Download the full program here.
(Pre-conference description:) We invite the CGC membership to explore “Change, Adaptation, and Engagement in Graduate Communication” at our annual Summer Institute (SI). In keeping with our recent practice of alternating in-person and virtual SIs to serve the access needs and mode preferences of all CGC members, we are excited to meet virtually in 2024, generously hosted by Purdue University.
This theme of “Change, Adaptation, and Engagement” speaks to what is new and what persists in our work with graduate students as emerging professional communicators in their respective fields and career paths. We will explore the various institutional, programmatic, disciplinary, and technological changes we have been navigating in graduate communication and will share our diverse experiences of adapting to emergent trends and technologies and using them within disciplinary conventions and pedagogies. We will also consider the nature and practice of engagement across the various pedagogical, professional, social, political, and technological domains that inform graduate communication.
2024 Schedule-at-a-Glance
| Day | Time | Activity |
|---|---|---|
WEDNESDAYJune 12 | 10:30 – 11:00 EDT | Welcome |
| 11:00 – 12:00 EDT | Keynote: Nigel Caplan | |
| 12:15 – 1:30 EDT | Workshops | |
| 1:45 – 3:00 EDT | Research Presentations | |
| 3:00 – 3:30 EDT | Coffee and Chat | |
| 3:30 – 4:45 EDT | Works-in-Progress | |
| 4:45 – 5:15 EDT | Break | |
| 5:15 – 6:15 EDT | Special Interest Networking Sessions | |
| 6:30 – 7:30 EDT | Social Hour and Chat (gather.town) | |
THURSDAYJune 13 | 10:30 – 11:45 EDT | Welcome & Morning Plenary: Melanie Morgan |
| 12:00 – 1:15 EDT | Workshops | |
| 1:15 – 2:00 EDT | Lunch and Chat | |
| 2:00 – 3:15 EDT | Works-in-Progress | |
| 3:30 – 4:30 EDT | Special Interest Networking Sessions | |
| 4:30 – 5:00 EDT | Break | |
| 5:00 – 6:00 EDT | Evening Plenary: Jim Purdy | |
| 6:00 – 7:00 EDT | Social Hour and Chat (gather.town) | |
| Day | Time | Activity |
FRIDAYJune 14 | 10:30 – 11:45 EDT | Works-in-Progress |
| 12:00 – 1:10 EDT | Plenary: Helen Sword | |
| 1:10 – 1:30 EDT | Break | |
| 1:30 – 2:45 EDT | Works-in-Progress | |
| 3:00 – 4:00 EDT | All-Attendee Business Meeting | |
The 2024 CGC Virtual Summer Institute invites colleagues to gather across time zones and disciplinary interests to consider how we navigate change, adapt to the new, and engage fully in graduate communication support. We will continue to bring members together to promote high-impact practices and to expand research and publication in the field.
The Summer Institute invites graduate communication professionals to consider the spectrum of our field’s research, pedagogy, and practice. We offer the questions below as a starting point, but we also welcome participants to propose their own topics for expanding perspectives in graduate communication.
- What are the most important changes we have navigated and/or implemented in our work?
- How might we define, understand, and amplify what is “program critical” in the context of changing political landscapes (or in seeking to change those landscapes)
- How have adaptations contributed to the development of new skills, craft, and understanding of textual production and the ways in which we support graduate students?
- How have emerging technologies affected our work in graduate communication? How have you adapted emerging technologies to support your work with graduate students?
- How do different or emerging modalities of textual production (e.g., mono-modal, multi-modal, print, web-based, video abstracts) shape our engagement with graduate students?
- What does the latest research on graduate student communication suggest for our work and high-impact engagement?
- How do we engage our campus partners or build inter-institutional connections and collaborations? Which collaborations have been most successful and beneficial?
The Summer Institute will continue to 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 of the formats except keynotes.
Finally, in order to use technology to try to facilitate organic connections and mimic a more natural socializing atmosphere, we will each evening be taking advantage of a “proximity chat” application, Gather.Town, to host happy hours in which you can, via your avatar, move around a virtual space and talk with whomever you want about whatever you want. That is, you will not have to be in a breakout room having one group conversation. We hope this will allow you to relax and have more authentic interactions and connections.
We look forward to seeing you in June!
