The 1999 WPA Summer Workshop
July 12-15 at Purdue University
(The Workshop is followed by the WPA Conference, July 15-18)
WPA invites up to thirty prospective and new writing program administrators--as well as those in need of renewal--to take part in an intensive workshop in writing program administration. This workshop will provide information, strategies, advice, encouragement, and a rich professional network. Last year's participants represented regional and national liberal arts colleges, two-year colleges, regional and flagship state universities, and major research institutions, with an energetic exchange of ideas among all.
Under the guidance of the workshop leaders, participants will examine theoretical questions and practical demands of writing program administration. Participants will be encouraged to raise issues from their own professional situations. Case studies and scenarios will focus other discussions. Topics for the four-day workshop will include curriculum and program design, faculty development, writing across the curriculum, the politics of being a WPA, assessment, the WPA as writer/researcher, writing centers, and administrative aspects of technology.
There will be breakout discussions for WPAs from different types of institutions and programs, individual consultations, and plenty of time for informal conversation and recreation.
The Workshop fee of $350 includes all materials, meals, and coffee breaks. Registrants will receive a packet of information well in advance of the workshop. The Workshop begins with a reception the evening of July 12.
Workshop Leaders
Doug Hesse is President of WPA and former editor of WPA: Writing Program Administration. He served as Director of Writing Programs at Illinois State University from 1988-97 and is currently Director of Graduate Studies. He has won both the college's Outstanding Teacher and Outstanding Researcher awards, has taught a seminar on writing program administration at Michigan Tech, has consulted widely, and was co-leader of last summer's WPA workshop in Tucson. His forthcoming publications include essays in three books on writing program administration, as well as a chapter on essayistic literacy in electronic environments. For further information about his professional activities, see http://www.cas.ilstu.edu/english/hesse/welcome.html.
Martha A. Townsend is Director of the University of Missouri's fifteen-year-old Campus Writing Program, which external reviewers have characterized as "the most successful of such programs that we have seen." She helps develop and maintain over 200 writing intensive courses enrolling some 4000 students in 60 departments across 9 colleges each year. Active in campus and state assessment issues and former chair of MU's Assessment Task Force, she alternates between teaching first-year composition and graduate seminars in writing across the curriculum, assessment, and composition theory and practice. She has received MU's "Gold Chalk" award for teaching and mentoring graduate students. A former member of WPA's Executive Board, and a current member of the WPA Editorial Board, she has presented on first-year composition, learning communities, WAC, general education, assessment, and literature/critical theory at numerous conferences and institutions, publishing and consulting in those areas as well. For more information on the Program she directs, see http://www.missouri.edu/~writcwp/.
For further information about the Content of the Workshop
Contact Doug Hesse at (309) 438-3641 or ddhesse@ilstu.edu.
For Registration Information and Forms