Quinnipiac University Announces A First National Conference:

Writing as Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines

November 17-18, 2006

The College of Liberal Arts at Quinnipiac University

275 Mount Carmel Ave, Hamden, CT

Proposal Deadline: June 15, 2006

Quinnipiac University's First National Conference on Writing as Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines invites proposals from all disciplines, and especially from inter-curricular and cross-disciplinary teams, which highlight the integration of Critical Thinking Research with the best practices of teaching Writing and Rhetoric Across the Disciplines. Once the exclusive province of Philosophy, over the past two decades Critical Thinking has emerged across the curricula of many disciplines-Health Sciences, Business, Legal Studies-and is taking on the status of a "Movement" that our conference would like presenters and participants to consider in parallel with the 30 year old Writing Across the Curriculum Movement. Another, more useful analogy for imagining the actual integration of these two "critical" movements might be that of a bridge under construction. The analogy of a bridge in this case raises the question that motivates this national conference: What are the challeng!
 es in, and new pedagogical possibilities for, joining these two far reaching movements in higher education? How can faculty across the disciplines help one another build new bridges between cross-curricular writing and critical thinking?

     Our key note speaker will be John Bean, professor of English at Seattle University, where he holds the title of "Consulting Professor of Writing and Assessment." The author of the widely used Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom, he has been active in the writing-across-the-curriculum movement since its inception in the 1970's. He will present his most recent research assessing the critical thinking skills of graduating seniors, and will draw connections between critical thinking, argumentative writing, and rhetoric across the disciplines.

     We welcome individual, panel, and roundtable session proposals that are grounded in the traditional principles and practices from Writing Across the Curriculum and Writing in the Disciplines, as well as those that employ more recent evolutions in critical reading and writing using Electronic Communication and Digital Rhetoric. We are particularly interested, however, in presentations that connect findings from the last twenty years of research on Critical Thinking with the goals of general educational reform that are now associated with the WAC movement.

     We invite colleagues to consider one of three different themes for defining proposals and organizing presentations.

Theme A--Starting Out: Writing to Learn as Critical Thinking or Vice Versa?

Theme B--Getting Across: Critical Thinking Research and Writing to Communicate

Theme C--Going Beyond: New Directions in Critical Thinking and Writing Across the Disciplines

To ensure broad participation, proposal for individual papers are limited to 20 minutes and may be grouped into panels at the discretion of the conference committee. Panel presentations are limited to 80 minutes, including 20 minutes for discussion.

Proposals will be read and email replies as to acceptance by August 15, 2006.

All proposals should include the following information:

Individual Proposals (300-500 words) should include: Description of the paper topic and appropriate contact information.

Panel Proposals (300-500 words) should include: Description of the panel topic, panel participants, and appropriate contact information.

Send proposals via email attachment to Timothy Dansdill, Assistant Professor of English,

                                           Timothy.Dansdill_at_quinnipiac.edu <mailto:Timothy.Dansdill_at_quinnipiac.edu>

Please Type: QUWAC Conference Proposal in the Subject Window.

No Proposals will be Considered After June 15.

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Received on Sat Mar 04 2006 - 15:03:11 EST