Conference Schedule 2023

CEAO Spring Conference: Saturday April 15, 2023

Miami University Regionals 

Voice of America Learning Center (West Chester, Ohio)

Theme: Community and Belonging

8:30am – 9:00am 

Check-In, On-site Registration 

9:00am – 10:15am Session 1

Session 1-A, Location: VOALC Room 100

Moderator: Judith Lanzendorfer 

“Closing the Gaps: Promoting Education and Confidence in Undergraduate Students’ Writing and Communication,” Judith Lanzendorfer, Ashley Allen, Samantha Adkins, Olivia Hyatt, Cora Purves, and Natalie Wertz (University of Findlay) 

[Roundtable]


Session 1-B, Location: VOALC Room 123

Moderator: Dr. Anthony DeGenaro

“Down the Deep River: Journeying from Creative Writing, to Criticism, to Creative Non-Fiction, and Back,” Dr. Anthony DeGenaro (Ohio Dominion University) 

[Workshop]


Session 1-C, Location: VOALC Room 127

Moderator: TBD

“Community and Identity in Action: Pedagogical Practices for Engaging College Students in Thematic Composition Courses,” Alaa Bader and Mina Bikmohammadi (University of Dayton) 

“I’m Sounding the Depths at the Surface: Confusion as Basic Writing’s First Line of Belonging,” John Paul Tassoni (Miami University) 

“Copywriting and Composition in Community: Banding together in a post-Covid environment,” Erika Gifford (University of Findlay) 


Session 1-D, Location: VOALC Room 128

Moderator: K Anand Gall

“CNF: “C” is for community,” K Anand Gall, Kate Isaacs, Xavier Prince, Kendra Stiers, Tyayia Young (Miami University) 

[Creative Writing Readings]

10:30am – 11:45am Session 2

Session 2-A, Location: VOALC Room 100

Moderator: Ruth Benander

“How to create and communicate Weekly Check-Ins to promote community and belonging,” Ruth Benander, Alex Chege, Anna Hensley, Ian Golding (University of Cincinnati) 

[Workshop]

Research on personal wellness check-ins has demonstrated brief check-in surveys increase engagement, promote a climate of care, and foster mutual support. During Spring and Fall Semesters of 2022, a group of faculty created weekly check-ins for online and in-person courses, asking students about their stress levels, motivation, and confidence. Results were shared with the class, and we facilitated conversations about these issues in class. In this workshop, we facilitate participants in making their own weekly check-ins, using the form-creation application of their choice, to create a semester of weekly check-ins appropriate to their course and the amount of time they have to spend on the activity. Participants will leave the workshop with a series of check-ins ready to use in their courses and a plan to share the results of the check-ins to address issues that may arise in their courses. It is recommended that participants bring a laptop. 


Session 2-B, Location: VOALC Room 123

Moderator: TBD

“Malus Domestica,” Angie Romines (The Ohio State University) 

“This is Not an Essay: A Verse Manifesto on Teaching Writing,” Kevin Oberlin (University of Cincinnati) 

“That’s how we laugh at the pandemic,” Ritika Bali (Miami University) 

“The Other Mother,” Claudia Skutar (University of Cincinnati) 

[Creative Writing Readings] 


Session 2-C, Location: VOALC Room 127

Moderator: Judith Lanzendorfer

“Creating a Writing Community of Belonging: Writing Center Recitations in First-Year Composition at University of Findlay,” Harley Ferris, Judith Lanzendorfer, Edris Afsharkohan, Travis Rindler, Makenna Hurley and Cora Purves (University of Findlay) 

[Roundtable]


Session 2-D, Location: VOALC Room 128

Moderator: TBD

“Magic in the Classroom: Using Harry Potter Fanfiction as a Way to Queer the Curriculum,” Kendra Stiers and Wren Burks (Miami University) 

“Black Male Queerness and The Performance of Survival,” Ophelia Knight (University of Dayton) 

“Access to the Discourse: The Link between LGBTQ Representation in Writing Program Administration and American First-Year Composition,” Phillip Schlueb (University of Findlay)

“Isolated Men as a Vulnerable Population: Monsters seeking Community in Frankenstein and The Picture of Dorian Grey,” Darian Wharton (University of Dayton) 

12:00pm – 1:30pm Lunch, Keynote, Business Meeting 

Location: VOALC Room 116

Agenda: 

  • Welcoming Remarks 
  • Presentation of the Hollow Award
  • Presentation of the Dasher Award 
  • Introduction of Keynote speaker
  • Keynote Address, Dr. Elizabeth Wardle, Roger and Joyce Howe Distinguished Professor of Written Communication and Director of the Howe Center for Writing Excellence at Miami University, “With Our Thoughts We Make Our Worlds: Rethinking Common Misconceptions about Writing,” The ideas we carry with us about writing, writers, and good writing influence what we do and how we feel. This interactive talk will ask participants to bring to conscious awareness some of their implicit assumptions about writing, and then consider healthier research-based conceptions they might adopt instead.
  • Business Meeting

1:45pm – 3:00pm Session 3

Session 3-A, Location: VOALC Room 100

Moderator: Anthony Edgington 

“Building Community from Within:  Showcase for Student Writing,” Anthony Edgington, Tyler Branson, Michelle Davidson (University of Toledo) 

[Roundtable]


Session 3-B, Location: VOALC Room 123

Moderator: 

“Speak Through Me: Writing Historical Persona Poems to Foster Past and Present Community,” Sara Moore Wagner and Caroline Plasket (Northern Kentucky University) 

[Workshop]


Session 3-C, Location: VOALC Room 127

Moderator: TBD 

“Divergent Rhetorical Communities: Practicing Together,” Laura L. Miller, Dr. Vail McGuire, Dr. Maria Rankin-Brown (Miami University, Kettering College) 

[Roundtable]


Session 3-D, Location: VOALC Room 128

Moderator: TBD

“Service Learning Courses as a Preface to Community Research,” Cam Cavaliere (Miami University) 

“Bridging the Gap Between High School and College Composition: Looking Deeper at Transfer,”  Emily G. Kemp (University of Findlay)

“The State of Teaching Students with Disabilities,” Fletcher Grey (University of Toledo)

3:15pm – 4:30pm Session 4

Session 4-A, Location: VOALC Room 100

Moderator: Bernadette McNary-Zak 

“Blindness is Death: A Rebuttal as shown through José Saramago’s Blindness,” Sabrina Marie Durso (The Ohio State University) 

“‘He Whose Understanding Mattered’: How Katherine Mansfield’s ‘The Garden Party’ Adapts Leo Tolstoy’s ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich,’” Lorne Mook (Taylor University)

“‘Bartleby the Scrivener,’ Office Space, and Philosophies of Passive Resistance in Anti-capitalist Narratives,” Anne Garwig Lucas (Kent State University) 

“Clare’s Medieval Challenge as a Framework for Belonging,” Bernadette McNary-Zak (Rhodes College) 


Session 4-B, Location: VOALC Room 123

Moderator: Renea Frey

“Writing for Community and Belonging,”

“Anti-Racist Writing Assessment and Linguistic Justice,” Renea Frey (Xavier University)

“Labor-Based Grading and Transfer,” Matt Cummings (Xavier University)

“Writing for and About Belonging,” Kelly Austin (Xavier University)

“Service Learning, Community, and First-Year Writing,” Sheena Steckl (Xavier University)


Session 4-C, Location: VOALC Room 127

Moderator: TBD

“The Significance of Multimodality in English Studies,” Bridget Munoz (University of Findlay) 

“The Impact of Rapport Building on Destigmatizing Writing Center Students: Better Writing Center Tutor-training Strategies Through the Lens of Writing Center Pedagogy and Psychology,” Edris Afsharkohan (University of Findlay) 

 “Writing Center Consultants: Disciplinary Communities, Identities, and Writing Values,” Emma Boddy (Miami University) 


Session 4-D, Location: VOALC Room 128

Moderator: Anita Long

“Co-Constructing Spaces of Learning: Perspectives on Belonging by Students and Teachers,” Dr. Linh Dich, Anita Long, Jason Otis, Jillian White (Miami University) 

[Roundtable]

This panel aims to interrogate and redefine the ideas of community and belonging through a critical examination of learning spaces. Expectations of spaces—whether as teachers or students—lend themselves to particular patterns and can hinder us from seeing or imagining alternative ways of learning. We can think of spaces as always co-constructed or in conflict with people and objects who enter or constitute such spaces. As such, we can ask, what might a reconception of learning spaces purchase us in terms of student (or teacher) belonging? This panel will explore “learning spaces” through both student and instructors’ perspectives.

Please join us for an after-party at Grainworks Brewing Company. 

7790 Service Center Dr, West Chester Township, OH 45069 

(About a 3 minute drive from the conference site)

Everyone is responsible for their own purchases. Non-alcoholic beverages available.