Conference Proposals

A. Presentation Formats

15-minute individual presentations: You may submit individual paper or presentation proposals; these will be combined into panels/sessions with around three presenters. We’ll once again try to put you in touch with one another in advance of the conference so that you can develop a coherent panel.
Full-session proposals: You may submit a proposal for a session with groups of 3 or more presenters/facilitators. We encourage you to consider innovative, interactive delivery methods.
Roundtable discussions: You may submit a proposal for a roundtable discussion in groups of 3 or more presenters. The format means presenters introduce the topic and ask questions that engage the audience in a discussion for the big part of the session.
Show-Not-Tell Workshops: A group of two – five presenters design a 75-minute workshop to demonstrate “how” they do a WPA task. Think about using spreadsheets, leading an innovative, interactive professional development event on zoom, planning for a limited curriculum revision … that kind of thing. You may ask participants to bring their own device.
Poster presentations: You may to develop a poster presentation by yourself or with others. You could either work with a group to develop a full session with 4 – 6 posters, or propose an individual poster presentation, and we will form sessions on related topics.
Digital Stories: Share the story of your program in a digital exhibition and have an interactive discussion with your audience about what you’ve done or want to do. Although the modality is open, we’d ask that you plan for a digital story that’s not longer than 10 minutes to allow for an interactive, engaged discussion with your audience.

Proposal Topics/Strands

At the Reno 2023 conference, we ask that you indicate the strand that best matches your proposal topic.

(The list of topics below is used with permission from WPA: Writing Program Administration editors)

Writing faculty professional development
Labor conditions: material, practical, fiscal
Anti-racists WPA work
Teaching writing with electronic texts (multimodality) and teaching in digital spaces
Theory, practice, and philosophy of writing program administration
Outreach and advocacy
Curriculum development
Writing program assessment
Social justice through WPA work
National and regional trends in education and their impact on WPA work
Issues of professional advancement and writing program administration
Diversity and WPA work
AI/ChatGPT and WPA Work
WPA Sounding Board
CWPA Bragging Hall

B. Institute Proposals

In the spirit of welcoming a range of voices and perspectives, we invite proposals for full-day post-conference institutes. We will offer three institutes on the program. Institutes are interactive and practical spaces for WPAs to learn about topics such as program assessment, preparing for the job market, conducting administrative research, working with various student populations, writing grant proposals, writing as a WPA, leading effective professional development activities in a writing program (to name a few). Each instituts typically has two leaders.

Conference Dates

As we listened to our members’ concerns about conference cost, we have flipped the traditional model so that the conference is during the week when conference hotel rates are the cheapest.

Conference: Sunday 7/16 – Tuesday 7/18
Institutes: Wednesday 7/19
Workshop: Wednesday 7/19 – Saturday 7/22

Proposal Submission Timeline

If you plan to apply for travel fund, we encourage you to submit your proposal for an early decision by January 15, 2023. Decisions will be made by February 6, 2023.

The proposal submission deadline is March 17, 2023, with decisions expected by April 3, 2023.

For proposal questions email Lilian Mina at cwpareno2023@gmail.com

For local Reno, NV questions email Jim Webber, Todd Ruecker, and Katie Miller at cwpareno2023local@gmail.com