Call for Papers

The Department of English at the University of Memphis, in partnership with the Campus Writing Program at Arkansas State University and the Department of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, invites you to submit proposals for the fifth annual Southern Regional Composition Conference to be held on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the University of Memphis. This one-day conference will feature keynote talks by Jacqueline Jones Royster and Daniel J. Watts.

This year’s conference will be held in conjunction with a number of events commemorating the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death, as he was in Memphis fighting for the civil rights of the city’s sanitation workers when he was assassinated. To honor Dr. King’s legacy, we invite proposals that consider the theme of Rights and Responsibilities. We seek proposals that engage how these ideas pertain to writing and literacy instruction and the broad work of promoting justice, peace, and racial equality in our classrooms and on our campuses. Indeed, this year’s theme and our location provoke us to consider the connections between writing instruction and civic education writ large. As writing instructors, rhetoricians, and English teachers, what are our responsibilities to our students, colleagues, institutions, and communities? For instance, what rights do students currently have to their own languages, to free speech, etc. in our classrooms and curriculums? Moreover, how can we better promote and facilitate these rights in our teaching? And what does rhetoric and writing instruction stand to offer in a time when much of our nation’s public discourse is mired in confrontation and divisiveness? As a student at Morehouse College, MLK Jr. wrote: “intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” With this idea in mind, the 2018 SRCC will consider how we can balance our responsibility as educators in a democratic society with our responsibility to ensure our students' rights in our classrooms.

While we invite proposals on any subject relevant to the teaching of writing in rhetoric and composition studies, we encourage participants to shape proposals that attempt to engage the conference’s theme of Rights and Responsibilities.

We are inviting three different types of proposal submissions:

-Single-speaker proposals for a 12-15 minute presentation.

-Panel proposals for up to 3-4 presentations on a related question or theme.

-Assignment Design proposals for inclusion on roundtable panels that will offer presenters the chance to share, discuss, and/or workshop particular assignments.

All proposals should include the names, email addresses, and institutional affiliations of presenters, as well as the title of the panel/paper and a 250-500 word abstract. For panel proposals, please include a brief abstract for each presentation. Assignment Design proposals should briefly explain the context and aims of the assignment, its connection to a particular curriculum and/or learning outcomes, and what ideas or questions you intend to share with fellow participants.

Proposals should be emailed to srcompconference2018@gmail.com no later than January 15, 2018. For expedited review, those who submit proposals by November 30, 2017 will receive notification regarding their status by December 15.