KINGSTON, R.I. — March 23, 2006 — Sixteen faculty and graduate students from the Writing Program at the University of Rhode Island have traveled to Chicago to make presentations at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the National Council of Teachers of English’s largest annual gathering for college composition instructors and researchers in the nation.

The scholars represent URI’s largest delegation of presenters to be invited to speak at the convention. They also make up one of the largest delegations presenting scholarly work from any university or college this year.

Several thousand people from hundreds of academic institutions worldwide attend this prominent annual event to review the latest scholarship and research in the field of rhetoric and composition.

URI faculty presenters are Professors Jeremiah Dyehouse, Libby Miles, Michael Pennell, Nedra Reynolds and Robert Schwegler. Graduate student presenters are Sonia Bernstein, William Burns, Deborah DePiero, Samaa Gamie, O. Brian Kaufman, Cathryn Malloy, Michelle Niestepski, Matthew Ortoleva, Susan Rashid Horn, Bryna Siegel and Valerie Vancza.

URI’s delegation is presenting on a wide range of research areas including

writing pedagogy, writing center practices, building composition programs, archival historiography, the perception and effects of error, teacher assistant training, and literacy in professional workplaces.

Several former graduates of URI Writing Program, Deborah Burns, Lisa Lebduska, Tim Mayers, Nancy Nester and Jim Ridolfo, will also speak.