of two years in this role: January 1, 2019–January 1, 2021, and is expected to move into the President role upon completing a term as President-Elect.

The President-Elect is responsible for organizing the Meeting in the Middle (working with the host institution, developing the theme, inviting speaker/s, food, program, etc.) in collaboration with the President. Second, the President-Elect works directly with the President to encourage a Carolinas WPA presence at other conferences (such as CCCC, CWPA, TYCA, NCETA, SAMLA and/or NCEI). The President-Elect also helps in other capacities like contributing to the Annual Fall Conference each year.

 

2. At-Large Position: South Carolina Representative

This person will serve a term of two years in this role: January 1, 2019–January 1, 2021.

 

3. At-Large Position: North Carolina Representative

This person will serve a term of two years in this role: January 1, 2019–January 1, 2021.

 

At-Large positions on the board serve multiple purposes. One is to ensure representation from both states (NC/SC). Another is to conduct outreach within the representative state to recruit other members from NC/SC and community colleges. At-Large positions help to organize both the Meeting in the Middle and the Annual Fall Retreat. At-Large positions are responsible for managing or otherwise putting together panels for conferences like SAMLA, TYCA, NCETA and/or NCEI. They may contribute in other ways as initiatives arise.

 

Nomination form

 

Please recall that only active Carolinas WPA members can vote! To renew your annual membership prior to voting, you can visit the Carolinas WPA website. The cost of annual membership is just $20.00 for tenure track faculty and $10.00 for all other positions.

 

 

15th Annual Fall Carolinas Writing Program Administrators Conference

September 17-19, 2018 | Wildacres Retreat, Little Switzerland, NC (Directions) | $220/$210 (includes 2 nights lodging, 5 meals)

 

• Proposal deadline:11:59PM Friday, August 24, 2018
• Registration deadline: 11:59PM Monday, September 10, 2018

 

Monday Evening Keynote Speaker: Wendy Sharer, East Carolina University

Tuesday Workshop Leaders: Wendy Sharer and Kerri Bright Flinchbaugh, East Carolina University

 

Promoting Metacognition in the Classroom

 

Metacognition—monitoring, evaluating, and adjusting one’s own approaches to learning—is essential for a writer’s development. Our Monday evening interactive session will introduce participants to research about and fundamental practices for fostering metacognition.

 

Our Tuesday workshop will focus on two related areas: 1) strategies for helping students develop metacognitive awareness of their writing processes, and 2) promoting metacognitive pedagogy through WAC–based professional development. Time will be provided for participants to begin planning activities and assignments for their courses and/or to sketch out structures for metacognition-focused faculty workshops.

 

Conference Schedule and Format. The conference begins at 5:00 pm on Monday, September 17, and concludes at 10:00 am on Wednesday, September 19. Wendy Sharer’s Monday evening interactive keynote session on metacognition will be followed by a full day Tuesday of workshops and presentations for and by writing teachers and program administrators. Non-tenure track members and attendees are invited to gather to talk shop and make connections during the NTT Network portion of the retreat. Paula Patch will convene that group. Unscripted time will be available, too, on the beautiful mountaintop of Wildacres Retreat, with a closing session Wednesday morning. All meals are provided.

Wildacres Retreat is a low-tech, informal setting conducive to relaxing, collaborating, and learning with friends and colleagues across the Carolinas. We welcome teams or solo participants from across our region.

 

Call for Proposals. You are entirely welcome to attend without presenting, but those whose proposals are accepted will be listed on the formal agenda. This may help you advocate for travel funding. Proposals also help us plan appropriate groups and design activities around members’ goals.

 

We encourage individual or team proposals from people in the Carolinas who are working in any teaching, research, or administrative positions related to writing. We also welcome creative interpretation – and deviation – from this year’s theme of Promoting Metacognition in the Classroom.

 

Three different presentation types reflect members’ interests:

 

1. Problem:  Describe a teaching, program leadership, or research problem that you would like help thinking about with other attendees.  20 minutes includes feedback time.
2. Showcase: Share a teaching method or writing program leadership strategy that is working well at your site. Or present findings from a study you’re involved in that would interest writing teachers and WPAs. 20 minutes includes feedback time.
3. Other:  You have an idea for Wildacres that doesn’t fit either category.  Explain! Include how much time you would need between 15-60 minutes.

 

Proposals include:

 

• Names and contact information (email, phone, home institution) for each person associated with your proposal
• Type of presentation (problem, showcase, other)
• A title and brief description for the program
• Your specific goals for presenting

 

Submit your proposal by completing this online proposal form.

 

Registration and Cost. The registration fee of $220 for full-time tenure track faculty and $210 for other faculty and graduate students includes 2 nights’ lodging, and 5 meals at Wildacres, as well as all conference materials and annual voting membership in Carolinas Writing Program Administrators.

 

Deadline. Conferencegoers must register by 11:59PM Monday, September 10, 2018.

 

Plans changed? Registration will be fully refunded if we are notified by 11:59PM Friday, September 7.

 

Questions or Comments? – Contact Collie Fulford, cfulfor1@nccu.edu

 

Keynote Speaker and Workshop Leader: Wendy Sharer

 

Wendy Sharer is professor of English at East Carolina University where she directs the Quality Enhancement Plan, “Write Where You Belong.” Previously, she was ECU’s Director of Writing Foundations for six years. Her interests include composition pedagogy, writing program administration, feminist theory, and the history of rhetoric and composition. She has served as President of the Carolinas Writing Program Administrators and has just completed a term on the Executive Committees of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC).  Additionally, she is Vice President of the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition (CFSHRC) and a member of the editorial boards for the journals WPA: Writing Program Administration and Peitho (the journal of CFSHRC). Now that her term as QEP Director is wrapping up, she plans to return to a research project focused on writing instruction in the camps of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the 1930s.

 

Workshop Leader: Kerri Bright Flinchbaugh

Kerri Bright Flinchbaugh is a former high school English teacher who currently serves as the Assistant Director of East Carolina University’s University Writing Program while also working on a PhD in Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication. As Assistant Director, she coordinates and facilitates faculty development on various aspects of teaching and utilizing writing in courses across the disciplines, develops and organizes programmatic assessment, and directs ECU’s WAC Academy and Advanced Academy – a series of workshops fashioned after the National Writing Project model of professional development for instructors from across the university. She also serves on the leadership team for the Tar River Writing Project. Her research and academic interests include writing studies, writing center & program administration, identity theory, transfer of writing skills, and threshold concepts in composition across the disciplines.  At this time, she is focusing on finishing and defending her dissertation.​

 

 

We are delighted to announce the results of the most recent election of Carolinas Writing Program Administrators Executive Board members! The following folks will join the Board for a two-year term beginning on January 1, 2018:

 

• At-Large Representative, North Carolina: Jan Rieman, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
• At-Large Representative, South Carolina: Jessi Ulmer, Midlands Technical College

 

Congratulations to the new Board members!

 

Candidates’ Statements

 

To Vote: If you are on cwpa@lists.carolinaswpa.org, you will receive an email with a ballot link. Voting closes Sunday, November 26 at 11:59 p.m.

 

Representatives serve two year terms from January 2018-January 2020.

 

Candidate for South Carolina At-Large Representative (vote for one)

 

Jessica Ulmer is an instructor of English at Midlands Technical College in Columbia, SC and a doctoral student in Technical Communication and Rhetoric at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX. Though she began teaching at the middle and high school level back in 2006, as she was completing her second master’s degree, Jessi began teaching at the two-year college level in Massachusetts and Rhode Island while searching for full time work. She soon joined the Two-Year College Association of NCTE and realized her love for all things two-year college. As such, Jessica has been working on an article for Teaching English in the Two Year College called “Writing about Writing at the Two-Year College,” stemming from her master’s thesis on the same topic. She has presented about this at the annual conferences for the Two-Year College Association – NorthEast chapter, the Two-Year College Association – SouthEast chapter, the Two-Year College Association – West chapter and the Council of Writing Program Administrators. An avid proponent for quality composition instruction across the Carolinas, Jessi presented at Wildacres in September 2017 about “Building Bridges” across both states in terms of English department collegiality and composition pedagogy. Since returning to Columbia, she has begun researching WPAs and department chairs at all of the colleges across South Carolina, in the hopes of bolstering SC attendance at CarWPA events as well.

 

Candidates for North Carolina At-Large Representative (vote for one)

 

Cat Mahaffey is the Associate Director of First-Year Writing and a Senior Lecturer in the University Writing Program at UNC Charlotte. She also serves as a Quality Matters Faculty Fellow for the Distance Education Department at UNC Charlotte. Cat has been an active member of Carolinas WPA for five years. Her research interests include online writing instruction (OWI), digital composition, technical and professional writing, and accessibility. Her list of professional affiliations includes the Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA), the Global Society of Online Literacy Educators (GSOLE) and the OWI Standing Group of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC).

 

Jan Rieman is a Senior Lecture in the University Writing Program at UNC Charlotte where she currently serves at First-Year Writing Director. She has taught First-Year Writing for over twenty years at a number of different institutions, from small, private colleges to large, public universities like UNC Charlotte, where she has been since 2007. Her research interests include writing program assessment, translingualism, and anti-racist writing assessment. She is co-editor of Next-Steps: New Directions in Writing about Writing, forthcoming from Utah State UP. Jan has been an active member of Carolinas WPA for five years and is interested in continuing to build on the collective power of the group to affect change for good in the current landscape of higher education in the Carolinas.