Ending: Sat 29 Mar 1997 - 07:09:52 CST
Messages: 84
Hits since 23 May 1997:
Late in March (immediately after the Conference on College Composition and Communication annual convention, not coincidentally) Cynthia Haynes (also not coincidentally) raised some interesting questions on WCenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu about trends in conference presentation delivery, asking for rationales supporting less formal, more conversational sessions at national meetings (like CCCC).
- To those of you who cringe at terms like 'problematize' and 'hegemony' I want to ask this: What would your reaction be to a student in a tutoring session who claimed that she didn't understand some of what her teacher says in class, and that she didn't understand some terms in her reading assignments?
- To those of you who expect conference presentations to be clear, interactive, and brief, I want to ask this: What kind of 'thinking' protocols (and reading protocols) are you demanding, and what is at stake in your demand/desire?
- To those of you who prefer 'moving' presentations to the kind of presentation you would prefer to read in a journal instead, I want to ask this: By what standard of 'value' are you measuring what moves us, and to what end is our having been moved as opposed to our having been exposed to ideas and thinking packaged as 'writing' a preferable experience at a conference?
Her questions provoked a lively debate not only about the evolving shape of conference presentations (and the implications for scholarship and knowledge) but about the kinds of language used at professional meetings. The same words might represent incomprehensible jargon to one person, precise expression to another. At one point, Katie Fischer (in an attempt to lighten things up) even suggested listing the words "most worthy of detesting," which developed into its own thread as the debate turned to which words ought to be included and questions about what creating such a list might imply about the politics of language.
All in all, a good time was had by all. And there are forms attached to each contribution, so
Just before CCCC/96, Cynthia co-founded
C-Fest, a series of MOO-based conversations about
issues related to the effect of network technologies
on scholarship, including conference delivery, publishing
and promotion & tenure.
Starting: Sun 23 Mar 1997 - 21:23:17 CST
Ending: Sat 29 Mar 1997 - 07:09:52 CST
Messages: 84
Hits since 23 May 1997:
Last message date: Sat 29 Mar 1997 - 07:09:52 CST
Archived on: Thu Apr 03 1997 - 18:25:43 CST