Reflection on 2019 SCWCA Conference

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a pamphlet from the conference showing the keynote speaker and the schedule.

Image taken by author, Sarah Riddick

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending and presenting at the 2019 South Central Writing Centers Association’s annual conference. As one of the Texas Representative’s on SCWCA’s Executive Board, I have been working steadily with my fellow board members for a year to produce a rewarding experience for the writing center community, and the conference certainly delivered that for me.

On Friday morning, I led a workshop about administrative approaches to managing neurodiversity with SCWCA President Alice Batt and Praxis’ other managing editor Tristin Hooker. Despite the early hour, our room was enthusiastic and ready to get to work, and we look forward to continuing the conversations from this workshop in the future.

Although the conference’s theme—“Elasticity: Bouncing Ideas from Center to Center”—was relatively broad and open to interpretation, many responded to the theme in terms of social justice. All weekend I attended roundtable discussions, workshops, and panels about how writing centers can be more inclusive of different genders, races, abilities, and nationalities, and at each session I noticed the audience’s reluctance for the session to end.

I’m glad. One of the many reasons I appreciate being part of this community is its commitment to helping others, including engaging in difficult dialogues about how it can do so better. These are dialogues of which I am a part regularly in my center and in the Praxis office, and I am heartened by the efforts my colleagues in this community made this weekend to facilitate these dialogues and to keep them going.

A final closing thought: Dr. Rebecca Day Babcock's keynote speech, "Research for Tutors," offered detailed information about different methodological approaches to writing center research. One of the major takeaways from this address was that this research can come from anyone in this community, including students. I wholeheartedly agree, and as an editor I am honored to be able to offer multiple avenues for sharing different types and stages of projects to the writing center community.

In addition to traditional focus articles for Praxis, we always welcome scholars and scholarship at all stages, so please reach out to us if you have a piece or an idea that you think would be of interest to our readership in Praxis and/or Axis.