Join us from 18–20 March, 2027
American University of Beirut (AUB)—Mediterraneo, Paphos, Cyprus

Theme: Humans Helping Humans: Writing Center Support across Communities

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 with generative Al 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 Al-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 Format

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-informed beforehand; self-selected into conversation and time to prepare in advance. We are envisioning the roundtables as spaces for generating conversation organically around a theme in which the participants 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 and conversational format.

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.

Submission Deadline: October 15, 2026