RSA report, belated

My first RSA conference was excellent and I will certainly attend again. I went to a number of thought-provoking sessions. One small complaint: some sessions were scheduled for 1 hour and 45 minutes or even two hours. Am I the only one who has a hard time sitting still in an uncomfortable chair for that long? I went to one session that ran 1 hour and 45 minutes and, although the presenters were interesting and dynamic, I was so fidgety by the end that I considered leaving during the Q & A.

The highlight of the RSA for me was a session facilitated by Jeff Ludwig and Jennifer Campbell from DU on negotiating competing responsibilities as rhetoricians, citizens, and teachers. The session’s format was a refreshing departure from the conference’s di rigueur reading of papers. Jennifer and Jeff each spoke for a few minutes about the competing demands they feel in their roles as teachers and citizens, then invited attendees to share their thoughts on the competing demands they feel. Finally, Jennifer and Jeff led a discussion of several vignettes they had culled from their own teaching experience that foregrounded balancing competing demands.

The session had a horrible time slot—5:45 to 7 pm on Sunday night—and was not well attended, but I think one of the strengths of the discussion was actually that there was a small group of people and everyone was able to contribute to the discussion.

I’d like to see more interactive, discussion-based sessions in general at academic conferences. The only interactive, discussion-based session I’ve ever been to at 4Cs, for example, was my own presentation with Wayne Gilbert in 2001. I’ve heard that Hephzibah Roskelly does sessions like that, but I’ve never been able to attend any of her presentations.

Back to Jeff and Jennifer’s session. . . . One attendee, Paul Feigenbaum, absolutely inspired me with his vision of what he wants to accomplish in his classroom. Citing the Milgram experiment, Paul said, “I want my students to be the ones who would refuse to push the button.” I love this way of articulating what we try to do in our classrooms.

tags: academia  composition  conference  

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