We Are the Storytellers

Last year marked our return to Wildacres, a place that is deeply connected to the story and identity of CarWPA. In the fall of 2023, we rooted into the notion of place and how it can serve to renew us and our pedagogy. Last fall was a return “home” in many ways, when the veil of the global pandemic finally lifted enough for many of us to “normal,”  except we didn’t know what normal meant anymore or if we wanted to even go back to normal. And so, to understand where we want to go, as educators and as a community, we realized we needed to revisit our origin story. In the spring of 2024, at our annual Meeting in the Middle, Wendy Sharer (and Tracy Morse in absentia) shared that story and invited us to consider our key values and what the future of this beloved organization might look like. 

Stories and storytelling are important tools in knowledge-making (Legg & Sullivan, 2018) and stories are critical to community organizing practices (Goldblatt, 2010). Indeed, as Wendy and Tracy shared with us back at MitM, “Storytelling is the discursive form through which we translate our values into the motivation to act.” (Ganz, 2001, p. 279). 

With this in mind, we invite you to the mountains this fall to participate in storytelling, to engage in the work of collective dialogue that enunciates communal values we can usher forward as an organization and bring to our respectives campuses and programs. What stories guide our work? What values inform our practices and pedagogies? And: What stories (“lore”)––about writing program administration, students, the teaching of writing, higher education in the Carolinas, our work more generally––do we need to respond to in our work? Consider stories about policy, programming, faculty feelings, practicalities, politics, pedagogies, diversity and inclusion, scholarship and research, advocacy, archive, collaboration. We want to share stories about the bright and important work we’re doing in our classrooms and schools, and we want to create plenty of space for storymaking and brainstorming.

Conference Schedule and Format. The conference begins at 5:00 pm on Monday, September 16, and concludes at 10:00 am on Wednesday, September 18. On Monday evening, we will host a collective brainstorming session about the stories we want to collect and write. Tuesday will follow with a slate of workshops and presentations, but also with open-ended sessions to allow for networking and ideation. These sessions might be organized in conversation with the conference proposals we receive, but we hope to weave them around ideas of storytelling and rhetorical empathic listening. As always, we strive to create pockets of unscripted time, too. Our time will conclude with a closing session Wednesday morning, where we hope to share some reflections – and maybe even leave with some “story” we started . 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. The main lobby area has wifi, as do some of the classroom meeting spaces, but presentations at Wildacres tend to be projected slides (think PowerPoint or downloaded Canvas slides) or good ol’ paper handouts.

Monday Evening Plenary Session: What Are Our Stories?

This relaxed session will be loosely moderated. Our hope is that members will share their stories – how did you first learn about CarWPA? Who invited you? Why does CarWPA matter? What role does CarWPA serve in the greater community of writing educators and program administrators? We will build off the values Wendy and Tracy shared with us at Meeting in the Middle to consider what values direct our work.

Tuesday Morning Plenary Session: What Stories Sustain Us? 

Using Monday evening’s discussion as a springboard, we’ll spend some time Tuesday morning identifying “hubs” – areas of interest or engagement to create some space to have story circles. 

Hubs might focus on issues that came up from our 2024 MitM (i.e.: documenting and sharing our origin stories, meaningfully engaging DEI in our programs, addressing generative AI in our writing programs, formalizing mentoring/buddy networks, creating collaboration spaces for SOTL and writing studies work). Hubs might also be inspired by 4C’s presentations or reflections. 

Plenary sessions will be facilitated by members of the CarWPA board.

Call for Proposals

We encourage individual or team proposals from people in the Carolinas who are working in any teaching, research, or administrative positions related to writing. Submissions for presentations, discussion roundtables, workshop ideas, or other forms of conversation-starters are all welcome! Below are some general guidelines, but please don’t limit your imagination! This year’s theme is storytelling; in that vein, we invite you to share your stories - what successes are you seeing in the classroom, what stories of struggles do you wish to share, what stories are just beginning?

• Presentations can include 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) 

• Conversation-style presentations that facilitate dialogue around this year’s theme can be centered around “How We Help”: sharing teaching methods of program leadership strategies that are working well at your site. Presenting findings from a study you’re involved in that would be interesting to engage in; and “Help We Need”: describe a teaching, program leadership, or research problem or story you would like help thinking through with other attendees. (both formats: 30 minutes with feedback time)

Proposals include:

• Names and contact information (email, phone, home institution) for each person associated with your proposal

• Type of presentation 

• A title and 200-word (more or less) description for the program

Submit your proposal by completing this online proposal form. Proposals are due by 11:59 pm on Monday, August 26, 2024.  

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.

 Registration and Cost. The registration fee of $240 for full-time tenure track faculty and $220 for other faculty and graduate students includes 2 nights’ lodging in double occupancy rooms, and 5 meals at Wildacres, as well as all conference materials and annual voting membership in Carolinas Writing Program Administrators. 

Registration can be completed at the following link: https://forms.gle/oypGZyeggTAS3T5b9 

Deadline. Conference goers must register by the end of day on Friday, August 30th, 2024.   

Plans changed? Registration will be fully refunded if we are notified by 8 am on September 2, 2024.

LOGISTICS:

Please visit https://wildacres.org/ to get a sense of the location, which truly is serene. All meals are provided at the conference center. Please note below or email Shawn with any dietary needs or restrictions that we should be made aware of. Lodging is dorm style accommodations with private bathroom. Each room has two beds, a private bathroom. Spaces have common areas to hang out -- both indoors and out. If you have a roommate preference, please indicate so on the form.

Questions can be sent to President Shawn Bowers Buxton (bowerss@queens.edu).