TYCA-SE 2027

February 17-20, 2027
Savannah, Georgia

Low Country, High Stakes:
Reclaiming Writing, Thinking, and Student Voices

Conference Planners

Host Colleges
Chattanooga State Community College
Georgia Highlands College
Georgia State University Perimeter College

Conference Chairs
Jennifer Duncan, Georgia State University Perimeter College
Joel Henderson, Chattanooga State Community College

Call for Proposals

Savannah's lush squares, storied streets, and rich literary heritage provide the perfect backdrop for the conversations we can no longer afford to postpone — about who holds the pen, who shapes the page, and why writing and literature remain the most powerful tools we can put in students' hands. This is, after all, the city that gave us Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil — a book that asked, before anything else, whose version of events gets to be the story.

We gather in a city where story and truth have always negotiated with each other. Here, we ask hard questions about whose stories get told, who gets to tell them, and how we, as English educators, can reclaim the composition and literature classroom as a space of voice, critical thought, and genuine student agency.

Please join us by submitting a presentation proposal as we celebrate together in a city that reminds us, at every turn, that place and story are inseparable.

We can't wait to see y'all in Savannah!

Please consider proposing presentations including, but not limited to, the following:

Reclaiming Student Voice in the Composition Classroom
Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in First-Year English
Teaching Rhetoric in an Age of Misinformation
Rethinking the Literature Survey for Today's Students
AI, Authorship, and Academic Integrity
Multimodal Composing and Expanding What "Writing" Means
Information and Media Literacy Across the Curriculum
Grading for Equity and Student Growth
Reimagining the Research Paper
Stories as Resistance: Teaching Narrative in Comp and Lit
The Nonfiction Novel, True Crime, and Teaching Genre-Bending Texts
Curriculum Design that Centers Student Experience
Supporting Struggling and Underprepared Writers
Community, Place, and Belonging in the English Classroom

The deadline for submissions is December 1, 2026.

Proposal submission form coming soon

Tentative Schedule

Wednesday, February 17:

1:00 – 5:00 pm, REC meeting
Preconference Workshops and Excursions/ Publisher Events
8:30 – 10:00 pm, Welcome Reception

Thursday, February 18:

9:00 – 10:30 am, Opening Plenary Session
10:45 – 11:45 am, Concurrent Session 1
12:00 – 2:00 pm, Cowan and Doster Awards Lunch
2:15 – 3:00 pm, Concurrent Session 2
3:15 – 4:00 pm, Concurrent Session 3
4:15 – 5:00 pm, Concurrent Session 4
8:00 pm, Evening Event

Friday, February 19:

9:00 – 9:45 am, Concurrent Session 5
10:00 - 10:45 am, Concurrent Session 6
11:00 - 11:45 am, Concurrent Session 7
12:00 - 2:00 pm, Lunch with Harrison Scott Key
2:00 - 2:45 pm, Concurrent Session 8
3:00 - 3:45 pm, State Meetings
4:00 - 5:00 pm, Closing Session
5:00 - 7:00 pm, Closing Networking Event

Saturday, February 20:

Post-Conference Workshops/Excursions

Featured Speaker

Harrison Scott Key is the author of How to Stay Married, Congratulations, Who Are You Again?, and The World's Largest Man, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Key's humor and nonfiction have appeared in The Best American Travel Writing, Oxford American, Outside, The New York Times, The Bitter Southerner, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Town & Country, The Mockingbird, Salon, Savannah Magazine, Reader's Digest, Image, Southern Living, Gulf Coast, and Creative Nonfiction. He has lectured, talked, read, performed, etc., around the world, at book festivals, bookstores, conferences (for design, writing, religion, medicine, real estate, education), variety shows, radio shows, and universities; he has also given two TEDx talks. Additionally, he has performed stand-up comedy at venues around the U.S. He holds an M.F.A. in creative nonfiction and a Ph.D. in playwriting. Key has worked at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) for most of his career, where he has held appointments as Chair of Liberal Arts, Professor of English, Professor of Writing, and Executive Dean. He lives in Savannah, Georgia, with his wife and three children. His website is www.harrisonscottkey.com.