The American two-year college is currently a site of intense struggle. We see it in the legislative surveillance of our syllabuses, the increasing labor burdens on our working conditions, and the political pressures that threaten to erase the humanity of our students and our disciplines. In an era of declining enrollment and government push for "efficiency," the act of being present—for our students and for each other—is an urgent act of emboldening ourselves and self-care.
TYCA-Southwest 2026 is a call to move from observation to action. We are gathering in Austin to build pedagogical sovereignty. This is a high-impact, professional training ground designed to provide a direct pedagogical and social return on investment (ROI) for your classroom, your students, and your institution.
TYCA-Southwest is not a destination for passive observation. It is an invitation to the front lines of our expertise and experiences. We will gather in Austin, Texas, to reclaim the essential nature of the humanities and to build a pedagogical sovereignty that protects our classrooms and our communities. Whether you are a veteran faculty member, an adjunct colleague, or a graduate student, we invite you to share the research and strategies that keep you present and the innovations that keep your students seen.
In addition, we will have a face to face conversation with a Texas Legislator, serving on the Texas Higher Education Committee.
This will be on Friday, noon, in the Texas Capitol, as part of lunch.
To maximize the value of your time and travel, Friday’s sessions will center on praxis circles. These are not traditional presentations; they are intensive, 90-minute collaborative design labs.
We invite you to say what you need to say, work what you need to work, ask what you need to ask. We invite you to bring your challenges and work shoulder-to-shoulder to make change in your classes and in your college.
In a praxis circle, you don't just take notes—you build. Moderators will drive conversation about one of the four topic strands below. Participants will arrive with current course materials and instruments and leave with a peer-reviewed curriculum that is resistant to surveillance, optimized for student labor schedules, and designed to drive engagement through community relevance.
Saturday: Innovation Panels
Saturday’s innovation panels reject the passive lecture. These video-enabled sessions are forums designed to scale our collective response to institutional crises.
And so we invite you to show how you are changing your pedagogy, your department, your professional life, your self care to protect yourself and your students. Your discussion is essential for the larger conference theme of “being present” and returning our lives as human-centered
Rather than presentations, moderators offer a ten-minute "lightning provocation" on a specific challenge—enrollment, surveillance, or labor, for example—followed by facilitated, multi-campus dialogue.
Whether joining in Austin or virtually, Saturday focuses on high-impact knowledge sharing. We are not just presenting research; we are crowdsourcing survival strategies and bringing more voices into the fight for the future of the community college.
Registration in the TYCA-Southwest 2026 conference includes entry into a 24-month supportive cohort. This cohort provides:
A Human-centered Repository: Permanent access to the encrypted library of curricula and rubrics built during the conference.
Quarterly Implementation Check-ins: Virtual, peer-led check-ins to support the roll-out of your new materials and troubleshoot local institutional pressures.
Professional Visibility: Collaborative publication and presentation opportunities to showcase your high-impact work at the national level. We will coordinate with TETYC editors to develop publishable submissions within a reasonable timeline
Literature and poetry readings
Perhaps community breakfast? Perhaps community-building over breakfast, to strengthen ties
8:00 a.m. Welcome from TYCA-Southwest Chair
8:30 a.m. Praxis Circle A (80 minutes) + 10 minute break
10:00 a.m. Praxis Circle B (80 minutes)
Travel to the Capitol, meeting with Rep. Howard.
12:00 p.m. -- lunch and meeting with Representative Donna Howard
1:30 p.m. -- Praxis Circle C (80 minutes) + 10 minute break [this location might be near the Capitol, such as a public library]
3:00 p.m. -- Praxis Circle D (80 minutes)
4:30 p.m. -- return to hotels and rest
6:00 p.m. -- community dinner and more literature/poetry readings
Community breakfast
8:00 a.m. Welcome from TYCA officer
8:30 a.m. Keynote address
9:00 a.m. Video/Hybdird A (80 minutes) + 10 minute break
10:30 a.m. Video/Hybdird B (80 minutes) + 10 minute break
12:00 a.m. -- Wrapping together discussion; two-year cohort plans for development
12:30 p.m. -- Closing -- TYCA-Southwest Chair
1:00 p.m. -- Executive Committee meeting (open to all members)