UMass Boston

The Composition Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston invites proposals for presentations, roundtables, panels, individual presentations, and workshops for the 7th meeting of Engaging Practices: A Conference on the Teaching of Composition. This free conference provides a platform for participants to develop and share knowledge on any topic related to the theory and practice of teaching writing,  tutoring, literacies, rhetoric, and composition; this year, we especially encourage discussion of the hurdles, opportunities, and possibilities for teaching and researching writing with a commitment to public and community engagement.

The 2023 theme, “Writing in Public(s): Composition, Connection, and Global Citizenship,” calls upon presenters to give special consideration to pedagogical and programmatic approaches to writing that strive to support students’ engagement with local, national, and especially global communities beyond academia. As writing teachers, tutors, and administrators, we are presented with the opportunity to consider: what does it mean to support rhetoric, writing, and literacy development for a global citizenry?

Proposals may consider (but are not limited to) the following questions:

• How do global flows of people and texts shape what it means to participate as a citizen or member of a community?
• What courses, curricula, and programs support students’ mobility and engagement as writing citizens?
• How might teaching, tutoring, and administrative practices and policies better support the needs and ambitions of marginalized communities, including undocumented student writers?
• How might student writers use networked digital media genres to connect, to express their identities, and/or to enact change?
• What are the stakes, risks, constraints, as well as gains of inviting students to write for public audiences?
• How do the labor conditions of instructors, tutors, and administrators support, complicate, or discourage efforts to connect with writing communities outside of academia

We welcome proposals for roundtables, panels, individual presentations, and workshops. 

Questions? Contact compconference@umb.edu