2020 WACSI Has Been Postponed to August 1-4, 2021

Those registered for the 2020 WACSI will receive first priority for what is now the 2021 WACSI.

2020 AWAC Annual Open Business Meeting via Zoom

All are welcome to attend the 2020 AWAC Annual Open Business Meeting, which will take place via Zoom on Tuesday, June 9, 3:30-5:00 pm EDT.

At this meeting, the Executive Board will present the annual report and committees will lead small group discussions to share activities, ask for feedback, and gather ideas.

AWAC members will be emailed a Zoom link; non-AWAC members are welcome and may register here to receive the Zoom link.

May 7th Virtual Workshop: Designing and Using Writing-to-Learn Assignments – obsolete

The AWAC Mentoring Committee is offering the second workshop in our series on WAC pedagogy, “Designing and Using Writing-to-Learn Assignments.” The workshop is presented by Marty Townsend, Professor of Emerita of English of University of Missouri, and Chris Anson, Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Campus Writing and Speaking Program at North Carolina State University. The workshop will take place virtually via Zoom on Thursday, May 7th, 2:00-3:30 Eastern Time

The relationship between writing and learning has been a fundamental part of the WAC movement from its beginnings. When students write frequently and informally about the material of their courses, they experience deeper learning—stronger analysis, synthesis, and integration of ideas—and enhanced reading processes (Graham & Hebert, 2010). And when this low-stakes writing is woven into the fabric of their courses, class sessions can be more engaging and socially dynamic.

In this interactive workshop, Marty Townsend and Chris Anson will explain the theoretical orientation of writing to learn, including distinctions between writing to learn and more formal, higher-stakes writing, and then engage participants in methods for designing and evaluating effective, learning-based writing assignments and integrating them into their courses to enhance student engagement.

Presenter Bios:

Marty Townsend is Professor Emerita of English at the University of Missouri (MU) and former Director of MU’s award-winning Campus Writing Program (from 1991-2006). Marty has spoken, consulted, and led faculty workshops at over 100 colleges and universities in the U.S. and in dozens of international settings.  She has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses on writing. Her research interests include WAC, WID, writing assessment, and writing program administration. She is a passionate advocate for teaching writing in all disciplines.

Chris Anson is Distinguished University Professor, Alumni Association Distinguished Graduate Professor, and Director of the Campus Writing and Speaking Program at North Carolina State University, where he works with faculty across the disciplines to enhance writing and speaking instruction. He has published 19 books and 140 articles and book chapters relating to writing, WAC, and WID, and has spoken and led faculty workshops across the U.S. and in 33 other countries. He is Past Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication and Past President of the Council of Writing Program Administrators, and is co-chair of AWAC’s International Collaborations Committee. He is currently co-editing a new collection on the writing-enriched (WEC) approach to writing across the curriculum. His full c.v. is at www.ansonica.net

The workshop is free to AWAC members with advanced registration. The workshop will be archived for members on the AWAC website. The deadline to register is 5:00pm on May 5th. You will be sent an access link the day before the workshop. 

To register, follow the link to the event at {memberonly}http://wacassociation.org/events/#!event/2020/5/7/awac-virtual-workshop-designing-and-using-writing-to-learn-assignments

Seeking nominations for AWAC/WAC Clearinghouse Awards

The Association for Writing Across the Curriculum and the WAC Clearinghouse are seeking nominations for awards that recognize contributions to the WAC community through scholarship and achievements. 

Awardees will be recognized at the 2021 International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference (IWAC). Winners will receive an engraved plaque; winners will also be listed on the AWAC website and receive a letter for their promotion and/or tenure files.

Nomination deadline: March 1, 2021. Self-nominations are welcomed and encouraged.

Originally, these awards were planned to be given at the 2020 IWAC Conference. As the conference was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a new deadline was set. Nominations collected during 2019 will remain included.

Questions may be directed to Mike Palmquist (ude.etatsoloc@tsiuqmlap.ekim) and Michelle Cox (ude.llenroc@xoc.ellehcim).

See below for award criteria and nomination information for each award.

Publication Awards

These awards recognize significant contributions to WAC scholarship. All nominated publications must have been published in 2018, 2019, or 2020. To make a nomination, email a brief letter with the following information to the award committee chair: bibliographic information for the work being nominated; a brief (250 word) rationale for your nomination; if handy, the email address(es) of the author(s) of the work being nominated; if handy, a PDF of or link to an open-access version of the work being nominated. If the work is a non-open-access book, the award committee chair will contact the publisher for copies. 

Award Description Award Committee Chair
Best WAC Monograph This award recognizes the best authored book (including books by multiple authors) that makes an exceptional contribution to WAC scholarship, including (but not limited to) WAC programming, administration, pedagogy, and impact.  Susan Wolff Murphy
ude.ccumat@yhprum.nasus 
Best WAC Edited Collection This award recognizes the best edited collection that makes an exceptional contribution to WAC scholarship, including (but not limited to) WAC programming, administration, pedagogy, and impact.  David Russell
ude.etatsai@lessurrd 
Best WAC Dissertation This award recognizes the best dissertation that makes an exceptional contribution to WAC scholarship, including (but not limited to) WAC programming, administration, pedagogy, and impact. The dissertation must have been accepted by a degree-granting institution and the writer of the dissertation must have received the degree during 2018, 2019, or 2020. Joan Mullin
ude.ccnu@04illumj  
Best WAC Article or Chapter Focused on Research This award recognizes a research-based article or chapter that makes an exceptional contribution to WAC. Nominated work should primarily offer the methodology and results of a research study, even if the findings have programmatic, theoretical, or pragmatic implications. Mya Poe
ude.nretsaehtron@eop.m
Best WAC Article or Chapter Focused on Pedagogy, Theory, or Practice This award recognizes the best article or chapter that makes an exceptional contribution to WAC scholarship in the areas of pedagogy, theory or practice. Nominated work should primarily offer us theoretical ways of approaching WAC work, discussions of program design and operation, or insights regarding pedagogy, even if this work is based in research. Heather Falconer
ude.yrruc@renoclaf.rehtaeh

Achievement Awards

These awards recognize significant contributions of scholars who have made significant contributions to the field of WAC through scholarship, service, or innovative program administration. To make a nomination, email a brief letter with the following information to the award committee chair: the name of the nominee; a brief (250 word) rationale for your nomination; if handy, the email address of the nominee.

Award Description Award committee chair
Early Career Contributions to the Field This award recognizes early career scholars (i.e. graduate students and scholars in the first nine years of their academic career) who have made significant contributions to the field of WAC through scholarship, service, and/or innovative program administration.  Bill Macauley, Jr.
ude.rnu@rjyeluacamw
Distinguished Fellow This award recognizes distinguished scholars (i.e. scholars in field for 10 years plus) who have made significant contributions to the field of WAC through scholarship, service, or innovative program administration.   Brian Hendrickson
ude.uwr@noskcirdnehb 
Diversity and Inclusion This award recognizes scholars (i.e. graduate students, early career, and distinguished) who have promoted diversity and inclusion in the field of WAC through scholarship, service, or innovative program administration.   Maureen Ann Mathison
ude.hatu@nosihtam.neeruam

Virtual WAC Discussion Groups

Given the cancellation of CCCC, the WAC Standing Group and the AWAC Mentoring Committee will hold a remote discussion about WAC on Friday, March 27th from 4:30-5:30 Eastern Time via Zoom. You can access the meeting using this link:https://auburn.zoom.us/j/336120768

We’re excited to have leaders prepared to facilitate discussion on the following topics:

  1. WAC in Times of Disruption (Laurie Ann Britt-Smith and Joan Mullin) 
  2. WAC Theory and Research (Dan Melzer)
  3. WAC Programs Just Getting Started (Jeff Galin) 
  4. Established WAC Programs (Michelle Cox and Joanna Johnson)
  5. WAC at two-year colleges (Mary McMullen Light)
  6. WAC Faculty Development (Jennifer Juszkiewicz and Lee Nickoson)

Chris Basgier be managing the main room for people who aren’t sure where they want to go first. That said, to aid in sorting participants into relevant breakout rooms via Zoom, we’re asking you to please register in advance using this link and indicate which breakout room you would like to attend first. (You can always switch breakouts later on.) Please register by 12:00 p.m. eastern on Friday! 

If you have any questions, please let Chris know (ude.nrubua@reigsab.sirhc). Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you at the end of the week.

Call for Proposals for an AWAC-sponsored panel at ALES

The International Collaborations Committee is organizing an AWAC-sponsored panel for the Latin American Association for the Study of Writing in Higher Education and Professional Contexts (ALES), which will take place in Joao Pessoa, Brazil, November 9-11, 2020. They are seeking proposals from AWAC members who wish to be panelists. Read the full call here. Proposals are due by February 29, 2020.

2020 AWAC Election Results

The AWAC Executive Board is excited to announce the results of the 2020 AWAC Election.

Ann Blakeslee, Eastern Michigan University, has been elected to the position of Incoming Chair of AWAC, effective July 1, 2020. She will serve for three years, rotating to the positions of Chair and Past Chair.

Pamela Flash of the University of Minnesota and Michael Pemberton of Georgia Southern University will serve as Co-chairs of the IWAC Committee. Until their terms start (July 1, 2020), they will serve as Interim Co-chairs, in place of Margaret Marshall, who has stepped down. We thank Margaret for her leadership as the inaugural chair of this committee.

Kristi Girdharry of Babson College will serve as Co-Chair of the Communications Committee. Until her term starts (July 1, 2020), she will serve as Interim Co-chair, alongside Lisa Tremain, as nominated by the Communications Committee and approved by the Executive Committee.

Also on the 2020 AWAC ballot was a change to the articles of incorporation to expand the Executive board from 19 to 25 members, to allow for co-chairs and the formation of new committees. This change passed, with 95.49% of voters in favor of the change.

We thank all AWAC members who took part in this election. The next election will be in January 2021, when the positions of Incoming Chair and Committee Chairs for all but the IWAC Committee will be open.

IWAC Graduate Student Travel Awards

The Association for Writing Across the Curriculum and WAC-GO is excited to announce four graduate student registration scholarshipsfor the upcoming International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference to be held June 3-6, 2020 at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO.

Only graduate students who are members of AWAC are eligible for these awards. Graduate students who are interested in AWAC membership should contact the Board (gro.noitaicossacaw@nimda) to inquire about the availability of sponsored graduate student memberships.

Applications are due April 1, 2020. More details about the scholarship are available here.

Feb. 21 Virtual Workshop: Closing the Assessment Loop–WAC Assessment Options and Strategies – obsolete

The AWAC Mentoring Committee is offering its second virtual workshop on WAC program development and leadership, “Closing the Assessment Loop: WAC Assessment Options and Strategies,” on Friday, February 21st from 1:00-2:00 U.S. EST on Zoom. 

This virtual workshop offers descriptions of several WAC assessment practices that have been used successfully by two well-established WAC programs to “close the loop” for writing assessment. The presenters will speak for 30 minutes and leave 30 minutes for discussions and questions. Over the course of the discussion, other assessment models will be identified and pros and cons of each introduced.

Terry Myers Zawacki, emerita director of the George Mason University WAC program and currently a program consultant, and Tom Polk, interim WAC program director, will describe an ecological approach to both program and discipline-based writing assessment. Terry will describe the department-embedded writing assessment and other processes she developed in collaboration with the associate provost of institutional effectiveness with the goal of proving and improving WAC program effectiveness around faculty teaching-with-writing practices and students’ writing competence. Tom will describe surveys and interviews designed to understand faculty and student perceptions of writing instruction in designated WI courses. He and Terry will then explain current efforts to identify and synthesize the extensive existing institutional data related to student writing across the curriculum for the purpose of sustaining and re-visioning one of the first WAC programs in the country.    

Jeff Galin, founding director of FAU’s WAC program, writing center, and community writing center, will briefly describe three sets of assessment practices: 1) Despite admonitions from some scholars in the field, there are ways to use common rubrics across disciplines for evaluating certain types of academic writing that provide useful and effective strategies for departments to establish benchmarks across traits, identify specific traits to target in a given year, and establish curricular interventions to foster improvement in both teaching and student writing. 2) Assessment within a WEC pilot program provides much more fine-grained assessment practices for participating departments.  3) WAC program self-assessment using sustainability indicators enables WAC programs to track their program’s long-term viability to anticipate program shifts and weaknesses.

The workshop is free to AWAC members with advanced registration. The workshop will be archived on the AWAC website.

To register, click here.

The deadline to register is 5:00pm ET on February 19th. You will be sent an access link the day before the webinar. 

Call for IWAC 2022 Hosting Proposals Released

The IWAC Conference Committee invites proposals for hosting the 2022 International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference. The call can be found at https://iwac.colostate.edu/host/

Proposals should contain relevant information that will help the committee decide why the IWAC conference should be hosted by your institution or a consortium of institutions that you have organized; whether the proposed location is convenient and affordable for international travelers; and whether the hosts have sufficient space, institutional support, and the resources to help run the conference.

Proposals are due April 1, 2020 and should be sent via email to moc.liamg@0202cawi. Proposers should be members of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum

For additional information, contact Mike Palmquist, IWAC 2020 conference director, at moc.liamg@0202cawi