Alternate Routes: New Directions in Writing Center Work
Website: http://departments.weber.edu/writingcenter/IWCA_Call_For_Papers.htm

October 30-November 1, Alexis Park Resort Hotel
This year’s theme invites us to consider where writing centers have been and where they are going. As the pioneer trails of early writing centers have developed into well-traveled roads and information superhighways, what are the new directions for writing centers? The road metaphor lends itself to some intriguing discussions.

Intersections
Consider the intersections between various groups:
Student Affairs and Academic Affairs/Individual Departments
Composition Programs and Writing Centers
Undergraduate Peer Tutors and Graduate Student Tutors
Secondary Education, Two-Year Colleges, and Universities

How do Community Writing Centers influence the town/gown dichotomy?
What lies ahead for writing center and library collaborations?

Overpasses
What if there really are no lower order concerns?
What do L-2 (ESL) writers teach us about creative composition?
What are best practices for writing centers in collaboration with academic affairs?
What are new and future configurations of writing centers within the institutional structure?

Scenic Loops
Has writing center practice reached a cul-de-sac? A dead end?
What are the particulars of tutoring in the Sciences? Technology?
How do writing centers support or interact with WAC programs?
How do writing centers best serve writers and their communities, academic or otherwise?
What is on the horizon in terms of technology in writing centers?
What will be the best vehicles for learning in the future writing center?

U-Turns
How is tutoring similar to the post-modern composition classroom experience?
When can Writing Centers be directive?
How does graduate student tutoring qualify as peer tutoring?
How might we productively question received truths of writing center practice?

Blue Highways
Off-roading and touring without a map—how does a writing center do that?
In what direction are new international regional organizations going?
What happens on the road less traveled—when writing centers depart from common paths to success?

We invite you take this journey with us. The first steps are to submit conference proposals and to register for the conference. The IWCA/NCPTW conference welcomes a variety of participants from among administrators and tutors who are undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals from all varieties of writing centers–university, two-year college, secondary school, and community centers. We look forward to your participation.

Proposal Deadline: February 15, 2008
Acceptance Notification: May 1, 2008