June 2018 - Page 19 of 64 - Conference on College Composition and Communication

CCCC Studies in Writing & Rhetoric (SWR) Series Submission Guidelines

Aim of the CCCC Studies in Writing & Rhetoric Series

The aim of the CCCC Studies in Writing & Rhetoric Series is to influence how we think about language in action and especially how writing gets taught at the college level. The methods of studies vary from the critical to historical to linguistic to ethnographic, and their authors draw on work in various fields that inform composition—including rhetoric, communication, education, discourse analysis, psychology, cultural studies, and literature. Their focuses are similarly diverse—ranging from individual writers and teachers, to work on classrooms and communities and curricula, to analyses of the social, political, and material contexts of writing and its teaching. Still, all SWR volumes try in some way to inform the practice of writing teachers, students, or administrators. Their approach is synthetic, their style concise and pointed. Complete manuscripts run from 40,000–50,000 words, or about 150–200 pages. Authors should imagine their work in the hands of writing teachers and all who are interested in how we make our ways with language.

SWR was one of the first scholarly book series to focus primarily on the teaching of writing. It was established in 1980 by the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in order to promote research in the emerging field of writing studies. As our field has grown, the research and scholarship sponsored by SWR has continued to articulate the commitment of CCCC to supporting the work of writing teachers as reflective practitioners and intellectuals. Click here for a list of current books in the SWR series.

New Editor and Publisher of SWR

On July 1, 2012, Professor Victor Villanueva (Auburn University) will become the next SWR series editor. He and the current series editor, Joseph Harris, are working closely together to ensure a seamless transition. The series will continue to seek out the very best work in writing studies.

Submissions

We are eager to identify influential work in writing and rhetoric as it emerges. We thus ask authors to send us project proposals that clearly situate their work in the field and show how they aim to redirect our ongoing conversations about writing and its teaching. Proposals should include an overview of the project, a brief annotated table of contents, and a sample chapter. They should not exceed 10,000 words.

To submit a proposal, please visit www.editorialmanager.com/nctebp.
Good luck!

Problems or questions? Please email Victor Villanueva, SWR Editor, at victorv [at] auburn [dot] edu

SWR Editorial Advisory BoardVictor Villanueva, SWR Editor, Auburn University
Robin Gosser, Associate Editor, Auburn University

Linda Adler-Kassner, University of California, Santa Barbara
Adam Banks, University of Kentucky
Anis Bawarshi, University of Washington
Patricia Bizzell, Holy Cross College
Ellen Cushman, Michigan State University
Eli Goldblatt, Temple University
Juan Guerra, University of Washington
Krista Ratcliffe, Marquette University
Raúl Sánchez, University of Florida
Mary Soliday, San Francisco State University
Lucille Schultz, University of Cincinnati
Betsy Verhoeven, Susquehanna University

User’s Guide to CCCC

What is CCCC?

The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) supports and promotes the teaching and study of college composition and communication. CCCC is one of four conferences of the National Council of Teachers of English, which promotes access, power, agency, and affiliation for all invested in literacy, pre-K through graduate school.¹

Organizational Structure of CCCC

CCCC is governed by its Constitution and Bylaws. It is through the groups and roles specified in these documents that the work of the organization takes place. Leadership of the organization is charged to the CCCC Executive Committee (EC). The EC consists of 25 voting members (who are themselves elected by CCCC members) and five ex officio members who sit on the EC by virtue of their offices. These include, for instance, the editor of College Composition and Communication, CCCC’s journal, and the chair of the Two-Year College English Association (an NCTE association and close ally of CCCC). These ex officio members provide necessary information about the operations of the organization to the larger leadership body.

The CCCC EC is led by six officers (included in the count above): five elected and one who sits on the Officers’ Committee by virtue of their office. These officers include the Chair, Associate Chair, Assistant Chair, Past Chair, Secretary, and the Executive Secretary-Treasurer (non-elected), who form an Officers’ Committee as specified by the Constitution. Along with the EC, the officers have responsibility for policymaking, fiduciary matters, and organizational decision-making.

Also charged with undertaking projects is a series of Special Committees. These are appointed by the EC. They have a set of discrete tasks around a common interest defined by the Executive Committee to achieve purposes associated with the organization (for example, updating or revising a position statement). Organizationally, the other entities included in the structure of CCCC are membership-driven entities such as Special Interest Groups and Standing Groups, which emerge from the body of the organization. These groups are defined on this webpage and can request formal status within the organization in order to pursue goals, projects, or tasks around an area of common interest.

Organizational Structures within CCCC

Committees
Article IV of the CCCC Constitution names four kinds of committees within CCCC: the Executive Committee, Nominating Committee, Officers’ Committee, and Special Committees. The first three committees (Executive, Nominating, and Officers’) consist of elected and ex-officio members, so are necessarily limited in membership. The fourth, Special Committees, covers a range of topics and has more open membership.

Executive Committee: comprised of 20 elected plus a number of ex-officio members, the EC is CCCC’s policymaking body.
Nominating Committee: comprised of seven elected members, the NC identifies and encourages a diverse group of potential candidates to run for leadership positions within the organization.
Officers’ Committee: the officers of the EC make up the OC, which is charged with carrying out the business of the EC.
Special Committees: At any given time, CCCC will have a number of special committees, each appointed by the CCCC Chair. While certain committees are ongoing because their charge renews itself each year (e.g., Newcomers’ Orientation Committee and Awards Committees), most are chartered for three years and have specific deliverables. (The EC may renew the charter if provided with evidence that the organization would benefit from doing so.) A list of current Special Committees, along with information on how to join a committee, can be found on the CCCC Committee webpage.

Task Forces
Task forces are convened, charged, and appointed by the CCCC Executive Committee with the Officers’ Committee taking responsibility for charging the group. A Task Force tends to have a short activity span (typically no more than one year) around a very focused goal or outcome.

Member Groups: Special Interest Groups and Standing Groups
Committee membership is relatively limited because committees have specific and focused charges that are defined by the Executive Committee via the Chair. CCCC members who seek to define more ongoing work that is driven by member interests can participate in Member Groups of two types: Special Interest Groups (SIGs) or Standing Groups (SGs).

Currently, the more than fifty Special Interest Groups (SIGs) meet at the CCCC Annual Convention in the spring. They are relatively informal and provide an opportunity for people with common professional interests to meet and talk. Longstanding SIGs can apply to become a Standing Group, resulting in a more formal relationship with CCCC. While SIGs are not accountable to the organization with specific deliverables, Standing Groups are required to submit an annual report of activities and membership.

Who Does What in the Groups?

Committees are convened by the CCCC Executive Committee, with charges determined by the EC or Officers’ Committee. All committee members (including the chair) are named/appointed rather than elected. The exceptions to this description are the Nominating Committee, the Officers’ Committee, and the Executive Committee.
Task Forces are convened by the Executive Committee, with charges determined by the EC or Officers’ Committee. The chair is named or appointed rather than elected, as is the membership.
Standing Groups are membership-driven groups focused around a common interest. They may start as SIGs and apply for Standing Group status. Chairs or co-chairs are elected from the membership rather than appointed. They have organizational status as an ongoing group, presuming they provide necessary annual updates to the CCCC leadership and abide by their bylaws.
Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are groups assembled by members with a common interest that meet annually at the Convention. SIGs can apply for Standing Group status–recognition by the organization for longstanding activity.

How do I get involved?

Committees: Because committee membership is named by the Officers/EC, members interested in committee involvement should contact the CCCC liaison and/or respond to the biennial survey circulated to members, which seeks to solicit interest.
Task Forces: If there is an area of special expertise that a member wants to contribute to the organization, s/he can contact the Officers’ Committee to indicate a willingness to serve on a committee or task force should a task/goal falling under that member’s area of specialization be necessary.
Standing Groups: Standing Groups are open to all members. Any member is invited to attend the standing group meeting at the annual convention.
Special Interest Groups: SIGs are open to all members. Any member is invited to attend the special interest group meeting at the annual convention. SIGs and Standing Groups determine their own leadership opportunities and can be great ways to connect to other leadership positions within CCCC.

Statements

Position Statements: CCCC Position Statements—formal statements approved by the CCCC Executive Committee—have a long history in the organization, with Students’ Right to Their Own Language dating back to 1974. Position statements cover a range of ethical and professional issues. More detailed information can be found at the following sites:
- /cccc/resources/positions/creation
- /cccc/resources/positions/guidelines
Resolutions: Members of CCCC are encouraged to propose and/or support resolutions in order to “facilitate our collective efforts” on issues “that bear on the teaching of writing and communication.” While some resolutions are intended to make a statement, others are meant to spur action. The Resolutions Committee compiles resolutions and then puts them to a vote by the membership at the business meeting on Saturday morning at CCCC.

¹The other three conferences are the English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE), Conference on English Leadership (CEL), and Literacies and Languages for All (LLA). NCTE also has affiliates (NCTE regional affiliates and TYCA regional affiliates) and assemblies.

Studies in Writing & Rhetoric (SWR) Series Submission Information

The CCCC Studies in Writing and Rhetoric Series (SWR), established in 1984, supports research that explores how writing, rhetoric, and literacy are currently and have been historically taught, learned practiced, and circulated within communities, whether in colleges, workplaces, or neighborhoods, local, national, digital, or international contexts. The series also focuses on supporting a broad range of projects that accurately represent the diverse identities of teachers, learners, administrators, and researchers involved in writing, rhetoric and literacy, addressing the cultural, social, political, and material realities that define their work. Work published in SWR seeks to identify and resist the inequities and forces of oppression that shape the teaching of writing, rhetoric, and literacy as well as to intervene in them. The series aspires to be global both in scope and reach, and is dedicated to the use of digital technologies that ensure its publications are accessible and available to a national and international audience.

All SWR volumes try in some way to inform the practice of writing teachers, students, or administrators. Their approach is synthetic, their style concise and pointed. Complete manuscripts run 50,000–60,000 words, or about 150–200 pages. Authors should imagine their work in the hands of writing teachers, including those at two- and four-year colleges and universities, in dual enrollment programs, and in a wide range of extra-institutional and/or non-US-centered pedagogical contexts. While writing teachers may be a primary audience, the series aims to be accessible and engaging to broad audiences of those who are interested in how we make our ways with language and literacy.

SWR was one of the first scholarly book series to focus on the teaching of writing. It was established in 1980 by the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in order to promote research in the emerging field of writing studies. As our field has grown, the research sponsored by SWR has continued to articulate the commitment of CCCC to supporting the work of writing teachers as reflective practitioners and intellectuals.

Submissions

We are eager to identify influential work in writing and rhetoric as it emerges. Authors are encouraged to submit proposal queries to share questions and project concepts ahead of submitting a formal proposal. Project proposals should clearly situate the work in the field, showing how the research being developed and shared intervenes in and engages conversations hosted by the series and/or in writing, rhetoric, and literacy studies. Prospective authors are asked to indicate how the project extends, redirects, and/or reshapes ongoing conversations about writing, rhetoric, literacy and their teaching. Proposals should include an overview of the project and its stakes, a brief annotated table of contents, a market analysis of comparable/related work published in the last 5–7 years, and a sample chapter. They should convey the project’s conceptual and/or empirical archive/data set and how the text’s arguments emerge from the archive/data. If the project involves human subjects please indicate IRB approval. We welcome work that originates outside of the academy and collaborations among authors who experiment with form and knowledge-making practices.

NOTE: We do not accept unrevised dissertations.

To submit a proposal, please register as an author on the Editorial Manager site for the NCTE Books Program. Once registered, follow the steps to submit a proposal (be sure to choose SWR Book Proposal from the drop-down list of article submission types).

Questions?
Contact SWR Editor Stephanie Kerschbaum at kersch@uw.edu.

SWR Editorial Advisory Board

Stephanie Kerschbaum, SWR Editor, University of Washington
Taiko Aoki-Marcial, SWR Associate Editor, University of Washington

Jonathan Alexander, University of California, Irvine (2027)
Damián Baca, Arizona State University (2027)
Suresh Canagarajah, Penn State University (2027)
Charissa Che, Queensborough Community College (2027)
Jo Hsu, The University of Texas at Austin (2027)
Vivette Milson-Whyte, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica (2027)
Federico Navarro, Universidad de O’Higgins, Chile (2027)
Cassandra (Cassie) Phillips, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2027)
Patti Poblete, South Puget Sound Community College (2027)
Lauren Rosenberg, The University of Texas at El Paso (2027)
Emily Suh, Texas State University (2027)
Amy Wan, Queens College (2027)

SWR Editor Search Procedures

Before Shaughnessy: Basic Writing at Yale and Harvard, 1920-1960

Series: Studies in Writing and Rhetoric
Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press / CCCC & NCTE
xi, 171 p.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8093-2924-3 (Paperback); ISBN-10: 0-8093-2924-7 (Paperback)

Listen to the Podcast with author Kelly Ritter and SWR Editor Joe Harris:

Author Information

Kelly Ritter is chair of the School of Literature, Media, and Communication and professor of writing and communication in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech. Her scholarship focuses on archival histories of US writing programs and pedagogies, and cultural-historical conceptions of social class and literacy education. Her books are Before Shaughnessy: Basic Writing at Yale and Harvard, 1920-1960 (NCTE/SIU Press, 2009), Who Owns School? Authority, Students, and Online Discourse (Hampton Press, 2010), To Know Her Own History: Writing at the Woman’s College, 1943-1963 (U of Pittsburgh Press, 2012) and Reframing the Subject: Postwar Instructional Film and Class-Conscious Literacies (U of Pittsburgh Press, 2015). She is also the author of numerous articles and chapters, and editor or coeditor of four collections, including Beyond Fitting In: Rethinking First-Generation Writing and Literacy Education (Modern Language Association, 2023). She is past editor (2012-2017) of College English, a flagship journal of the National Council of Teachers of English.

Tags:

Basic writing; basic writers; history of composition; ability testing; first-year writing; archival research; placement; literacy; remediation; Mina Shaughnessy; Yale University; Harvard University; Ivy League institutions

Reviews:

Reviewed by Gregory R. Glau in WPA: Writing Program Administration 33.1/2 (Fall/Winter 2009) (PDF format)

Reviewed by Composition Forum 22 (2010) http://compositionforum.com/issue/22/before-shaughnessy-review.php

Purchasing Information

Purchase this book from Southern Illinois University Press.

Principles for the Postsecondary Teaching of Writing

Executive Summary

For the over 25 million students enrolled in America’s colleges and universities, postsecondary writing instruction is critical for success in college and beyond. In writing courses, students gain experience analyzing expectations for writing held by different audiences and practice meeting those expectations. This experience contributes significantly to the development of productive writing practices and habits of mind that are critical for success in different contexts, including academic, workplace, and community settings.

For the many stakeholders working to meet the challenges of this enterprise—among them faculty, program directors, deans, and college and university administrators—this statement presents a distillation of principles for sound instruction in postsecondary writing. These principles extend from empirical research in the fields of English Language Arts and Composition and Rhetoric and from existing statements developed by the field’s major organizations (including the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the National Council of Teachers of English, the Two Year College English Association, the Council of Writing Program Administrators, and the National Writing Project). They presume that sound writing instruction is provided by professionals with degree-based credentials in Writing Studies, Composition and Rhetoric, or related fields, or that have been provided with and/or have sought out professional development in this area. This particular statement is endorsed by CCCC (the largest professional organization representing two- and four-year writing instruction) and offers guiding principles and enabling conditions for sound writing instruction.

Guiding Principles. Sound writing instruction:

1. emphasizes the rhetorical nature of writing;
2. considers the needs of real audiences;
3. recognizes writing as a social act;
4. enables students to analyze and practice with a variety of genres;
5. recognizes writing processes as iterative and complex;
6. depends upon frequent, timely, and context-specific feedback from an experienced postsecondary instructor;
7. emphasizes relationships between writing and technologies; and
8. supports learning, engagement, and critical thinking in courses across the curriculum.

Enabling Conditions. Sound writing instruction:

9. provides students with the support necessary to achieve their goals;
10. extends from a knowledge of theories of writing (including, but not limited to, those theories developed in the field of composition and rhetoric);
11. is provided by instructors with reasonable and equitable working conditions; and
12. is assessed through a collaborative effort that focus on student learning within and beyond writing courses.

The remainder of this statement elaborates on each of these principles. Selected research-based resources providing additional information (including research studies and existing position statements) are located at the end of this document.

Read the full statement, Principles for the Postsecondary Teaching of Writing (October 1989, Revised November 2013, Revised March 2015)

Dates, Sites, and Themes for Past CCCC Conventions

April 9–12, 2025
Baltimore, MD
“’Computer Love’: Extended Play, B-sides, Remix, Collaboration, and Creativity”
Program Chair: Kofi J. Adisa

April 3–6, 2024
Spokane, WA
“Writing Abundance: Celebrating 75 Years of Conversations about Rhetoric, Composition, Technical Communication, and Literacy”
Program Chair: Jennifer Sano-Franchini

February 15–18, 2023
Chicago, IL
“Doing Hop in Desperate Times”
Program Chair: Frankie Condon

March 9–12, 2022
Virtual Convention
“The Promises and Perils of Higher Education: Our Discipline’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Linguistic Justice”
Program Chair: Staci Perryman-Clark

April 7–10, 2021
Virtual Convention
“We Are All Writing Teachers*: Returning to a Common Place”
Program Chair: Holly Hassel

March 25–28, 2020 (Cancelled)
Milwaukee, WI
“Considering Our Commonplaces”
Program Chair: Julie Lindquist

March 13–16, 2019
Pittsburgh, PA
“Performance-Rhetoric, Performance-Composition”
Program Chair: Vershawn Ashanti Young

March 14–17, 2018
Kansas City, MO
“Languaging, Laboring, and Transforming”
Program Chair: Asao Inoue

March 15–18, 2017
Portland, OR
“Cultivating Capacity, Creating Change”
Program Chair: Carolyn Calhoon-Dillahunt

April 6–9, 2016
Houston, TX
“Writing Strategies for Action”
Program Chair: Linda Adler-Kassner

March 18–21, 2015
Tampa, FL
“Risk and Reward”
Program Chair: Joyce Carter

March 19–22, 2014
Indianapolis, IN
“Open | Source(s), Access, Futures”
Program Chair: Adam Banks

March 13–16, 2013
Las Vegas, NV
“The Public Work of Composition”
Program Chair: Howard Tinberg

March 21–24, 2012
St. Louis, MO
“Writing Gateways”
Program Chair: Chris Anson

April 6–9, 2011
Atlanta, GA
“All Our Relations: Contested Space, Contested Knowledge”
Program Chair: Malea Powell

March 17–20, 2010
Louisville, KY
“The Remix: Revisit, Rethink, Revise, Renew”
Program Chair: Gwendolyn D. Pough

March 11–14, 2009
San Francisco, CA
“Making Waves”
Program Chair: Marilyn Valentino

April 2–5, 2008
New Orleans, LA
“Writing Realities, Changing Realities”
Program Chair: Charles Bazerman

March 21–24, 2007
New York, NY
“Representing Identities”
Program Chair: Cheryl Glenn

March 22–25, 2006
Chicago, IL
“Composition in the Center Spaces: Building Community, Culture, Coalitions”
Program Chair: Akua Duku Anokye

March 16–19, 2005
San Francisco, CA
“Opening the Golden Gates: Access, Affirmative Action, and Student Success”
Program Chair: Judith Wootten

March 24–27, 2004
San Antonio, TX
“Making Composition Matter: Students, Citizens, Institutions, Advocacy”
Program Chair: Douglas D. Hesse

March 19–22, 2003
New York, NY
“Rewriting ‘Theme for English B’: Transforming Possibilities”
Program Chair: Kathleen Blake Yancey

March 20–23, 2002
Chicago, IL
“Connecting the Text and the Street”
Program Chair: Shirley Wilson Logan

March 14–17, 2001
Denver, CO
“Composing Community”
Program Chair: John Lovas

April 12–15, 2000
Minneapolis, MN
“Educating the Imagination: Reimagining Education”
Program Chair: Wendy Bishop

March 24–27, 1999
Atlanta, GA
“Visible Students, Visible Teachers”
Program Chair: Keith Gilyard

April 1–4, 1998
Chicago, IL
“Ideas, Historias y Cuentos: Breaking with Precedent”
Program Chair: Victor Villanueva

March 12–15, 1997
Phoenix, AZ
“Just Teaching, Just Writing: Reflection and Responsibility”
Program Chair: Cynthia Selfe

March 27–30, 1996
Milwaukee, WI
“Transcending Boundaries”
Program Chair: Nell Ann Pickett

March 22–25, 1995
Washington, D.C.
“Literacies, Technologies, Responsibilities”
Program Chair: Lester Faigley

March 16–19, 1994
Nashville, TN
“Common Concerns, Uncommon realities: Teaching, Research, and Scholarship in a Complex World”
Program Chair: Jacqueline Jones Royster

April 1–3, 1993
San Diego, CA
“Twentieth Century Problems, Twenty-First Century Solutions: Issues, Answers, Actions”
Program Chair: Lillian Bridwell-Bowles

March 19–21, 1992
Cincinnati, OH
“Contexts, Communities, and Constraints: Sites of Composing and Communicating”
Program Chair: Anne Ruggles Gere

March 21–23, 1991
Boston, MA
“Times of Trial, Reorientation, Reconstruction: A Fin de Siecle Review/Prophecy”
Program Chair: William W. Cook

March 22–24, 1990
Chicago, IL
“Strengthening Community Through Diversity”
Program Chair: Donald McQuade

March 16–18, 1989
Seattle, WA
“Empowering Students and Ourselves in an Interdependent World”
Program Chair: Jane E. Peterson

March 17–19, 1988
St. Louis, MO
“Language, Self, and Society”
Program Chair: Andrea A. Lunsford

March 19–21, 1987
Atlanta, GA
The Uses of Literacy: A Writer’s Work In and Out of the Academy”
Program Chair: David Bartholomae

March 13–15, 1986
New Orleans, LA
“Using the Power of Language to Make the Impossible Possible”
Program Chair: Miriam T. Chaplin

March 21–23, 1985
Minneapolis, MN
“Making Connections”
Program Chair: Lee Odell

March 29–31, 1984
New York, NY
“Making Writing the Cornerstone of an Education for Freedom”
Program Chair: Maxine Hairston

March 17–19, 1983
Detroit, MI
“The Writer’s World(s): Achieving Insight and Impact”
Program Chair: Rosentene B. Purnell

March 18–20, 1982
San Francisco, CA
“Serving Our Students, Our Public, and Our Profession”
Program Chair: Donald C. Stewart

March 26–28, 1981
Dallas, TX
“Our Profession: Achieving Perspectives for the 1980’s”
Program Chair: James Lee Hill

March 13–15, 1980
Washington, D.C.
“Writing: The Person and the Process”
Program Chair: Lynn Quitman Troyka

April 5–7, 1979
Minneapolis, MN
“Writing: A Cross-Disciplinary Enterprise”
Program Chair: Frank D’Angelo

March 30–April 1, 1978
Denver, CO
“Excellence in What We Do: Our Attitude Toward Teaching Composition”
Program Chair: William F. Irmscher

March 31–April 2, 1977
Kansas City, KS
“Two Hundred Plus One: Communicating in the Third American Century”
Program Chair: Vivian I. Davis

March 25–27, 1976
Philadelphia, PA
“What’s Really Basic? A Bicentennial Review of the Basic Issues of English”
Program Chair: Richard Lloyd-Jones

March 13–15, 1975
St. Louis, MO
“Untapped Resources”
Program Chair: Marianna W. Davis

April 4–6, 1974
Anaheim, CA
“Hidden Agendas: What Are We Doing When We Do What We Do?”
Program Chair: Lionel R. Sharp

April 5–7, 1973
New Orleans, LA
“Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities”
Program Chair: Richard L. Larson

March 23–25, 1972
Boston, MA
“Reconsidering Roles: What Are We About?”
Program Chair: James D. Barry

March 25–27, 1971
Cincinnati, OH
“Coming Together—SOS from the Darkling Plain”

March 19–21, 1970
Seattle, WA

April 17–19, 1969
Miami, FL

April 4–6, 1968
Minneapolis, MN

April 6–8, 1967
Louisville, KY

March 24–26, 1966
Denver, CO

April 8–10, 1965
St. Louis, MO

March 25–28, 1964
New York, NY
“Freshman English: Return to Composition”

March 21–24, 1963
Los Angeles, CA
“The Content of English”

April 5–7, 1962
Chicago, IL

April 6–8, 1961
Washington, D.C.

March 31–April 2, 1960
Cincinnati, OH

April 2–4, 1959
San Francisco, CA

March 27–29, 1958
Philadelphia, PA

March 21–23, 1957
Chicago, IL

March 22–24, 1956
New York, NY

March 24–26, 1955
Chicago, IL

March 4–6, 1954
St. Louis, MO

March 13–14, 1953
Chicago, IL

March 28–29, 1952
Cleveland, OH

March 30–31, 1951
Chicago, IL

March 24–25, 1950
Chicago, IL

Apply to Be the Next Editor of the SWR Series

The Conference on College Composition and Communication invites applications for a five-year appointment as Editor of the Studies in Writing and Rhetoric (SWR) book series. SWR supports the mission of CCCC in its publication of monograph-length works from a variety of theoretical and research perspectives on current topics or concerns within composition studies.

Working with an editorial board appointed by the CCCC officers, the SWR editor solicits and reviews manuscripts, then works with authors to develop and prepare accepted projects into production-ready form for the publication staff. The current CCCC budget permits publishing three to four monographs a year. CCCC provides partial support for the office of editor; the amount of support will be negotiated with the finalist. In addition, the editor is a member of the CCCC Editors’ Team, which meets face-to-face at the CCCC Convention and, occasionally, online.

The CCCC officers request that a detailed application dossier be submitted as a PDF by April 18, 2022, to Kurt Austin, NCTE Senior Books Editor, at kaustin@ncte.org, including (1) a letter articulating the applicant’s vision for the SWR series, (2) a CV, (3) a statement of possible institutional support (including financial support, preferably), and (4) a sample of the applicant’s writing (article or chapter). Applicants must be CCCC members.

Based on those materials, the officers will interview a group of finalists via teleconference in May 2022.

Decision on the 2018 CCCC Convention

September 11, 2017

Dear CCCC Friends and Colleagues,

Thank you for your patience as we have discussed the 2018 CCCC Convention. As an organization, we are deeply committed to creating conditions where we can learn from and support each other. In these troubling times, we feel especially passionate about supporting our most vulnerable members—members of color, undocumented members, LGBTQ members, members who are adjunct faculty, and others. We recognize that as an organization, we must act—and we will continue to act—on these commitments.

The Executive Committee has deliberated intensely about CCCC 2018. We held four discussions—three conversations via Zoom video conferencing and an extended online meeting—about the convention, the NAACP’s travel advisory, and the issues that we outlined in the update from CCCC on Kansas City. As we indicated in that statement, these discussions were intensive and challenging. They focused on this Convention, but also on CCCC as an organization and the larger issues and fissures that we are immediately starting to address.

Ultimately, the EC voted to hold the 2018 CCCC Convention in Kansas City and to create a task force to prioritize and incorporate recommendations from the Joint Caucus Statement and additional suggestions from members. In making a decision about the Convention, we have chosen to go to Kansas City and use our commitment to justice, our opposition to inequity and injustice, our passion, and our financial resources to make our presence and those commitments known.

This will not be “conferencing as usual.” We will transform the Convention beginning immediately, with the creation of the task force, and we will devote considerable financial resources from the CCCC Contingency Fund to create a safe, welcoming, and committed space where we can engage together in the work of languaging and transforming. As we work to enact recommendations for CCCC 2018, our priorities will be safety and access for members and supporting the local community. Additionally, we plan to invest in sustainable changes to the Convention that are long overdue. We hope that those who do attend will come, not only to present their research and network with colleagues, but also to lend their voices and abilities to engage in civic action with communities in our host city.

The task force that will implement recommendations from the Joint Caucus Statement and other members will be led by Convention Chair Asao B. Inoue. It will work closely with the Kansas City NAACP, the Convention’s local site committee, and, if possible, the office of Kansas City mayor Sly James and other local Kansas City organizations dedicated to equity and justice.

Asao will provide frequent updates on the task force’s work and what you can expect at the Convention in Kansas City on his blog. As an early update, we can tell you that the convention space is immediately adjacent to the main hotel. Since we are contractually renting the convention center, we can work to make that space safe and comfortable for attendees. We also will work with the local committee to create a list of welcoming restaurants and businesses around the convention site. Finally, you can expect to receive notifications about presentations, workshops, and roundtables within the next four to five weeks (our target is by Oct. 16).

We thank everyone for their compassion and voices, their help and words. We realize that each one of us is trying to do what is right and most helpful, and that none of us have a perfect view of any situation. We feel confident that CCCC will move forward stronger, more committed to our core mission, and more able to meet tomorrow’s challenges.

The CCCC Executive Committee