The CUFA Conference in Three Weeks Away!

Dear CUFA community,

The 2020 CUFA online conference is coming up in three short weeks! I wanted to send out the deluxe CUFA 2020 program. It offers the timing of events in both Eastern and Pacific time zones, links to presentations in flipped sessions, as well as designations for the modalities of the sessions. This document will be updated as we move towards the conference. It can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ud4yaSufEvrKmyxxD0ZwSvGN3Obzzupb/view?usp=sharing

I would also like to highlight some exciting sessions for this year’s conference. Please mark your calendars for the events below!

• Dr. Greg Carr, chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, will deliver the opening keynote address at 4:00 EST on Monday November 30th. Dr. Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities and Global Change at the University of British Columbia will deliver the closing keynote address at 4:00 EST on Thursday December 3rd.

• The Graduate Forum is holding a series of interactive events titled “Conversations with Colleagues” on Monday November 30th at 5:00 EST, Tuesday December 1st at 10:00 EST, and Wednesday December 2nd at 6:00 EST.

• There will be two JAVA network sessions: JAVA research networks will meet on Wednesday December 2nd at 10:00 EST and JAVA teaching networks will meet on Thursday December 3rd at 10:00 EST.

• This year we are holding three Fireside Chats around important issues in and outside of CUFA. The first is on Tuesday 12/1 at 12:15 EST, featuring Wayne Journell and Joel Westheimer, the second is on Wednesday 12/2 at 12:15 EST, featuring J.B. Mayo, Jr., and third is on Thursday 12/3 at 12:15 EST, featuring Leilani Sabzalian and Jeanette Haynes Writer.

Finally, please register for both the CUFA and NCSS conferences at their discounted rates: 

https://www.socialstudies.org/conference

All the best,

Tim

The Program Is Available

Dear CUFA community,

 

I am excited to share with you the official CUFA 2020 program. There is still some conference programming in the works - we are trying to provide CUFA members with as much interaction in the virtual format as possible - so the timing of sessions might change slightly. However, the formation of individual sessions is set, so those of you who had individual papers accepted and/or were selected to serve as discussants or chairs can now see with who you will be presenting. The program can be viewed at https://cufa2020.socialstudies.org/ All times are in EST.

 

Because of the virtual format, this year’s annual meeting will be unlike any other in CUFA’s history and may require you to think a bit differently about how you prepare for your presentation. The National Council for the Social Studies has chosen VConferenceOnline as the platform through which the conference will be held (more details to follow). All CUFA and NCSS sessions will occur on the VConferenceOnline platform. Because this format is novel to CUFA, we are asking chairs to communicate with the discussant and authors of papers in their sessions and consider a format for delivering their session. We will publish the type of presentation for each session in the program so that attendees know the levels of interaction when deciding how to spend their time during CUFA 2020.

 

Types of presentations are:

 

·      Pre-recorded webinar sessions: Presenters and discussants will upload videos of their presentations to the conference platform. As the videos play in the conference platform during the conference session, questions can be asked and answered in the chat feature of the conference platform. Pre-recorded videos will need to be emailed to me by November 1^st so they can be uploaded to the conference platform.

·      Hybrid flipped sessions: In advance of the conference presenters and discussants will upload prerecorded presentations on a third-party platform like YouTube; distribute PowerPoints; or provide links to Google Docs that offer most salient points from the papers. This will allow for more interaction over Zoom during the date and time in the conference program.

·      Live interactive sessions: Presenters and discussants present live over Zoom. Following these presentations, participants ask questions either in Zoom’s chat feature or by raising their hand in Zoom. This format follows most closely the traditional type of conference interaction. Presenters can choose whether to take questions as they go or wait until the end of their presentation. Unless indicated otherwise, this will be the default session type.

·      Other session types: There is a wealth of creativity in CUFA. Perhaps there is a format we haven’t thought of! This is the time for experimentation, so do not feel constrained by the choices offered here.

 

Regardless of the format you choose, please have your papers to discussants by October 30^th.

 

We are also seeking to cultivate interaction among CUFA members through the following opportunities:

 

JAVA Network sessions: While there will be a facilitator, these sessions are driven by participants sharing and learning around a topic. There is no presenter or presentation. All participants should bring their wisdom, questions, and resources to the session. These sessions include Teaching JAVA sessions and Research JAVA sessions. See the list of potential topics below:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WtrcWqpdlMj_IxA9LKbo0r5DRBz24QFC/view?usp=sharing

 

 If you are interested in facilitating a JAVA session, please indicate your interest by emailing me direct at cufa20conference@gmail.com We have included a list of potential topics; feel free to propose topics not included on this list!

 

Conversations with Colleagues sessions: "Conversations with Colleagues" are informal sessions sponsored by the CUFA Graduate Forum. These sessions aim to provide spaces for graduate students to dialogue with faculty members and other graduate students about areas of common interest. Some of the most important aspects of conferences involve being introduced to new people and talking informally in hallways between sessions. While we are unable to have hallway conversations this year, we hope Conversations with Colleagues sessions provide some informal connections amongst our community. We hope those who have attended CUFA in the past will participate in these sessions and ensure CUFA is a welcoming, inclusive, and equitable space. In each session, there will be a facilitator who will kick off the sessions by asking the Discussants a few questions; however, we plan to open the floor for questions and dialogue early in the sessions and hope that natural, meaningful conversation ensues. 

 

We realize this year’s conference will require more preparation than in the past. However, we feel there are also opportunities for CUFA members to make deeper connections across institutions in planning their sessions together in advance of the conference. As always, please reach out to me at cufa20conference@gmail.com with any questions. We hope that you will embrace the online format and help us make CUFA 2020 the best conference it can be!

 

With gratitude,

Tim Patterson

2020 Program Chair

cufa20conference@gmail.com 

2020 and 2021 Conferences

With both CUFA and NCSS decisions released, and with NCSS aiming to have an online conference in 2020 and two conferences in 2021 (one in Minneapolis, MN and one in Washington, DC), many of you likely have questions about when and where CUFA 2020 and 2021 will be held. In 2020, the CUFA conference will be fully virtual, running from November 30 through December 4. In 2021, the CUFA conference will run in Minneapolis from November 17-19 as originally planned. Please mark your calendars!

Best,
Tim

For DC-area Teachers

For CUFA 2020, we will offer free registration to DC-area teachers. We are able to offer this discount to teachers in the District of Columbia and its surrounding counties. These counties include Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax City, Fairfax, Prince Georges, and Montgomery. To take advantage of this discount, teachers will still need to register for the annual meeting of NCSS.

As always, please reach out with any questions.

Please sign up to review!

As you prepare your CUFA 2020 proposals (due March 6 at 11:59 PST, by the way), please also consider signing up to review for the conference. A program featuring high quality scholarship is only possible with insightful and constructive reviews! You can sign up to review on the OpenConf site directly below where you would begin a new proposal submission under the label "Review and Program Committees": https://cufa2020.socialstudies.org/openconf.php Thank you,

Tim

CUFA 2020 Call for Proposals

Happy 2020! As program chair for the College & University Faculty Assembly (CUFA) of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) conference in Washington, DC on December 2-4, 2020, I invite you to submit a proposal in response to the theme of Contested Histories, Renewed Purposes. This year’s conference theme aims to engage attendees in reflection on the last 100 years of social studies education while considering future pathways in research and practice. We hope that by situating this call against the backdrop of the last 100 years of social studies research and practice, we as a community of scholars might rethink what we aim to accomplish in these annual conferences and how best to accomplish those aims. We also hope that this dialogue will engage P-12 teachers, activists, scholars, and other stakeholders from a variety of disciplines, such as ethnic studies, Indigenous studies, literacy, policy, economics, history, philosophy, queer studies, and religious studies.

The detailed call for submissions is linked below, with instructions for submission and information about awards, travel grants, and more. The deadline for submitting proposals is March 6, 2019 at 11:59 PST.

Questions about the call or the submissions process should be directed to cufa20conference@gmail.com.

Timothy Patterson, PhD

2020 CUFA Program Chair

https://tinyurl.com/r5gqyu5