Computers & Writing 2010
This coming week (from May 20th to the 23rd), I’ll be attending my third Computers and Writing conference, this year at Purdue University. (The last two I attended were at Wayne State and UC-Davis.)
I’ll be involved in a few conference invents, including a Friday panel titled, “Tinkering with Rhetorical Expertise: Reappraising Functional Literacy,” with Derek Van Ittersum, Annette Vee, and Kory Lawson Ching. Here’s a quick description of what we’ll be discussing:
This panel responds to efforts in the field to rearticulate functional literacy by turning to the trope of tinkering. Rather than imagining tinkering as mending an imperfect text, we instead seek to reframe tinkering to focus on the experimental or clever solutions to technological and rhetorical questions.
I’m really looking forward to it, especially since I’ll be in most brill company. During my portion of the panel, I’ll be speaking to the roles that code, prototyping, and making stuff might play in computers and comp.
On Sunday, with six other folks I’m also contributing to the conference’s final town hall, “Articulating New Configurations for Virtual Scholarship.” Michael J. Salvo is moderating:
Technology artifacts age poorly, yet underlying promises, concerns, and pedagogies endure in a variety of digital spaces. The development of literacy technology will not slow or stop. Seven emergent scholars will speak at Town Hall 2, articulating new challenges and artifacts by reflecting on their conference experience. Their goal is to forecast possible futures of Computers and Writing research, teaching, and environments: the trajectories, directions, explorers, homesteaders, and indigenous populations that already reside in these spaces. What metaphors and practices are just now being articulated, and how might they develop in our immediate, middle, and long-term future visions and begin the conversation for our next Computers and Writing Conference?
But, on Thursday, I’ll begin the event with the Graduate Research Network, acting as a table moderator for conversations about the job market and digital scholarship. Should be fun, and perhaps I’ll see you there!
