Call for proposals

20 years ago, Jackie Grutsch McKinney (2005) challenged writing centers to rethink our commonly held self-perception as a “home” away from home, so what do we now choose to embody instead, and why? In the succeeding two decades, scholars have clarified McKinney’s charge as one through which our spaces attend to both writing and the individual behind the work, guiding them toward present and future successes in the classroom and beyond it (Faison, 2019). “Homes” are also necessarily different because of the communities in which they are built and the cultures in which they exist. Writing centers are no different.

What is sometimes overlooked in considerations of space is how geographic place influences our capacity to respond to and engage with many dimensions of writing center work. After all, our discipline might believe in and execute much of the same pedagogy, but the details are different at a community college in Dover, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, and an HBCU in West Baltimore. Martin (2023), Jackson and Hand (2024), and others have written about location-specific revitalizations that not only challenge the status quo but more effectively guide student writers toward success on their own individual terms, illustrating how a writing center’s ability to meet McKinney’s goal depends on more than the physical and digital spaces we inhabit to engage with students (Azima, 2022; Barron et al., 2023; Lafond & Wisniewski, 2025; Wittman et al., 2022).

Place and space, then, are integral to how writing centers exist within, and adapt to, the higher education landscape, a terrain often driven by local, state, and national politics and altered by competing desired outcomes, educational technologies, funding challenges, and unanticipated crises (Salem, 2014). Considering the diversity of places that writing centers inhabit within any given region, further exploration of the relationship between writing center development and the influences that lie beyond its campus boundaries is needed.

What does it truly mean, then, to be the writing center on your campus, in your neighborhood? How do we ensure that we embody our local character to the fullest without compromising our values? This year in “The City That Reads”, MAWCA invites the region’s writing centers to submit proposals that examine the roles of place and space in our work, its range of considerations, and its relationships with those we serve on campus and in the wider community.

You might consider questions such as:

• How is a writing center influenced or impacted by its geographic location?
• How are the choices behind our self-presentations constrained or enhanced by the communities and institutions within which writing centers exist? What do those choices communicate to students and other stakeholders about writing centers as destinations?
• As tutors often arrive at writing centers from other geographic places, how can a writing center empower them to infuse its pedagogy or processes with “local flavors” derived from their individual experiences, many of which are often disparate from its own? How do writing center administrators utilize their own understanding of “place” to further their space’s interests?
• How can physical location or institutional association(s) and partnerships influence a writing center’s ability to counter or subvert the commonplace narratives about its purpose? How might these associations influence student perceptions of the writing center?
• How can writing center spaces, both physical and digital, reflect their learning community’s variety of needs, aspirations, and voices?
• What “paths” can writing centers develop to ensure that indirect engagement with student writers is as effective as direct engagement through tutoring services? What assets are used to this end, and how are they used?
• How do tutors play a role in shaping the writing center space?
• How are writing center spaces redeveloped to highlight and address internal challenges to our work (contingency/precarity, austerity, emotional labor, etc.) and external ones (generative AI, political pressures, etc.)?
• In what ways can the design of physical and/or virtual writing center spaces impact accessibility? How can our spaces better meet the accessibility needs of diverse student populations?
• What opportunities exist for writing centers to transcend their on-campus boundaries and engage within their wider communities?

Ideally, an effective proposal will reflect the following:

• It engages meaningfully with the conference’s overall theme.
• It presents new data, theories, and/or pedagogy from original research.
• It demonstrates an understanding of relevant theories and/or pedagogies in writing center studies or writing instruction.
• It describes its intended audience, expectations for participants, and desired outcomes/takeaways.

Sessions at MAWCA 2026 will be 50 minutes long. We welcome proposals of the following types:

• Individual Presentation - 15-minute presentation. We will group you with 1-2 similar presentations to form a panel.
• Panel Discussion -- Panels of 3-4 presenters, 10-15 minutes per presenter with Q&A/discussion time.
• Poster Session -- 50-minute window of time for open-ended and informal discussion of visual presentations. 
• Workshop -- 50-minute interactive learning session on an aspect of writing center practice related to the conference theme; may include reflection, hands-on activities, small group work, and group discussion.
• Roundtable Discussion -- 50-minute facilitated discussion of an issue or topic related to the conference theme; can include hands-on activities, reflection, group discussion, or small-group work.
• Special Interest Group (SIG) -- 50-minute facilitated conversation designed with the goal of creating community among a subset of writing center practitioners; can be designed as an affinity group (e.g. BIPOC tutors, queer and trans tutors, neurodivergent tutors) or around a specific theme (e.g. advocating for writing center resources) or type of institution (e.g. HBCUs, community colleges).
• Works in progress -- Participants working on a manuscript related to the conference theme or who are developing a new writing center initiative will gather to introduce and receive feedback on their projects. Participants may be asked to read the abstracts of others’ projects in advance of the conference to allow for more productive time together.

Deadlines:

• Proposal submission -- January 4, 2026
• Acceptance notifications -- January 25, 2026
• Deadline to revise and resubmit proposals (if applicable) -- February 8, 2026
• Presenters confirm acceptance -- February 8, 2026
• Early Bird Registration Deadline -- February 27, 2026
• Final Registration Deadline -- March 26, 2026

References:

Azima, R. (2022). Whose space is it, really? Design considerations for writing center spaces. Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, 19(2). Retrieved June 27, 2025, from www.praxisuwc.com/192-azima

Barron, K. L., Warrender-Hill, K., Wallis Buckner, S., Ready, P. Z. (2023). Expanding writing center space-time: Tutoring modality, access, and equity. The Peer Review, 7(1). Retrieved June 27, 2025, from thepeerreview-iwca.org/issues/issue-7-1-featured-issue-reinvestigate-the-commonplaces-in-writing-centers/expanding-writing-center-space-time-tutoring-modality-access-and-equity

Faison, W. (2019). Writing as a practice of freedom: HBCU writing centers as sites of liberatory practice. Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, 16(2). Retrieved June 27, 2025, from www.praxisuwc.com/new-page-61

Jackson, K. K., & Hand, A. (2023). Effectively affective: Examining the ethos of one HBCU writing center. The Writing Center Journal, 41(3), 38-54. Retrieved August 27, 2025, from www.jstor.org/stable/27275940

Lafond, B., & Wisniewski, C. (2025). From online writing centers to centering writing online: How material conditions shape virtual practices. The Peer Review, 10(1). thepeerreview-iwca.org/issue-10-1/from-online-writing-centers-to-centering-writing-online-how-material-conditions-shape-virtual-practices

Martin, J. (2023). Tutoring and practice at a tribal college. In T. H. Morrison & D. A. E. Garriott (Eds.), Writing centers & racial justice: A guidebook for critical praxis (pp.15-30). Utah State University Press.

McKinney, J. G. (2005). Leaving home sweet home: Toward critical readings of writing center spaces. Writing Center Journal, 25(2), pp. 6-20. www.jstor.org/stable/43442220

Salem, L. (2014). Opportunity and transformation: How writing centers are positioned in the political landscape of higher education in the United States. Writing Center Journal, 34(1), pp. 15-43. Retrieved September 6, 2025, from www.jstor.org/stable/43444146

Wittman, K., Thomas, J., & Moreno, A. (2022). The writing center is not a place. WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship, 47(2), pp. 3-14. doi.org/10.37514/WLN-J.2022.47.2.03