CFP: NeMLA Roundtable: “The Relational Writing Classroom” (Newport, RI)

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to share the following call for proposals for the Northeast MLA roundtable "The Relational Writing Classroom: Authentic Connections in Teaching and Learning." The 2027 NeMLA Convention will be held March 6-9, 2027 in Newport, Rhode Island.

Many thanks,
Grace

"The Relational Writing Classroom: Authentic Connections in Teaching and Learning"

Deadline for roundtable submissions: September 30, 2026

NeMLA 2027 Convention (Newport, RI)

At this moment in higher education—as our students wrestle with digital distractions, a deeply competitive job market, rising loneliness, and the complex role of GenAI in their academic lives—it is worth remembering that “educational relationships are central to student learning, motivation, well-being, and persistence” (Jibilian 4 May 2025; Puckett and Felten 2026).

This roundtable will explore the role of authentic relationship building in the first-year writing classroom. How might we cultivate meaningful relational connections as a gateway to students’ engaged reading, purposeful writing, and deepened critical thinking? Or—as Catherine Denial’s A Pedagogy of Kindness invites us to consider—how might we “show up for [ourselves] and [our] students in the most authentic, open, trusting, and compassionate ways [we] can” in order to build classroom communities “in which all of us engaged in teaching and learning will thrive” (Denial 2024)? Overall, how can relationally-focused teaching and learning animate and transform the way our students read, write, think, and interact in our world?

Participants are invited to contribute pedagogical approaches, assignments, course designs, and learning strategies that foster students’ authentic relational connections with their instructor, with one another, with themselves, with their local communities, and/or with the natural world. Contributors might especially contemplate (but are not limited to) one or more of the following questions:

• What environmental conditions (within or beyond the classroom) best support relationally-driven learning?
• How can close-knit ties enrich the writing process (e.g. invention, drafting, peer review, conferencing, revision)? What forms of relationally-based writing does our world most need to support racial justice, planetary care, and other urgent change-making work?
• What types of relational connections might enhance students’ investment in reading? How might reading—often perceived by students as a solitary activity—be re-envisioned as deeply relational?
• How can relationship building in the first-year writing classroom strengthen students’ focused attention amidst digital distractions? How might authenticity, kindness, and care offer channels for slow learning, critical thinking, and contemplation within students’ fast-paced and task-oriented lives?

This roundtable will be comprised of several participants who will deliver in-person conversational presentations of 5-10 minutes; conversation with roundtable attendees will follow. Please visit https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/22590 to submit a 200-300 word abstract.