Call for Proposals: 2023–2024 Research Initiative
The Conference on College Composition & Communication (CCCC) Research Initiative is soliciting proposals due September 1, 2023: https://cccc.ncte.org/cccc/awards/researchinitiative. Awards up to $10,000.
Details from the CCCC announcement:
CCCC’s Research Initiative speaks to the belief that bold, creative research furthers the organization’s mission to advocate for broad and evolving definitions of literacy, communication, rhetoric, and writing (including multimodal discourse, digital communication, and diverse language practices) that emphasize the value of these activities to empower individuals and communities. CCCC promotes intellectual and pedagogical freedom and ethical scholarship and communication. To this end, CCCC sponsors research that produces knowledge about language, literacy, communication, rhetoric, and the teaching, assessment, and technologies of writing. That research has never been more needed as policymakers take up questions related to members’ curricula and students. Among the most important resources CCCC membership can bring to bear upon public conversations is the sustained, substantial, and informed research that has been, and continues to be, produced by CCCC-affiliated scholarship. Now is the time for members’ evidence-based research to be present in discourses that will inform public policy.
We call for proposals to investigate key challenges faced by literacy, communication, rhetoric, and writing instructors and administrators in their classrooms and programs. The initiative also asks recipients to clearly address the impact their research might have on these conversations, conveying the implications of their work in at least two final products: one that is addressed to a scholarly audience of researchers and teachers in the field, and one that is addressed to a specifically identified more public audience.
Particular topics and areas of interest are those that advance the mission and vision of CCCC, which include but are not limited to the following broad areas:
- Research that produces knowledge about language, literacy, communication, rhetoric, and the teaching, assessment, and technologies of writing at the postsecondary level and beyond
- Social, racial, and linguistic justice and counterstory as research method and genre in approaches to instruction in rhetoric, language, and literacy
- Writing in organizations, communities, and/or cultures
- Transfer of writing ability across contexts
- Disciplinarity of writing studies and composition, including
- critical praxis of the discipline’s growth,
- development of teachers or researchers, and
- professionalization or mentoring of undergraduate or graduate students joining the discipline
- Historiography
- Assessment of writing and literacy
- Development of writers or writing abilities
- Material and working conditions for writing instruction and their influence on teaching and learning
We invite proposals for research that employ diverse perspectives and methodologies, including historical, archival, rhetorical, qualitative, quantitative, ethnographic, and textual.
Proposals may employ diverse perspectives, genres, registers, and methodologies. Proposals should
- define the project and articulate specific research questions;
- explain the significance of the project for CCCC audiences within and beyond postsecondary institutions, identify what gaps in knowledge it seeks to fill, and address how the research aligns with the CCCC mission (i.e., why should CCCC fund this research?);
- describe the proposed evidence and methods of analysis, including a brief explanation of why the particular methodology was selected and its appropriateness for the project (no more than 300 words);
- describe one or more possible audiences beyond the scholarly (i.e., more “public” audiences) invested in the project and outline at least one public genre (e.g., podcast episode or guest blog post in an outlet relevant to the topic, such as The Conversation or Huffington Post article, etc.) that will be created to engage with these audiences; and
- describe the personnel and financial resources needed to complete the project, detailing why they are appropriate.
Recipients will be expected to propose sessions for the CCCC Annual Convention to present their findings (though receipt of a grant does not guarantee acceptance to the Convention, and the grant funds may not be used for travel to present on the funded research). Recipients also will be expected to submit any publications to College Composition and Communication prior to submission to other publications (though again, receipt does not guarantee acceptance by CCC).
Eligibility
Researchers may submit only one research proposal per award cycle for either the CCCC Research Initiative or the CCCC Emergent Researcher Award—researchers cannot submit to both. Additionally, CCCC research grant recipients may not apply for CCCC research funding in the three years following the initial grant year (e.g., if the initial funding term begins in 2024, researchers may not apply again until the 2027 award cycle).
CCCC plans to fund proposals of up to $10,000 each. The principal investigators of each proposal must be members of CCCC at the time of proposal submission. Proposals are expected to last up to two years but can run for shorter periods of time.
Proposals are to be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. CT on September 1, 2023, as a single PDF email attachment to the CCCC Liaison at cccc@ncte.org. Proposals are reviewed by a joint committee comprising CCCC Executive Committee members and members selected from the CCCC Research Committee. Decisions will be announced by January 30, 2024. A mid-project report will be due by May 1, 2025. This will be the final report date for projects lasting up to one year. Projects should be completed and a final report submitted by May 1, 2026, for projects lasting two years. A summary version of the final report will be hosted on the CCCC website. Successful proposals should lead to concrete products, whether scholarly articles/monographs or writing in the public domain such as op-eds, blog posts, and the like.
Proposals should consist of the following:
- Narrative of no more than 1,500 words addressing items 1, 2, 3, and 4 from the list above;
- Description of each investigator’s credentials, including their qualifications to conduct this research (no more than 300 words total); and
- One-page budget with specific rationale for all expenses. Funds may be used for direct costs associated with the research, such as reassigned time/course buyout, student assistance, software, stipends for research subjects, etc. If student assistance is included in the budget, proposals should explain how the assistance will provide a learning/mentoring opportunity for the students involved. Please note that this grant may not be used to pay indirect costs (such as overhead or other costs associated with administration) or for travel to the CCCC Annual Convention. Equipment costs are allowable if justified.