CAVALIER CONFERENCE

ON WVirtuallyRITING Divided: Writing AND on (and in) theL MarginsITERATURE

CAVALIER CONFERENCE ON W RITING AND L ITERATURE

Virtually Divided: Writing on (and in) the Margins

April 16, 2021 Cavalier Conference on Writing and Literature 2021

Dear Colleagues, Welcome to the Sixth Annual Cavalier Conference on Writing and Literature! This conference evolved from a desire to share ideas among teachers of English at all levels: high schools, two-year colleges, and four-year universities. We are all working toward a common goal, and we encounter many of the same issues in our classrooms and institutions. This year’s conference theme is “Virtually Divided: Writing on (and in) the Margins,” a theme that considers the dramatic effects that a pandemic has had on our teaching, writing, and scholarship, and on our students’ challenges to learn and write in a virtual classroom, often in isolation, at times with poor or even no access to bandwidth and computers. The theme also allows us to consider the ways that isolation can take many forms, from social distancing to marginalization because of one’s class, race, and gender — themes at the heart of our participants’ presentations as well as the subject of Sarah Smarsh’s books, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, and She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs. We hope that you find many opportunities to engage with your colleagues on themes ranging from gains and losses in translation from face-to-face and virtual spheres, to how excluded, marginalized and oppressed individuals and groups leverage writing to empower, resist, and educate. After taking a break following Session III, please join us again via Zoom at 1:00 p.m. for Sarah Smarsh’s keynote lecture and conversation. At the end of today’s conference, we hope that you come away with more ideas that you can use in your own courses. Enjoy the day, and thank you for joining us.

Andrea Broomfield Mark Browning Diane Davis Maureen Fitzpatrick Beth Gulley Jim McWard Ted Rollins Marilyn Senter

2 Virtually Divided: Writing on (and in) the Margins

Keynote Speaker: Sarah Smarsh

Author of Heartland: A Memoir or Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth and She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs

Journalist Sarah Smarsh has covered socioeconomic class, politics, and public policy for , , The New Yorker, Harper’s, and many other publications. Her first book,Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Smarsh is a frequent media commentator and has been a guest on PBS NewsHour, CNN, CNN International, Here and Now, On the Media, 1A, Katie Couric’s America Inside Out, Amanpour & Company, NPR’s Weekend Edition, and many other national and international news shows. Smarsh is a recent research fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a former associate professor of English at Washburn University. She holds degrees in journalism and English from the and a Master of Fine Arts in nonfiction writing from . Her latest book, She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs, was published in October 2020. Smarsh lives in Kansas.

3 Cavalier Conference on Writing and Literature 2021

Schedule

Welcome: 8:30–8:40 a.m.

Session I: 8:40-9:40 a.m.

Session II: 10:00-11:00 a.m.

Session III: 11:30-12:30 p.m.

Keynote with Sarah Smarsh: 1:00-2:00 p.m.

Conference Organizing Committee

Andrea Broomfield Mark Browning Diane Davis Maureen Fitzpatrick Beth Gulley Jim McWard Ted Rollins Marilyn Senter

12345 College Blvd. Overland Park, KS 66210-1299 jccc.edu

4 Virtually Divided: Writing on (and in) the Margins

Session 1 • 8:40-9:40 a.m.

Room A

Found in Translation: Connecting FHSU International Partnership Students to the World through Embedded Library Resources Jason Harper, Fort Hays State University Kelly Hovinga, Fort Hays State University May Yu-Harper, Fort Hays State University Marginalization in classrooms at faraway international partnerships is an unfortunate byproduct of distance in many senses of the word: physical, cultural, and linguistic. Essential bridges to connect necessitate linkage between faculty, students, academe, and other elements via virtual means. We address CoViD-19 challenges, realizations, and strategies arising from shifting modalities.

Room B

Teaching Productive Versus Unproductive Argumentation Terri Easley-Giraldo, Johnson County Community College This session will focus on how to teach students to differentiate between productive and unproductive argumentation by identifying where the issue of disagreement lies and how-to best approach it. Rather than focusing on fallacies or Toulmin, this approach to teaching argumentation gives a more applicable and real-world connection for students.

Room C

Rural Communities as Tech-Savvy, Type-A, Nonmarginalized Horse Lovers Lisa Stewart Journalist and memoirist Lisa D. Stewart will revise the conventional wisdom of rural MidAmerican communities as backward, unsophisticated and marginalized. She will discuss her 2020 book The Big Quiet: One Woman’s Horseback Ride Home, which received national accolades for its vivid understanding of rural MidAmerica.”

5 Cavalier Conference on Writing and Literature 2021

Session 2 • 10:00-11:00 a.m.

Room A

Words is a Powerful Thing: Inmate Writing Brian Daldorph, University of Kansas Michael Hartnett, University of Kansas Ayah Wakkad, University of Kansas Sherry Gill, University of Kansas Antonio Sanchez-Day, University of Kansas Panel discussion by writing class instructors at Douglas County Jail, a class started in 2001. With examples of inmate writing from class, we will discuss challenges and successes of a writing class for the incarcerated.

Room B

From 3D to 2D: What We Lose When We Take Away a Dimension in Our Writing Environments Julie Coulter, Shawnee Heights-High School/Washburn University What do we lose in writing classrooms when previously live, tangible experiences are moved into a virtual setting? What does the shift from a 3D to a 2D environment do to students’ written products? This presentation examines the effects in student engagement and writing after a writing classroom is shifted online.

Room C

Teaching Empathy through Novel Selection Chani Perret, Wichita Heights High School In today’s world, teenagers are constantly hearing about the good but mostly the bad going on around them. Open up Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or any other social media and you see exactly what they are seeing. Media is creating a rift among students, especially in the classroom. As a teacher, it is important to help our students create empathy and understanding about these things; novel selection helps teach not only about what’s going on around them but also how that affects the student that sits next to them.

6 Virtually Divided: Writing on (and in) the Margins

Session 3 • 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Room A

Writing and Reading through the Pandemic Beth Gulley, Johnson County Community College Maureen Fitzpatrick, Johnson County Community College The isolation and stress of the last nine months have taken their toll on us all—but help may be just a bookshelf or a blank page away. Through poetry, essays, and journals, writing and reading can open us up to see the world through the eyes of others and help us reflect on our own experiences. Join us for this pen-to-paper (or fingers-to-keyboard) session to learn about how and why engaging in personal writing can help us cope and process our experiences of the last year. Model texts and prompts will be provided to encourage participants to write and share their reflections.

Room B

Remote Education in the Age of the Pandemic: The Negative Effects on Students: Academically, Socially, and Emotionally, and Solutions for Secondary and Post-Secondary Teachers of English Lindsey Bartlett, Emporia State University Curtis Becker, Holton Middle School Two English teachers, one who teaches first-year Composition at Emporia State University, and one who teaches Secondary ELA in Holton, discuss the ways that teaching online during COVID-19 has been challenging at both levels. Specific discussion points include: the benefits of online teaching, the effects, both positive and negative, online teaching can have on students and teachers, and techniques other teachers can implement to make their online teaching more effective and engaging for students..

Room C (continues on next page)

7 Cavalier Conference on Writing and Literature 2021

Room C

Analytic? Comic? Realist? Fantastical? Narrative by Smarsh, Cisneros, Piatote, & Jemisin in Comp & Lit Maria Melendez Kelson, Dodge City Community College Experience how the works of a White Kansas journalist, a midwest Chicana, a Native (Ni:mi:pu: Nez Perce) law scholar, and an Afro-futurist SFF writer can animate students. Sample a mini-version of a literary response activity designed to spark creativity and a sense of meaning. Activity guide and resource list provided.

8 Virtually Divided: Writing on (and in) the Margins

Keynote • 1:00–2:00 p.m.

Keynote Introduction Marilyn Senter Johnson County Community College

Keynote Sarah Smarsh

Mark Your Calendars for Next Year! The Seventh Annual JCCC Cavalier Conference on Writing and Literature Friday, April 8, 2022, at JCCC

9