We invite graduate communication professionals to submit proposals for the 2025 Summer Institute of the Consortium on Graduate Communication. The SI’s theme of Connecting and Collaborating as Leaders in Graduate Communication speaks to the breadth and variety of our work with graduate students as emerging professional communicators. Our theme also recognizes our annual gathering as a site of ongoing and potential collaborations where we share and learn of new research findings, optimal pedagogical approaches, and seasoned strategies for program development.
Join us in person June 11-13, 2025, to connect or reconnect with colleagues who navigate the ever-changing fields of graduate communication in higher education today.
Hosted by the University of Michigan’s English Language Institute (ELI) and University of Michigan Press, the 2025 CGC Summer Institute invites colleagues to gather in person to connect and collaborate across the field of graduate communication programs and studies. We will consider high-impact practices and explore new opportunities for research and publication. Over the past decade, CGC Summer Institutes have been essential and sustaining for such conversations.
The Consortium on Graduate Communication is an international association whose members provide professional development in written, oral, and multimodal communication to students before and during their (post-)graduate academic and professional programs. CGC members work with graduate students in their first and additional languages.
We offer the questions below as a starting point for proposals, but we also welcome participants to propose their own topics for expanding connections and collaborations in graduate communication.
- Creating and Sustaining Connections: How do we build and maintain connections—with students, campus partners, and across institutions—to make our work more effective? What connections have you identified as nascent, underdeveloped, or atrophied in and across institutions? What emerging responses or support address these challenges?
- Collaboration in Graduate Communication: How does collaboration shape graduate student communication at your institution? Which collaborations—within or across institutions and disciplines—have been most successful, and what innovative collaborations should we pursue? How do these collaborations contribute to the ways we support graduate students?
- Emerging Technologies and Modalities: How have emerging technologies affected our work in graduate communication? In what ways does technology support connection or collaboration with graduate students? How do different modalities of textual production shape our connection with graduate students?
- Positioning as Leaders: How might we position ourselves as leaders in providing effective graduate communication support? What does the latest research suggest for impactful instruction, programming, and collaborations with campus and inter-institutional partners?
The Summer Institute will offer Research Presentations, Workshops, Special Interest Networking, Works-in-Progress, and Keynote addresses (descriptions and proposal requirements follow). Participants are welcome to submit proposals for any format except keynotes, which are arranged by invitation.
All proposals are due February 21, 2025, by 11:59 PM EST
Research Presentations
Submit here: https://forms.gle/EK97gxojJfcr5LDw9
Research presentations designate a space to spotlight and cultivate research in the field of graduate communication. Research presentations recognize the ways that our field continues to grow and mature. Successful research proposals will share findings from completed research projects that are of substantial interest to the CGC community. Each research presentation will be 20-25 minutes with additional time for Q&A.
Please note that there will be limited slots for research presentations, so it may be that qualified proposals will not be selected as we prioritize presentations to speak across a wide range of topics. Research presentations that are not accepted will automatically be considered as works-in-progress presentations.
Research presentations will be reviewed and selected based on the following criteria:
- Quality of research: Successful proposals will feature a completed research project with clearly defined purpose, method, and implications.
- Relevance and significance of research: Priority will be given to research that has important implications for the work of CGC members.
- Diversity of research: We aim to showcase research on a wide range of issues in graduate communication support.
Research proposals should include the following information:
- Research title
- Names and institutional affiliations of all speakers
- Intended audience
- Are the findings likely to be useful for participants who work with students from a wide variety of backgrounds (L1, L2, international, domestic), or is the project designed for participants who work with a specific student population?
- A brief description of the presentation that answers the following questions in no more than 250 words (plus a shorter version of 50-70 words for the program):
- What was the impetus for the research?
- What research questions were investigated?
- Who were the participants?
- What method(s) was used?
- What are the findings and implications of the research, particularly for CGC members?
Workshops
Submit here: https://forms.gle/K6EQ3c4Wz5M1Ex5H8)
Workshops provide a space for experienced practitioners to share nuts-and-bolts approaches to various topics in graduate communication support. Workshops provide interactive, hands-on professional development opportunities for all participants, including those who are new to the field or are exploring new graduate communication initiatives or approaches. Workshop leaders are invited to propose 75-minute sessions on an area of graduate communication support.
Workshop proposals will be reviewed and selected based on the following criteria:
- Quality of proposal: Clarity of goals and deliverables, as well as emphasis on hands-on activities, will be considered in the selection process.
- Diversity of topics: We aim to offer workshops focused on topics that are relevant to participants from a wide range of backgrounds. For this reason, it is possible that a high-quality proposal will not be chosen if the topic is too similar to one already in the lineup.
- Experience: Because the workshops are meant to give participants who are newer to graduate communication support the opportunity to learn from those with more experience, professional experience will be considered. We are not looking for “stars” in the field so much as perspectives on the topic gained through trial and error.
Workshop proposals should include the following information:
- Workshop title
- Workshop topic
- Names and institutional affiliations of all workshop speakers/organizers
- A brief description of your qualifications for leading a workshop on this topic
- Intended audience
- Is your workshop suitable for participants who work with students from a wide variety of backgrounds (e.g., L1, L2, international, domestic), or is it designed for participants who work with a specific student population?
- A brief description of the workshop that answers the following questions in no more than 300 words (plus a shorter version for the program):
- What questions or issues will the workshop raise and address?
- What (if anything) should participants bring to the workshop?
- What is the goal, outcome, or deliverable of the workshop?
Special Interest Networking Groups
Submit here: https://forms.gle/kb2oTkF4o3N3wJ3d8)
Many people attend the Summer Institute in order to interact with and learn from other practitioners who are engaged in similar projects. While the workshops, research presentations, and works-in-progress offer the opportunity for interactions focused on specific topics, there is also a need for less structured conversations. The purpose of these sessions is to fill this gap and allow for explicit time to network around issues and topics.
Participants interested in exploring a relevant topic in an informal setting are invited to propose a session of 60 minutes and to serve as the facilitator(s) of the discussion.
Please note that these forums should not include formal presentations. Instead, they should provide a semi-structured opportunity for open discussion.
Special Interest Networking proposals should provide the following information:
- Names of facilitators (limited to four)
- Session title
- A brief description of the session that answers the following questions in no more than 250 words (plus a shorter version for the program):
- What topic do you hope to discuss?
- What is the exigency for this discussion, and what do you hope to accomplish?
- Which other participants do you encourage to participate? (Information you might discuss here includes but is not limited to job descriptions, goals, and research, teaching, or administrative interests.) In what ways might these participants benefit from the discussion?
- A brief list of questions that you’ll invite participants to explore
Works-in-Progress Presentations
Submit here: https://forms.gle/RN8be43jaUNJZtXu9
Present a 15-minute synopsis of your work in graduate communication on program administration, course design, pedagogy, tutoring, workshops, group support, materials development, research, or another topic. Following the 15-minute presentation, frame a problem or questions for a short discussion to engage the audience. Presenters will be grouped in strands according to areas of interest in order to listen to each other’s presentations and engage in substantive discussion. Provide an abstract of your presentation (limit 250 words, plus a shorter version for the program) on the proposal form. You will also be prompted to choose the strand that best fits your proposal:
- Research-in-Progress: Share work-in-progress reporting scholarly and/or institutional research (Research-in-progress is for those who are conducting research but do not yet have data or a completed study. If you have already collected data and have results to share, submit your project under the Research Presentation category.)
- Pedagogy: Share course designs, writing assignment designs, and pedagogical approaches
- Theory: What does theory look like in our context?
- Tutoring Approaches/One-on-one Support outside the classroom
- Workshops/Group Support outside the classroom
- Program Administration: assessment, reporting, budgeting, and staffing
- Negotiating Campus Politics: Working conditions, finding campus allies, advocating for programs
- Materials Development: textbooks, professional development materials, materials for courses and tutoring programs
- Program Profile: innovative programs or pilots offered at your institution
- Other: None of the above but important to the work of graduate communication support
Submitting Multiple Proposals
Participants may submit a maximum of two proposals (and no more than one in any one category type) as a presenter or co-presenter in a research, workshop, works in progress, or special interest networking session. Those submitting multiple proposals will be asked to prioritize their proposals.
Listen-and-Learn Attendee Option: No Proposal, Registration Only
As always, you are welcome to register to attend the institute, listen to the speakers, participate in workshops, attend works-in-progress strands, participate in the discussions, and take home ideas for your classes, programs, and research. All listen-and-learn participants will be listed in the program and have access to networking opportunities.
All proposals are due February 21, 2025 by 11:59 PM EST.
Direct questions to summerinstitute@gmail.com.
Registration will open Monday, April 29, at www.gradconsortium.org.
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