09/06/2024

September CWPA Update

A Monthly Update for Members

Dear Members,

Hello again, and happy fall! We hope that each of you is well. Here are the updates we’ll be covering in this email: 

Call for Applications: Seeking co-facilitator for the Summer 2025 CWPA Workshop
Cultural Assessment Conversation Update
CWPA 2024-2025 Committees
CWPA Events in September and October

Call for Applications: Summer 2025-2026 WPA Workshop Co-Facilitator

The annual summer workshop for new and continuing WPAs is one of the hallmarks of our organization. In 2025, David Green will be leading this 3-day experience, and applications are open to be his co-facilitator. Anyone in the field may apply, though the person selected will need to be a member of the organization by the time the workshop begins. We are looking for experienced WPAs who can bring mentorship and expertise to the table–and represent diverse WPA identities and institutional homes. Folks from two-year colleges, HSIs, HBCUs and tribal colleges are especially welcome to apply. The benefits for the co-facilitator include an honorarium that will cover hotel and travel, an opportunity to have an impact through mentoring new and continuing WPAs, and the chance to serve in a leadership role at the national level. The co-leader selected for 2025 will lead the workshop in 2026 and have an opportunity to share established content and information that benefits WPAs and to add their focus to the workshop. Here’s David’s vision for 2025:

The 2025 CWPA workshop will build on the previous year’s workshop through a focus on navigating social and professional change in equitable ways. Change is a constant that impacts higher education and writing program administration with the consistency of weather. Technology, social policies, social injustice, discrimination, war,  genocide all contribute to campus environment, student dispositions, and critical thought in ways that are difficult to predict, and sometimes difficult to navigate. We will engage in an interactive and dynamic workshop that focuses on the role of social impact on institutional mission to the development of a program profile that embraces and engages student voice, and the recognition of harm as a part of administrative literacies essential to navigating change at the ever-evolving modern University. 

To apply to be a co-leader, please send a letter of interest (no more than 500 words, please) and an abbreviated CV to CWPA secretary Amanda Presswood by December 1 at cwpasecretary@gmail.com. Your letter should explain who you are, why you want to serve, and what you’ll bring to the workshop. 

Applications will be reviewed by current and past facilitators of the workshop who are currently serving on the EB (Darci Thoune, Erin Lehman, and David Green) and a co-leader will be notified by December 15, 2024.

Cultural Assessment Conversation Updates

We’re very glad to share several quick points of information about the Cultural Assessment conversation series, which unpacks the 2023 Cultural Assessment Report.

• The conversations are open to members and non-members by decision of your Executive Board.
• The first conversation, “Theme 1: Trust and Belonging,” was held on Friday, 8/30. Around 30 people registered for the event and more than 20 came. Participants included current and former members of the Executive Board, members of CWPA, members of the first Task Force on Revising the Student Outcomes Statements, and non-members of CWPA. The dialog was a fruitful starting place for the restorative work that CWPA needs to continue doing.
• Registration is open for four additional virtual conversations between now and next May. The next conversation, “Theme 2: Inclusion and Validation,” will be on Friday, 11/8. 
• The organization will have a roundtable session at CCCC in Baltimore to discuss the Cultural Assessment with colleagues. Stay tuned for more details
  

CWPA 2024-2025 Committees

Just a quick reminder that CWPA is pleased to offer the opportunity to serve on nine committees this year. Serving on one of the committees is a great way to get to learn more about CWPA’s mission and goals. Any person in the field–member or non-member of CWPA–is invited to serve. In the past, we’ve had over 80 volunteers for committee service, and we’d love to see this trend continue. 

To learn more about the committees and to indicate your interest in serving, please fill out the Committee Service Interest Form. Responses requested by September 16, 2024.  

CWPA Events in September and October

September 20: Critical Language Awareness (CLA) for WPAs

• Facilitators: Sarah Madsen Hardy and Christina Michaud, Boston University 
• Date and time: 9/20, 90 minutes, 2-3:30pm ET
• Meeting platform: Zoom
• Cost to members: $15 for members and free for graduate student members; $25 for nonmembers

Description: Critical language awareness (CLA) is a framework for addressing language, power, and difference. As a field, we’ve had many conversations about concrete interventions to bring this focus into writing classrooms through particular assignments, feedback practices, etc. This workshop will explore how we can bring CLA to our work as WPAs as well: What does it mean to center language diversity at the level of an entire writing program, one that includes both general composition courses and also courses for multilingual writers? How can we use CLA as a framework for challenging binaries and advancing DEIJ goals across an entire program? Participants will be invited to consider these questions in the context of their own programs and institutions.

October 18: Grant Workshop 

• Facilitators: Joanne Giordano and Holly Hassel
• Date and time: 10/18, 90 minutes, 2-3:30pm ET
• Meeting platform: Zoom
• Cost to members: Free

Description: Learn a bit about writing successful grant applications that focus on equity work as a WPA. Workshop facilitators are chairing the 2025 CWPA Grant Award, so you can apply what you learn in a grant application for CWPA in the spring.

Click here to register for these events

Please reach out to us if you’d like to discuss any aspect of CWPA–our emails are below!
Until next month, stay well!

Kelly Blewett, CWPA President, councilofwpa@gmail.com
Erin Lehman, CWPA Vice President, elehman4@ivytech.edu 
Amanda Presswood, CWPA Secretary, cwpasecretary@gmail.com 
Christal Seahorn, CWPA Treasurer, cwpatreasurer@gmail.com