Friday, April 7, 9:30am-4pm (MDT)

The eight states that shape the Rocky Mountain Writing Centers Association are linked by the landscapes that give us our name, and also include a great diversity of landforms and geographies: from high desert to volcano, mountain peak to plateau. We see that diversity reflected in our writing centers, the stories we tell, and the landscapes we inhabit in our work, and we celebrate how these spaces and stories are constantly changing. For TutorCon 2023, we invite you to consider where you are, through your current works in progress; we hope you will explore what rocky terrain you and your writing center are navigating, what trails you are investigating, what plateaus you are resting on, and what the view looks like from there. 

The eight states that shape the Rocky Mountain Writing Centers Association are linked by the landscapes that give us our name, and also include a great diversity of landforms and geographies: from high desert to volcano, mountain peak to plateau. We see that diversity reflected in our writing centers, the stories we tell, and the landscapes we inhabit in our work, and we celebrate how these spaces and stories are constantly changing. For TutorCon 2023, we invite you to consider where you are, through your current works in progress; we hope you will explore what rocky terrain you and your writing center are navigating, what trails you are investigating, what plateaus you are resting on, and what the view looks like from there. 

We hope the questions below will spark, but not limit, your thinking:

• What is your writing center’s landscape? What does writing center work look like in your part of the world? At your institution? In your sessions? 

• What is distinct about the work you do or makes your writing center unique? How have you and other tutors in your WC successfully adapted approaches to your local context? 

• How do you understand the limits or edges of your work -- the cliffs or dead ends on the trail, whether physical, pedagogical, intellectual, or cultural? What constraints do these edges or limits create for you and your writing center?

• How do you (on your own or as part of your writing center) navigate change, whether it comes from students, departments, administrators, cultural contexts, the world?

• What are the rocky parts of our past, present, and future? How do we approach and grapple with these difficult histories and future challenges? 

• Whose stories matter, and how can we advocate for counterstories in writing center spaces and conversations? 

• How do we promote access for writers, tutors/consultants, and administrators? How can we clear spaces, create markers along our trails, and offer many ways of being and interacting?

• What promotes learning? What facilitates or frustrates learning?

• What are unexplored writing center terrains? What new paths are you creating in your own role as a writer or writing tutor?

We encourage interactive sessions, with formats including individual presentations, roundtables, workshops, gallery submissions, "workshop-in-a-box" or "training-in-a-box" sessions, games or social events, and 10-minute presentations on strategies in our "Tutoring Ideas Exchange." Both synchronous and asynchronous submissions are welcome. We look forward to reading your proposal! 

Proposals will be accepted between December 12, 2022, and March 10, 2023.

Call for Papers

Guidance for Submitters -- Strategies to Consider When Writing Your Proposal

Submission Form (including narrative of 300-50 words plus an abstract of 50-100 words)

If you have questions about any aspect of TutorCon 2023, please write to us at rmwca.tutorcon@gmail.com.