Canadian Colleagues,

I am pasting in below an email from my co-chair on the CCCC Task Force on Cross-Generational Activities, for you to think about in composing your proposals to 4Cs 2015. We began this initiative, now supported by 4Cs, because of our recognition that important generational changes are occurring in the field as folks retire and younger scholars move up into leadership roles. I have been chairing a SIG for Retired and Retiring Faculty, but we realized after awhile that the most fruitful activities we did involved cross-generational connections and communication. We had a session in 2013 where we brought different generations together for conversation about what  each group needs and what they each might offer the other. It was fascinating how many possibilities there are. Below is one of the suggestions that came out of that session and is now being taken up by the new Task Force. 

Louise Phelps

Emeritus Professor of Writing and Rhetoric, Syracuse University

Adjunct Professor of Rhetoric and Writing, Old Dominion University

from Christine Tulley:

On behalf of the CCCC Task Force on Cross-Generational Activities, please consider using one of your keyword slots on your CCCC 2015 proposal for the phraseXGEN to represent panels that might be of interest to folks at several phases of their careers. We are working with Joyce Carter to identify cross-generational sessions in the CCCC 2015 program.

Cross-generational sessions might include the following topics (under any of the following cluster identifications on the proposal form):

-mentoring at any level

-changes in a teaching, research or administrative strategy across generations or a revival/rethinking of a previous teaching, research or administrative strategy

-career placement or career advice or strategies

-talks on history of the field as a whole, or a single writing program, that might span several generations (for example, graduate students and assistant professors)

-second careers

-generational projects in the field (such as writingstudiestree.org)

In short, many topics could appeal across generations! As a Task Force, we have identified several generations that we will be working to connect over the upcoming year: newcomer/early career/graduate student; mid-career; senior career; and post-retirement (and there are several sub-generations located with each of these broad categories as well as overlaps between categories).

Please don't hesitate to contact myself   ([log in to unmask]) or my co-chair, Louise Phelps ([log in to unmask]), if you have any questions about this.

Best, Christine