The Department of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, in partnership with the Department of Writing at the University of Central Arkansas, is hosting the third annual Southern Regional Composition Conference on the theory, practice, and pedagogy of composition on March 14.

The conference’s keynote address is open to the general public. A teachers’ workshop is open to all UALR faculty and staff. If participants wish to attend additional conference panels, registration and payment may be made here.

The keynote address and teachers’ workshop will be given by Dr. Vershawn Ashanti Young, associate professor at the University of Waterloo, at 1 p.m. in Donaghey Student Center (DSC) Ledbetter Hall. The teaching workshop will begin at 3:30 p.m. in DSC Room 205G.

Young has presented to audiences around the world about his educational and sociolinguistic concept of “code-meshing,” African American English, intercultural communication, performances of masculinity, and representations of race in art, film, and literature.  

This year’s featured theme is on the language, race, gender and sexuality, and performance in writing instruction at the college and secondary level. The majority of sessions will focus on teaching composition and awareness of diversity through language.

“As composition teachers, we are committed to helping students learn to perform different identities through the use of language and other mediums of discourse,” said Dr. Brian Ray, an assistant professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing.

The conference is sponsored by UALR’s Institute on Race and Ethnicity, the Chancellor’s Diversity Council, the Composition Studies program at the University of Memphis, Pearson, Cengage, Bedford/Macmillan, and Norton.

For more information, visit the UALR Rhetoric and Writing conference website.