60th Annual Allerton English Articulation Conference
Allerton Conference Center, Monticello IL
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Call for Papers
April 23-24, 2025
The Allerton Conference Committee invites proposals addressing issues in Writing and English Studies, focusing on English, rhetoric, literature, composition studies, and institutional or cultural changes affecting your courses. Proposals may discuss innovative assignments, course sequences, and/or professional development aimed at restoring ethical practice and reclaiming our narrative. Formats include individual presentations, group discussions, panels, and posters. Suggested proposal areas include, but are not limited to:
Rhetoric
Pedagogy
Assessment and placement
Dual-credit courses
Inclusion and equity
Developmental writing
English language learning
Film and media studies
Literature
State of the profession
Legislative actions
Instructional modalities
We hope you'll join us for a convivial, productive conversation as we celebrate our connections (and our 60th year!) at Allerton House. We offer reduced registration rates for students and contingent faculty. Many of our first-time conference attendees have joined us because of a recommendation from a colleague. If you know of colleagues who might help us shape these discussions, we would be grateful if you would pass this invitation on to them.
Please submit your proposal to AllertonConference@niu.edu by February 21, 2025.
We look forward to connecting with you at Allerton House in April!
Find us on Facebook (Allerton English Articulation Conference) for conference planning updates and conversations with participants past and present.
Visit our website at https://www.niu.edu/allerton/
Conference Theme: Moving from the Margins to the Moment: Resistance, Resilience, and Renewal
This year's conference theme, Moving from the Margins to the Moment: Resistance, Resilience, and Renewal, invites us to share ideas and perspectives on the following issues:
Moving from the Margins to the Moment
Roughly sixty years ago, college and university English faculty recognized an acute problem: professors and lecturers were expected to teach based on their scholarship and wits alone; no formal training in teaching was expected or required, resulting in a hit-or-miss experience for students. Concerned educators came together to address this problem at the first Allerton conference, The Allerton Park Conference on Research in the Teaching of English, sponsored by the U.S. Office of Education in cooperation with the University of Illinois. What had once been denigrated and denied—research and training in the teaching of English—moved from the margins to the moment, evolving into the Allerton English Articulation Conference that still lives today.
Resistance, Resilience, and Renewal
Now, in a darkly politicized age of anti-intellectualism and mistrust of education that threatens to gut or eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, we have a new moment, a new exigency, a new urgency to again move from the margins and assert the values and practices that we know to be effective. Not only with our intellects, but with our hearts and souls, we must resist the forces that would undo decades of progress in higher education by taking action in our home schools, our communities, and in the legislative bodies of our state and nation. We must show our resilience in supporting each other and defending our best practices for the sake of our students. And in spring, which is always already a riot of renewal, we must renew our commitment to each other and our field by sharing and examining our pedagogy and practices.
https://www.niu.edu/allerton/index.shtml
Michael Day