This post is written by member Matthew Parfitt.
On May 24-25, 2017, Boston University will host the first New England CCCC Summer Conference. With the theme “Sharing Best Practices,” it will feature panels and roundtables that focus on sharing results from teacher research, the cultivation of scholarly practices for writing instructors, and practical, evidence-based ideas for teaching writing. The organizers (Neal Lerner and Cecelia Musselman of Northeastern University; Joe Bizup and I of Boston University) are expecting about 125 participants.
The registration fee is low ($50 for full-time tenure-track faculty, and $25 for others) and lodging will be available at a reasonable cost. A reception and shared meals (included in registration) will offer additional opportunities for unstructured conversation and allow participants to meet fellow professionals in the region and develop their professional networks.
We are delighted to announce that Richard E. Miller and Ellen Cushman will be giving keynote addresses. Prof. Miller is Chair of the English Department at Rutgers University, and author of Writing at the End of the World (2005) and coauthor, with Ann Jurecic, of Habits of the Creative Mind (2015). Prof. Cushman is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Diversity and Inclusion in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at Northeastern University, and author of several books, most recently The Cherokee Syllabary: Writing the People’s Perseverance (2011). She also co-edits Research in the Teaching of English.
New England is home to about 250 institutions of higher education, with about 1.25 million enrolled students. I’m not sure how many writing instructors work in this area, but the number is large and the vast majority are non-tenure-track, adjuncts, part-timers, or graduate students. Most are unable to attend the national CCCC conference, but there’s a hunger for opportunities to talk with and learn from others in the area who do similar work. We’re excited about this opportunity to come together with other writing instructors and share our research, ideas, experiences, and questions.
It’s not too late to propose a presentation or a panel for the conference (the deadline is February 1), so please consider it. The link for the call for proposals is here and you can submit a proposal here. For the latest news, please “like” our Facebook page. And follow us on Twitter: @necccc17. If you have any questions, please send them to ne.cccc2017@gmail.com. We’ll try to reply within a couple of days.
Matthew Parfitt is associate professor in the Rhetoric Division at the College of General Studies, Boston University. He is the author of Writing in Response (Bedford/St Martins, 2015) and, with Dawn Skorczewski, Pursuing Happiness: A Bedford Spotlight Reader (Bedford/St Martins, 2016). Twitter: @haplologist