[CBW_Exec] CBW 2013--Important to READ and REPLY ALL! REPLY ALL! REPLY ALL!

Wed Apr 18 10:34:03 CDT 2012

Hi All, 

I'm thrilled to be a new member of the board! I like Bill's suggestions very much and wanted to join the conversation--thinking out loud with you all.

I think Villanueva would be a great keynote. I had the opportunity to hear him speak at CUNY last fall and some of the things he talked about are helping me think through this discussion. I actually returned to my notes form his talk after reading some of your comments.

Villanueva said that, some years ago, he had decided that "the academy wasn't for [him]" and he "wanted to flip off the entire industry with Bootstraps. It didn't work out that way." Ha. He went on to address issues of race and identity and how they are tied to memory and writing (and higher education). At one point he said, "I always have to balance where I come from with who I am." I realize this is a simple statement, on the surface, but I wonder if it could be relevant to our planning. 

Perhaps we could focus on race, BW, and community (origins? places of belonging?). How does education and writing disrupt, refigure, or intervene on an individual's notions of community? I'm thinking about community because not only Villanueva's talk last fall but also Powell's address last month highlighted which communities (and who's voices, stories) get invited into the discussion / get heard, and which ones get suppressed. I'm never able to think about basic writers or race without thinking about how communities get drawn in higher ed and how an individual's relationship to those communities impacts expression. A focus on race, basic writing, and community could also tap into the "Public Work of Composition" theme in 2013 along the lines of communities both within and beyond the academy, and higher ed's vexed relationships to various publics.

Some ways I can begin to see a sub-focus on community break down:

Students of color and the academic community
Academic communities, home communities
Community in BW programs and classrooms
BW in the academic community
Communities basic writers belong to
Communities that exclude or are rejected by basic writers
Online communities for BW 
Online communities and (the presence/absence of) race
Community, memory, race, and higher ed
Basic writers and their audiences

I like the suggestion to factor in some "down time" for networking and I'd also support two keynotes. After reading Shannon's comments, I'd vote for Villanueva and Steve/Wendy--with some time for the poster sessions and focused discussion in roundtables.

Cheryl

________________________________________
From: Lalicker, William [WLalicker at wcupa.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 8:46 AM
To: Conference of Basic Writing Executive Board; Laura A Gray-Rosendale; Cheryl Smith; rmiller2 at ccbcmd.edu; Michelle.Stevier at dickinsonstate.edu; lynn.reid14 at gmail.com; mdhill1 at hfcc.edu; J. Elizabeth Clark
Subject: RE: [CBW_Exec] CBW 2013--Important to READ and REPLY ALL! REPLY ALL! REPLY ALL!

First, I have to second the YAYs! Sugie will be a great co-chair, continuing with Liz in the ambitious and progressive work that Liz and Hannah have enacted, with the support of our  excellent board and supporters. I join in the welcome of Cheryl, Bob, Michelle, Mike, and Lynn. (And I'm glad you'll be attending, Laura.)

Next, I think this is a very good conversation that Steve and Hannah are engaging. I am substantially supportive of Hannah's position, but am sympathetic to Steve's and I have a hybrid in mind that can honor both, I think. I would like to foreground race as the focus of the workshop overall, but look for mini-presentation poster sessions (the structure we piloted in St. Louis and which I think worked very well) that complicate identity matters along the lines Steven proposes. After all, as Hannah's parenthetical comment shows, identity is often complicated anyway: race overlaps with class; disability and sexuality coexist with race and class in every individual and community. Some items on Steve's "possibilities" list might be our priorities for the mini-presentation poster sessions.

This would allow us to keep a focus that responds to what I would think is the most constant issue for BW (and for CBW membership, board membership, and workshop participation) in our discussions over the years, while addressing matters of marginalization and oppression more holistically over the all-day workshop.

On the "keynoter" question: Malea Powell would be fine, of course, and might do a reprise or spinoff of her St. Louis talk. Another possibility would be Victor Villanueva: he's on target on the main issues, has not actually engaged with the CBW workshop before, and would definitely be a draw. (And since he's a friend of mine from grad school, I think I could get a yes from him; let me know if you want me to ask him.)

Okay, I've overspent my two cents...

Collegially,

Bill

William B. Lalicker, Ph.D.
Professor of English (Main Hall, Room 534, 610.436.2268)
Dean's Assistant for Student Issues (Anderson Hall, Room 119C, 610.436.3521)
College of Arts and Sciences
West Chester University
West Chester, PA 19383
wlalicker at wcupa.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: cbw_exec-bounces at tamu-commerce.edu [mailto:cbw_exec-bounces at tamu-commerce.edu] On Behalf Of Ashley, Hannah
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 8:21 AM
To: Laura A Gray-Rosendale; Conference of Basic Writing Executive Board; cheryl.smith at baruch.cuny.edu; rmiller2 at ccbcmd.edu; Michelle.Stevier at dickinsonstate.edu; lynn.reid14 at gmail.com; mdhill1 at hfcc.edu; J. Elizabeth Clark
Subject: Re: [CBW_Exec] CBW 2013--Important to READ and REPLY ALL! REPLY ALL! REPLY ALL!

I confess to (on first read) not loving the over-arching formulation of "difference," for a few reasons:

* the term "difference" to me connotes a watered-down version of understandings of systemic oppression that folks out in the wide world like to use but which I do not believe any of us on this EB have, so I am resistant to invoking it
* even if we could get around that terminology issue, our EB meeting last month resulted in us saying that it is that a particular commitment is to work on issues of race in CBW as an organization.  While disability and sexuality and class (and pardon the etc. here--this is coming from a lesbian Marxist with a daughter who at one point was diagnosed with a disability) are all hugely important ways folks get marginalized and/or key lenses through which to view issues of BW, I would advocate for a clear focus on race itself.  False as any essentialist conception of race is, still, discourses around, and actual material injustices targeting, people of color are worth their own focus.  My big-worded two-cents.

That being said, I could see a combination of two themes:  IHE-serving institutions/issues/research and Generation 1.5 students:  Powell, Villanueva, Lu, Jordan, Mendez-Newman (I don't know the last two's work personally)...all sound great.

Yay, Sugie!  Yay Liz.  Yay new board members.  Yay continuing board members.

H

Hannah Ashley, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English, Composition & Rhetoric
Composition Director
Service Learning Faculty Associate
Director, Writing Zones 12.5  (www.writingzones.net)
543 Main Hall, West Chester University
West Chester, PA 19383
845-337-5000

If you can find a way to get somebody interested enough to learn, they'll do it themselves...[we need more places that fashion themselves] to help those young people dive so deep into their dreams that they become their realities   --George Clinton, in Foreward to Hip Hop Genius: Remixing High School Education

________________________________________
From: Laura A Gray-Rosendale [Laura.Gray-Rosendale at nau.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 9:09 PM
To: Conference of Basic Writing Executive Board; cheryl.smith at baruch.cuny.edu; rmiller2 at ccbcmd.edu; Michelle.Stevier at dickinsonstate.edu; lynn.reid14 at gmail.com; mdhill1 at hfcc.edu; J. Elizabeth Clark; Ashley, Hannah
Subject: RE: [CBW_Exec] CBW 2013--Important to READ and REPLY ALL! REPLY ALL! REPLY ALL!

That sounds just fabulous, Steve! Since I've been doing mostly nonfiction writing in recent years, I haven't been at CCCCs in a while. But I am planning on attending next year and would like to come to the CBW. Please let me know if I can do anything to help out. I could see being involved in something on BW students and the importance of personal narrative, for example. All the folks you mention as key note speakers are great options. I would be so glad to have any of them. But I must confess that I am partial to Victor. He's such a fantastic speaker and thinker. Just my two cents. Thanks! Laura

Dr. Laura Gray-Rosendale
President's Distinguished Teaching Fellow
Professor of English, Director of STAR English
Northern Arizona University
Box 6032
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-6032

Office: 928-523-0956
Fax: 928-523-7074
________________________________________
From: cbw_exec-bounces at tamu-commerce.edu [cbw_exec-bounces at tamu-commerce.edu] on behalf of Steven Joseph Lamos [Steve.Lamos at colorado.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 4:20 PM
To: Conference of Basic Writing Executive Board; cheryl.smith at baruch.cuny.edu; rmiller2 at ccbcmd.edu; Michelle.Stevier at dickinsonstate.edu; lynn.reid14 at gmail.com; mdhill1 at hfcc.edu; J. Elizabeth Clark; HAshley at wcupa.edu
Subject: Re: [CBW_Exec] CBW 2013--Important to READ and REPLY ALL! REPLY ALL! REPLY ALL!

Hi all:

1) Congrats to Sugie--and serious thanks to Hannah!

2)  A big hello to Cheryl, Mike, Bob, Michelle, and Lynn!

3)  Just thinking out loud here:

How about a CBW theme for next year called something like "BW and Issues of Difference: A Symposium"?

We could start with a general keynote in the morning from someone like Malea Powell (or, alternatively, Min-Zhan Lu or Victor Villanueva).  Or, if we wanted to highlight the work of faculty at Minority-Serving Institutions in particular, perhaps someone like Zandra Jordan from Spelman or Beatrice Mendez-Newman from Texas-Pan Am..

After that, we could have some interactive discussion regarding issues of difference in BW programmatic or pedagogical contexts (e.g. pedagogical talk about "error" and the BW writer or something).

Then, in the afternoon, we might imagine either poster sessions or perhaps three- or four-person roundtables dedicated explicitly to various aspects of difference:

Some possibilities that come to mind for me include things like

-BW at Minority-Serving Institutions;
-BW and Generation 1.5 Students;
-BW and Universal Design / Disability Studies;
-BW and Gender / Sexuality;
-BW and Whiteness (which is a topic that Wendy Olson and I are thinking about, although perhaps in the context of a traditional CCCC panel);
-BW and social class; etc.

After that, more hands-on work focused on program and pedagogy issues, perhaps specifically related to our posters / roundtables.

In my view, such a general "difference" theme might let us cast a relatively wide net while at the same time allowing us to focus at least some talk on Minority-Serving Institutional contexts.

Again, I'm just thinking out loud here.  Thoughts?

Steve

________________________________________
From: cbw_exec-bounces at tamu-commerce.edu [cbw_exec-bounces at tamu-commerce.edu] On Behalf Of J. Elizabeth Clark [lclark at lagcc.cuny.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 3:19 PM
To: cheryl.smith at baruch.cuny.edu; rmiller2 at ccbcmd.edu; Michelle.Stevier at dickinsonstate.edu; lynn.reid14 at gmail.com; mdhill1 at hfcc.edu; J. Elizabeth Clark; cbw_exec at tamu-commerce.edu; HAshley at wcupa.edu
Subject: [CBW_Exec] CBW 2013--Important to READ and REPLY ALL! REPLY ALL! REPLY ALL!

Hi Everyone,

Hope this finds you all well!  First, we have an administrative issue:  our new executive committee members aren't yet on the EXEC BOARD mailing list, so I've added them manually here.  Would you please make sure that you hit "REPLY ALL" when you respond to this so that they are included in the conversation?  Please "REPLY ALL!"  Thank you!

I'm writing with a welcome, exciting news, and questions about CBW 2013.

So, first up:  I'm DELIGHTED to announce that our friend and colleague Sugie Goen-Salter will be joining me as co-chair of CBW (Liz: 2011-2014, Sugie: 2012-2015).  Yay!  I know that she will do a wonderful job and I'm excited to work with her, and all of you.

Let's also offer a warm work of welcome to Cheryl, Mike, Bob, Michelle, and Lynn!  We're so excited that you are joining us!

Now, down to business.  From your responses last week, I think that people are inclined to go with a program that combines the following two threads:

1.  A focus on basic writing & political issues (access, cutting back on
programs, etc.) AND 2.  A focus on basic writing in HBCU and HSIs?

A.  Hannah has suggested that we approach Malea Powell for the keynote.  What do you think about that?  And, do you have additional ideas for a keynote?

B.  Steve--I know that you have ideas about this program/focus.  Do you want to share some of those with the group?  How might you and Wende fold into this program?  Do you want to?

Based on your feedback, we're thinking about 1 keynote.  I think that leaves the afternoon open.  Do we want to do 2 sets of poster presentations?  Additional ideas?

I'm thinking that we would do a similar flow to this year:

1.  Opening keynote (on theme)
2.  Networking
3.  Poster presentations
4.  Something in place of the afternoon keynote (what?)
5.  Maybe (?) a second round of poster presentations (?)  OR a session
on publishing & grant writing

What do you think?

Also, please note, I will be off-line next week, 4/21-5/1 because I'm going diving in the the Keys doing a coral reef restoration project.  We will make our deadline with no problem, but if you could respond sooner rather than later, that would be great!  :-)

Liz

J. Elizabeth Clark, Ph.D.
Professor of English
LaGuardia Community College--CUNY
e-mail:  lclark at lagcc.cuny.edu
Phone:  718.482.5665
www.jelizabethclark.com

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************IMPORTANT - PLEASE NOTE ADDRESS FORMAT CHANGE****************
Our domain address is changing from tamu-commerce.edu to tamuc.edu.  Please be aware that anything sent to a faculty or staff email address ending in @TAMU-COMMERCE.EDU after September 2012, will NOT be received. EMAILS WILL BE REJECTED.  As we begin to transition our email system, please take proactive steps to ensure you have the correct email address. Our new email format for faculty and staff is First.Last at tamuc.edu. Update your address books and contacts as soon as possible with the new email address format to mitigate potential issues in the near future. Thank you