Call for Proposals: WPA 2006 Summer Conference

Theme: Keeping on Track: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Looking Out for New Opportunities

July 13-16
Chattanooga Choo Choo Convention Center
Chattanooga , Tennessee

Submit a proposal for an individual presentation, poster session, panel, roundtable, or forum online using our Presenter Proposal Form. You need to be an authenticated site user and logged in order to submit a proposal. Your WPA membership will need to be current by the time of the conference. Register now if you need an account or use the log-in form to the right.

TRAIN YOURSELF FOR EXCITEMENT as you make plans for participating in the 2006 WPA Conference at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Convention Center next July! Our theme, “Keeping on Track: Looking Back, Looking Forward, and Looking Out for New Opportunities,” acknowledges both the famous Chattanooga Choo Choo and nearby Lookout Mountain, but it also conveys the our thematic focus on the importance of continual reflection, planning, and inquiry to maintaining direction and momentum for the writing programs we lead.

We invite proposals for sessions addressing the conference theme in such areas as the following:

  • histories of writing programs and writing program administration
  • contributions of WPA experience to development as scholars and administrators
  • means and uses of reflection in writing program administration
  • strategies, processes, and outcomes of planning for WPAs and writing programs
  • setting and measuring progress toward writing program goals
  • extending the influence of our writing programs
  • making the connections between high school and college writing
  • representing writing programs to our publics
  • redesigning writing programs with new media and multi-literacies
  • other topics of interest to writing program administrators

We welcome a variety of session formats, including (1) full panels involving several speakers addressing related topics, (2) individual presentations to be grouped together by the program committee, and (3) roundtables and forums on a single topic. Proposals for innovative presentation formats are invited as well. We invite attendees to prepare poster presentations or other exhibits of their programs' special initiatives, research projects, or signature areas .

The conference will begin Thursday evening, July 13, and continue through Sunday morning, July 16. In addition to plenary speakers and concurrent panel sessions, the program will include professional development mini-workshops on such topics as Documenting a Writing Program, Preparing an Administrative Portfolio/WPA Promotion Case, and Planning for Publishing Program Research. Ask your department chair or dean for funding to attend these mini-workshops.

Proposals may be submitted at http://www.wpacouncil.org/node/add/flexinode-1 until February 1, 2006. Proposals submitted after this date will be reviewed only if space remains on the program.

For detailed up-to-date information about the conference, visit the conference website at http://wpacouncil.org

Conference Chair: Shirley Rose, President, Council of Writing Program Administrators
Local Chairs: Lauren Ingraham, Jennifer Beech, and James Inman


Planning Information

2006 Summer Workshop and Conference of the Council of Writing Program Administrators

Conference : Official activities begin Thursday evening, July 13, at 5:30 PM with a welcome reception/orientation and conclude Sunday, July 16, at 10:00 AM after the Town Hall Meeting. Plenary Speakers include Jacqueline Jones Royster, Ohio State University, on Thursday evening; Chris Anson, Past President of CWPA, North Carolina State University, on Friday; and Pam Childers, former President of the National Writing Center Association, The McCallie School in Chattanooga, on Saturday.

Workshop : Workshop participants gather Sunday afternoon, July 9, and meet all day every day through Wednesday evening, July 12. Workshop leaders Lauren Fitzgerald (Yeshiva University) and Greg Glau (Arizona State University) will also be available for one-to-one consultations in the evenings and (for workshop participants not attending an institute) on Thursday morning. For more information about the workshop, go to http://wpacouncil.org/node/263

Assessment Institute and Technology Institute : These day-long institutes will be held on Thursday, July 13, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM. Lunch included. If institutes are cancelled due to insufficient enrollment, registration fees will be refunded.

Costs (for planning purposes only—not final as of November, 2005):

  • Housing at Choo Choo Holiday Inn: $118/per single or double room/per night, plus tax
  • Conference Registration (estimate): early bird $200 (includes 6 meals)
  • Workshop Registration (estimate): early bird $630 (includes 10 meals)
  • Assessment or Technology Institute Registration (estimate): early bird $125 (includes lunch)
  • Workshop PLUS Institute Package Price (estimate) : $675

Early bird deadline is May 15; add $30 to registration cost for each event after May 15.

For information about the Chattanooga Choo Choo Holiday Inn and convention Center, go to http://www.choochoo.com/ Members of underrepresented minorities are invited to apply for grants to support their attendance at the WPA Summer Workshop. To find out more about the WPA Fund for the Support of Minority Writing Program Administrators, go to http://wpacouncil.org/node/224.