[ATTW-L] REMINDER: CFP for Symposium on Black Lives Matter and Antiracist Projects in Writing Program Administration

Mon Oct 5 21:03:20 UTC 2020

Dear all:

A reminder that short abstracts (75–100 words) for a Symposium on Black
Lives Matter and Antiracist Projects in Writing Program Administration are
due in two days, on October 7. Please see the forwarded message for more
details.

All the best,
Jen and Sheila

On Mon, Sep 21, 2020 at 2:09 PM Jennifer Sano-Franchini <sanojenn at vt.edu>
wrote:

> 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 Mobley—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
>

-- 
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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