After a long waiting period through the pandemic, finally this year the European Writing Centers Association (EWCA) hosted its second Summer Institute (SI). This Summer Institute connected writing center professionals from different parts of the world in engaging conversations about writing and the role of writing centers in academic and non-academic contexts.
The Summer Institute was first planned to be organized in 2020, but the pandemic changed the initial plans and after three years, on May 22-26, our institution, the American University of Armenia (AUA), excitedly welcomed the Summer Institute leaders and participants. The idea of hosting the second Summer Institute emerged after I (Sona), the host of Summer Institute 2023 and the EWCA Board member, attended the first EWCA Summer Institute in Germany in 2019.
First of all, it was such a beneficial opportunity in terms of my professional development that I decided to take an initiative to host the second summer institute at AUA. These types of international events are crucial in highlighting the role of writing centers in academic institutions. AUA Writing Center, the only one in Armenia, has become a part of a larger network. Second, I felt there should be continuity in organizing similar summer institutes so that other professionals can also benefit, and the EWCA network will be fostered. This can further contribute to establishing the tradition of summer institutes in the European region. Hopefully, the third one will be organized in 2025.
The EWCA was founded in 1998 with the mission of integrating writing centers into a framework of exchange, collaborations and discussions about their works and goals. The EWCA holds conferences every two years in different countries for its 300+ members from around the world. The Summer Institute was established to keep the community running beyond the conferences. Professionals from writing centers around the world go through an application process. Later, thirty people are selected to participate in more intimate trainings and deeper discussions on the philosophies and priorities of the writing centers.
The Summer Institute brought together writing center directors, writing consultants, professionals who were interested in setting up writing centers, and professors from universities of the USA, Qatar, the Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Germany, Belgium, Russia, Georgia, the Czech Republic and Lebanon. It was designed with discussion sessions, workshops and mentoring groups, all led by four leaders – Lawrence Cleary, (the University of Limerick, Ireland), Franziska Liebetanz (the European University Viadrina, Germany), Pamela Bromley (Scripps College, USA) and Shareen Grogan (the University of Montana, USA). As one of the participants, Svetlana Suchkova, Associate Professor and Director of Academic Writing Center at the Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia noted about the curriculum:
“The Summer Institute gathered professionals from different cultures and educational contexts, but what we all shared is the passion for helping others be better writers. The most important thing for me was that the leaders created various opportunities for exchanging ideas and learning from one another: presentations, engaging activities, small group discussions, critical reading and reflection, hands-on sessions – just to name a few.”
I (Nairy) had the opportunity to have interesting conversations with the organizers and participants. “It is all about collaboration and networking,” said Lawrence Cleary, current Chair of EWCA, highlighting the opportunities the Summer Institute presents to engage in discussions with other professionals while creating lasting professional relationships and collaborations among universities. I (Nairy) completely agree with Lawrence as the experience for me was really about collaborating and learning from each other. As a student and a writing tutor, I gained a lot of insight and knowledge about writing that I can share during the sessions with my peers.
Pam Bromley, one of the SI leaders from Scripps College (USA), emphasized the role of summer institutes. “The EWCA has a goal of hosting an every-other-year Summer Institute to share best writing center practices in a European context, to encourage participants to learn from each other as a cohort as conversations develop the week, and to develop writing center leaders. We certainly saw this happen at the first Summer Institute. It was such a joy to have the second EWCA Summer Institute at the American University of Armenia in Yerevan”.
Franziska Liebetanz, Vice Chair of EWCA, elaborated further. “The Summer Institute gives the host university the opportunity to invite many academics from different countries to get on board and to show that writing centers, such as the AUA writing center, are highly valued and recognized by these professionals.” Writing Centers are not just tiny corners on a university campus, they provide students in need support and tutoring in writing. The 2023 EWCA SI differed from the first one held in 2019 in Germany in terms of including more discussion on diversity. “We already know about diversity but what was different this year was to be more explicit on what to do to realize institutional change to get more people to access writing centers,” added Liebetanz.
The topics covered during the Summer Institute enabled the participants to share their knowledge and enhance their understanding about writing center theories, collaboration, working with diverse clientele, writing center sustainability, AI, etc. One of the topics that participants found particularly useful was AI. During the institute, Brent Anders, Director of the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment and a lecturer at AUA, gave a presentation on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education. Anders highlighted the continuum of AI integration into learning, ranging from no integration to full integration.
With a Q&A session with the participants, Anders pinpointed the importance of AI literacy and about the ethics and methods of integration of AI in education. I (Nairy) found the conversation about AI most interesting because as a student myself I am exposed to many AI tools that are tempting to use, but as Professor Anders mentioned in his talk that we do not have to completely disregard AI as we can use it beneficially in certain areas in our academic career while being aware and literate about the dangers when exploited too much and used unethically.
The leaders at the institute also found Anders’ talk engaging. “I found the presentation and discussion by AUA expert Brent Anders about AI technologies especially helpful as we navigate supporting writers in this new context,” added Pam Bromley. “I have not really dealt with AI yet,” said Genevieve Williams, the Writing Center Coordinator from Bellevue University, USA. Like most of the participants, Williams gained extensive knowledge on how to be prepared and aware of AI in education and writing centers. She continued,
“I learned a lot about peer tutoring, collaboration, writing fellows, ways to utilize new media when explaining writing processes, assessment practices, AI and writing centers, how to build community, and more, including how to further our journey to become the best writing center professionals we can be in our varied contexts and with each other.”
While Spencer Harrison, a writing tutor (the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA), emphasized his deepening interest in multilingual writing centers. “I also found it fascinating to learn more about the different composition styles from multiple national traditions (and related language specific influences), and how centers work with diverse international student populations coming from those traditions. I am now even more interested in multilingual writing centers and centers that promote writing from multiple traditions and across languages/traditions”.
Participants also had time to network and socialize during the welcoming dinner and a half-day sightseeing tour across Armenia, which included such spectacular places as Garni temple, Geghard monastery and Symphony of Stones. As one of the participants mentioned, “The dinner and sightseeing events you hosted were some of the top highlights of the SI!! Not only was the food and scenery amazing, the opportunities to get to know the other participants and hear their stories in more depth were priceless and enriched the training immensely”. As a host, I (Sona) was so motivated to see that the SI attendees were impressed with Armenia and, overall, the program. The fact that they left with many takeaways and a few months passed since then but the network and communication continues convinces me that it was worth organizing!
The institute concluded with a reflection session where the participants underlined things they took away. Most of them highlighted that they associate Armenia and AUA with this great opportunity of making networks and connections while inspiring one another. “Being in the earliest stages of initiating a writing center at my university, I walked away from this week-long training with an extraordinary amount of helpful information, expert tips, insightful experiences, and a heap of energy and inspiration because of the network I now have of writing center colleagues from all throughout Europe and the US.,” said Melissa McGee (Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands). Liesl Schwabe, the coordinator of Writing Across the Curriculum/Writing Center of Berkshire Community College, Massachusetts, USA, summarized her takeaways in the following words:
“At a time when the world is so polarized, the liberal arts so devalued, and the slow, messy work of writing and revision so often dismissed as an antiquated practice, it was truly galvanizing to be in dialogue with such wonderful Writing Center professionals from around the world! Our shared priorities and common language reflected back at me the importance of this work in ways that will sustain me for years to come.”
Sona Khachatryan is currently an adjunct lecturer at the American University of Armenia. She has around seven years of experience working for the Math & Writing Center of American University of Armenia (2017- 2023 September). Since July 2022, she has been serving on the EWCA board.
Nairy Bzdigian is majoring in English and Communications at the American University of Armenia. During her junior year, she was one of the writing consultants at the Math & Writing Center as part of the work and study program. Currently, she works as a creative content writer for a digital marketing company. Her passion lies in writing, journalism, filmmaking, and photography.
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