UC Clermont to Host National Writing Conference

College writing instructors and disciplinary writers from across the Midwest will gather at UC Clermont College next June during a national summer conference sponsored by the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

UC Clermont is one of just four institutions to host the organization’s 2017 regional summer conferences — Boston University, Virginia Commonwealth University and San Jose State University will also welcome attendees. It is the first national conference of any discipline to take place on the college’s Batavia campus.

“Holding this conference at UC Clermont is exciting in many ways,” says Sharon Burns, associate professor of English. “It’s an exciting opportunity for the college and the university, and it’s going to bring exposure for all of us. But it’s particularly exciting for the students who are going to benefit from this kind of conference.”

The Clermont conference theme of “Diverse Writers, Diverse Writing” will focus on bringing together ideas and experiences around writing in all its diverse forms — a critical topic for instructors who aim to develop engaging composition courses in which students create prose that effectively reaches many audiences — and still honors their linguistic varieties. “Our theme is based around the idea that students write to their own language and supporting those linguistically and culturally diverse English speakers,” Burns says. “As a Southerner with my own linguistic variety, I’m thrilled to bring this conversation to the Midwest.”

The three-day conference will also offer opportunities for participants to share their research in writing for digital and multimedia outlets, and in working with diverse students and across the curriculum. “We are inviting proposals from people who teach history, physics — any discipline,” Burns says “We’re also going to open it to high school teachers. When you bring that many people together from the field, and they take what they learn back into the classroom — it’s unimaginable the number of students who will truly benefit from this conference.”

For Burns, who has been instrumental in building writing resources for students at UC Clermont, seeing a national writing conference hosted by the college is also a personal point of pride. Currently, she is working to develop a professional writing track within the college’s two-year English degree program. “I came into this position with two goals: to share my love for writing, and to give students access. I start every writing class I teach by telling my students that good writing will bring you respect in a way that nothing else can,” Burns says. “Not every one is going to be a writer, but students with strong communication skills can find great jobs right here in our own backyard.”

Proposals for the CCCC summer conference, scheduled for June 8-10, are due by February 15, 2017. Learn more and register:

http://www.ucclermont.edu/2017_summer_conference.html

About us:

UC Clermont College is located in the center of Clermont County on 91 beautiful wooded acres in Batavia Township.  The college is an accredited, open-access college offering more than 50 programs, associate degrees and a bachelor degree. UC East, a Clermont County expansion in the former Ford plant in Batavia Township, opened in the fall of 2010. It is home to UC Clermont's Allied Health programs. The college is part of the nationally recognized University of Cincinnati. For more information, call 513-732-5200 or visit www.ucclermont.edu