ATTW Bulletin

As we journey to New Orleans, we come to a place historically connected to and by diverse neighborhoods, music, food, and festivals; a place more recently disconnected by disasters and tragedies; a place now trying to reconnect within its own communities and with those beyond. We come to a city whose recent history asks us to consider ethics, public rhetorics, technical failure, risk communication, and responsibility in ways we previously may not have. We come to a place that prompts us to ask if our research practices create connections among communities—whether those communities are situated within classrooms, neighborhoods, organizations, disciplines, universities. How can our research practices reflect our responsibility to address the political and social discourses, civic participation, developing technologies, and environmental concerns that connect and disconnect communities?

To that end, the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing issues this for individual papers, panels, and posters that report new research, theory, and pedagogy addressing issues including, but not limited to:

What historical lessons might we learn from exigencies such as recent events in New Orleans about crisis communication, about infrastructures, about policy making, about rebuilding in times of change?
How can we help to design and improve upon technologies that help people to connect, to share information in order to prevent the devastating consequences of disaster, but also during times of crisis and recovery? How do we as technical communicators make meaningful connections between emerging technologies and knowledge management that benefit those within and beyond the academy?
As the field of technical communication evolves, what connections have been overlooked or neglected that our research might engage? What new connections might serve as sites for our research? How might these connections change our discourses, research, and ways of making knowledge?
How do we use our expertise to narrow the cultural and digital divides by increasing the availability and effectiveness of emerging technologies by the urban poor and technologically disadvantaged?
In the wake of crises, how have technical communication teachers and their students connected to and supported communities in need? What challenges and opportunities have these interactions brought to the technical communication classroom?

Proposals can be made in one of three formats:

(1) Individual, 15 minute paper presentation;
(2) Three-person, 45-minute panel proposal, or
(3) Poster presentation, publicly displayed day-long.

200 word proposals are due October 31, 2007.

Submit proposals via the ATTW website [ www.attw.org ]. Information and updates will be posted to [ ATTW-L ] email discussion forum. For additional information, contact Michele Simmons at Miami University [simmonwm@muohio.edu] or Michelle Eble at East Carolina University [ EbleM@ecu.edu].

New teachers of technical and professional writing are particularly invited to attend the conference, as are CCCC attendees interested in technical writing.