2026 - 2027 Virtual Events

 

Fri
21
2026
August 21, 2026
2:00PM - 3:15PM EDT

It All Starts with Rhetoric: Rhetorical Knowledge as a Foundation of Writing Instruction

Rhetorical knowledge is the first domain for a good reason. Rhetoric provides a theoretical structure for writing programs and writing teachers to build their courses and curricula on. This session will first outline in brief what we mean when we say “rhetorical knowledge”—audience, purpose, context, genre, and the affordances and constraints of different situations—and how the field sees that knowledge as integral to the work of teaching writing and writing program administration. Then, building on that shared understanding of rhetorical knowledge, participants will engage in group discussions facilitated by session leaders to discuss how rhetorical knowledge can exhibit in SLOs, interact with cross-category knowledge domains, and manifest in the pedagogical experiences of students in different institution contexts.

Presenters: 

  • Steve Accardi
  • Jacob Babb
  • Stephanie Kerschbaum

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Tue
22
2026
September 22, 2026
3:00PM - 4:15PM EDT

Whose Rules? Conventions, Language, and Power in the Writing Classroom

This session unpacks Domain 2 of the WPA Statement on the Five Knowledge Domains, examining how conventions and language are negotiated rather than fixed, and why instruction that privileges Standard English risks overlooking students' full linguistic assets. Presenters will ground participants in the field's current thinking on linguistic justice before turning to practical, program-level work: examining how existing SLOs do or don't attend to multimodality and disability, grounding language choices in institutional mission statements, and exploring how primary and secondary outcomes can carry different kinds of risk and possibility depending on local constraints. Throughout, presenters will highlight how Genre and Accessibility and Disability intersect with conventions work, and participants will leave with concrete strategies — and a draft outcome — suited to their own institutional context.

Presenters: 

  • Talisha Haltiwanger Morrison
  • Al Harahap
  • Bernice Olivas
  • Amanda Presswood 

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Fri
2
2026
October 2, 2026
1:00PM - 2:15PM EDT

Domain 3: Critical Reading and Thinking

In this 75-minute session, participants will spend time cross-analyzing and defining critical reading and thinking within the three cross-domains--genre, GenAI, and disability/accessibility. After sharing results of the discussion, groups will develop potential observable and measurable assessment metrics that could be used to inform localized learning outcomes in a range of institutional contexts.

Presenters: 

  • Bernice Olivas
  • Shelley Rodrigo
  • Mary Lourdes Silva
  • Darci Thoune

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Fri
4
2026
December 4, 2026
2:00PM - 3:00PM EDT

Making Composing Processes Visible, Mapping Process in the Domains

Composition scholars position process as such a commonplace that it often blurs theoretical differences. In the first part of the session, presenters remind participants of the complexity of composing processes, and in the second half, participants and presenters will collaborate to map processes in other domains in the context of participants’ SLOs and institutions.

Presenters: 

  • Jacob Babb 
  • Antonio Byrd
  • Shelley Rodrigo 
  • Darci Thoune

Register Here

Events