Engaging Practices 2025: A Conference on the Teaching of Composition
Saturday, March 29, 2025
9 am – 3 pm
Theme: Writing Back in Times of Crisis
The Composition Program at the UMass Boston invites you to Engaging Practices 2025, a free, biennial conference on the teaching of composition, rhetoric, and writing. This event provides an opportunity for researchers, educators, tutors, program administrators, and students to develop and share knowledge on writing pedagogy, program administration, and composition research.
This year’s conference will feature a keynote plenary session led by Dr. Ira Allen, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Writing, and Digital Media Studies at Northern Arizona University and author of Panic Now?: Tools for Humanizing (2024, University of Tennessee Press).
Conference Theme: Writing Back in Times of Crisis
The 2025 theme, "Writing Back in Times of Crisis," explores how writing, rhetoric, and composition engage with global, political, and social challenges. With the increasing presence of AI, the life-threatening impacts of climate change, and the instability caused by geopolitical conflicts, conference presenters will examine how educators and scholars can help writers respond to these urgent issues. For more details, view the Call for Proposals.
Meet Our Keynote Speaker: Dr. Ira Allen
Dr. Ira Allen is a leading scholar in rhetoric, writing, and digital media studies, focusing on how writing can respond to social and political crises. His recent book, Panic Now?: Tools for Humanizing, considers how we might “panic judiciously” in times of uncertainty. His work has been widely recognized for bridging theory and practice in composition studies.
Register for Free – Join the Conversation at the 2025 Engaging Practices Conference!
Date: Saturday, March 29, 2025
Location: UMass Boston
Cost: Free
For more information on our composition program, visit the UMass Boston Composition Program page.
Contact
For any questions or further information, please contact us at compconference@umb.edu.