Proposals due via online submission by November 20, 2017
Kansas City, Missouri | Conference on College Composition and Communication | March 14-17, 2018
We invite proposals for the Undergraduate Researcher Poster Session at the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in Kansas City, Missouri. The poster session showcases undergraduate research in writing studies, rhetoric and composition, professional writing, and related areas of study.
CCCC is an annual convention for teachers, researchers, and students interested in all aspects of teaching and researching writing. It routinely attracts 3,000 attendees, ranging from professors to undergraduate students. This year’s conference theme focuses on “Languaging, Laboring, and Transforming.” Undergraduate researcher posters are not restricted to that theme, but may respond to it. Asao B. Inoue, the 2018 Program Chair, writes:
Many of us imagine our work with language as work that revolutionizes—work that changes ideas and people for the better—but how might our work be more than its product or outcome? How might our work be change, be revolutionizing, be labors that are the practices of transformation themselves? How might we use our annual conference as a space for languaging, for laboring with and about language, for practicing transformation and revolution with and through language?
Languaging—our laboring with and around language—is the center of what we do… We usually call it rhetoric, or discourse, or writing, but really, rhetoric is just another way to name our laboring with words,… with community members, with texts.
The Undergraduate Researcher Poster Session provides a call to action for students to share the questions about writing and rhetoric that you are languaging, laboring, and transforming from your unique perspective as you begin to enter the field.
The annual poster session was initiated at the 2012 CCCC to encourage undergraduate participation in the conference; to attract younger members who are contemplating further education and careers in rhetoric and composition; to extend the organization’s diversity; and to examine, support, and represent the growing presence of undergraduate research in rhetoric, composition, and communication. In the context of these ongoing discussions, this poster session showcases the field’s premier undergraduate researchers and their projects.
The Undergraduate Researcher Poster Session is organized by a multi-institutional team of faculty and students, including undergraduate and graduate students who presented at the prior undergraduate researcher poster sessions; members of the special interest group on undergraduate research; and members of the Committee on Undergraduate Research.
To be considered for this poster session, submit a presentation title and a 400-word proposal that:
- Explains your research project,
- Indicates the anticipated status of the project by March 2018 (note that projects may just be beginning, or still in-progress, when you submit this proposal),
- Discusses your interest in sharing your research with CCCC attendees, and
- Identifies your mentor or supervising faculty member (name, professional title, and email) for your research project. If you are collaborating with a team, please also discuss your role in the research project.
If your research involves human participants and your school has an institutional review board or ethics review process for research, your proposal also should indicate if you have (or plan to apply for) IRB-approval for your research.
Submit proposals via the online submission form by 11:59 PM EST on November 20th. Proposals will be reviewed by the Poster Session Planning Team, and applicants will be notified about the status of their proposals by mid-December.
To help accepted presenters prepare for the poster session, in early January, the Planning Team will share strategies for designing posters. Accepted presenters also will be invited to participate in an online peer review of poster drafts throughout February.
The 2012 poster session was highlighted in a Kairos review (see http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/CCCCReviews/2012SE1Roser). Learn more about the previous poster sessions and past presenters on the Undergraduate Research in Writing Studies website. Undergraduate presenters from all five years have proposed papers or panels for subsequent conferences – and appeared on the CCCC program in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.
If you have questions about the poster session or about the proposal process, please contact Jessie L. Moore at jmoore28@elon.edu. We look forward to learning about your undergraduate research projects!
CCCC Undergraduate Researcher Poster Session Planning Team