By Insha Shahryar, WRDS Communications and Events Coordinator
Every year, UBC’s WRDS (Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse Studies) Department organizes a conference for students from across all WRDS course sections to showcase their best work from the year.
The event provides undergraduate students the opportunity to participate in an exchange of ideas between like-minded scholars and gain experience in presenting their research to a crowd. Such interdisciplinary discussions allow students to gain cognizance of prevalent writing and communication practices across different fields, while also helping them in becoming confident in their own academic prowess. The annual WRDS Conference is unique in that it is open to students across all courses, ranging from 100-level courses to 400-level courses. Many of the participants in the conference were WRDS 150/151 students—the WRDS Department’s flagship course.
The panelists at the conference range from students in 100-level courses to those in 400-level courses, and cover writing practices across a range of fields and courses, including healthcare, psychology, media, generative AI, culture at large, and much more. This year, a separate panel was organized to showcase the works of students from the newly introduced Writing and Communication Minor. Despite being under the JWAM umbrella, the WRDS Conference includes a wide variety of students, including an eclectic mix of students across Arts and Science programs. Students are encouraged to interrogate writing practices within their own distinct fields, making for holistic and well-rounded discussions.
Jasleen Grewaal, a student majoring in Integrated Sciences and minoring in Writing and Communication, relays how the experience allowed her to bring together her interests in healthcare and knowledge production to discuss how the epistemological interaction between Indigenous and Western knowledge systems influence public health crisis messaging in BC. For her, engaging discussions with faculty and fellow students from a wide variety of academic disciplines were enriching experiences that allowed her to critically reflect on her work and draw connections to concepts previously studied in WRDS classes, such as rhetorical sovereignty and knowledge mobilization. The conference became a unique and collaborative experience that allowed students to engage with different perspectives and participate in shared learning.
Another student’s WRDS 151 project, “Structured Failure: How Competition Organizes Personality in Response to Setback” by Emily Wedin, deals with how different personality traits might actually shape responses to setbacks in competitive environments. Though Wedin had attended a few scientific conferences in the past, she says that this experience was different as it allowed for deeper interrogation into similar topics among like-minded individuals. She also highlights how the course’s focus on writing for different audiences and genres helped her prepare for the conference and effectively communicate her research.
This year’s conference was a major success, with over 30 participants from the WRDS Department. The conference highlighted the WRDS Department’s commitment to the interdisciplinary dialogue and exploration of the diverse ways in which writing and communication shape knowledge-making practices across disciplines. Students registering for WRDS Courses in the 2026/27 Terms might have a chance to participate in the next one and become a part of this community of scholars.
