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Faculty Awards

The Barbara E. Zimmer Associate Faculty Award

The Barbara E. Zimmer Award, which is designed to encourage professional development, was established in 1997 through the generosity of Barbara Zimmer, a long-time associate faculty member in the IUPUI writing program and ESL program. The award pays travel expenses (up to $500) for a writing program associate faculty member to attend a conference or workshop (see below for a list of conferences). You don’t need to present a paper or workshop (although presenting isn’t ruled out by the award). The application form can be downloaded here.

Who can apply?

Members of the associate faculty who:

• Presently teach core writing courses (English W001, W131, W132, W231) in the IUPUI English Department (including ESL courses)
• Have completed the required 20 hours of orientation (or comparable ESL requirements)
• Are considered in good standing with the department because they regularly
  • attend writing program workshops
  • attend course-specific meetings
  • receive satisfactory student evaluations

What criteria are used to judge applications?

The Writing Coordinating Committee encourages applications from all associate faculty, especially those who have taught writing at IUPUI for at least 3 semesters and plan to continue. In considering applications, the committee may consider an applicant’s past involvement with program activities and/or the applicant’s proposed future involvement with activities such as:

• sharing ideas with other faculty, informally mentoring other teachers
• presenting or otherwise taking a leadership role at workshops
• serving on committees for curriculum revision, textbook selection, etc.

Members of the Committee will evaluate applications, looking to see whether:

• The applicant has identified a teaching-related question or issue that will be addressed at the conference of choice
• The applicant is willing to share what is learned at the conference with colleagues

When are applications due?

Applications are due January 16.

What conferences are eligible for funding?

See the short list of upcoming conferences.  If you are interested in another conference that relates to teaching goals and the writing program, you can apply for that, but you must include additional information about the conference and its sponsors.

How are applications submitted?

It’s an easy process. You need only fill out a short application form and submit a short description of the conference you wish to attend.

List of Eligible Conferences

Each year, the Writing Coordinating Committee will announce conferences in the region for which Zimmer funds would be appropriate. Generally, these conferences include:

• NCTE Annual Meeting, held each year in November. Information on this year’s conference is available at http://www.ncte.org/convention
• Conference on College Composition and Communication, held each year in March. 
• The Watson Conference, held every other October at the University of Louisville. More information will be available at http://www.louisville.edu/a-s/english/watson.html
• Symposium on Second Language Writing, a biennial conference held at Purdue University. For more information, see http://icdweb.cc.purdue.edu/%7Esilvat/symposium/
• The International Writing Centers Association Conference, held every 18 months. More information is available at http://iwca.syr.edu/
• The Computers and Writing Conference, held each June. There is no stable website for C&W information, but you can read about the 2003 conference (at Purdue) at http://cw.english.purdue.edu/

Don’t see a conference you’d like to attend?

If you don’t see a conference listed here that offers you the kind of professional development you’d like, you can request another conference on your application form. Provide a bit more detail about the conference and its sponsoring organization, so that the application review committee can decide whether the conference fits in with the theme of the Zimmer Award.

The Writing Program Outstanding Associate Faculty Award

Presented annually. The winner of this award is nominated for the SLA Outstanding Associate Faculty Award.

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