PWR Launches Student-led Creative Nonfiction Journal — April 26, 2013
Journal 2020 fosters an interdisciplinary community of CU students with a mutual interest in creative nonfiction as a collection of writing and artwork across various fields and genres. Join us for our launch party on Friday, April 26 at Boulder Bookstore from 7-9 pm, where we will also be celebrating the winners of the Program for Writing and Rhetoric’s Creative Nonfiction writing contest.
Boulder Bookstore
Friday, April 26, 2013
7:00 PM
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM — Earth Day, April 22, 2013
PWR faculy member, David Williams' upper-division WRTG 3020 class–Environmental Writing–has created a semester-long project to try to bring awareness about the plight of elephants and their looming extinction. The class created an organization and facebook page called THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM, and students are making films, writing PR, organizing tv and radio interviews, creating reports, and developing visual media to address the deaths of 25,000 elephants a year due to the insane demand for ivory. They will soon be operating a booth at UMC to distribute information about elephants. In addition, we have paired with WILD, a local environmental organization with a worldwide base that is also active in the fight to save elephants in Mali. They will be speaking at the Earth Day event at Shine.
The class is hosting a fund-raising event at Shine on Earth Day, April 22nd, with three musical acts: TAARAKA a nationally known string band who is constantly touring both coasts, "a collision of Django Reinhardt and David Grissman." The Railsplitters is an award-winning, and hottest new bluegrass band from the front range featuring the stunning vocalist Lauren Stovall. David Williams is an Emmy winning songwriter for his work with PBS: his new CD coming out in June will be titled THE END OF ANIMALS, produced by Round Barn Recordings.
Students from the class will be present at the event to talk with attendees, to disperse information, and to collect donations. All of the money collected during the benefit will be sent to organizations working to save orphaned elephants in Africa and Asia, of which there are now many hundreds in need of help. Event flyer is available for download.
CU Senior and WRTG 3040 Student Establishes International NGO
Brian Ash is a senior studying economics at the University of Colorado in Boulder and a former student of Eric Klinger’s “Writing in Business and Society” class. Brian decided to found ARRIVE (African Real Rural International Volunteer Experience) after volunteering in rural Kenya. Co-founded with Robert Nyamwange of Kenya, the goal of this non-governmental organization is to bring volunteers from around the world to rural Kenya to assist with education, health, and community development. Please visit http://arriveinkenya.com/ to learn more about the people of Keumbu, Kenya and to find out how you can help.
PWR Instructor Search
Digital Composition — The Program for Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) is seeking to hire a faculty position at the rank of Instructor in Rhetoric and Composition with an emphasis in digital composition. We seek faculty with expertise in multi-modal composing, digital information literacy, and on-line and hybrid learning environments. Additional interest in technical and professional communication is welcome.
International Writing — The Program for Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) is seeking to hire a faculty position at the rank of Instructor in Rhetoric and Composition specializing in teaching writing to international and multilingual students. We seek candidates with experience living and working in diverse communities and with second-language writing. They may have additional interest in digital composition and community engagement.
You may download the full position descriptions here.
Call for Papers: 4th Annual Undergraduate Diversity Conference
How does inclusion work? What forsters an inclusive dynamic? What are dynamic approaches to broadening inclusive practices in your community, school, culture, or nation?
Undergraduates: We welcome papers and presentations of any genre — narrative, analysis, multimedia — from any discipline. Submit your proposals now to present at the Conference on February 21, 2013. Possible topics include but are not limited to: race/ethnicity; social/economic/environmental justice; liminal culturual spaces; immigration; culture/arts; gender/sexuality; ability/access; religion/spirituality.
Send 100-word abstracts as attachment to: james.f.walker@colorado.edu. Click here to download the flyer. Deadline has been extended to Saturday, December 15, 2012.
National Day on Writing — October 20, 2012
October, 2012 — The Program for Writing and Rhetoric salutes the National Day on Writing, Saturday, October 20, 2012. Remember all that writing does for us--personally, academically, and professionally. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), celebrated the National Day on Writing in its inaugural year in 2009. To learn more, visit www.ncte.org.
PWR Students Featured in "Talking It Out: Getting to Agreement"
October, 2012 — Writing students of PWR Senior Instructor, Dr. Andrea Feldman, will be featured in the unique photo exhibit: TALKING IT OUT: GETTING TO AGREEMENT. This is a unique photo exhibit that features Coloradans working together to solve problems. The exhibit tells the stories of people and communities who have made a choice to solve their problems constructively. It gives “evidence” of the changes that can be made when we deliberately choose collaborative conflict resolution methods. The exhibit opens Monday, October 1, 2012, at the Colorado State Capitol and will be at the Capitol through October 5, 8 AM to 5 PM daily.
PWR is the Recipient of the 2012 President's Diversity Award
May 2012 — The Program for Writing and Rhetoric is the winner of the 2012 President’s Diversity Award, recognizing significant achievements towards developing a culturally diverse, compassionate, university community, reflective of inclusive excellence.
Within the PWR, diversity is a core value. Diversity and Civic Engagement/Service are well taught, learned, maintained, and continually improved by faculty, administrators, students and the program as a whole. The Program’s Diversity and Student Services Committee plans events to teach and celebrate diversity, such as our annual Undergraduate Diversity Conference held each spring. The conference promotes dialogue on diversity issues, enhances openness and respect in the campus climate, and showcases student writings on diversity-related topics. We encourage all faculty to develop courses with diversity foci and incorporate diversity within all of our course offerings. The PWR offers lower-division courses with diverse reading themes and upper-division topics encompassing a wide range of diversity topics: queer rhetorics, women writers, rhetoric of faith, spirituality, immigration, cross-cultural writing and film, feminism and motherhood, race, class, gender and more. Read our story in CU Connections.
PWR Selected to Receive Campus Sustainability Award
April 2012 — The University of Colorado at Boulder is committed to sustainability: in our practices as a campus, in our research, and in our curriculum. To further these goals, the Program for Writing and Rhetoric has dedicated itself to providing interested students with sustainability-based classes. We teach courses at the first-year and third-year level that consider sustainability concerns as expressed in various modes: in print, on film, on the Web, in art, in fact, and in fiction. Over 20 PWR faculty teach an assignment or a course built around sustainability concerns. Our dedication to making students and faculty aware of the primacy of environmental concerns is getting noticed—in the Spring of 2012, the Program for Writing and Rhetoric won an Environmental Award from CU's Environmental Center for our commitment to a sustainability-based curriculum.
Annual PWR Student Service-Learning Showcase — Monday, April 22, 2013
It's PWR Student Service-Learning Showcase time again! Come see the pedagogical power of community-engaged learning and talk to students about their transformative experiences through the scholarship of engagement. Community organizations will be present as well. We will have about 100 student presenters.
The 3rd Annual Student Service-Learning Showcase will take place on Monday, April 22 from 3:00-5:00 in the British and Irish Studies Room, 5th Floor, Norlin Library. Stroll through student posters and digital exhibits and hear from them about the work they have done in the community through their writing and rhetoric classes. Please come support our students and help to celebrate their community-engaged projects. Refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Veronica House at veronica.house@colorado.edu. Download event flyer.
Monday, April 22, 2013
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
British Studies Room in Norlin Library
4th Annual Undergraduate Diversity Conference — Dynamics of Inclusion
How does inclusion work? What forsters an inclusive dynamic? What are dynamic approaches to broadening inclusive practices in your community, school, culture, or nation?
The Program for Writing and Rhetoric at CU Boulder presents "Dynamics of Inclusion", the Fourth Annual Undergraduate Conference on Diversity. From a welcome guided by Nii Armah Sowah, international food, special student presentations, the CU Dialogues Project, and a performance by Motus Playback, it will be an event not to be missed!
Diversity Conference: Dynamics of Inclusion
Thursday, February 21, 2013
8:00 AM – 12:30 PM
British Studies Room in Norlin Library
Digital Media and Music as an Instrument for Social Change
Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky) will discuss his recent work exploring digital media, music and the ways that art can open minds and help people gain new perspectives on current issues like climate change. He will perform his electronic compositions (using his own DJ app and original graphics projected on floor to ceiling screens) accompanied by CU College of Music cellist Megan Knapp and violinist Emily Lenck.
Miller is a multimedia digital artist, author of “The Book of Ice,” app developer, Antarctica traveler/researcher and the first artist-in-residence at NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
His visit is sponsored by the ATLAS Institute, the President’s Fund for the Humanities and the Program for Writing and Rhetoric. The ATLAS Speaker Series is made possible by a generous donation by Idit Harel Caperton and Anat Harel.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
downstairs Black Box theater, lowest basement level, B2
Free and open to the public. Seating is limited and first-come, first served. Audience members are advised to arrive 15 minutes early. Event flyer.
Nancy Sommers: Writing and Responding in the Digital Age — October 26, 2012
October 2012 — On Friday, October 26, 2012, the Program for Writing and Rhetoric and Bedford/StMartins Publishers are sponsoring two presentations/workshops by nationally acclaimed composition scholar and teacher Nancy Sommers (Harvard University). Do join us for engaged, lively discussion:
Beyond Gutenberg: Handbooks and Language Conventions in the Digital Age 3:00-4:30 pm UMC Aspen Rooms
The Pleasures of Reading and Responding to Student Writers
7:00-8:30 pm UMC Aspen Rooms
Click here to download the event flyer.
Steve Parks Workshops on Public Writing — October 19-20, 2012
October 2012 — On October 19 and 20, 2012, The Program for Writing and Rhetoric will host a series of workshops by Steve Parks of Syracuse University. Steve Parks is Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric and Director of Graduate Studies at Syracuse University. He is the founding editor of New City Community Press and (now former) long-time editor of Reflections: A Journal of Writing, Service-Learning, and Community Literacy. In his own scholarship, he studies the connections between political action, political theory, and “politics” within the field of Composition and Rhetoric. In his latest book Gravyland, Parks discusses his vision for the "creation of a new city that encompassed the literacy and cultural values of its diverse neighborhoods and cultures," and by his belief that a writing program can help to enact that new city and that students can become active partners in creating it.
Max Boykoff: "Who Speaks for the Climate?"
September 13, 2012 @ the University of Colorado (event has already taken place)
UMC Aspen Rooms
Max Boykoff is affiliated with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environment Sciences (CIRES) and an Assistant Professor at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research. Boykoff talked about why and how media contribute to these gaps – and what are the consequences.
PWR Hosts 2012 Undergraduate Diversity Conference
On Thursday March 1, 2012 at CU Boulder, the Diversity and Student Services Committee of the Program for Writing and Rhetoric held an undergraduate diversity conference titled Normalizing Inclusion. The conference organizers hope to promote dialogue on diversity issues, to enhance openness and respect in the campus’s climate, and to showcase PWR student writings on diversity-related topics. Approximately 200 people, including immigrant workers, students, faculty, staff, and members of the community attended this half-day event held in the British Studies room of Norlin Library. The conference began at 8:00 a.m. with a welcome from Vicki Leal, Director of P-20 and Diversity Initiatives for CU Academic Affairs.
In addition to the round-table discussion and participant dialogues, our keynote speaker, journalist and author Helen Thorpe, gave a talk about the challenges faced by undocumented high school students in Colorado. Helen Thorpe is the author of Just Like Us, a moving account of the educational struggles of high-achieving, but undocumented Colorado teens. Helen Thorpe’s writing has appeared in numerous national venues, including the New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, Texas Monthly, and The Texas Observer.
In response to the conference theme, Normalizing Inclusion, the student presentations covered diversity issues ranging from the local to the international.