Call for Proposals

 

WOVEN Legacies:  Multimodality in the Classroom and Beyond

 

A Symposium Celebrating Multimodality, Digital Pedagogy, and Mentorship

In Honor of Rebecca Burnett

 

https://wovensymposium.lmc.gatech.edu/

 

June 4-6, 2020

Stephen C. Hall Building

Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta, GA

 

Dr. Rebecca Burnett’s upcoming retirement in July 2020 ends an era at Georgia Tech and in the lives of the many, many people she mentored through the Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellowship. During this time, the WOVEN (Written, Oral, Visual, Electronic, and Nonverbal communication) curriculum she implemented in Georgia Tech’s first-year composition and technical communication courses helped fuel the importance of multimodal composition in writing programs across the nation (and, indeed, the world).

Since Dr. Burnett began her tenure as the director of the Brittain Fellowship and the Writing and Communication Program (WCP) at Georgia Tech in 2007, multimodal writing pedagogy has become the central focus and practice of classrooms across the disciplines. Through her research and leadership, Dr. Burnett has been a driving force behind the creative, student-centered, and high-impact teaching practices that have become a standard feature of US higher education. Her mentorship has impacted more than 100 early-career teacher-scholars who have left Georgia Tech and the Brittain Fellowship to undertake positions in academia, high school education, industry, and elsewhere. Dr. Burnett’s retirement offers an occasion for those of us who have been fortunate enough to work with her to reflect on ways her influence has shaped the field as we anticipate the shape that teaching with and about digital technology will take in the coming decades. 

In celebration of Dr. Burnett’s legacy, we invite scholarly papers, talks, and digital posters that speak to her ongoing interests and concerns in multimodal communication, pedagogy/digital pedagogy, and mentorship/professional development/leadership.  

 

Some possible topics include (but are not limited to) the following:

 

Multimodal Communication

• Multimodal assessment/digital portfolios

• Digital information design/data visualization

• Visual rhetoric / design

• Technical narratives

• Photography

• Multimodal communication strategies in and beyond academia

• Social media

 

Pedagogy/Digital Pedagogy

• Reflection in and about composition/tech comm classroom

• Using archives in the writing/communication classroom

• Hybrid and online course design

• Collaborative assignment/course design

• Teaching multimodal composition/technical communication/etc.

• Teaching with technology

• Connected learning strategies

• Client-based assignments

 

Mentorship/Professional Development/Leadership

• Teacher training, i.e. digital pedagogy course design

• Professional development in and beyond academia

• Academic leadership

• Writing/communication program administration

• Textbook authorship

• Mentoring postdocs and other early-career faculty

• Community outreach

 

Sessions are 60 minutes with 15 minutes between sessions. We invite the following kinds of proposals:

• 15-minute individual presentations 

• Full-session proposals (~3 presenters with at least 15 minutes for discussion)

• Roundtable proposals (4-6 lightning talks with discussion)

• Digital poster proposals

Please submit proposals, indicating the type of proposal (paper/presentation, panel, roundtable, digital poster) and including an abstract (250 words) and brief bio (100 words). For panel proposals, please provide abstracts for individual participants. Submit proposals to gatechwcprogram@gmail.com by March 15, 2020. 

Some funding may be available to help with travel expenses. If you are interested in applying for travel support, please submit a one-page letter expressing your interest with your abstract proposal.