Events and News

WPA-GO Virtual Open House 2026

10/02/2026

On behalf of the Writing Program Administration Graduate Organization (WPA-GO), welcome to the 2026-2027 academic year!

As we begin another academic year, many graduate students are navigating a rapidly changing higher education landscape. Ongoing concerns about graduate labor, professional opportunities, institutional support, and the future of higher education continue to shape our experiences as students, teachers, researchers, and emerging administrators. At the same time, these challenges remind us of the importance of community, mentorship, advocacy, and collective action.

WPA-GO exists to support graduate students interested in writing program administration by fostering professional development, leadership opportunities, mentorship, and meaningful connections across institutions. We are committed to creating spaces where graduate students can share experiences, discuss concerns, celebrate accomplishments, and work together toward a more equitable and supportive future for our field.

Whether you are new to WPA-GO or a returning member, we hope you will join us in shaping the organization's priorities and initiatives for the coming year. Thank you for being part of this community, and we look forward to connecting with you throughout the year.

Durga Bhusal
Chair, WPA-GO 2026-2027

WPA-GO Open House & Community Discussion

Graduate students are invited to join us for our Fall 2026 Virtual Open House and Discussion.

Friday, October 2, 2026
4:00 PM (EST)
Virtual (Zoom): Registration Link: https://clemson.zoom.us/meeting/register/WGf7A8q3SBCAnHETWRJCdA

Join the WPA-GO Leadership Team for an introduction to the organization and an open conversation about graduate student experiences, concerns, and priorities. Discussion will focus on strengthening advocacy, mentorship, and support networks while addressing issues that matter most to graduate students, including:

Graduate labor and working conditions
Professional development needs
Mentorship and networking opportunities
Accessibility and inclusion
Current challenges in higher education

This event is also an opportunity for graduate students to discuss emerging concerns within writing studies and higher education and to help identify priorities that WPA-GO can address through future programming, advocacy efforts, and community initiatives. These conversations will help inform our work throughout the 2026-2027 academic year. The event is open to all graduate students, whether you are already involved with WPA-GO or simply interested in learning more.

Call for Committee Members

The WPA-GO Leadership Council is excited to announce our 2026-2027 Committee Interest Form!

Each year, WPA-GO committees collaborate on a range of initiatives that support graduate students and strengthen our broader community. Committees help organize events, mentorship opportunities, professional development resources, outreach activities, and advocacy efforts.

This year, we invite members to become actively involved in shaping the future of WPA-GO and helping us respond to the issues and priorities identified by graduate students across the field.

Our committees include:

Accessibility
Digital Presence
Diversity
Mentoring
Outreach

Before You Submit the Form 2026-2027 Committee Interest Form!

We encourage you to attend the Open House if you would like to learn more about committee opportunities before indicating your preferences.

Committee chairs and Leadership Council members will be available during the Open House to discuss committee goals, ongoing projects, expected commitments, and ways to get involved. We also welcome your ideas regarding the issues, resources, events, and advocacy initiatives that WPA-GO should prioritize this year.

Attendance at the Open House is not required to join a committee, but we would love the opportunity to meet you and hear your perspectives.

Looking Ahead to 2026-2027

This year, WPA-GO plans to continue supporting graduate students through:

Speaker Series events
Graduate Research Series
Mentorship initiatives
Professional development opportunities
Networking and collaboration opportunities
Fall and Spring newsletters
Advocacy for graduate student labor, professional well-being, and the preservation of supportive academic and professional communities amid ongoing challenges in higher education.

Additional programs and initiatives will be shaped by feedback gathered through the Open House, committee work, and ongoing conversations with graduate students throughout the year.

Support WPA-GO:

For graduate students: Join CWPA! Your $20 membership dues go back to WPA-GO and are matched by CWPA. The WPA-GO budget is set every January. CWPA | Join or Renew. Your small support will be a great resource for grad students.

For faculty, program directors and others: Want to support WPA-GO? Email wpago1@gmail.com for sponsorship or collaboration inquiries.

We look forward to working with you and building a strong, supportive, and engaged WPA-GO community this year.

8/7/26

Graduate Research Series

Join us on Friday, August 7th for an online symposium on graduate student labor and identity. This is the fourth annual Graduate Research Series, bringing together graduates across institutions to share research on writing program administration and graduate labor in writing programs. A Zoom link is provided below (no registration required).

This year's theme

What is your experience as a graduate student managing individual research, teaching, WPA responsibilities, personal life, etc.? What is the emotional labor hidden in all of these major responsibilities and roles? How does your linguistic, cultural, and academic identity condition your work as a graduate student? In turn, how has your work as a graduate student reshaped your positionality as an emerging scholar and practitioner in the field of rhetoric and composition?

In “What Do We Mean by Academic Labor (in Rhetorical Studies)?” Seth Kahn and Amy Pason engage in a conversation about the attention to academic labor in rhetorical studies. They explain, “Scholarship about labor in composition has happened for decades but has refocused and refracted a number of times. Nowadays we have spaces for writing about certain kinds of labor issues, and most journal articles that address teaching conditions at least gesture at contingent (including graduate-student) labor issues” (113). WPA-GO wishes to further provide spaces for graduate students to articulate the labor issues embedded in our personal, academic, and professional lives.

WPA-GO’s 2026 Graduate Research Series provides an opportunity for you to explore the interdependent relationship between labor and positionality as a graduate student. We welcome proposals that speak to the visible and hidden labor graduate students undertake and the effects of that labor on one's own positionality.

Schedule

9:00 AM - 4:00 PM EST

Join Zoom Meeting

9:00–9:20 a.m EST. (EST). Opening Remarks & Introduction to First Panel

9:20–11:20 a.m. Session 1: Labor and Systemic Forces

Chair: Carina Shi

Julia Hettiger (She/Her): Navigating New Genres of Graduate Student Labor in a Highly Censored Texas and Beyond

André M. Jones, Jr. (He/Him): From Probable to Preferable: Redesigning the chairs' addresses toward institutional accountability

Jackson Martin (He/Him): Whose Writing Program Is It Anyway? Bridging The Gap Between Graduate Student Academic Labor and Writing Program Administration

Tyler Herrin (He/Him): From Evaluatee to Evaluator: Understanding Power Dynamics of Assessment as a Teaching Assistant

11:20–11:30 a.m. Break

11:30–1:00 p.m. Session 2: Labor, Disability, Chronic Illness, and Physical Demands

Chair: Helena Mazzarella

Sam Hyatt (He/Him): Invisible Labor Experienced by Graduate Students: A Personal Narrative of a Student with Chronic Illness

Lynn Wolfe (She/Her): Overeducated and Underemployed: The Harsh Reality of Academic Labor

Natasha Rentas (She/Her): The Hidden Labor of Persistence: Disability and Graduate Student Positionality

1:00–2:00 p.m. Keynote:

Alex Jennings (She/They): Foregrounding Neurodivergence: Reconstructing ADHD Writing Process, Labor, and Efficiency

2:00–2:15 p.m. Break

2:15–3:45 p.m. Session 3: Labor and Positionality

Chair: Helena Mazzarella

Nariman Hawily (She/Her): A First-Generation Arab American in Academia: How Positionality Shapes Scholarship, Mentorship, and Academic Labor

Ayomide Oladimeji (She/Her): I started learning to belong: Labor, Identity and Disciplinary Translation in Rhetorical Studies

Mahendra Thapa (He/Him) Hidden Curricula at US Universities: Graduate Students Need a Mandatory Course

3:45 p.m. Ending Remarks

We hope to see you soon!

Past Events

7/24/26

Statement on the Dissolution of CCCC

WPA-GO Leadership Council publishes statement following the "de-chartering" of CCCC by the NCTE.

Statement on the Dissolution of CCCC.pdf

7/21/26

Panel Discussion on Academic Freedom and Creative Resilience

Please join WPA-GO (Writing Program Administrators-Graduate Organization) for a virtual panel discussion with Dr. Kelly Bezio, Dr. Holly Hassel, and Dr. Teresa Klein on academic freedom. The virtual event, “College English in 2026: Disruption and Innovation” is hosted by WPA-GO's Diversity Committee.

This is a great opportunity to discuss and learn about some of the changes in English and higher education due to legislative and cultural changes in the US. The theme is “disruption and innovation”, with an expectation that this discussion will share tips for resilience, adaptation, and staying informed about policies.

Most of the event will be a Q&A. The event registration form includes space for suggesting questions or topics. Our hope is to let participants lead the discussion, share their experiences, and problem-solve in a safe and empathetic space.

Please see the details for the event below:

Date: Tuesday, July 21st, 2026

Time: 4:00 pm PT/ 5:00 pm MT/ 6:00 pm CT/ 7:00 pm ET

Registration: Please register for this event by Friday, July 17. A link to the registration form can be found here:https://forms.gle/3EvJ4puQe1DqiUYD8

Later registrations are welcomed too, but please give us enough time to share the Zoom link. The Zoom link will be distributed within one (1) day of the event

Speaker Bios:

Kelly L. Bezio is Professor of English at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi. She serves as Vice President of AAUP @ TAMU-CC and as Member At-Large for the Texas Conference of AAUP. She also serves on the Scholarly Engagement and Access Committee for the Society of Early Americanists. Her research areas include American Literature, Critical Race Theory, and Health Humanities. Her monograph In Contagion's Wake: Black Writers and the Development of Modern Outbreak Narratives was published by University of Massachusetts Press (2026).

Holly Hassel is a teacher-scholar-researcher who specializes in writing studies--specifically writing program administration, the teaching of college writing, writing assessment, and writing pedagogy education. Her numerous leadership positions have included chairing the Two-Year College English Association’s Research committee, chairing the Conference on College Composition and Communication, and co-chairing the CCCC-MLA joint Task Force on AI and Writing from 2023-2025. Her commitment to blending research, service, teaching and administration is illustrated throughout her professional record, including her most recent coedited book, Writing Emergencies: Composing (Ourselves) in Times of Crisis, as well as her coauthored book, Reaching All Writers: A Pedagogical Guide to the Evolving College Writing Classroom (UP of Colorado/Utah State, 2024), which serves as a primer to preparing college writing teachers, and her coauthored 2023 book, A Faculty Guide to Shared Governance and Service.

Dr. Teresa Klein has her PhD in Counseling Psychology. She is a fourth-generation college graduate. She has worked as an educator at Del Mar College for 20 years. Her activism is a “genetic condition” starting with her grandparents who were active in both the grange movement as well as the Democratic Farm Labor party in Minnesota. Dr. Klein is currently the President of the Texas American Association of University Professors – American Federation of Teachers (TX AAUP-AFT) which represents those who are involved in higher education including graduate students and faculty. The AAUP-AFT currently has members on 100 campuses throughout the state and is part of a larger national organization that has been around for more than 100 years. The mission of the organization is to promote the concepts of shared governance and academic freedom, as protected by tenure. Dr. Klein is speaking for herself as a private citizen.

The Zoom link will be distributed within one (1) day prior to the event. We look forward to seeing you there! Please share this opportunity with other peers who might be interested.

7/10/26

Practicing Crip Collaboration: Disabled and Neurodivergent Approaches to Writing Together

The workshop, scheduled for Friday, July 10th from 3:00-4:30 EST, will be facilitated by Sujash Purna, Rachel Herzl-Betz, and Ellen Cecil-Lemkin and will take place over Zoom. During the workshop, participants will use Cecil-Lemkin and Herzl-Betz's forthcoming chapter on scholarly co-authorship - which will be included in the edited collection Still Writing Together: Perspectives on Collaborative Scholarship in Rhetoric and Composition - as a starting point for active reflection, co-creation, and collaboration. Join us to explore access in your own co-writing process(es) and to foster your own accessible scholarly spaces!

To register for the event and receive access to the speakers’ chapter ahead of the workshop, please submit a response to the Summer Workshop Registration Form by Wednesday, July 8th. The Zoom link will be shared with respondents on the morning of Friday, July 10th.

We also encourage you to share this email or the attached flyer with the grad students in your network. You may direct questions regarding the workshop to the Accessibility Co-Chairs, Kelsey Hawkins and Hunter Whitt.

6/15/25

Summer Workshop Series

WPA-GO's Mentoring Committee invites you to our 2nd Annual Summer Workshop Series dedicated to professionals and students who are interested in and/or participating in writing program leadership.

Today, WPAs (e.g., FYW, WC, WAC/WID directors) are inundated with wicked problems that have historically harmed our most under-resourced and underserved stakeholders. Even so, in order to temper burnout and cynicism, WPAs must also leverage their ability to recognize and cultivate joy in and with their work.

Navigating these problems and cultivating joy require deep (co)reflection and engaged social action.

Participants will be asked to attend three 3 virtual workshop sessions once-per-month.

All sessions will be (CST) 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM.

Session #1 (Tues. June 17th):

Mapping WPA Experience (120 mins)

Session #2 (Tues. July 22nd):

Collective Problem Solving (120 mins)

Session #3 (Mon. August 11th):

Transformations & Takeaways (120 mins)

A Zoom link will be provided upon registration. Participation is entirely free.

What will you gain from participating in this experience?

BUILD COMMUNITY

The work of WPA does not need to be done in isolation. These workshops are designed to help support your ability to network and build communities of thinking partners that you can leverage long after these workshops end.

PRACTICE PROBLEM SOLVING

These workshops will provide inroads to both specific contexts and generalizable scenarios that are typical to the work of WPA. You will engage with professionals in the field while you practice problem solving, compromise, and political savvy.

DEFINE VALUES & PRINCIPLES

Defining principles with precision -- principles that are both practical and flexible to your specific contexts -- is necessary, and it can be challenging work. Doing so in community can make this process more navigable and transformative.

For more information, visit this link or register here!

12/16/2024

CWPA and WPA-GO Reestablish Organization Connection

The leadership of CWPA and WPA-GO are happy to announce that the two organizations have formally agreed to reestablish connections, supported by affirmative votes by both leadership teams. The three-year separation was spurred by WPA-GO’s withdrawal from CWPA following the public boycott of the organization in 2021. In the intervening years, the two organizations have been in regular contact and have been drafting a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that articulates the formal relationship between the organizations. As of December 6, 2024, the MOU has been approved by both leadership teams.

We are first and foremost glad to acknowledge the necessary collaboration and mentoring that needs to happen between the two organizations, as well as the maintenance of a pipeline from newer and rising scholars into the field of writing program work. Highlights of what we have established include:

Mutual recognition that the CWPA is WPA-GO’s “sponsor organization”;
Establishment of voting rights on the CWPA Executive Board for one WPA-GO representative on behalf of graduate student interests;
CWPA financial support for the WPA-GO in the form of an annual budget.

The MOU is a 5-year agreement, which may be renewed or revised through a mutual process in 2029. We believe this connection is vital for the health of both organizations and are happy to create a pathway for WPA-related professionalization, leadership opportunities, and support for incoming members of the field.

Signed,

Kelly Blewett, CWPA President

Taylor Dickson, WPA-GO Vice Chair

Roland Dumavor, WPA-GO Chair

Al Harahap, CWPA/WPA-GO Liaison

Erin Lehman, CWPA Vice President

Jagadish Paudel, WPA-GO Past Chair

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