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Home > Weissman Center for Leadership > Speaking, Arguing, & Writing Program > NCPTW 2009 > Call for Proposals
Call for Proposals
The National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing
Hosted by the Speaking, Arguing, and Writing Program of the
Weissman Center for Leadership
Mount Holyoke College
November 6-8, 2009
Leadership and Peer Tutoring: Hope, Vision, Collaboration, Action
What exactly is leadership and what does it have to do with peer tutoring? Some view leadership as a responsibility bestowed upon those who hold formal positions of power; in this way, the work of peer tutoring might be understood as an act of leadership or the writing center as a training ground for future leaders to hone their use of rhetoric. Some view leadership as collaborative social action; in this way, the writing center community might be viewed as a leader in our recent efforts to explore the social justice possibilities of our work. Others see leadership as a set of qualities and attitudes that guide the lived experiences of all people regardless of formal position; in this way, peer tutoring may be understood as an opportunity for students, tutors, and directors to develop personal responsibility, to resist complacency, to recognize one’s own agency, and to define one’s own goals.
Mount Holyoke College, this year’s NCPTW host, was the first women’s college in the United States, founded in 1837 as the female equivalent to the then predominantly-male Ivy Leagues. With a continued commitment to women’s education and leadership, the college will be celebrating in 2009 the 10th anniversary of its Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts—the center in which our Speaking, Arguing, and Writing Program is housed. Our program and writing center’s mission is to empower students as leaders who think critically and creatively and who speak and write persuasively.
Our conference this year seeks to consider the various ways in which peer tutoring and leadership inform one another. We invite proposals for interactive sessions that explore any topic, though we are particularly interested in questions such as
- How does peer tutoring and writing center work allow us to develop and complicate various definitions of leadership?
- In what ways does tutoring work foster leadership skills in tutors and tutees?
- What leaders have inspired our work as tutors and directors, and how do we translate those lessons into our own leadership?
- In what ways do our writing centers provide leadership on our campuses?
- How does writing center work take the lead beyond the walls of our campuses?
- In what ways does the lens of leadership challenge, complicate, and/or provide new opportunities for the ways in which we conceptualize our work, define our missions, and communicate with our campus communities?
We welcome proposals for a variety of session formats, and encourage proposers to take the lead by inventing new format types not listed here. Please note that interactive session formats will be favored over strict reading of manuscripts. Proposals submitted by peer tutors are strongly encouraged.
Individual Presentations
These presentations will be 15 – 20 minutes in length; presenters will be placed on a panel with several other presenters addressing similar topics or questions.
Group Presentations
These presentations will be 45 – 60 minutes in length; a group of participants will collaborate to conduct a single session around a central theme.
Roundtable Discussions
In these sessions designed around a specific theme or question, a group of leaders will each speak for 2 – 3 minutes in order to address the question from a variety of angles; the leaders will then open up the question to the audience and facilitate a group discussion.
Workshops
Led by an individual or a collaborating group of presenters, these sessions are interactive activities designed to give the audience hands-on knowledge or practice about a specific topic or question.
Scholar-to-Scholar Posters
Presenters will stand by to answer questions and interact with conference attendees in response to visual displays representing their work. Posters will remain on display throughout the conference as well.
Proposal guidelines:
- Provide name, position, institution, and contact information (including email) of all presenters
- Proposals should not exceed 500 words and should indicate the strategy for engaging the audience
- Proposals should include the presentation type, the title of the presentation, and a 50-70 word abstract for inclusion in the program
Deadline:
April 1, 2009
Submit online or mail to:
Laura Greenfield, RE: NCPTW 2009
SAW Program, 117 Porter Hall
Mount Holyoke College
50 College Street
South Hadley, MA 01075
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