Call for Proposals, 2023
Please find the CFP for our October 2023 conference linked here and detailed below.
“Writing, Thinking, and Learning with AI:
Exploring Relationships of Rhetoric and Artificial Intelligence”
Join us October 13–14, 2023, for a virtual conference hosted by the SUNY Council on Writing and the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stony Brook University
The recent attention given to the topic of artificial intelligence has been largely attributed to the introduction of ChatGPT, the conversational (and controversial) chatbot released by OpenAI. ChatGPT, itself an assemblage of many technologies like large language models, neural networks, and natural language processing that we colloquially simplify to “AI,” represents only a portion of the larger landscape of machine learning and artificial intelligence development that has taken place over decades. But the sudden explosion of public access to sophisticated generative AI programs like ChatGPT has pushed into the mainstream the idea that machines can “write” (perhaps even in ways some readers see as cogent and well-reasoned) in response to open-ended questions. What does it mean to practice rhetoric in this age of artificial intelligence? What does it mean, more broadly, to write, think, and learn? How does this new development in “writing technology” reshape our understanding and practice as human rhetors? What are the areas of concern and/or potential, and how do we address them in different disciplines and contexts? What rhetorical relationships of AI and writing, thinking, and learning might we wish to amplify or attenuate?
We invite teachers and scholars across all disciplines to come together to explore the broader implications of generative AI tools like ChatGPT for the future of rhetoric, writing, thinking, and learning. This year, we want to specifically invite scholars/ educators from other disciplines who are interested in how their own subjects and classrooms are being influenced by rhetoric and AI. We welcome panels and presentations that engage with how we may carve new pathways of pedagogy and scholarship by advancing our understanding of new modes of artificial intelligence, addressing what we value about human agency as writers, and exploring how we may use and shape this emerging technology.
Some ways to engage with the theme include but are not limited to the following topics:
- Ethics of persuasion by and with AI
- Critical thinking and computer thinking
- The ethics of using language-generation software in student writing, and the ethics of “detecting” such use
- Existing and emerging AI developments and platforms likely to influence writing and rhetoric in the future
- Enhancing learning and pedagogy (in/across the disciplines) with artificial intelligence
- Dominant discourses and rhetorics of AI
- Student agency and artificial intelligence
- Public discourse and perception of AI, writing, and/or education
- Social change and artificial intelligence
- AI and linguistic diversity, neurodiversity, and equity
- Hermeneutic and ontological grounding in the age of AI
We encourage submissions from faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars across the disciplines within and beyond SUNY. In addition to traditional abstract and panel presentation proposals, we seek out unique submissions that play with conference form, for example by (1) assembling workshops and discussions to address a central question or problematic regarding AI and rhetoric to prompt community conversations, (2) bringing together a panel with scholars from rhetoric and writing with experts in other fields, and (3) preparing a demonstration or performance of inventive and artistic uses of AI, writing, and rhetoric.
Please submit your proposals via this Google Form. Deadline for submissions is Friday August 4, 2023, by 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
Questions should be directed to sunycouncilonwriting@gmail.com.
Past Conferences
2021, “Scarcity and Abundance: Cultivating Community and Expertise in Uncertain Times.” A virtual conference hosted by the SUNY Council on Writing.
2019, November 8-9, Purchase College, NY. The Art of Writing/The Writing of Art
2018, October 19th and 20th, Farmingdale State College campus, Farmingdale, NY. Theme: Why Writing Matters: Articulating the Value of Writing to Students, Administrators, and Faculty from Across the Disciplines.
2017, Onondaga Community College. Theme: The theme for this year’s conference will be Defining Success in College Composition: Rethinking Writers, Writing, and Pedagogy.
2016, University at Albany. Theme:“Writing (and) Affordability.” Keynotes: Tamika Carey, Eileen Schell.
2014, Onondaga Community College. Theme: “Transitions: The Changing Landscape of Higher Education.” Keynotes: Cheryl Ball, Tony Scott.
2013 University at Buffalo. Theme: “Building Cultures of Writing for Tomorrow.” Keynote: Richard Miller.
2012, Fashion Institute of Technology. Theme: “Sustainability and Writing.” Keynote: Amy Kimme Hea.
2011, Binghamton University. Theme: “Building 21st Century Writing Programs: Literacy and Leadership in the New Millenium.” Keynotes: Lynne Bloom, Kurt Spellmeyer.
2010, Plattsburgh. Theme: “Teaching Writing for Social Justice.” Keynote: Nancy Welch.
2009, Buffalo State. Theme: “Writing Program Identities.” Keynote: Elizabeth Wardle.
2008, Stony Brook. Theme: “Inevitable Intersection: Writing at the Crossroads of Public and Private Discourse in the 21st Century.” Keynote: Sondra Perl.
2007, Albany. Theme: “Writing in an Age of Assessment.” Keynote: Peter Elbow.
2006, Oswego. Theme: “Words of One’s Own: Plagiarism, Citation, Textual Ownership, and Academic Integrity.” Keynote: Rebecca Moore Howard.
2004, Adirondack Community College. Theme: “Writing Across and Beyond Institutional Borders.” Keynote: Eileen Schell.
2003, Suffolk Community College. Keynotes: Kathleen Blake Yancey and Doug Hesse.
2002, Jefferson Community College. Theme: “Energizing Teaching, Writing, and the Teaching of Writing.”
2001, Alfred State. Keynote: Pat Belanoff.
1999, SUNY Potsdam.
1998, Genesee Community College.
1997, Suffolk Community College. Theme: “Teaching Toward the 21st Century: Where are We Going? Where Have We Been?” Keynote: Kathryn Gottschalk.
1993, Niagara Community College. Theme: “Exploring Complexities.” Keynote: Chris Anson.
1992, SUNY Institute of Technology Utica/Rome. Theme: “Creating a Community of Writing.” Keynote: Cynthia Selfe.
1991, Westchester Community College. Theme: “The Right to Literacy.” Keynote: James Slevin.
1990, Buffalo State. Theme: “Issues in the Teaching of Writing”; keynote speaker: Alan C. Purves; 22 articles in the published Conference Proceedings
1989, Farmingdale.
1985, Brockport.
*Note: Our records here are incomplete. If you have information about what’s either missing or inaccurate in this list, please let us know!
SUNY Council on Writing 