‘Online and Downloadable: Writing Pedagogies in the Pandemic’, the Centre for Writing and Pedagogy’s inaugural conference concluded on 12 and 13 February 2021. Close to 700 participants logged in to participate from all over the country. There were participants from flagship universities from the metros, as well as central, state and regional universities, colleges and institutes from Leh to Trivandrum and lots of places side-ways and in-between. There were seven events over the two days to include workshops, roundtable discussions and academic paper panels on strategies of teaching for having been forced to go online in the COVID semesters.
The highlights of the conference were a workshop on sentences which had 380 participants, and the two roundtable discussions – one on creative writing pedagogies in academic spaces in India and one on tutoring online which had tutors from Krea, APU, Ashoka and JGU. Both these roundtables initiated much-needed conversations bringing together colleagues and students to do so for the first time. Another first was a meeting to bring together writing centre administrators who came together under CWP’s lead to look into forming a national association for writing teachers and spearhead collaborative projects in research and faculty training. Watch the recording of the opening note by Prof S Sivakumar – Divisional Chair, Sciences & Professor of Physics at Krea University here.