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4C’s 2027 Call for Proposals—WAW Sponsored Panel

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Call for Proposals Cutoff: May 31st 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Conference Date: April 14 – 17th, 2027 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Our Panel Theme–Design WAW Writing Futures

Overview: 

What does it mean to “navigate material precarity, limited autonomy, and shifting mandates” in a world such as ours? We can easily see the effects of technology overload, run-away political polarization, and prejudice in the seats of power. These are often conditions that can discourage people from looking toward the future at all. It can be difficult to imagine a future that is full of hope at times like these, but we can only enter the better futures if we first imagine them (Lazema 2026). Amid the swell of consistently being asked to do more, faster, and with less, and the rising tide of outsourcing our cognitive labor to frictionless systems of effortless ease, it might be easy to lose the thread of what it is to be human. It might be easy to walk, eyes in our phones and head down, into a future we feel we had no hand in making. But we are humans and to be human is to struggle. In fact, it is our defining characteristic that we lean into struggle, produce friction, gain traction, and forge ahead—even on the broken ground of the slippery slope. 

We invite you to submit proposals with a WAW flavor in response to this year’s CCCC theme: Design Writing Futures. The theme Designing Writing Futures asks us to look around and remember where we came from. It asks us to look around and see where we are now and what we have to work with. It demands that we lift up our eyes to envision a future we would want to be part of. Where will your WAW take you?

 Some possible connections inside the expanded idea of “Design Writing Futures” might include:

  • What does a Writing Studies-focused pedagogy have to offer in the designing of writing futures?
  • What do you see as a contribution to a slow (Arola 2015) WAW?
  • What can be transferred from Writing Studies-focused classrooms to the workplace by design? 
  • What can Writing Studies-focused contribute to the grave necessity of centering humanity in an increasingly isolating, siloed, and polarized future that seems inevitable?
  • What part does designing community play in moving Writing Studies and Writing (writ large) forward into the future?
  • What discourse can Social Justice have with designing writing futures through a Writing Studies focus?
  • What can Writing Studies-focused pedagogies teach us about our responsibility to partners as we design writing assignments for use outside of our traditional writing classrooms? 
  • What possible and preferable futures can WAW design for and toward as we attempt to inscribe/describe complex order onto the face of chaos?
  • What does the academic discourse of WAW communities have to say about writing that can contribute to the futures we would like to see?
  • What counts in the probable future as effective pedagogical design in WAW?
  • What practices, pedagogies, or policies might transfer from WAW that move us toward more humane, equitable futures for writing programs, classrooms, workplaces, and communities? 
  • What can the concepts durability, endurance, and resilience invoke in conversation with our current WAW practices?
  • What does it mean for WAW if shifting media writes the shape of our future?

Presentation Format:
Traditional Panel with four presenters:

Duration: Each presentation will last 10-13 minutes.

Content: Presentations should focus on the context of Writing about Writing approaches, discussing theoretical and practical implications, methods, and strategies as it applies to our past, present, and future.

Submission Instructions:

Submit your proposal before May 31st, 2026 at 11:59 PM Pacific Time by email. Please the email to Joseph Robertshaw (jwr0015@uah.edu) with an attached abstract (100-200 words) that includes the following elements:

  1. Presenter Information: (on the cover page only)
    • Your name(s)
    • Affiliation(s)
    • Contact information
    • A working title for your presentation
  1. Content Details:
    • Working title for your presentation that matches the one on your cover sheet.
    • A statement that:
      1. frames the way you are conceiving of the concepts “future, design, and writing” 
      2. Discusses briefly the theme and how it impacts pedagogical approaches, student learning, faculty roles, or institutional practices
      3. An explanation of how Writing about Writing helps to discuss or provide connections in this concept as you frame it
    • The 100-250 word abstract of your projected paper
  1. Innovative Perspective:
    • What contribution(s) do you see your presentation making to the discourse of the design of writing futures.

Evaluation Criteria:

  • Alignment with Theme: Proposals should align with the focus of how your own Writing About Writing pedagogies and practices help you join or sustain the conversation with this WAW community.
  • Innovativeness: Original insights into the kinds of futures that WAW makes possible in educational settings.
  • Practical Impact: The potential of the proposed approach to significantly influence teaching practices and learning outcomes.

PLEASE: format your submission for blind peer review limiting all personally identifying information to the cover sheet only.

Additional Resources

References:

Arola, K. L. (2015, March). Slow composition: An Indigenous approach to things (and multimodal composition) [Presentation]. Conference on College Composition and Communication, Tampa, FL, United States. https://wrdblog.org/recap-professor-kristin-l-arolas-talk-on-composition-and-american-indian-rhetorics/ 

Lezama, P. (2026, March 6). Imagination Under Constraint: The Futures we Are Permitted To Imagine. Retrieved from Academe Blog: https://academeblog.org/2026/03/06/imagination-under-constraint-the-futures-we-are-permitted-to-imagine/ 

Blogs

Cultivating Undergraduate Research in Writing Studies: Lessons from Young Scholars in Writing

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Ryan Roderick

Undergraduate research thrives when students are treated not just as learners, but as emerging contributors to a field. In a recent webinar, the editors (Crystal Bazaldua, Bonnie Garcia, Marcela Hebbard, and Khushi Patel of Young Scholars in Writing shared how their publication process doubles as a powerful mentoring model—one that instructors can learn from as they cultivate student scholarship.

What makes this model especially compelling is how closely it aligns with the Writing about Writing mission: treating research not as a distant professional practice, but as a way for students to learn how writing works.

The editors’ approach demonstrates how mentorship, revision, and inquiry can be woven together to help students see themselves as knowledge-makers.

In what follows, I synthesize our recent webinar with YSW editors to highlight how the journal’s editorial practices, which range from transparent review processes to sustained revision mentorship, offer a practical model for supporting undergraduate researchers.

These five strategies below show how publication can become not just an endpoint, but a pedagogical space where students learn how scholarly knowledge is made.

Publishing as a Developmental Experience

One of the editors’ central themes was that undergraduate research should be understood as developmental rather than evaluative. Students often submit promising but imperfect drafts, and that is expected.

A core commitment of WAW is that students learn about writing most effectively when they investigate it. Rather than treating writing as a set of decontextualized skills, WAW pedagogy asks students to study genres, rhetorical situations, literacy practices, discourse communities, and composing processes.

During the webinar, the editors described how Young Scholars in Writing encourages exactly this kind of inquiry. Student authors are not simply reporting on sources; they are asking questions about how writing functions in real contexts. Their work examines how writing circulates, persuades, constructs identities, and shapes communities.

The journal’s editorial process is designed to help students:

  • Clarify and strengthen their research questions,
  • Deepen their engagement with existing scholarship,
  • Articulate their contributions more explicitly,
  • And refine their arguments through sustained revision.

This framing positions publishing not as a reward for already being an expert, but as a learning experience that helps students become scholars.

Transparent and Supportive Editorial Practices

Another key takeaway from the webinar was the journal’s commitment to making the publication process transparent. Many undergraduates have little exposure to how academic journals work, which can make publishing feel mysterious or intimidating.

Another strong connection to WAW is the journal’s emphasis on publishing as a learning process rather than a final achievement. In many academic contexts, publication is framed as a product: you either meet the bar or you don’t. The editors described a very different model.

The editors explained that they aim to:

  • Clearly explain each stage of the process, from submission to final decision,
  • Offer detailed, constructive feedback,
  • Help students understand how to interpret and respond to reviewer comments.

By making the process visible, Young Scholars in Writing helps students see publishing as a conversation rather than a judgment.

Feedback as Mentorship

The webinar emphasized that editorial feedback at Young Scholars in Writing is not simply corrective—it is pedagogical. Editors act as mentors who guide students through multiple rounds of revision.

One of the central goals of WAW pedagogy is to demystify how knowledge is created. Instead of treating scholarship as something produced by distant experts, WAW asks students to see research as a series of rhetorical, methodological, and interpretive choices.

This mentorship includes:

  • Asking students to articulate the significance of their work,
  • Helping them recognize patterns in their own writing,
  • Encouraging reflection on how their thinking evolves through revision.

In this way, feedback becomes a form of instruction, modeling how scholars engage with one another’s work.

Helping Students See Themselves as Scholars

A powerful theme throughout the webinar was the importance of identity. The editors described how many students initially see themselves as “just undergraduates,” not as people who can contribute to scholarly conversations.

WAW has always emphasized that when students study writing, they begin to see themselves differently. They are no longer just learning to write; they are learning to think about writing.

Through the publication process, students begin to:

  • Recognize the value of their insights,
  • Understand their work as part of a larger disciplinary conversation,
  • Gain confidence in their intellectual voice.

This shift—from student to scholar—was presented as one of the most meaningful outcomes of the journal’s work.

Implications for Teaching Writing and Research

Although the webinar focused on Young Scholars in Writing, its insights extend well beyond a single journal. The editors’ approach offers a model for how instructors might design research-based writing assignments and mentoring structures in their own courses.

What makes Young Scholars in Writing especially significant is not just that it publishes undergraduate work—it models what WAW has long advocated: that research is not only something we teach about, but something we teach through.

To sum up, here are four key ways that YSW publication practices cultivate undergraduate writers. The editorial process, from submission to publication:

  • Approaches research projects as multi-stage, recursive processes,
  • Makes scholarly practices explicit,
  • Treats revision as central rather than supplementary,
  • Helps students understand writing as a form of participation in knowledge-making.

As the editors made clear, undergraduate publishing does more than showcase strong student work—it teaches students how writing studies functions as a field and how scholarly communities are sustained.

Blogs

#CFP: Writing about Writing Sponsored Panel – CCCC2026

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Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to invite proposals for the Writing About Writing (WAW) Standing Group Sponsored Panel at CCCC 2026. Our panel aligns with the conference theme “Conference and our Conversations” by focusing on how WAW pedagogies and scholarship respond to today’s critical challenges in education and public life.

In this moment—marked by restrictions on academic freedom, shifts in civic discourse, and uncertainty in higher education—we ask:
What can Writing About Writing approaches offer to support educators, students, and communities?

We welcome proposals that explore how WAW frameworks can:

  • Empower civic engagement and public discourse
  • Transfer into workplace and professional contexts
  • Foster resilience and resistance in constrained or politicized environments
  • Help us rethink evidence, literacy, or the classroom in light of current events

Panel format: Four presenters, 15-minute presentations (in person only), followed by Q&A.

Submission deadline: May 25, 2025 at 11:59 PM Central Time

How to submit: Send a 100–200 word abstract (with cover page info) to Joseph Robertshaw (jwr0015@uah.edu).

For full details, including proposal guidelines and review criteria, see below:

Our Panel Theme–Conference & Our Conversations: In This Moment


Overview: In this critical moment when executive orders, almost daily, challenge academic freedom and threaten to rend the fabric of democratic ideals, some of our professional and pedagogical practices have become rife with new obstacles (like the threat of economic pressures applied directly to colleges, and previously awarded research funds being withheld from universities). In some cases, they have even become illegal (like uttering “Divisive Concepts” in a deep red state: AL SB 247&HB 7 ). Challenges to academic freedom and security are even levied at the state level (e.g. ND HB 1437 and FL Senate Bill 7044). If Writing About Writing (WAW) approaches hope to continue to be effective in the midst of the cumulative constraints we have seen placed on educators in recent years, we are prompted to confer, together, in this moment to map that path. As we lean into our communities for the support and strength they confer upon us, we have the opportunity to re-imagine our conference—in conversation with students, professionals, educators, administrators, and allies—as part of the larger community of the public sphere. In the face of these obstacles and challenges, what approaches, texts, and frameworks does a WAW approach to Writing Studies offer to engage young scholars in studying writing and to enact its roles in preparing students as rhetorically engaged citizens?


The Writing about Writing (WAW) Standing Group invites educators, practitioners, and researchers involved in WAW practices and pedagogies to submit proposals exploring how engagement with WAW concepts, in this moment, might inform and sustain innovative approaches that permeate civic engagement, the workplace, and our own communities. What can
we do together to hold each other up, strengthen our positions, and move the community forward? Some possible connections inside the expanded idea of “Conference: in this moment” might include:


● What does WAW-style process pedagogy in the public sphere look like (and/or draw from) in this moment?
● What can be transferred from WAW classrooms to the workplace, in this moment?
● What can WAW practitioners, teachers, and scholars do together, in this moment, to hold each other up, strengthen our positions, and move the community forward?
● What does uncertainty about government in this moment mean for teaching, learning, and research in college-level courses taking up a WAW approach?
● What does the academic discourse of WAW communities have to say about transgression, resistance, or “good trouble,” in this moment?
● Analyzing this new context, what counts as evidence in this post-truth moment?
● What language & literacy do we invite into the classroom in this moment of our civic discourse?
● What does an ever-changing media mean in this moment for WAW?

Presentation Format: Traditional Panel with four presenters
Duration: 75 minutes total–Each presentation will last about 15 min. reserving the balance for
questions to the panel. Multi-authored paper welcomed. In person delivery only please.
Content: Presentations should focus on the context of Writing about Writing approaches, discussing theoretical and practical implications, methods, and strategies as it applies to this moment in the history of the USA.


Submission Instructions:
Submit your proposal before May 25th at 11:59 PM Central Time by email. Please send to Joseph Robertshaw (jwr0015@uah.edu) an abstract (100-200 words) that includes the following:

Innovative Perspective: (in the body of your submission)
What contribution(s) do you see your presentation making to the discourse of this
community at this moment.


Evaluation Criteria:
● Alignment with Theme: Proposals should align with the focus of how your Writing
about Writing pedagogies and practices help you meet the challenges of this moment in
conversation with this community.
● Innovativeness: Original insights into the kinds of conferences that WAW engenders in
educational settings.
● Practical Impact: The potential of the proposed approach to significantly influence
teaching practices and learning outcomes.
PLEASE: format your submission for blind peer review limiting all personally identifying
information to the cover sheet only (APA does this naturally).

Additional Resources
● Contacts: Joseph Robertshaw (jwr0015@uah.edu), Rebecca Babcock
(babcock_r@utpb.edu), Maria Assif (maria.assif@utoronto.ca), or
Samuel Stinson (samuel.stinson@minotstateu.edu) Ryan Roderick (roderickr@husson.edu)
● CCCC2026 Conference Information 

Presenter Information: (on the cover page only)
o Your name(s)
o Affiliation(s)
o Contact information
o A working title for your presentation

Content Details: (in the body of your submission)
o Working title for your presentation that matches one on the cover sheet.
o A statement that frames the way you are conceiving of the concept “Conference and our Conversations”
o A discussion of this moment in time and how it impacts pedagogical approaches, student learning, faculty roles, or institutional practices
o An explanation of how Writing about Writing helps to discuss or provide connections in this concept as you frame it

Blogs

Exploring Writing Assessment and Pedagogy with Dr. Jenn Fishman

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In the recent Writing About Writing (WAW) Standing Group workshop, Dr. Jenn Fishman, Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric and Co-Director of the Ott Memorial Writing Center at Marquette University, shared her approach to integrating WAW into advanced composition courses, demonstrating how this framework helps students critically engage with writing as both a subject of study and as a recursive and self-reflective practice.

You can watch the full session here: