Pacific Northwest Writing Centers Association

Piecing it Together
Making, Tinkering, and DIY in our Colleges

TYCA-PNW & Pacific Northwest Writing Center Association 
Joint Annual Conference

Cornish College of the Arts
October 25-26, 2013
Seattle, WA

Proposal Deadline: June 17, 2013

Keynote Speaker
Jentery Sayers 

We may witness DIY (Do-It-Yourself) culture all around us as part of a larger shift towards producing rather than consuming: urban homesteaders with chicken coops on their tiny back porches; fan art or mashups that reimagine or pay homage to subcultural icons; Kickstarter campaigns that utilize grassroots community support to fund art and invention; and the resurgence of arts and crafts culture that celebrates a renaissance of all things handmade.

Along with the shift towards a culture of production, comes a shift in mindset:

• Embracing “maker culture” in taking everyday objects and modifying them for new, previously unimagined purposes
• Seeing constraints as opportunities for invention rather than as limitations
• Approaching production as an act of “tinkering,” “bricolage” or “hacking” -- opportunity for low-stakes play that emphasizes trial and error rather than success or failure
• A privileging of peer-to-peer, collaborative learning which promotes intrinsic motivation and takes control of production out of the hands of institutions

The critical question at the heart of our 2013 conference is:

How do we see ourselves practicing the DIY maker mindset in our institutions, classrooms, and writing centers? In what ways are we making new and innovative things out of existing space, place, pedagogy, and objects?

Proposals are invited, but not required, to respond to any of the following sub-questions:

• How are we innovating with what we find around us?
• How are we inviting students to be “makers” – tinkerers or hackers – of genres and technologies of writing, including multimodal compositions?
• How are we inviting our colleagues, our tutors, and our students to retool peer-to-peer, collaborative practices?
• Our students are embedded in this shift towards DIY/producer culture and many enact the maker mindset outside the constraints of our classrooms and writing centers; therefore, how do we invite them to share these practices within our institutions?
• In what ways do your personal, creative, do-it-yourself practices inform your professional practices?
• How can DIY principles such as hacking help us reimagine how we approach access and diversity?
• How can the DIY principles support the development of multiliteracy writing centers in places without institutional or financial support?
• How can DIY promote or support the interdisciplinary thinking, collaboration, and development of WAC/WID programs or initiatives?

 Submit proposals via the web form below by 12 midnight, June 17th, 2013. 

Guidelines: All proposals should address the following: 

• A particular question, issue, or problem 
• A statement of what participants will learn and be able to contribute 
• A clear plan for how you will engage participants 

Session Formats: All should allow 15-20 minutes for discussion, minimum.

(A) 50-minute individual presentation

(B) 15-20 minute individual presentations (program chairs will form groups)

(C) 50-minute panel presentations (3-4 individuals present on a central theme)

(D) 50-minute roundtable discussion: presenters address a specific question and facilitate audience discussion.

(E) 50-minute workshops: audience interaction via hands-on practice of a particular learning strategy or central theme

(F) 5-minute poster session presentation, with handouts and plan to engage participants in further discussion (program chairs will form poster session groups)

Conference Chair/Site Host
Amanda Hill ahill@cornish.edu

TYCA-PNW  Program Chair
Gretchen Coulter gcoulter@whatcom.ctc.edu

PNWCA Program Chair
Prairie Brown brownp@cwu.edu

Online Proposal Submission Form

Please log in or register to view the form and submit your proposal.