You'll need to join MLA by 1 April to be eligible for this one. Some people in my department have been talking about going to MLA the year before going on the job market, just to scope it out and prepare for the madness.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Association of Teachers of Technical Writing
(ATTW),  2004 MODERN
LANGUAGE ASSOC. CONVENTION, 27-30 Dec, Philadelphia, PA

 
ATTW invites abstracts of papers for MLA panels on the topics of teaching
and research. Reports of current research and successful examples of
innovative teaching are welcome.
 
1. The Scope of Technical Communication Teaching
 
The past two decades have witnessed an expansion in the scope of the
technical communication curriculum. The service course, focused on
genres, may still anchor many programs, but new technologies, new methods
of research and production, and new sites of technical communication
practice encourage this expansion. Papers are welcome on innovative
approaches to traditional courses and on new courses that technical
communication can and should claim. Also welcome are perspectives on the
way in which teaching in the field should develop.

2. New Perspectives in Technical Communication Research
 
In this session, we invite new perspectives on technical communication

research.  We are especially interested in new approaches to
research methodology, problems, topics, and directions.  What new
perspectives should we be adopting and what new steps should we be taking
to elevate the quality, status, and influence of research in technical
communication?  For this panel, we are interested in new, original
insights and new arguments, not in a summary of old or ongoing
approaches.
 
The following topics are all possible for this panel:

New approaches to methodology in technical communication research
projects:  this might include the following:

• reconceptualizations of established methodologies, such as
  naturalistic research

• thoughtful implementations of new methodologies, including activist
  research

• more attention devoted to the relationship between research and
  development (i.e., research connected to concrete outcomes)

• more careful, systematic consideration of the relationship between
  research and rhetoric (i.e., conscious understanding of how research is
  constituted by situated arguments)

• innovative mixing of methodologies to produce solid multimodal
  research

 
New approaches to technical communication research problems. Which
key problems and vulnerabilities characterize this type of research and
possibly threaten its vitality or future?  What are some innovative
solutions to these problems?
 
New technical communication topics and directions.  Recent
publications have identified quite a few topics in technical
communication research that have been neglected.  Which of those
neglected topics are most important for the field to research and
why?  What has been the impact of that neglect on the field? 
What topics have yet to be in focus?  What is the potential benefit
to the field of exploring those new topics?  And more generally,
what are important new directions for technical communication
research?
 
E-mail submissions of abstracts (to rkdrury@nku.edu) are preferred.

Proposals are due no later than 21 Mar 2004 to:
 
Dr. Roxanne Kent-Drury
ATTW MLA Liaison
Literature and Language Department
Northern Kentucky University
543 Landrum
Highland Heights, KY  41099

Email: rkdrury@nku.edu
Fax:  (859) 572-6093

Participation by graduate students engaged in new research in Technical
Communication is especially encouraged.

All participants at the MLA convention must be members of the Modern
Language Association by 1 April 2004. Papers are strictly limited to 15
minutes in reading length, as per MLA regulations; session chairs will
stop those who exceed this limit. Proposals should also state what
kinds(s) of audio-visual equipment, if any, will be needed, if the paper
is accepted.