CALL FOR PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS
The University of Connecticut First-Year Writing Program’s
Tenth Annual Conference on the Teaching of Writing
Co-sponsored by the Aetna Chair of Writing
and the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute
Writing as Translation
Friday, March 27, 2015 at the University of Connecticut, Storrs
Keynote Speaker: Min-Zhan Lu, University of Louisville
with Bruce Horner, University of Louisville
The University of Connecticut’s First-Year Writing Program invites proposals for presentations,
panels, and roundtables from instructors of writing (in all disciplines and programs) for our
Tenth Annual Conference on the Teaching of Writing.
This year’s conference will address issues of translation in the broadest sense. We perceive
translation not only as the transitioning of a text from one language into another, but as a
rendering of ourselves and others in writing. Of course, language translation itself has become a
daily reality for many students and professors of writing. As teachers of writing at higher
education institutions, we cannot assume that Standard English is the lens from which we and
our students consider the world. But translation here also encompasses any act of moving
language from one space or context to another. In a sense, all acts of writing and reading are
translation.
Translation is also an appropriate theme to mark the tenth anniversary of the Teaching of
Writing Conference at the University of Connecticut as we consider how we will translate our
work from the past into the next ten years. To celebrate this milestone, we will welcome two
distinguished speakers, Min-Zhan Lu and Bruce Horner of University of Louisville, leaders in
the scholarship of second language writing and labor.
We invite proposals that consider questions such as these:
• How does the metaphor of translation, a mechanism for moving between language
communities, points of view, and settings, open up new ways of thinking about our work?
• To what degree does our writing involve “translating” other authors or creators?
• How do we view relationships between cultural identity and writing, translingual writing
and global “Englishes”?
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How might we see cross-disciplinary work as translation?
How do we take into account the multiple language lenses that inform academic
conversations?
How do we help our students render and make use of difficult and challenging texts?
How do we conceive of authorship and positionality?
What are the ways in which writing-as-labor translates into value?
What does writing and the teaching of writing look like in 2015 and beyond, and how do we
translate our work using the tools current in universities and culture?
Possible topics might include (but are not limited to) the following:
Cultural Identity &
Writing
Writers’ Agency &
Subjectivity
Collaboration
Multilingual Discourses
Learning from Student
Writing
Writing Outside of
FYW/FYC
Global English(es)
Otherness & Diversity
Producing New
Knowledge
Service Learning &
Writing
First-Year Writing in
High Schools & Other
Spaces
Interdisciplinarity
Program Administration
Social Justice
Writing Centers
Writing in the Disciplines
Classroom Dynamics
Assessment
Contingent Labor
Revision
Writing in the Literature
Classroom
Creative Writing
Writing as Inquiry
Proposals should be 250-300 words. Please fill out the proposal form found at
http://fyw.uconn.edu/instructors/conference/, or provide the following in a .doc, .docx, or .pdf
file:
1) title of the proposal
2) names and email addresses for all presenters (please list one primary contact person)
3) academic institution(s) and program(s) in which presenter(s) study/teach/work
4) description of presentation, panel, or roundtable
5) indication of format and running time (full panels and roundtables are either 60 or 75
minutes; individual presentations should run 15 minutes)
You may submit proposals for more than one presentation; however, you may only present once. Please
indicate that your email contains a conference proposal by writing “Conference Proposal” in the subject
line of the email.
Eligibility: All teachers of writing, regardless of discipline, status (adjunct/graduate
student/staff/faculty), institution, campus or level of teaching experience may submit proposals.
Undergraduate and graduate students are also encouraged to submit proposals. The First-Year
Writing Program also invites proposals for collaborative presentations, panels and/or
roundtable discussions between/among any eligible presenters.
Deadline for submissions:
Email submissions to:
Extended to Friday, February 6th, 2015
[email protected]
Registration Details
• Form available at http://fyw.uconn.edu/instructors/conference/
• $25 registration fee if check (payable to University of Connecticut) postmarked by 3/20
• $30 on-site registration fee
• Free registration for all students (including graduate students)