The CASDW Annual Award for the Best Article or Chapter in Writing and Discourse Studies recognizes the best journal article or book chapter published during the 2019 calendar year by a CASDW member. Co-authored articles or chapters will be eligible as long as one of the authors is a CASDW member.

The deadline for nominations is March 16, 2020. The winner of the award will be announced at the CASDW Annual Conference.  Authors are invited to nominate their own publications as well as those of other CASDW members. In order to be eligible, nominees must have been CASDW members in both 2019 and 2020.

The assessment criteria for the award are as follows: (1) the overall quality of the writing and thinking; (2) the significance of the question(s) addressed in the research; (3) the importance of the new knowledge presented in the article; and (3) and methodological rigour and/or innovation.

The award includes a prize of $100 and a one-year CASDW membership for the following year.

Applicant/nominees should send a PDF of the journal article or book chapter, as well as a complete reference, to the committee listed below:

Boba Samuels

Sara Doody

James Corcoran

The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill invites applications for the position of English Language Specialist. This is a full-time, permanent, EHRA-Non Faculty position in an innovative, busy center that offers both onsite and online writing support. The English Language Specialist will collaborate with the Center’s existing English Language Specialists to design and deliver programming to support the development of advanced academic English to matriculated graduate students whose first language is not English.

Minimum qualifications include a Master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Linguistics, Foreign Language Education, or related field (PH.D. preferred). Minimum experience is 2-5 years teaching English as a Second Language at the college level or relevant experience. Demonstrated skill teaching academic English for graduate students, prior employment in a college level writing center, and tech or web skills are advantages.

Closing date is February 6. More information can be found here.

To strengthen an existing focus on communication across the curriculum, the SpeakWrite Program and the Department of English at West Virginia University invite applications for a teaching faculty position at the rank of Instructor or Teaching Assistant Professor of English. The SpeakWrite Specialist will participate in Writing Studio and SpeakWrite Advisory Board meetings, and will be evaluated annually based on evidence of effective and high-quality teaching and service, especially as related to the SpeakWrite initiative’s focus on communication across the disciplines.

Teaching faculty appointments at WVU are full-time, promotable, non-tenure track, renewable term appointments with no limit on the number of terms. This appointment starts August 14, 2020. Teaching positions normally carry a 4/4 course load. The SpeakWrite specialist will, however, typically teach three academic writing or communication-intensive courses per semester with one-course reassignment each semester to support the SpeakWrite program. Depending on program needs, summer responsibilities may be assigned for additional compensation.

At the time of appointment, a candidate must hold a master’s or doctorate degree in English, Composition, Rhetoric, TESOL, linguistics, or a related field that emphasizes effective communication practices.  Other qualifications include demonstrated familiarity with effective communication practices across disciplines, inclusive pedagogy practices, and the needs of multilingual or translingual writers and speakers; demonstrated ability to teach communication-intensive courses at the college level; and excellent written and oral communication skills.

To apply, visit here, navigate to the position title listed above, and submit a single PDF file that includes (1) a letter describing your qualifications and your potential to further our progress in building a diverse and inclusive academic community (which will be evaluated without regard to your personal demographics); (2) a CV with contact information for three references; and (3) syllabi for two undergraduate writing or communication-intensive courses that you have taught at the college level. Additional materials may be requested later. Review of completed applications will begin on March 1, 2020, and will continue until the position is filled. We will acknowledge all applications and plan to conduct initial interviews via Skype or phone. For more information about the position, contact Laura Brady.

The George Mason University Writing Center invites applications for the position of English as a Second Language (ESL) Specialist. This is a 12-month, full-time administrative faculty position that begins on July 13, 2020. The ESL Specialist will join a staff of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates in a busy, thriving writing center that serves undergraduate and graduate writers in all degree programs across the university. This individual will collaborate with Writing Center staff to support multilingual international and domestic students at Mason through individual consultations, workshops, and writing groups; and to support tutors who work with multilingual writers. For full consideration, applicants must apply by February 28. More information can be found here. 

Twelfth Annual CASDW-ACR Conference

Visions for Writing Studies

May 30 – June 1, 2020

London, Ontario

CALL FOR PROPOSALS PDF (Bilingual)

New proposal submission deadline: January 20th, 2020

The Canadian Association for the Study of Discourse and Writing-l’Association Canadienne de rédactologie welcomes proposals for workshops and research presentations on any current topic/issue in the study and teaching of writing, communication, discourse, and language. We encourage interdisciplinary and inter-organizational collaborations.

This year’s Congress theme calls attention to divisions and exclusions across the academy. Divisions can be viewed in multiple ways in terms of:

• fields, foci, and research methods;
• institutional contexts and Canadian and international sites of scholarship;
• the hierarchies in which administrators, tenured and untenured faculty, instructors, and students are caught up;
• and access, accommodation, inclusion, and equity for scholars, students, professionals, and publics within communities of practice.

Like many disciplines, writing studies has a whiteness problem (Ratcliffe, 2005; Inoue, 2019), including its tacit approval of settler colonial practices of “white, language supremacy” (Inoue, p.16). Grappling with this problem must involve attending to the absences—or absent presences—in the demographics of writing studies’ conferences, special interest groups, teaching, hiring, and citation practices. Doing so can drive both important research about the ways writing reflects and addresses settler colonialism and racial inequality and the development of a more critical writing studies.

This year’s Congress call invites us to pay critical attention to important questions at the heart of writing studies.

• What visions are there for a critical writing studies in Canada? What disciplines operate and intersect within writing studies? What methods are available for addressing troubling theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological practices within writing studies and across institutional approaches to writing instruction?
• In what ways are genres and genre categories being shaped by Indigenous epistemologies and methods?
• What constraints and affordances do language-diverse students and/or teachers experience in writing classrooms (NCTE, 1974)? How is language diversity viewed by teachers across disciplines and hiring committees within writing studies? How might scholarships, awards, position statements, faculty development challenge barriers to language diversity and translanguaging pedagogies?
• How might the concept of bridging be critically examined? How does bridge-building reinforce exclusions or create divides? What can be learned from bridge failure and collapse? System hacking? System hospicing (Andreotti et al.)?
• How can CASDW-ACR become an organization that drives a critical writing studies in Canada and beyond?

Proposals predominantly draw on work in writing studies, rhetorical genre studies, rhetorical theory, rhetorical analysis, writing centre theory and practice, and professional and technical writing research and practice.

In concert with the call, we encourage non-traditional formats and interdisciplinary collaborations. Tell us what you’d like to do and in how much time. Proposals for traditionally formatted papers, panels, and workshops are welcome, of course. Please consult past programs if you would like to learn more about the work presented at CASDW-ACR, and be sure to consider principles of accessibility, inclusivity, and diversity in your proposed session.

New proposal submission deadline: January 20th, 2020

Submission Information

To submit your proposal, please follow this two-step submission procedure:

1. Complete the submission form, which asks you to provide your personal information as well as the title and short description of your session for the conference program. Access the submission form here or via this link: https://forms.gle/Vh6CjGkFrQjGTpoH9.
2. Submit a de-identified version of your proposal as .docx file with your session title as the document title here.
   This anonymized proposal submission must include:

• • Session title
  • Session format
  • Short description (75 words)
  • Keywords, e.g., rhetorical genre studies (to help identify reviewers with appropriate expertise)
  • Detailed proposal (250 words)
  • References

Please direct any questions or comments to the Program Chair, Dana Landry.

Accepted presenters will be asked to pay the CASDW-ACR membership fee in order to be included on the 2020 Conference Program. For more information about CASDW-ACR and to join the association or renew your membership, please visit our website. For more information about the Congress or to register, please visit their website.

References

Andreotti, V., Stein, S., Ahenakew, C., & Hunt, D. (2015). Mapping interpretations of decolonization in the context of higher education.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 4(1), 21-40.

Inoue, A. (2019). How do we language so people stop killing each other, or what do we do about White Language Supremacy?” CCCC Chair’s Address. Pittsburgh.

Students’ right to their own language. (1974). Conference on College Composition and Communication, 25. Retrieved from https://www2.ncte.org/statement/students-right-to-their-own-language/.

Ratcliffe, K. (2005). Rhetorical listening: Identification, gender, whiteness. Southern Illinois University Press.