Darin Jensen and Brett Griffiths receiving the #4C25 #OutstandingBookAward for their book that defends "just teaching"! #TYCA25 showing up with their message that in our moment, colleagues at 4-year schools need to stand with their 2-year peers for so of our students.
Next up, Joanne Baird Giordano greets us on behalf of #TYCA25. We want y'all to spend time with us, no matter where you teach or will teach! "The work is done intersectionally." #4C25
Now it's time for MY session! "Performing Politics: Navigating Life as a TYC English Instructor" w/ Jessica Nastal and Anicca Cox! #TYCA25
(Which also kind of highlights the precarity/issues with two-year college research too, doesn't it? We need a quantitative study abt the issue of attendance because of life gettng in the way and what that means for higher ed generally.) #TYCA25
The researchers talk abt issues with doing the study--longevity/sustainability due to students' busy lives--which generally is the issue wth classes, not just with social/enrichment events. #TYCA25
(I really dig how the presenters have a slideshw that's just pictures of the club particpants going to events while they do their storytellng.) #TYCA25
The study sample was relatively small (ten or so), but the data (what folks want to do to enrich learnng) is retty meaningful. #TYCA25
McFadden wanted to get the diversity of the student body to be reflected in credit-level Englsh, not just developmental classes. So, qual research time! #TYCA25
Time for the next session: "Moving Students from the Margins: How One Campus Is Using Qualitative, Collaborative Research to Create Community, Leverage Literacies, and Support Success" with Jenny McFadden, Lynn Franks, and Wajiha Fatima! #TYCA25
When asked what thoughts she had about the various concepts/words many folks aren't supposed to be covering in class, Evans notes that it's kind of powerful to mention to students in an aside, "I was told I wasn't allowed to teach you this." Heh. #TYCA25
About students using generative AI: Students don't know what the technology is and what we're looking for! She's found value in telling students that what they tell her in one-on-one conversation is waaaaay more interesting than any random paper a machine can spit out about their readings. #TYCA25
Someone asked Evans for writing advice for folks, and she talked about the importance of keeping a regular routine and being generous about what counts as a "writing day." Though she confesses that when she pretended going to museums counted for her writing days, "that was fake." LOL. #TYCA25
"The opposite of diversity, equity, and inclusion is exclusion." We have varying levels of institutional power, Evans acknowledges, but we need to exert what we do have, where we have it. #TYCA25
Evans talks about a book she teaches, early spec fiction, and how people might think it's negative commentary on current times but, like, it's just critiquing literal historical slavery. When we say something like that is "controversial," well. Let us reflect.
#TYCA25
Evans talks about how weird it is that her dystopian story collection now feels...like reality, oof. But also, what's coming up reflecting on that: Where does knowledge come from? How do we have conversations when not everybody can agree on what "real" is? #TYCA25
I love the way Evans talks about short story collections--the first story is usually "an assemblage of the questions that are going to occur." Treat a collection like an album, but you'll get the feel for the meanings at the start. (Kinda like a thesis in an essay intro, too, right?) #TYCA25
The conference keynote is with Danielle Evans, who wrote "The Office of Historical Corrections," which is AWESOME. The keynote is an interviewy conversation, rather than a speech, which is neat.
daniellevevans.com
#TYCA25
Have reached the level of conference notoriety that when I start to introduce myself, people will simply reply, "I know who you are." #TYCA25 #4C25
The networking roundtables as casual and they suggest we take breaks to grab food YESSSSSSSS #TYCA25 what good humans you are
Nw it's time for the #TYCA25 roundtables and also the keynote and the awards and I am SO HUNGRY friends, I am eating every snack thing in my bag right now.
A college-rule sheet of notepaper with scribbling in pink ink (that's my freewriting). Atop it, three story prompts on three pieces of paper: 1) A story that includes...Turning rage into action 2) A character who is...Stealing books to gie to people who can't access them 3) All of it takes place in...A remote town most folk enjoy. Plus a little blank zine--a blank piece of paper folded and cut into a 1/8 page size booklet.
And some great zine and story prompts we didn't fully have time for! #TYCA25
If you're interested in contributing to their anthology of spec fic, check it out here: humutah.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
#TYCA25
Great discussion about what we were envisioning--even though we did get caught up in educational barriers, we ended up in a very "wouldn't it be great if" conversation. #TYCA25
Some of the questions we're given for our brainstorming:
What literacies have you wanted to learn but couldn't access through school? What ways have you wanted to teach literacies but couldn't in your college's current structures? What kind of story could bring this world to life?
#TYCA25
And now an invitation to reflect! It turns out this is a zine workshop, y'all! We're getting CRAFT SUPPLIES now!
#TYCA25
We're treated to some examples that came from the first writing workshop the team hosted: a zine-ish collage that imagines a shared space and a reflective description of what a class that a student would want to be in. #TYCA25
So how do we get multiple voices talking about what's possible, what we can hope towards? Fiction--and flash fiction, particularly, in stories, collages, poems--help us plan out ways to get to a better future.
#TYCA25
The folks in the panel are taking turns talking about how imagining is an active work, how hope is an active, necessary, and vulnerable practice.
#TYCA25
Toth is joined by a bunch of awesome transfer students to talk about hopeful futures in, frankly, dystopian times. Toth particularly talks about anti-DEI legislation in Utah, and how this flash speculative fiction project afforded space for this work.
#TYCA25
Next up, "Writing Hopeful Futures: Collaborations in Speulative Literacy Education Research" with Christie Toth, Thabata Fay, Henry Knudson, Jose Loeri, Zara Morrison, Margarita Lafarga, Katya Pilkington, and Kate Rowan. #TYCA25
