Two-Year College English Association

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The call for proposals for the 2019 TYCA Conference is now closed.

Proposals will be sent to review soon and announcements will go out in December.

Please email cccc2019@ncte.org if you have questions.

Thank you!

Call for Proposals
Starting the Conversation: Teaching, Scholarship, and Activism at Two-Year Colleges
 Two-Year College English Association National Conference

March 13, 2019
Pittsburgh, PA
Offered in connection with the 2019 CCCC Annual Convention

Proposal Deadline: November 1, 2018, 11:59 p.m. EDT

Call for Proposals

English instructors at two-year colleges come from a variety of backgrounds and experience. Our flexibility, competence, and communication skills often make us the “Swiss Army knives” of our institutions. English faculty members run dual-credit programs, chair governance committees, and lead community outreach initiatives. We’re content experts in all kinds of fields, but one thing we all have in common is our desire to continue to improve not only our institutions and departments, but our personal craft of teaching. Two-year college English faculty love and value teaching. We have to, because teaching is the main focus of our professional lives.

In 1947, officially establishing community colleges, Truman’s Commission on Higher Education argued that “[e]ducation that liberates and ennobles must be made equally available to all. Justice to the individual demands this; the safety and progress of the Nation depend upon it” (Sullivan and Toth, Teaching Composition at the Two-Year College: Background Readings, p. 8). This concept of education that “liberates and ennobles [and] must be made equally available to all” is at the heart of our work at two-year colleges and open-access institutions.

TYCA has existed since 1996. We began as, and continue to be, an organization that addresses regional needs. While each of the seven TYCA regions has its own characteristic flavor, we’re often talking about the same issues: course load, state funding, dual credit, maintaining rigor with underserved student populations. This first national TYCA conference is an opportunity to combine those conversations and talk “across country” with other colleagues who are facing many of the same challenges.

As English teachers at two-year colleges and open-access institutions, we are—whether by training or inclination (to say nothing of necessity)—compositionists; but we also bring with us a dizzying variety of expertise. We teach creative writing, literature, reading, ESL, technical reporting, and communication. We’re leaders in developmental ed, program design and assessment, writing centers, and professional development. Our scholarship is diverse as well, as can be seen by glancing through any recent copy of TETYC.

Our profession thrives on both individual expertise and careful collaboration. In this spirit, we invite you to join us at TYCA’s first national conference to discuss what our institutions bring to our communities—and our roles in providing educational opportunities for as many residents/students as possible. Because we believe in that. Because where so many systems fail our students, we can be and should be and are working to eliminate barriers and empower our students within our communities.

Conference Committee

Joanne Baird Giordano (Chair), Salt Lake Community College
Beverly Fatherree, Hinds Community College
Sarah Johnson, Madison College
Stephanie Maenhardt, Salt Lake Community College
Travis Margoni, Yakima Valley College

Focus for Presentations

Proposals should address issues that are relevant to teaching English at two-year colleges. Participants do not need to be affiliated with a two-year college but must focus proposals on research and practices that are clearly relevant to TYCA members. Potential areas of exploration include (but are not limited to) first-year writing, developmental education, second language reading and writing, literature, creative writing, writing centers and other learning assistance programs, intermediate composition, communications, technical writing, business writing, professional development, teacher-scholar activism, community engagement, program administration and innovation, preparing to teach at a two-year college, and the role of contingent faculty.

Review Criteria

Reviewers will evaluate proposals for presentations based on the following criteria:

• focuses on teaching, writing center or learning assistance programs, or other work of two-year college English teacher-scholars.
• provides attendees with practical strategies for teaching English in the first two college years or engaging as a professional in the discipline.
• presents concepts and practices that are relevant to working with a wide range of diverse learners at open-admissions institutions.
• uses research or other evidence to support recommended practices.

Presentations must not be part of an accepted session for CCCC 2019.