NACR SIG at CCCC in Baltimore

NACR SIG at CCCC in Baltimore

Thursday, April 10, 2025
6:30-7:30pm.
Room location: 338 in the Convention Center.
This year we'll be gathering to talk about the future of the NACR and pathways to sustainability for the collection, the organization, its mission, and the support of future scholarship. 

During our SIG at CCCC, we plan on the following: 

• Presentations from our BRAWN grant recipients:
  • From Jen Daly, who is looking at the UNH Freshman English Files, 1955-1968. A video of her project, titled "No Spilt Tea: Archival Narratives and Perspectives," can be viewed here:

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  • From Katie Corbett, who is working on cataloguing and processing some materials from John Brereton's collection. Her presentation, titled "Constructing the John C. Brereton Archive: Documenting the Athenaeum Years," will discuss the process of creating the spreadsheet/catalogue and how she examined each object, as well as her own background in museums and archives that dictated some of her categorizing decisions. 

    

  • From Ryan Dippre, who is "Exploring and Organizing the College Composition Archives at UMaine," we'll hear about progress on examining the existing records of UMaine’s composition program, which are considerable, and offer an interesting slice of history for the field and the region.  The program has been actively involved with the field of composition since the 1960s, and the ebb and flow of positions, approaches to teaching, and programmatic goals would be of massive interest both in and beyond New England.  With the support of this research grant, a UMaine graduate student was able to explore and organize these archives, laying the groundwork for future research by other emerging scholars interested in archival work.
  • From María Carvajal Regidor, who worked with two graduate students, Anne Latimer and Conor McMahon, to begin working on the archival project, "Documenting the History of the UMass Boston Writing Nook." They've done a bit of reading together and created a plan for work facilitated by the grant for the spring semester. As this project involves graduate students new to archival research, the project has evolved into familiarizing Conor and Anne with archival research practices in writing studies. 
    

    Anne Latimer and Conor McMahon at the UMB archive

• Report on the future of the NACR and steps to take moving forward to grow our efforts. This includes:
  • Take stock of our current holdings (at UNH and URI) and projects, such as our website, and continue to support those through the existing NACR. 
  • Establishing a 501c3 nonprofit status that will more fully support and sustain the mission of the association, expanding into a more overarching network, using the original collection of the NACR as a springboard for what we hope will become the newly formed NACRA (National Association of Composition & Rhetoric Archives). We hope to partner with the NACR (the original collection and vision at UNH) to enact the larger vision of the NACRA (the association and organization).
  • Setting goals for maintaining and continuing to develop our website.
• Remembering our beloved friends and colleagues in the field who have recently passed. 
• Announcements for future gatherings and ways to connect:
  • a follow up at CCCC on Friday, April 11 from 6-7pm on the second floor of the Hyatt hotel to discuss further plans for NACR
  • more discussion at the BRAWN summer institute (see ad below), partly sponsored by a faculty development grant from Keene State University
  • a workshop at the Feminisms & Rhetorics conference this July 17-19, 2025, at the University of New Hampshire, also in part made possible by the faculty development grant from KSU.