TYCAT 2024
November 8-9
Chattanooga
“A New Truth: Rediscovering Our Identity in the Classroom”
We are so excited to announce that our 2024 conference will be in-person on the main campus of Chattanooga State Community College in Southeast Tennessee. And though TYCAT is the Tennessee state affiliate of TYCA-SE, we’d love to invite any of our friends from colleges in neighboring states to join us at our November gathering in Chattanooga. Below, you will find the latest conference updates, including information about the Call for Proposals, our guest speaker, registration fees, our tentative schedule, lodging options, and possible spots for your Saturday morning breakfast needs. In the next month, the registration link will become active. In the meantime, if you have questions, you may direct those to joel.henderson @ chattanoogastate.edu. Please make plans to join us in Chattanooga on November 8-9 for TYCAT 2024!
Call for Proposals
“A story can always break into pieces while it sits inside a book on a shelf; and, decades after we have read it even twenty times, it can open us up, by cut or caress, to a new truth.”
-Andre Dubus, Meditations From a Moveable Chair: Essays
We are pleased to share the theme of our 2024 conference: “A New Truth: Rediscovering Our Identity in the Classroom.” Please join us in examining the way(s) that we teach after the last four years of unprecedented challenges in academia. Though recent times have presented community colleges (and the students who attend them) with no shortage of difficulties and obstacles, we continuously reevaluate our content, our approaches, and even our very identity as two-year college English teachers.
Our guest speaker, Andre Dubus III (see below for more information) addresses this theme of overcoming difficult times and rediscovering one’s identity and purpose in his newest novel: Such Kindness. Like many of Dubus’s fictional characters, we are continually stripping away what no longer works and rebuilding our approach to teaching English and reaching students. We hold on to what works, jettison what doesn’t, and create innovative solutions and new approaches to ongoing problems.
This is what we hope to consider during our conference. To use Dubus’s language, how do we break apart the story of our teaching careers and discover new truths there? How do we discern what we should “cut” and what we should “caress” to do this? As we open ourselves up to these new truths, what do we do and who will we find?
We’re interested in knowing WHY you’re doing what you’re doing (perhaps ground your presentation in a problem or theoretical basis) as well as WHAT you’re doing (consider offering some very practical information, including sharing handouts, assignments, etc.) .
We are offering a choice of three presentation types:
A TYCAT Talk (TED Talks-style presentation) in which the presenter(s) will have 15 minutes to offer a dynamic talk on a topic of his/her/their choice plus an additional 5 minutes for questions and discussion
A Panel Presentation in which two or more presenters will have up to 60 minutes to focus on a topic or series of related topics followed by questions and discussion
A Roundtable Discussion wherein a presenter may facilitate a conversation among peers on a specific selected topic for up to 60 minutes
In addition to sessions focused on the conference theme, we welcome presentations concerning any aspect of teaching English in the community college classroom.
Deadline for submission is September 30, 2024.
Featured Speaker
In keeping with TYCAT’s history of nationally-recognized authors and presenters, we’re pleased to reveal that the featured speaker at our annual luncheon will be Andre Dubus III.
Dubus is the author of Dirty Love, The Garden of Last Days, House of Sand and Fog (a New York Times bestseller, Oprah Book Club pick, and finalist for the National Book Award), Townie, and his newest work, the critically-acclaimed Such Kindness: A Novel.
His work has been recognized with an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Magazine Award, and two Pushcart Prizes.
He lives with his family in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
Praise for Such Kindness: A Novel…
“Dubus is a scribe of the blue collar, the downtrodden, and the destitute, with an uncanny ability to capture guilt, shame, and anger while also infusing his characters with resilience, strength, and hope. Few writers paint three-dimensional characters with such verve and humanism. Dubus is the Botticelli of Beantown.”
—Bill Kelly, Booklist, starred review
“Such Kindness charts a remarkable rebirth, not from poverty to wealth but from bitter helplessness to the knowledge of self-worth. The result is a gripping and transformational journey toward kindness, in a tremendously moving novel.”
—Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House
Mr. Dubus’s participation at our conference is made possible through the generous support of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Registration information
$75.00-Early Registration ends September 30
$100.00-Late Registration begins October 1
Registration opens June 1 and will be available via Eventbrite.
tentative schedule
Nearby hotels
Though there is no designated conference hotel, the following options are located in the Chattanooga suburb of Hixson, just across the Tennessee River from the Chattanooga State Community College main campus. Note that all prices are from hotel websites as of 04.16.24. Some may offer state employee rates that are lower than those posted.
Hampton Inn Chattanooga/Hixson (a Hilton hotel)
1920 Hamill Rd, Hixson, TN 37343 (A 6-minute drive to campus, 3.3 miles)
King from $134, 2 Queen from $139
Amenities: Free hot breakfast, Free parking, Free Wi-Fi, Outdoor pool, Fitness center, Business center
Holiday Inn Express & Suites Chattanooga – Hixson
4820 Hixson Pike, Hixson, TN 37343 (A 7-minute drive to campus, 3.4 miles)
King Standard from $149, 2 Queen Standard from $149, King Suite from $180, 2 Queen Suite from $184, Standard room from $184
Amenities: Free hot breakfast, Complimentary coffee in lobby, Free parking, Wi-Fi included, Indoor pool (heated), Fitness center, Business center
La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Chattanooga North – Hixson
5000 New Country Dr, Hixson, TN 37343 (An 8-minute drive to campus, 3.6 miles)
King from $150; 2 Queen from $160; 1 King, 1 Full, studio suite from $160; 1 King, 1 Twin, deluxe suite from $170;2 Queen, 1 sofa bed, deluxe family suite from $190
Amenities: Free breakfast, Free parking, Free Wi-Fi, Mobile check-in, Indoor pool, Fitness center
TownePlace Suites by Marriott Hixson
5248 TN-153, Hixson, TN 37343 (An 8-minute drive to campus, 3.7 miles)
Studio, 1 King, sofa bed from $117; Studio, 2 Queens from $117
Amenities: Free buffet and hot breakfast, Free coffee/tea, Kitchen, Free parking with electric car charging station, Free Wi-Fi, Indoor pool, Fitness center
Nearby breakfast restaurants
The following restaurants offer affordable Saturday morning breakfast options in the Hixson area. Those marked with an asterisk are local eateries.
Drip Kitchen and Coffee*
$10-20
6018 Hixson Pike, Hixson, TN 37343
Opens at 7am
Dunkin’ Donuts
$1-10
5311 TN-153, Hixson, TN 37343
Opens at 5am
First Watch
$10-20
5207 TN-153 Suite 101, Hixson, TN 37343
Opens at 7am
IHOP
$10-20
5113 TN-153, Hixson, TN 37343
Opens at 6am
Mimis Deli*
$10-20
5023 Hixson Pike, Hixson, TN 37343
Opens at 8am
Panera
$10-20
562 Northgate Mall Dr. Suite 102, Chattanooga, TN 37415
Opens at 7am
Starbucks
$5-10
5238 TN-153, Hixson, TN 37343
Opens at 5am
Waffle House
$10-20
5466 TN-153, Hixson, TN 37343
Open 24 hours