Call to Conference—NRC 2008

It is with great pleasure that I invite you to the 58th Annual Meeting of the National Reading Conference. It will take place from December 3 to December 6 at the Wyndham Orlando Resort in Florida. The theme for this year’s conference is Literacy Research: Merging and Emerging Perspectives, a theme that reflects the wide array of epistemologies and methodologies represented in our scheduled presentations.

Please join me in sunny, warm Orlando for hundreds of exceptional symposia, alternative format sessions, papers, and roundtables. To help us tool up our research skills, Marla Mallette and Nell Duke have planned a phenomenal series of research methodology sessions, to be held each day of the conference. Several sessions are also planned to help us with understanding publishing and grant writing processes.

Our plenary speakers promise to be provocative and engaging, including Ronald Marx, from the University of Arizona, and Alfred Tatum from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Our annual review of the literature, presented by Sharon Walpole and Michael McKenna, will take place, as usual, on Saturday morning. Of course, “Uncle” Norman A. Stahl will delight us with his Presidential Address on Wednesday afternoon.

The Wyndham Resort is quite wonderful--reminiscent of many past NRC conference sites. Besides luxurious hotel and conference spaces, its many paths lead to three swimming pools, wonderful gardens, and secluded lagoons. The site also includes both lobby and pool bars for our evening Vital Issues repast. In addition, there are two onsite restaurants, delicatessen, game room, jogging path, and ice cream store—all in all, a stimulating environment for our discussions with one another.

Our location on International Drive puts us quite close to a host of other restaurants, stores, and facilities. Orlando is also famous for its bustling downtown and magnificent amusement parks. Arrive early or stay an extra day to visit Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, and Sea World, as well as numerous Central Florida golf courses and other outdoor adventures.