Higher Ed is booming, but while more students than ever are entering universities, academics are facing a shifting landscape—the development of AI and how it can (or cannot) be integrated into the classroom, the closing of humanities departments throughout the country, and the politicization of course content, especially related to race and gender. For the 2024 NJCEA annual conference, we ask you to consider ideas related to the shifting terrains of the academy and your particular discipline, as well as the problems and solutions to these pressing issues.
We are particularly interested in papers that address the following areas:
Or any other issues in rhetoric/composition, literature, linguistics, and undergrad/grad studies.
Both single papers and fully formed panels may be submitted for consideration. Submissions for single papers should include a 300-word abstract and brief bio. Submissions for complete panels should include a 300-word overview and the names and affiliations of all participants.
In order to guarantee as broad involvement in the conference as possible, participants may only present in one session and chair one session.
Graduate Student Awards in Literature (literary analysis) or Pedagogy (teaching methodologies and reflections), and Writing (fiction, non-fiction, and poetry)
Graduate students are invited to submit papers or creative pieces for the NJCEA annual Graduate Student Awards. The winners of these two awards will receive Amazon gift cards and have their papers published in The Watchung Review, the official publication of the NJCEA. Complete submissions can be sent as electronic attachments to Rachael Warmington at rkw2111@gmail.com by February 9th, 2024.
In order to be eligible to win the graduate student awards, students must present their work at the conference. The deadline for submission of essays and creative pieces for the conference is February 5th, 2024.
For time immemorial, human beings have reached out to the world with words, hoping to connect and communicate, hoping to import both information and meaning to those on the receiving end of an intended message. But in a world where the machine can do some things more effectively and efficiently, how do we now reckon with the art and science of writing? If we know that care and community are critical to how we learn, what is the future for learning and education, in a world written (in part) by machines trained on our own human output? This interactive talk will engage participants in both pedagogical strategies and resources as we face an increasingly automated world, while opening up further reflection on “socially just care” in both writing and community.
Mia Zamora, Ph.D. is Professor of English and the Director of the MA in Writing Studies Program at Kean University in Union, NJ. Mia Zamora is a digital humanist and a scholar of electronic literature. Zamora's commitment to equity, digital literacies, and intercultural understanding is clear in both her public scholarship and leadership work. Zamora is a Fulbright scholar of Digital Culture (Bergen, Norway), and her recent research focuses on socially just care and “intentionally equitable hospitality” (IEH). She has founded the global learning networks Equity Unbound (#unboundeq) and Networked Narratives (#netnarr).
