[ATTW-L] CFP: Symposium on Black Lives Matter and Antiracist Projects in Writing Program Administration
Jennifer Sano-Franchini
sanojenn at vt.edu
Mon Sep 21 18:09:06 UTC 2020
Dear Colleagues:
Below please find a CFP for a Symposium on Black Lives Matter and
Antiracist Projects in Writing Program Administration, to appear in *WPA
Journal*, Spring 2021. The call is also available at this link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yFXXHb6lJjj3DS-uHY4cDOsN_f3rxVk3FepXYmid9qc/edit?usp=sharing
All the best,
Jennifer
CFP: Symposium on Black Lives Matter and Antiracist Projects in Writing
Program Administration
WPA Journal, expected publication date: Spring 2021
Sheila Carter-Tod and Jennifer Sano-Franchini, Virginia Tech
In response to the recent racial injustices enacted by police and other
political and educational entities, two tenured Black women full
professors—Christina Stanley and Marilyn Mobly—suggest that university
administrators play a significant role in dismantling institutionalized
racial injustice. In their August 2020 article “Time to Get Real”: What
Black Faculty Need from White Faculty and Administrators to Interrupt
Racism in Higher Education,” they state that “[s]ubstantive change begins
earnestly and cross-culturally when White faculty and administrators, with
access to the tower and its benefits, relinquish the propensity to guard
and protect others from entering and begin to engage in the serious work of
connecting intellectual heft with the emotional intelligence this moment
demands.” In their list of actions that would lead towards this “earnest
change” they list two actions that we see as particularly pertinent to the
work done by writing program administrators: reflecting on how scholars of
color are used to advance research, and breaking silence by speaking the
truth. As directors of writing programs, during a time of racial unrest,
protest and calls for change, we are positioned with a range of
interconnected roles, with responsibilities for and to a network of
stakeholders—students, faculty, staff, university administrators, and local
communities. Writing program administrators of color may find negotiating
these interconnected roles professionally and personally challenging—trying
to figure out how to enact change, advance our own scholarship, and speak
truth, while supporting the people in our programs.
To be sure, this summer, as Black Lives Matter protests appeared across the
globe, several writing programs and professional organizations released
statements decrying the unjust murders of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade,
George Floyd, and too many others. For instance, acknowledging that many
writing program administrators need support and allyship as they react and
respond to local and national racial unrest, The Council of Writing Program
Administrators published a Statement on Racial Injustice. As they describe
in the introduction to this statement, they are seeking to respond to “the
dehumanizing, traumatizing, and even lethal injustices recently represented
by the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, Tony McDade, Breonna
Taylor, and George Floyd… [and expressing] solidarity with those who are
striving for meaningful societal change and a just world.” Within
professional and technical communication, ATTW President Angela Haas’ Call
to Action to Redress Anti-Blackness and White Supremacy and Natasha N.
Jones’ and Miriam F. Williams’ call for “The Just Use of Imagination” urged
that non-Black members in particular take concrete actions to redress
anti-Blackness within their/our spheres of influence. What's been somewhat
less visible, however, are what material actions and policy changes writing
program administrators have taken since then to make Black Lives Matter
within writing programs.
We are seeking submissions for a WPA Journal symposium on race and the
impact of the Black Lives Matter movement or other antiracist projects on
writing program administration, including first-year composition,
professional and technical communication, writing centers, undergraduate or
graduate writing programs. More specifically, we are seeking proposals for:
-
1000 word short essays speaking to the effects of Black Lives Matter and
other antiracist efforts on writing program administration, or
-
500 word narrative vignettes from the perspective of writing program
administrators or teachers and/or students working within writing programs
and responding to the administration of such programs with Black Lives
Matter and antiracism in mind.
These essays and vignettes might touch on the following topics (but they
are not limited to these topics):
-
Efforts to redress anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and racism more
generally within writing programs and their effects
-
Narrative accounts of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)
writing program administrators
-
In-the-moment snapshots or responses to Black Lives Matter or other
antiracist projects
-
How writing program administrators have taken up the call for linguistic
justice (Baker Bell), challenged the myth of neutrality (Shelton), and/or
addressed policing within education as it pertains to writing programs
-
How program administrators in professional and technical communication
have accounted for the ways in which terms like “professional,”
“technical,” and “technological” are often interpreted through a white
racial frame
-
Strategies for writing program administrators for antiracist cultural
change
-
Labor and the “diversity tax” on BIPOC writing program administrators
-
Effects of writing programs on BIPOC students and communities
-
How writing program administrators have negotiated interconnected
personal, professional, and university responsibilities and the needs and
concerns of multiple stakeholders (students, faculty, staff, university
administrators, and local communities)
-
Community-sustaining work of BIPOC writing program administrators,
teachers, and students
Submitting a Proposal
Send your proposal via email to Sheila Carter-Tod (sct at vt.edu) and Jennifer
Sano-Franchini (sanojenn at vt.edu) by October 7, 2020. Please include in the
subject line: “WPA Symposium” as well as a title, 75–100 word abstract, and
indicate whether you are submitting a proposal for a short essay or
narrative vignette.
Please note that this symposium is a rapid response in a kairotic moment to
longstanding issues of racial injustice, and the length of contributions
may make this timeline more manageable than they might otherwise be.
Contributions will be double anonymous peer reviewed.
Projected Timeline
Proposal due: October 7, 2020
Notification of decision: October 12, 2020
Full essays & vignettes due: November 10, 2020 (the earlier the better)
Reviews to authors: December 1, 2020
Revisions due: December 15, 2020
Full symposium submitted: December 30, 2020
Publication: Spring 2021
Contact Sheila Carter-Tod (sct at vt.edu) and Jennifer Sano-Franchini (
sanojenn at vt.edu) with any questions.
References
Baker-Bell, April. Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity,
and Pedagogy. Routledge, 2020.
The CWPA Executive Board and Officers. “CWPA Statement on Racial
Injustice.” Council of Writing Program Administrators Website. June 2020.
http://wpacouncil.org/aws/CWPA/pt/sd/news_article/308259/_PARENT/layout_details/false
Haas, Angela. ATTW President's Call to Action to Redress Anti-Blackness and
White Supremacy. ATTW. 2020.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SlewDtMX41u6hjo1Xydp3D-gNy1anUJ9kCinRCH0li4/edit
Jones, Natasha N., Williams, Miriam F.. The Just Use of Imagination: A Call
to Action. ATTW. 2020. https://attw.org/author/attworg_jg1gyk67/
Shelton, Cecilia. "Shifting Out of Neutral: Centering Difference, Bias, and
Social Justice in a Business Writing Course." Technical Communication
Quarterly 29.1 (2020): 18-32.
Stanley, Christina, Mobley, Marilyn. “Time to Get Real”: What Black Faculty
Need from White Faculty and Administrators to Interrupt Racism in Higher
Education. Insight into Diversity. August 2020.
https://www.insightintodiversity.com/time-to-get-real/.
--
Jennifer Sano-Franchini, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Associate Professor of English
Director of Professional and Technical Writing | Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/vtptw/> | LinkedIn
<https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12270157/>
---
Department of English at Virginia Tech
181 Turner Street NW (0112), Blacksburg, VA 24061
@jsanofranchini
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