What is Conference Creatures?
Conference Creatures is an experiment in feminist rhetorical new materialist professional praxis we (Hannah Locher and Olivia Rowland) began during our first year as PhD students in Ohio State University's English department in the Writing, Rhetoric, and Literacy program.
We crochet small plushes and distribute them to conference attendees with a note explaining that they've encountered our experiment, commending the reader for the work they're doing as a professional, and inviting them to engage with us and our project via social media, if they wish. We see our project as an avenue for encouraging comfort and community amongst conference attendees within rhetoric and writing studies.
Conference Creatures began as a passing thought, and our project has developed, transformed, and grown without a specific methodology in mind. While this experiment is undoubtedly reflective of our feminist ethics, we've pursued Conference Creatures with less defined intention than typical research projects by allowing our "what-ifs," desires, and hobbies to guide our collaboration. In tandem with being a collaborative side project for a couple of PhD students, Conference Creatures is (and always has been) a project that reaches actors and materials beyond academia.
Because this started as an informal project, we didn't write up a proposal or anything; we are just seeing connections in the literature with what we were already doing. Since Conference Creatures is best characterized through a description of its emergence, the timeline, images, and text below will lead you through the project's background.
Conference Creatures Timeline
Hover over (or tap for mobile users) images to reveal additional information.
October 2023
Olivia crochets opossum for Hannah, and Hannah jokes that the pattern for opossum's foot would be perfect for a star-nosed mole. Olivia's hobby inspires Hannah to learn to crochet.
November 2023
Hannah discusses crocheting with her mom, who suggests leaving crochet stuffed animals around campus.
December 2023
Hannah and Olivia transform the idea to center around feminist professional praxis.
February 2024
Olivia gifts Hannah a crochet star-nosed mole, and Hannah mentions the project to Dr. Margaret Price, who encourages the idea.
March 2024
Hannah and Olivia receive generous yarn donations from Margaret and from Hannah's mom, Marcia, after their latest yarn purges.
April 2024
Johnna Keller and Hannah brainstorm a name for the project. After Hannah and Olivia embrace Johnna's suggestion of "Conference Creatures," ze designs @Conference.Creatures stickers for Hannah and Margaret to share at RSA 2024.
May 2024
Conference Creatures Instagram and email accounts are created for a soft launch at RSA 2024, where stickers and the first generation of crocheted creatures are distributed.
June 2024
The Conference Creatures Instagram account begins gaining followers!
July-October 2024
The public-facing parts of Conference Creatures go silent while Hannah and Olivia finish coursework. Behind the scenes, donated yarn gets organized, creatures are crocheted, and a proposal is submitted to the 2025 Writing Innovation Symposium (WIS) at Marquette University.
November 2024
WIS '25 Invitation
Dear Hannah and Olivia,
We are writing on behalf of the WIS '25 Steering Committee with good news. We are delighted to accept your proposal for "Conference.Creatures: An Experiment in New Materialist Feminist Praxis" to the Mise en Place program!
After Hannah and Olivia's WIS '25 proposal is accepted, they and Marcia (Hannah's mom) get busy creating creatures to prepare for their trip to Milwaukee, WI at the end of January.
January 2025
The Conference Creatures Instagram account reaches 8 posts and 45 followers!
January 2025
A package from Hannah's mom containing creatures arrives in time to accompany Olivia and Hannah to WIS '25 in Milwaukee.
January 2025
Conference Creatures officially debuts at the Writing Innovation Symposium, where Hannah and Olivia display a slideshow and distribute creatures to attendees.
February 2025
After meeting Dr. Ashley Beardsley at WIS, Hannah and Olivia begin brainstorming how to transform Conference Creatures into a webtext.
March 2025
The Conference Creatures Instagram account reaches 13 posts and 53 followers!
March 2025
Hannah and Olivia create Conference Creatures to distribute in Baltimore at TYCA and CCCC 2025. Hannah designs a new batch of Conference Creatures stickers.
April 2025
Olivia and Hannah attend the stitch-and-spin event at CCCC 2025.
April 2025
More than 60 Conference Creatures distributed in Baltimore, MD during TYCA and CCCC 2025.
May 2025
Conference Creatures takes on the Digital Media and Composition (DMAC) Institute! We present on our experience translating this project into a webtext and discuss the role that physical modes like crocheting and knitting can play in digital composing.
May 2025
The Conference Creatures Instagram account reaches 22 posts and 84 followers!
June 2025
CC attends the 2025 RSA Institute with Olivia and Hannah in Cincinnati, Ohio.
June 2025
Marcia visits Hannah in Columbus and delivers the fourth creature class of 2025!
July 2025
Olivia and and CC attend FemRhet 2025 in Durham, New Hampshire.
July 2025
July is a busy time for CC. She attends two conferences at once and also attends IWAC 2025 with Hannah in Fort Collins, Colorado.
July 2025
A milestone: The Conference Creatures Instagram account reaches 100 followers!
