News

News about CASDW－ACR and professional events.

Job Opportunity: Faculty of Arts, University of British Columbia

Rachael Cayley
The Coordinated Arts Program (CAP) in the Faculty of Arts, at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver), seeks an experienced and innovative educator to join its faculty as a Lecturer, teaching academic writing and literary studies, with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2018. Applications are due by noon on April 30, 2018.
CAP is a cohort program for first-year students that brings together courses in the social sciences, humanities, and visual and performing arts in research streams. Each CAP stream features a seminar, Arts Studies (ASTU) 100, a 6-credit course which addresses academic research and writing through the study of literature (meeting the Faculty of Arts’ degree requirements for both literature and academic writing). The course also fosters multidisciplinary conversations by foregrounding concepts that recur across the stream’s classes.
The position is expected to be filled for a term of up to three years, which entails a probationary first year.  The Lecturer position is a full-time appointment without review (i.e., non-tenure track), renewable for successive terms, subject to availability of funding and demonstration of excellence in teaching, in accordance with the Collective Agreement between UBC and the UBC Faculty Association. A full-time Lecturer in the Faculty of Arts is responsible for 24 teaching credits (i.e., eight 3-credit courses) and service assignments normally based on a 3-3 load in the Winter sessions and 2 courses in the Summer sessions. The successful candidate will be expected to teach several sections of ASTU 100, and may also teach ASTU 101, a 3-credit course that meets the writing requirement only. ASTU 100 lecturers are also responsible for facilitating collaborative teaching with CAP faculty from other disciplines in a given stream, and contributing to curriculum development, student engagement and support, and program initiatives within CAP.  Please consult the CAP website for a fuller description of the ASTU 100/101 courses. The successful candidate will be expected to teach CAP courses, with the possibility of some teaching assignments in another first-year program in the Faculty of Arts, based on the candidate’s expertise and the needs of CAP and the collaborating unit. In addition, the position will involve administrative responsibilities and service. In cases where extraordinary additional administrative responsibilities are assigned by the Chair, a 3-credit teaching reduction may be granted. The Lecturer will work closely with the CAP Chair and with other instructors in CAP and First-Year Programs in a highly collaborative environment.
Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. The current minimum salary for full-time Lecturers is $62,353. Positions are subject to final budgetary approval.
Applicants must have a PhD in a relevant field, including writing and discourse studies, composition, rhetoric, and literary and cultural studies. Preference will be given to applicants with university-level experience and demonstrated excellence in teaching both literature and academic writing, using an approach that is informed by current theories in writing pedagogy. A background in multi- or interdisciplinarity or collaborative teaching, and evidence of successful team building, collaboration, and curriculum development would be assets, as is a keen interest in the scholarship of teaching and learning.
The following application materials must be submitted by noon on the application deadline: April 30, 2018:

(1) a letter of application indicating your suitability for the position

(2) curriculum vitae, including a list of all post-secondary courses taught

(3) a teaching dossier, including

(a) a statement of teaching philosophy related to the teaching of writing and literature

(b) evidence of teaching effectiveness and success in post-secondary teaching of writing (e.g., student evaluations of teaching and/or reports of peer review of teaching if available)

(c) a proposed syllabus for ASTU 100 in the Individual and Society stream (including a description of the research topic examined, a list of sample texts, anticipated learning outcomes, and descriptions of sample assignments)

Applications must be submitted online as .pdf files. Please follow the instructions provided on the application webpage. In addition, applicants are required to arrange for three signed, confidential letters of reference to be forwarded by April 30, 2018 via email, with “CAP Lecturer” as the subject heading.

New Home for Inkshed Archives

Margaret Procter

CASDW now generously hosts the archives for CASLL (the Canadian Association for the Study of Language and Learning, better known as Inkshed). Start at the Inkshed Archives page on this site and click on links to see the range of material available. You can also use the dropdown list under the “Related Associations” tab on the top menu bar, or search for “Inkshed Archives” from any page in the site.

All 110+ issues of the Inkshed Newsletter (1982-2015) are here in PDF form, along with a selection of reports and conference photos. Inkshed was the first organization to bring together Canadian writing specialists. It published several Newsletters a year and held 30 yearly conferences. The material in these archives reflects the development of writing studies in Canada. Thanks to CASDW for giving this valuable resource a home!

New Special Section of CJSDW/R

Rachael Cayley

A new special section of Vol. 28 of  the Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie has just been published, titled “Play, Visual Strategies and Innovative Approaches to Graduate Student Writing Development,” edited by Britt Amell and Cecile Badenhorst. This section comprises eight pieces by contributors from Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and Thailand.

To read these papers, please visit the CJSDW/R website. 

Call for Nominations: CASDW Award for Best Dissertation

Rachael Cayley

The Joan Pavelich CASDW Annual Award for the Best Dissertation in Writing and Discourse Studies recognizes an outstanding PhD dissertation in Writing Studies, Discourse Studies, Rhetoric, or a cognate field for 2017. The award will be given to a student in a Canadian university or to a Canadian student studying outside Canada. To be eligible, dissertations must have been defended between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017. An announcement of the winning dissertation will be made at the CASDW Annual Conference. Nominees do not need to be CASDW members, and self-nominations are accepted.

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

The deadline for nominations is February 28, 2018. 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 thesis; and (3) and methodological rigour and/or innovation.

Applicants/nominators should send the following items to each member of the selection committee listed below: a PDF file containing the dissertation (or a link to an online repository), a CV, and a cover sheet with the applicant’s full name, citizenship, institution and degree program, and contact information for their primary supervisor.

Rachael Cayley

Shurli Makmillen

Graham Smart

Call for Nominations: CASDW Award for Best Article

Rachael Cayley

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 2017 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 January 31, 2018. 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 2017 and 2018.

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:

Ros Woodhouse

Sarah Banting

Margaret Clow Bohan 

Branka Milenkovic