{"id":12378,"date":"2021-10-12T11:16:21","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T16:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/?p=12378"},"modified":"2025-04-14T01:08:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T06:08:00","slug":"owca-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/owca-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Centering Interdependence: The Inaugural OWCA Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>By Ellen Cecil-Lemkin<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<p>Last week was the inaugural Online Writing Centers Association\u2019s (OWCA) conference. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onlinewritingcenters.org\/\">OWCA<\/a> is a new professional association (founded in 2020) with the mission of providing support to online writing centers, their professionals, and area of study. Starting off their first annual conference, OWCA\u2019s call for proposals (CFP) invited presenters to consider a theme of interdependence\u2014or \u201chow the agency of individuals relies on others and environments\u201d (\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.onlinewritingcenters.org\/conference\/cfp\/\">2021 Call for Proposals<\/a>\u201d).<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12390 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL1.png\" alt=\"Text: OWCA\u2019s CFP invited presenters to consider a theme of interdependence\u2014or \u201chow the agency of individuals relies on others and environments.&quot;\" width=\"1070\" height=\"359\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL1.png 1070w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL1-300x101.png 300w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL1-1024x344.png 1024w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL1-768x258.png 768w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL1-894x300.png 894w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1070px) 100vw, 1070px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-12384\" src=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-11-at-2.55.31-PM.png\" alt=\"Screen shot of the OWCA 2021 conference page featuring links to each day's recordings.\" width=\"432\" height=\"394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-11-at-2.55.31-PM.png 860w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-11-at-2.55.31-PM-300x273.png 300w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-11-at-2.55.31-PM-768x700.png 768w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-11-at-2.55.31-PM-329x300.png 329w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The theme of interdependence draws heavily from work of disability studies. If you\u2019re unfamiliar with disability studies, it\u2019s a field which (broadly speaking) considers disability as socially constructed, understands disabled people as an oppressed group, and resists ableism. OWCA drew on these concepts to ask for proposals that reconsidered and troubled narratives of independence and dependence, created more inclusive and accessible tutoring support, reviewed methods for training staff in interdependence, and considered how COVID-19 has impacted this support within the context of online writing centers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Centering disability did not end with the theme of the conference; instead conference organizers planned for access from the very beginning, one of the features that I think sets this conference apart from others in the field of writing center studies. Proponents of accessibility and inclusive design have long argued that conferences consider accessibility as a tacked-on addition, if it\u2019s considered at all. This approach to accessibility has led many D\/disabled conference attendees to be excluded and pushed out of conference spaces. (For more information about inaccessible conference designs and the impact they have on disabled attendees, check out the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">College Composition and Communication\u2019s<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> symposium \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/library-ncte-org.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu\/journals\/ccc\/issues\/v72-1\/30892\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enacting a Culture of Access in Our Conference Spaces<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d)<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12391 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL2.png\" alt=\"Text: Centering disability did not end with the theme of the conference, instead conference organizers planned for access from the very beginning.\" width=\"1070\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL2.png 1070w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL2-300x98.png 300w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL2-1024x335.png 1024w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL2-768x251.png 768w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL2-917x300.png 917w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1070px) 100vw, 1070px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-12382 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/OWCA-logo_full-name-e1633984040392-297x300.png\" alt=\"Online Writing Centers Association circular logo\" width=\"239\" height=\"241\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/OWCA-logo_full-name-e1633984040392-297x300.png 297w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/OWCA-logo_full-name-e1633984040392-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/OWCA-logo_full-name-e1633984040392.png 394w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 239px) 100vw, 239px\" \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, accessibility has been at the heart of the OWCA conference: planning from the very first conversations to writing and releasing the CFP to centering access in all presentations, something that the OWCA executive board and committee members have been intentional about. To give one such example, presenters were provided access to an accessibility guide and training on designing their conference materials. Presenters then had to submit their materials (transcripts and presentation slides) two weeks in advance in order to be checked for accessibility. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OWCA also took a committed stance to anti-racism. In addition to releasing a statement articulating their <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.onlinewritingcenters.org\/anti-racism\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">commitment to anti-racism<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on June 2, 2021, the conference organizers also took steps to enact these practices in their methods for soliciting and evaluating conference proposals. The Diversity and Social Justice committee spearheaded efforts to ensure that OWCA accepted proposals that were situated outside of white-hegemonic academic genre conventions and fairly evaluated all submissions. As part of this work and efforts towards accessibility, OWCA offered free one-to-one sessions with a conference organizer to anyone interested in submitting a proposal and who wanted to talk through ideas or get feedback on their submission.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12392 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL3.png\" alt=\"pull quote reads &quot;In line with this year\u2019s theme of interdependence,\u0003sessions ranged in topics from professional development to racial and linguistic identity to cultivating kindness.&quot;\" width=\"1070\" height=\"359\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL3.png 1070w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL3-300x101.png 300w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL3-1024x344.png 1024w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL3-768x258.png 768w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pull-quote-ECL3-894x300.png 894w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1070px) 100vw, 1070px\" \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The planning and preparation of the conference organizers culminated in nearly 300 individuals registering for the conference and over 20 asynchronous and synchronous online presentations and workshops. In line with this year\u2019s theme of interdependence, sessions ranged in topics from professional development to racial and linguistic identity to cultivating kindness. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While all the presentations and workshops offer important contributions, I&#8217;ve selected three to highlight some of the diverse content available. To begin with, Megan Velez in &#8220;&#8216;Are You Allowed to Help Me with This?&#8217; Interdependence, Academic Integrity, and the Boundaries of &#8216;Help&#8217; in Online Writing Centers&#8221; discussed how she navigated an administrator&#8217;s distrust of students utilizing the writing center to improve their writing. Ruge Zhao presented her dynamic assessment-informed tutoring practice for ESL writers in &#8220;Promoting ESL Students&#8217; Writing Development in Online Synchronous Tutoring: A Dynamic Assessment Approach.&#8221; Finally, in the workshop &#8220;Being Here Now: Helping Students (and Ourselves) Write Our Way to Presence, Agency, and Connection,&#8221; Mary O&#8217;Shan Overton led attendees in chair yoga, mindfulness practices, and reflective writing to demonstrate how mindful wellness practices can benefit administrators, tutors, and writers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-12383 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-11-at-2.56.45-PM.png\" alt=\"Screen shot of OWCA 2021 plenary address on Zoom. There is a large welcome to the plenary slide and a Black woman using ASL in the top right corner.\" width=\"545\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-11-at-2.56.45-PM.png 545w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-11-at-2.56.45-PM-300x165.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 545px) 100vw, 545px\" \/>Starting off and providing a focus to the conference was the plenary address \u201cEmbracing Interdependence in Online Writing Center Work.&#8221;\u00a0 Beth Nastachowski, Lisa Nicole Tyson, and Megan Boeshart Burelle discussed \u201cvarious layers in which interdependence is a key part of [their] writing center work, especially in terms of collaboration and community,\u201d and in doing so allowed attendees to consider how those layers operate in their daily writing center work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The inaugural OWCA conference offered an exciting glimpse into how conferences can center accessibility,\u00a0 mentor developing professionals, and offer strong, relevant scholarship in the area of online writing centers. If you\u2019re bummed you missed out on this new conference, you have until January 2022 to <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">access conference recordings and materials from the sessions by becoming an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onlinewritingcenters.org\/join\/\">OWCA member<\/a>. Membership starts at $5 for students. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n<h2><strong><span style=\"font-family: Raleway; font-size: 14pt;\">Works Cited<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c2021 Call for Proposals.\u201d <em>Online Writing Centers Association<\/em>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.onlinewritingcenters.org\/conference\/cfp\/\"> https:\/\/www.onlinewritingcenters.org\/conference\/cfp\/<\/a>. Accessed 11 Oct. 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nastachowski, Beth, et al. \u201cEmbracing Interdependence in Online Writing Center Work.\u201d <em>Online Writing Centers Association<\/em>, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Overton, Mary O\u2019Shan. \u201cBeing Here Now: Helping Students (and Ourselves) Write Our Way to Presence, Agency, and Connection.\u201d <em>Online Writing Centers Association<\/em>, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Velez, Meghan. \u201c\u2018Are You Allowed to Help Me with This?\u2019 Interdependence, Academic Integrity, and the Boundaries of \u2018Help\u2019 in Online Writing Centers.\u201d <em>Online Writing Centers Association<\/em>, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Zhao, Ruge. \u201cPromoting ESL Students\u2019 Writing Development in Online Synchronous Tutoring: A Dynamic Assessment Approach.\u201d <em>Online Writing Centers Association<\/em>, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity aligncenter\"\/>\n\n\n<p><em data-rich-text-format-boundary=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-11829\" src=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/EllenCL-circle-300x300.png\" alt=\"A white woman in her early thirties with brown hair and glasses.\" width=\"211\" height=\"211\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/EllenCL-circle-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/EllenCL-circle-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/EllenCL-circle-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/EllenCL-circle-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/EllenCL-circle-1536x1536.png 1536w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/EllenCL-circle-2048x2048.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 211px) 100vw, 211px\" \/>Ellen Cecil-Lemkin is a Writing Center Faculty Associate and an alumnus of Florida State University\u2019s Rhetoric and Composition doctoral program. She serves on the Accessibility Committee for the Online Writing Centers Association. Her research explores<\/em><em> ways to create more accessible environments, especially in writing center. Ellen also enjoys learning embroidery and being a mom. Find her on <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/ellen_cecil\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0 or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ellencecil.com\/\">the web<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ellen Cecil-Lemkin\u2014Last week was the inaugural Online Writing Centers Association\u2019s (OWCA) conference. OWCA is a new professional association (founded in 2020) with the mission of providing support to online writing centers, their professionals, and area of study. Starting off their first annual conference, OWCA\u2019s call for proposals (CFP) invited presenters to consider a theme of interdependence [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":12380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,265,6,264],"tags":[262,263,93,114,261],"class_list":["post-12378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-online-writing-centers-association","category-the-online-writing-center","category-writing-center-conference","tag-anti-racism","tag-conference","tag-disability","tag-online-writing-center","tag-owca"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Centering Interdependence: The Inaugural OWCA Conference - Another Word<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/owca-conference\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Centering Interdependence: The Inaugural OWCA Conference - Another Word\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Ellen Cecil-Lemkin\u2014Last week was the inaugural Online Writing Centers Association\u2019s (OWCA) conference. OWCA is a new professional association (founded in 2020) with the mission of providing support to online writing centers, their professionals, and area of study. 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Another Word","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/owca-conference\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Centering Interdependence: The Inaugural OWCA Conference - Another Word","og_description":"By Ellen Cecil-Lemkin\u2014Last week was the inaugural Online Writing Centers Association\u2019s (OWCA) conference. OWCA is a new professional association (founded in 2020) with the mission of providing support to online writing centers, their professionals, and area of study. 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