Applications are now open for participation in the Thomas R. Watson Conference in Rhetoric and Composition, which will be held from Feb. 28-Mar. 1 (Zoom) and Mar. 7-9 (in-person and hybrid). Titled “Create, Connect, Reflect: Launching Collaborations and (Re)building Community in Our Fields,” the conference will be devoted to launching a number of collaborative projects—from book proposals to a multi-institutional study, from teaching and learning resources to an app—and more. 

Our project (led by Evangeline Thurston Wilder and Gabriel Fiandeiro) is to begin work on an interdisciplinary conference concerning the state of the emergent field of trans studies. Because trans studies is an "interdiscipline,” its scholars come to similar questions from vastly different methodological and disciplinary orientations. At the Watson Conference and beyond, we hope to provide space to (re)orient these disparate approaches around questions of field formation, animated by a commitment to trans life. We’re looking for participants who share this commitment to trans life and situate their work within trans studies. At the Watson Conference, we plan to co-create a statement of purpose and values for our trans studies conference, panel ideas and CFPs, plans for conference infrastructure and funding, a leadership structure and division of labor for continued work after the Watson Conference, and a projection of future work beyond our proposed trans studies conference, tentatively slated for Summer 2025.

Learn more about this project here: https://louisville.edu/conference/watson/2024-watson-conference/projects/emergence

Learn more about the 2024 Watson Conference and apply to join a project here: https://louisville.edu/conference/watson/2024-watson-conference

Please feel free to email etwilder[at]wisc.edu to connect or ask questions.

Who Should Apply to Participate? We’re looking for participants who situate their work within the emergent field of trans studies. Participants should be comfortable with and conversant in trans studies problems, methods, and discourses. Interdisciplinarity is central to our project, so we foreground disciplinary diversity in our call for participants. We welcome people from all experience levels and academic positions, including graduate students, professors, and independent scholars/researchers.

Because we can represent a literary studies background, we especially welcome trans scholars with expertise in quantitative and qualitative research methods. A good participant in our project would be a researcher who takes a trans approach to their work, rather than merely studying trans subjects. If our project is successful, it will include and center voices from trans of Color studies, trans disability studies, Indigenous trans studies, and intersex studies. Below, we have a (representative but not exhaustive) list of disciplinary backgrounds that we would like to have in the room with us during the conference.

• Humanities/Social Sciences
• Natural/Physical Sciences
• Political Science/Theory
• Sound/Visual Studies
• Geography/Spatiality
• History
• People with Trans Pedagogy Expertise
• People with Conference Organizing Expertise