Call for Proposals

What is the role of the writing and communication center in making place? Discussions about digital placemaking, the role of the center as a safe space, a space for resistance, and a space for renewal have been at the forefront of conversations over the past several years. More recently, local, national, and global challenges have stretched us even further. We’ve cultivated our digital spaces, revamped much of our physical spaces, and applied creative problem-solving in ways we may have never anticipated.

Significantly, we were also confronted with the opportunity to distinguish important work from habitual work, asking ourselves if our structures, tactics, and policies are vital to the mission. In some cases, we’ve reevaluated our missions. In addition to the adaptations we’ve made to our own centers, we coached students through their processes of goal confirmation and tactics for achieving them. We worked with teachers asking the same questions as it relates to their courses and disciplines, and acknowledged that if our time and bandwidth are limited, we have to find things to shed. The 21-22 Academic Year has positioned us to ask what should remain of our previous habits, what can change, and what best serves our communicators and our communities.

For the 2022 SCWCA Annual Meeting, we offer this addendum to the question of placemaking: How do writing and communication centers help communicators make their place in and beyond academia? How can we support communicators both in understanding and uncovering the histories and conventions of their disciplines, industries, and fields, but also in embracing their role as agents shaping their futures?

We submit that writing and communication centers are uniquely positioned to do more than help students adapt to and succeed in academia—they can also be spaces for communicators to cultivate skills that equip them to determine the future shapes of their disciplines, industries, and fields. In short, writing centers can help communicators make place.

We are delighted to facilitate sessions that promote dialogue; idea exchange; and collaborative support around shared themes, challenges, and innovations. Submit your original research, case studies, works-in-progress, and tough questions for which you want to hold space. To serve effective collaboration, we especially encourage proposals from students; tutors; first-time presenters; part-time faculty and staff; community-based educators, and educators from early childhood education through adult education, advanced degrees, and certificate programs.

Sample topic areas (or submit your own!):

Uncovering and dismantling historic paradigms in academic communication standards
Translating writing consultation models for other communication modes
Dispelling myths that STEM and design fields are less communication-focused
Accessing multiple pathways to learning via different consultation and tutoring approaches
Interrogating the relationship, politics and/or priorities of higher-order and lower-order concerns
Fostering self-driven communication styles that leverage effective rhetorical strategies
Tutoring disciplinary communication conventions so clients understand conventions rather than merely follow them
Training and supporting tutors who consult for multiple disciplines
Building collaborative relationships between teachers and consultants
Amplifying the role of communication within and across disciplines
Designing and administering communication centers that foster collaboration across classification and discipline

Proposal Submission Guidelines

Please submit the following

A Title for your presentation, poster, roundtable, workshop or SIG
A Proposal (up to 500 words) explaining in detail your topic, your intended takeaways, and key features of your session that will help us understand what you intend to deliver. For workshops, roundtables and SIGs also include your plan for audience engagement and activity. For panels, only the panel coordinator needs to submit a proposal, but be sure to include co-presenter information.
An Abstract (up to 75 words) that we can include in the conference program to make clear to attendees what will occur and what they can take away from the experience.

Please indicate your session type as part of your proposal

Individual Presentation: 15-minute presentation. Individuals will be formed into a panel of 3 to 4 presentations.
Panel Presentation: 3 to 4 presentations of 15-minutes each on a specific theme, work-in progress or question. Panels should plan to reserve a minimum of 15 minutes for questions at the end of the session.
Poster Presentation: SCWCA’s poster session is an opportunity for you to present your work in a setting that simultaneously allows for visual representation and conversation. Submissions for individual or group poster sessions are welcome.
Roundtable Discussion: 15 minutes of introductory framing by the leaders on a specific theme or question, followed by a facilitated discussion among attendees.
Workshop Session: 75-minute interactive sessions that teach and engage participants through discussion, collaborative work, group activities, and/or other methods of involvement toward a concrete outcome they can come away with and apply in their own fields of influence.
Special Interest Group (SIG): Offered during 60- to 75-minute meeting times and scheduled throughout the day. SIGs are typically informal conversations with colleagues and peers who have similar interests, institutional settings, or roles. We also encourage SIGs to address conversations started in the previous conference. Proposals should include a brief description of the special interest, overview of how participants will be involved, and ideal outcomes from the SIG.

Deadline and Submission

Thank you for your interest. The deadline to submit has now passed. Have questions? Contact Annemarie Galeucia at agaleu1@lsu.edu.

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