Event

Narrating (in) Community Colleges

Fri, May 2, 2014

10:00 AM–4:00 PM

Writing, both narrative and non-narrative, has long been a focus in community colleges. But students and faculty at community colleges have radically different experiences in their encounters with writing. For some students, writing in the community college serves as a gate-keeping process; students on vocational tracks may have many fewer opportunities for writing; still other students may be asked to focus on technical writing alone. But even seemingly “basic” forms of writing like personal narratives serve to mediate individual and societal relations in critical and creative ways. This moment provides us with an opportunity for linking narrative and other forms of writing to recent changes and developments in community colleges. For this conference, the Narrating Change Seminar in the Humanities is gathering scholars, teachers, students, and activists from throughout the CUNY community to reflect on these issues and engage with questions of practice and policy.

SCHEDULE:

10:00-10:15: Coffee/welcome (Sylvia Scribner Conference Room 6304.01)

10:15-11:00: Community Voice Research Project – Diverse Perspectives on the Role of the Community College

11:00-12:00: DREAMers Speak: Narratives of DREAM Act Students

12:00-1:00: Lunch at the Center for Globalization and Social Change (Room 5109)

Afternoon Sessions on C Level Room 198

1:00-2:00: Continuing conversation: Findings from our “Community Voice” research project – with open discussion and activity session; discussion of the findings with data in hand and implications for practice and policy.

2:15-3:15: No Divide: A Project for Personalizing Academic Writing – campus-wide writing project

3:15-4:00 New Narratives, New Directions: Taking the Next Steps

4:00-5:00: Wine & Cheese Reception at the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics (Room 6107)

Cosponsored by the Narrating Change Mellon Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research.