The Northeast Writing Centers Association Conference

Creative Writing Center Communities: Affirming Joy, Play, and Connections
April 3 - 4, 2027
Tufts University, Medford MA

The Northeast Writing Centers Association 2027 Conference invites proposals for our upcoming conference, held April 3-4 at Tufts University. Please see the Call for Proposals below to further explore the theme and guidance for proposals.

Proposals can be submitted through our submission form, and are due by December 6, 2026. Accepted presenters will be notified by January 24, 2027. Please email NEWCA at newcaconference@gmail.com with any questions.

Call for Proposals:

Writing centers have long been stewards of community within the larger institution. Foundational texts in Writing Center literature, such as The Everyday Writing Center and Noise from the Writing Center, have offered the writing center community as a human-centered, joyful space focused on mutual learning and support. Recently, however, writing centers have been beset with a series of hardships that have eroded our communities and threatened the pleasure we take in our work. The global COVD-19 pandemic severed many connections in ways we have not yet been able to repair and disrupted education in ways we’re still struggling to understand. Generative AI has radically altered the landscape of education and resulted in a reduction in writing center usage, whether because students are using it in place of tutoring or because faculty, newly distrustful of what students produce, assign less writing. Drops in student populations, institutional revenue, and governmental resources have led to writing centers facing funding cuts, staff reductions, and consolidation into other resources. Our field has been further destabilized by the sudden dissolution of CCCCs which, along with a bleak political climate, high-profile layoffs, and daily pressures, has led to many of us feeling more isolated and less supported than ever. 

These challenges create a dichotomy within Writing Centers: as resources grow lean and environments change, sharing knowledge, experience, resources, and support with others is increasingly necessary as well as taxing. To combat this juxtaposition, NEWCA’s 2027 conference centers community as a necessity: to support each other, our work, and our centers. We invite participants to reconnect with our regional community within a restorative environment and revive our interest in modes of operation that extend beyond survival. We posit that community is required to combat fatigue, burnout, and isolation by providing mutual support, learning opportunities, and joy in times of stress. While community supports us with commiseration and crowd-sourcing solutions, let’s remember the role of playfulness and creativity in our community-building and in our writing center work. Play is a crucial component of exploration in both tutoring and in writing, and provides a valuable framework for growth and development. Play builds resilience and social-educational connections, and offers ways to consider how the writing center exists in a counter-hegemonic space in the university. Within a culture where efficiency, speed, and assessment dominate, how might we revitalize or recreate environments that encourage exploration, slowness, reflection, creativity, and experimentation? 

For our 2027 Conference, NEWCA is seeking proposals that explore new (and old) ways to shoulder our collective, collaborative, workloads, while affirming the role of joy and play in our work. In the spirit of communal creativity, we are especially interested in proposals that employ narrative and storytelling in how ideas and research is shared, that invite audiences to engage in active learning, idea-generation, and productive dialogue. We welcome proposals from all members of our writing center community: new and established scholars, undergraduate and graduate tutors, professional tutors, faculty, staff, writing center administrators, and anyone else who identifies with writing center work. We hope your proposals will be more communal than individual, more possibility than problem-solving, and more sandbox than socratic. 

Some questions you might consider when developing a session might include (but are not limited to): 

● What is community within our writing center(s)? How do we define it? What makes it creative? 

● What does it mean for our writing center to be welcoming, inclusive? How do we make sure these concepts feel meaningful and authentic? 

● How can we bring joy, play, and creativity back into writing itself, an activity that has been reduced in recent years to a product-focused task, or even outsourced? ● How can we re-humanize writing? Engage writing as a restorative practice? Heal our relationships with writing? 

● How might we experiment to push back against formulas and (false) promises of efficiency? 

● What role does human connection play in tutoring and in writing? How do these connections form, and how do they enhance learning? 

● What creative or playful ways might we approach our foundational work in the Writing Center–recruiting tutors, training tutors, funding our centers? 

● What kinds of creative collaborations have been fruitful, especially in unexpected areas? How does your community extend beyond the Writing Center? 

Session Types: 

● Workshop (75min): Interactive sessions that teach and engage participants through discussion, collaborative work, group activities, and/or other methods of involvement. ● Roundtable Discussion (75min): Collaborative sessions featuring introductory framing by the leaders on a specific theme or question, followed by a facilitated discussion among attendees. 

● Activity (30min - 75min): In the spirit of joy and play, we are inviting submissions to lead participants through writing and writing center related activities. We seek creative submissions for 30, 45, or 75 minute activities that provide fellow attendees an opportunity to learn and explore creatively. Please explain the activity and your plans to lead it in your proposal. If the activity takes less than 75 minutes, it will be paired with a presentation or another activity. 

● Special Interest Group (75min): SIGs are informal conversations with colleagues and peers with a specific agenda, goal, or issue in mind. We encourage SIG proposals to

include a brief description and overview of how participants will be involved, and what desired outcomes of the SIG will be. 

● Community Builder (30min): Similar to Special Interest Groups, Community Builders intended to create time and space for attendees to connect with the regional community. Community Builders are informal conversations with peers who have shared identities, interests, and experiences to you and can be used to facilitate a focused discussion, a specific activity, or something else that would be useful for your group.. Examples of communities are: Maine Peer Tutors, First-time Conference Attendees, Community College Writing Centers, etc. We hope that this session type provides attendees with a chance to connect with their communities, slow down, and appreciate time together. 

● Presentation (15min): Brief sessions to explain or introduce research, concepts, or topics of interest. Individuals will be formed into a panel of 3 to 4 presentations. 

NEWCA has been inspired by a variety of resources in designing this theme. Below are a few for you to peruse and consider as you draft your proposal: 

Boquet, E. H. (2002). Noise From The Writing Center. University Press of Colorado. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46nwjt 

Donathan Garner, J. (2024). 39. Keep Writing Centers Weird. In Storying Writing Center Labor for Anti-Capitalist Futures (pp. 201–204). essay, WAC Clearinghouse. 
https://doi.org/10.37514/PRA-B.2024.2401.2.39 
Forbes, L., & Thomas, D. (Eds.). (2025). Professors at play playbook. Play Story Press. https://doi.org/10.1184/R1/33084560 
Geller, A. E., Eodice, M., Condon, F., Carroll, M., & Boquet, E. H. (2007). Everyday Writing Center: A Community of Practice. University Press of Colorado. 
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt4cgmkj 
Koeners, M. P., & Francis, J. (2020). The physiology of play: potential relevance for higher education. International Journal of Play, 9(1), 143–159. 
https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2020.1720128 
Le Cunff, A.-L. (2026, June 9). The Power of Play. Big Think. 
https://bigthink.com/collections/the-power-of-play/ 
Lochman, D. T. (1986). Play and Game: Implications For the Writing Center. The Writing Center Journal, 7(1), 11–18. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43441826 
Petit, A. (1997). The Writing Center as “Purified Space”: Competing Discourses and the Dangers of Definition. The Writing Center Journal, 17(2), 111–122. 
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43442024
Rensenbrink, C. (1987). Writing as Play. Language Arts, 64(6), 597–602. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41961651 
Ryan, H., & Vie, S. (Eds.). (2022). Unlimited Players: The Intersections of Writing Center and Game Studies. University Press of Colorado. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2k88sh4 
Welch, N. (1999). Playing with Reality: Writing Centers after the Mirror Stage. College Composition & Communication, 51(1), 51–69. https://doi.org/10.58680/ccc19991362

MENAWCA Conference CFP 

Humans Helping Humans:

Writing Center Support across Communities

MENAWCA is excited to announce calls for our 10th Biennial Writing Center Conference. For this landmark event, the conference will be hosted by the American University of Beirut (AUB)–Mediterraneo, in Paphos, Cyprus, Spring 2027. 

MENA and European writing centers and composition experts are supporting diverse communities of student writers facing common challenges that transcend institutional, linguistic, and geographic boundaries. Education is at the intersection of multiple, overlapping crises including shifts in student identity, belonging, and academic voice. In this context, writing centers function as vital ‘third spaces’ outside of the classroom where authors pause, reflect, and negotiate their relationship to writing and expression. As communities of practice, writing centers are vital hubs of collaboration and human connection uniquely positioned to help student writers navigate complex understandings of writing and expression. By offering empathetic dialogue, writing centers provide an essential human counterweight to the isolating nature of modern technology on writers. Their human support helps students cultivate authentic voices, build resilience, and feel genuinely recognized as they engage in critical thinking and writing. They also help students engage generative AI critically and ethically, as a tool that reshapes rather than replaces human authorship. 

This conference, themed Humans Helping Humans: Writing Center Support across Communities, invites reflection on how writing centers and composition experts respond to these shifting conditions and support students’ complex needs. We particularly welcome proposals that engage with Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), Writing in the Disciplines (WID), and multilingual writing practices. We also welcome any proposals focusing on student writers in crisis, either through disruptions, technological change, or identity-related challenges. 

We invite contributions that explore topics, opportunities, and innovations in writing centers and composition, including: 

• How are writing practices changing across disciplines, languages, and cultures? 
• What does it mean to support student writers in moments of crisis, transition, or displacement? 
• What pedagogies and practices are emerging in response to shifting definitions of writing and literacy? 
• How are writing centers responding to AI-assisted writing and questions of authorship, voice, and learning? 
• How can writing centers foster belonging, community, and human connection amid academic, social, and geopolitical uncertainty? 
• What emerging challenges, opportunities, or innovations are shaping the future of writing centers, writing programs, and student writers in your context?

Session Formats: 

1. Presentation: 1–2 presenters; 30 minutes including Q&A. This format can be lecture style, but presenters are encouraged to be interactive. 

2. Roundtable Discussion: 3–5 presenters; 45 minutes including Q&A. Thematically-informedbeforehand; self-selected into conversation and time to prepare in advance. We are envisioningthe roundtables as spaces for generating conversation organically around a theme in which theparticipants have a vested interest. 

3. Workshop: 1 or more facilitators; 90 minutes including Q&A. This format is intended as an instructional session that enables participants to attain specific practical knowledge, experience or skills. 

4. Pecha-Kucha¹ presentation: 1–2 presenters, presentations under 7 minutes designed to highlight a single opportunity or issue. Presenters will be scheduled in blocks and questions will be addressed at the end of each block. 

5. Poster presentation: Posters provide visual representations of a specific topic, issue or research study and will be displayed in the conference venue. Poster creators are encouraged to share details about their projects during networking sessions. 

6. Show-and-Tell (multi-modal/dynamic): 5 minutes. Share your work directly from your device,photographs or videos of projects or any component of your practice in this informal andconversational format. 

Submitting Proposals: 

• Proposals should be submitted online via this link: Submit your Proposal
• You will be asked to submit a presenter bio description with your proposal (no longer than 75 words). Please ensure all information is accurate and up to date. 
• Submission deadline: October 15, 2026 
• Presenters will be notified of acceptance by November 15, 2026 

Please direct questions to Ryan McDonald (Conference Chair): RM00@AUBMED.AC.CY 

Note: 

All presenters and participants are responsible for obtaining their own visas. This responsibility does not lie with MENAWCA. Invitation letters may be possible, upon request, to assist with the visa process. 

¹ PechaKuchaTM (Japanese for “chit chat”) is the world’s fastest-growing storytelling platform, used by millions around the globe. PechaKuchaTM is what “Show and Tell” always dreamed of becoming. 20 slides. 20 seconds of commentary per slide. That’s it. Simple. Engaging. Spurring authentic connections. PechaKuchaTM is the ideal tool to share passions and drop some knowledge.

Georganne Nordstrom, Isaac Wang, and I are delighted to share that the latest issue of The Writing Center Journal is live! Congratulations to the authors, and many thanks to our reviewers. To read it, visit WCJ 44.1.

**the following message was sent to IWCA members on Monday, July 27**

Dear IWCA membership:

We were dismayed to learn of the NCTE leadership’s decision to de-charter the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), which we know is a professional home for many of our own members and colleagues. We stand with members who are feeling concern and distress about what the future holds after this change. IWCA has not received any additional information from NCTE or CCCC outside of the email to NCTE membership on Friday, July 24.

We do want to clarify to our membership that IWCA is a separate 501(c)(3) organization with its own nonprofit status; IWCA’s existence is not dependent in any way on NCTE. Other than the $25 we pay for assembly status out of our annual budget, your membership dollars do not directly support NCTE as an organization. 

IWCA leadership was already in the process of reevaluating our relationship with NCTE over the past year; Friday’s decision has significantly accelerated our timeline. Nonetheless, any changes in our current relationship with NCTE would require amending IWCA’s constitution. Please know that we (the IWCA officers) are working on a proposal to send to the IWCA Board. If approved by the Board, the proposed amendment will come before you as members for a vote.

From what we understand, CCCC members are currently crowdsourcing information in this Google Doc. We will share any additional official information regarding CCCC and the CCCC 2027 conference as we receive it, and we will communicate with you about the status of the 2027 IWCA Collaborative as soon as we are able. If you have any questions or thoughts at this time, please contact President Chris Ervin (chris.ervin@oregonstate.edu) and Vice-President Maggie Herb (herbmm@buffalostate.edu).

Thank you,

Chris Ervin, President

Maggie Herb, Vice President

Katie Levin, Treasurer

Glenn Hutchinson Jr., Past Treasurer

Rachel Azima, Secretary

Sherry Wynn Perdue, Past President 

The International Writing Centers Association invites nominations and self-nominations for the following Board roles:

• Vice President (Vice President commits to 6 years of service: Two years as Vice President, then two years as President, then two years as Past President)

• At-Large Representative (3 total)

• Graduate Student Representative (1 total)

• Peer Tutor Representative (2 total)

Self-nominations for any of the above positions are encouraged. To nominate yourself or a colleague, please fill out this form by June 8: https://forms.gle/v2T2sg6FRf7DWhB89. Detailed information about these roles and their expectations are below.

The International Writing Centers Association invites nominations and self-nominations for the following Board roles

• At-Large Representative (4 total)
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• 2-year College Representative (1 total)
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• Secretary (1 total)
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• Treasurer (1 total)
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• Peer Tutor Representative (2 total)

Self-nominations for any of the above positions are encouraged. To nominate yourself or a colleague, please fill out this form by June 23: https://forms.gle/8dZ9GcTzgEsLV7Lv. Detailed information about these roles and their expectations are below.

Looking forward to receiving your nominations,

Rachel Azima
IWCA Secretary

–Requirements for Running for a Board Position

To be eligible, a candidate must be an IWCA member in good standing. The Vice President must also be current on their NCTE membership during their term of office. 

Preferred Qualifications for Board Positions

Secretary

The IWCA Secretary is a voting member of the Executive Committee and is responsible for organizing, curating, and maintaining all current IWCA records, including meeting minutes. A description of the role is in the IWCA By-laws. Candidates will ideally have excellent communication and organizational skills. One or a combination of the following experiences is strongly preferred:

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• served on the board of IWCA or an IWCA affiliate
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• held an officer role in a writing-center related organization other than IWCA and its affiliates, such as a local writing center organization
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• participated regularly in IWCA or other writing-center-related professional gatherings, such as conferences

Treasurer

The IWCA Treasurer is a voting member of the Executive Committee and, in partnership with Past Treasurer, is responsible for coordinating IWCA’s finances. A description of the role is in the IWCA By-laws. The successful candidate will serve a two-year term as Treasurer, followed by a two-year term as Past Treasurer.

The following experiences and qualifications are strongly preferred:

• is able to respond to messages quickly and efficiently 
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• should live in close proximity to a Wells Fargo branch in the U.S.
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• is organized, detail-oriented, and task-oriented
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• has experience managing finances for a department, program, or professional organization

At-Large Representatives

The At-Large position is a nice entry-point for those writing center professionals who want to serve the IWCA organization and international writing center community and to develop their leadership skills. Ideally, candidates will have one or more of the following experiences:

• has a strong commitment to writing centers as a discipline
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• has substantial experience working in a writing center
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• participates regularly in IWCA or other writing-center-related professional gatherings, such as conferences
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• has the capacity to serve on IWCA committees throughout the year and to attend IWCA Board meetings monthly throughout the academic year

Peer Tutor Representatives

These positions provide students an opportunity to serve the IWCA organization and international writing center community and develop their leadership skills. The Graduate Student Rep and the Peer Tutor Reps are expected to:

• have strong interest in writing centers as a field
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• have experience working in a writing center
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• are able to attend IWCA Board meetings and serve on committees

Commitment to Diversity of Candidates and Board Membership

IWCA is committed to recruiting a slate of candidates from a range of institutions and across a variety of identities. The IWCA Board is made richer when its elected members represent the broader writing center community, both in the U.S. and globally. We encourage nominations and self-nominations of Black, Asian American, Latinx, Native American, and Pacific Islander writing center professionals; members of the LGBTQ+ community; individuals with disabilities; writing center professionals who live and work outside the U.S.; and writing center folk at two-year colleges, secondary schools, HBCUs, HSIs, and tribal colleges.

Being an elected member of the IWCA Executive Board means having an opportunity to sit at the table when a variety of important decisions are being made that will inform IWCA’s

• conference and event planning (annual conference, the Summer Institute, and the Collaborative);
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• organizational priorities such as accessibility, AI use in writing centers, research support, writing center work outside the U.S., and values- and identity-based priorities
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• Mentor Matching program;
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• decisions about grants and awards;
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• finances;
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• and more!

 Again, if you would like to nominate yourself or a colleague for a Board position, please complete the nomination form: https://forms.gle/8dZ9GcTzgEsLV7Lv5.  

If you cannot access the Google Doc to submit a nomination, please send the following information to Rachel Azima,  IWCA Secretary,  at razima2@unl.edu:

• The name of the nominee
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• The email address for the nominee
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• The name of the position you are nominating the individual for
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• Any supporting comments you feel are appropriate

Nominations are open until June 23, 2025. After the window for nominations closes, IWCA will reach out to each nominee to request short personal statement(s) about your experience and goals. Elections will be open from September 1 through September 15. Newly-elected board members and officers will be notified by October 1, 2025.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I learn more about serving as an IWCA Board member or officer?

The IWCA Constitution and Bylaws outline the responsibilities of Board members and officers. Potential nominees can also contact any of the current officers with questions. IWCA officers will be available for a town hall Zoom meeting in late May to answer any questions, as well. Email IWCA President Christopher Ervin (chris.ervin@oregonstate.edu) if you would like to receive information about the town hall meeting.

I read that officers (Vice President, President, Past President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Past Treasurer) are expected to attend the IWCA Conference and Collaborative @ CCCC each year of their term. Does IWCA provide any financial support for officers to travel to those conferences?

Yes. While all Board members’ roles are voluntary and unpaid, IWCA Officers are expected to attend both of those events in order to participate in Executive Committee and Board retreats, be present to conduct IWCA business meetings, and help coordinate the events, in addition to other obligations. For those reasons, IWCA officers are supported financially to attend the IWCA annual conference and the Collaborative @ CCCC. IWCA provides support up to $1500 per event for reasonable expenses related to IWCA conference travel. When an IWCA officer needs to attend other IWCA-related events (the Summer Institute, NCPTW, or a U.S. or international affiliate conference), financial support is available for these events as well. The IWCA Board adopted this travel reimbursement policy on March 30, 2016.

What is the time commitment involved in the various Board positions?

The time commitment for Secretary is manageable. The most time-intensive tasks revolve around managing the elections for the organization, but this takes place during the summer. This position serves as an excellent introduction to the behind-the-scenes work of the Executive Board.

The time commitment for Treasurer is busiest during the conference seasons, averaging a few hours a week. 

The time commitment for non-officer board positions includes attending board meetings several times a year, and, as much as possible, attending IWCA-sponsored events like the annual IWCA Conference and the Collaborative@CCCC. Non-officer board positions also involve committee work, which varies based on the committee. Serving on the IWCA board is manageable for most writing center professionals and student representatives.

IWCA would like to express its heartfelt appreciation to outgoing Editors of Writing Center Journal Harry Denny, Romeo García, and Anna Sicari; outgoing Reviews Editor Eric Camarillo; outgoing Associate Editors Ghada Seif Eddine and Luz Maria Carreno; and former Assistant Editors Donald Penner and Dani Putney. This team provided leadership and labor for Writing Center Journal since taking lead in 2021. As you might have read last month in IWCA’s announcement and press release about WCJ, the new editorial team (Nordstrom, Wang, and Wynn Perdue) has been working with the outgoing team to take on the journal editorial process and publication. 

Over the past four years, Denny, Garcia, and Sicari have published 10 issues, including a forthcoming special issue on the intersectionality of second language writing research and writing center practice. Perhaps the most impactful role they played was to shepherd WCJ through its transition from a subscription-based hard copy journal to an open access publication available through Purdue University Press. Not only has this work extended IWCA’s access and equity initiatives, but it also has allowed scholars to track readership patterns across the globe. 

IWCA owes a further debt of gratitude to the outgoing team for the work they’re doing to transfer editing operations to the incoming team, in particular Harry Denny, who serves on the Publication Committee that selected the incoming team. The transition from one team to the next is work that goes largely unrecognized and unappreciated outside the small circle of current and past editors.

We wish Harry, Romeo, and Anna, as well as Eric, Ghada, Luz, Donald, and Dani, all the best as they pursue new initiatives that were put on hold while they supported the work of other writers.

IWCA Executive Committee and Board

The IWCA Awards Committee is seeking chairs willing to lead the sub-committees that will select this year's Outstanding Article, Outstanding Book, Future Leaders Awards, and Travel Grants, as well as those interested in serving as members of those committees. Committee chairs are tasked with selecting committee members, reviewing nominated texts or Future Leader applications, convening committee discussion to select winners, and presenting those awards at the annual conference this October. Committee members will review nominated texts and participate in the deliberation and selection process. The IWCA Awards Chairs will solicit nominations, provide each committee with copies of nominated texts, and guide each chair through the review and selection process. 

If you've ever wanted to have a say about which scholars and scholarship are recognized in our field, this is a good opportunity to make your voice heard! If you are interested in volunteering or have questions about the role(s), please complete this Committee Members & Chairs volunteer form.

Please reach out to the co-chairs of the awards committee, Tatiana Cåceres and Kat Bell, if you have any questions. 

Dear IWCA Community,

We are excited to invite applications for an Event Accessibility Co-Chair to begin collaborative work in July of 2025. The Event Accessibility Chair(s) will work closely with the IWCA Board and Conference Organizers to support and facilitate accessibility at IWCA events, including the Fall Conference and the Spring Collaborative at CCCC. They will also collaborate with the IWCA Accessibility Committee and serve as their most direct voice in the event planning process. 

Information about the Event Accessibility Chair role is available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bL5WY7XvO93G0OhY-kNXx3_cn1T6L8q9ojwrdwSSkbo/edit?usp=sharing. Interested applicants should email rachel.herzl-betz@nevadastate.edu no later than Monday, June 2nd.

Sincerely,

Rachel Herzl-Betz

WCA's GenAI Task Force soon will share findings from its survey of WC practitioners. Sarah Z. Johnson, Joe Essid, Genie Giaimo, Saurabh Anand, and I would like to thank the Research and Reports Subcommittee, led by Nathan Lindberg, for working to bring this critical resource to our members.

Although we are excited to share our findings, we are mindful that higher education--and the WCs within it--is under fire and GenAI is a quickly evolving landscape. The research must continue. We therefore encourage you to complete Lindberg and his colleagues' survey of the Imapct of GenAI Tools on Writing Centers. You also may want to review their previous reports:

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• 2024 Report on AI Writing Tools’ Impacts on Writing Centers
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• 2023 Report on AI Chatbots’ Impacts on Writing Centers
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Best Regards,

Sherry Wynn Perdue, Ph.D.

IWCA Past President and GenAI Task Force Co-Chair