The 5th Conference on Writing Education Across Borders
Co-hosted with the Gulf Association for Language Testing and Assessment (GALTA)
Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou, China
May 29–31, 2026
“The Ecosystem of Writing Education and Assessment”
This conference aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers from around the world to examine and explore the evolving trajectories and future directions of writing education and writing assessment in an era of globalization, multipolarity, and artificial intelligence. We are interested not only in how dominant Western theories of writing pedagogy and assessment travel across geographical and cultural boundaries—circulating, colliding, and blending within diverse educational contexts—but also in the new dynamics, paradigms, and challenges emerging in writing instruction and assessment worldwide. The conference seeks to build a cross-temporal and cross-spatial platform for dialogue, fostering deep exchange and mutual learning across different sociocultural contexts in areas such as curriculum design, pedagogical approaches, assessment systems, materials development, and teacher education. Particular attention will be given to how these ideas and practices are critically received, adaptively negotiated, and creatively transformed within local contexts. By examining the social, cultural, and ethical implications of these complex interactions, the conference aims to contribute to the development of a more equitable, inclusive, socially responsive, and culturally attuned ecosystem for writing education.
We warmly invite scholars to submit papers that engage with the following themes, share insights, stimulate critical reflection, and collectively envision the future of writing education:
- Transnational flows of writing assessment and local responses
- Socially responsible writing assessment practices
- Neoliberalism and other forces shaping writing education
- The impact of artificial intelligence on writing instruction and assessment
- How teachers and students negotiate multiple cultural and technological factors
- Hybridity in postcolonial/decolonial studies and its relevance to writing education
- Building more inclusive systems of writing instruction and assessment
- Other topics related to writing education and assessment
Featured Speakers
- Othman Barnawi (Royal Commission Yanbu Colleges & Institutes, Saudi Arabia)
- Fan Dai (Sun Yat-sen University, China)
- Steve Fraiberg (Michigan State University, USA)
- Keith Gilyard (Pennsylvania State University, USA)
- Yongyan Li (University of Hong Kong, China)
- Yachao Sun (Duke Kunshan University, China)
- Shizhou Yang (Payap University, Thailand)
- Shulin Yu (University of Macau, China)
- Yufeng Zhang (Millersville University, USA)
Presentation Formats: panel discussions and paper presentations. The following research teams have been invited to present their work:
- Chongqing University
- Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
- Jiangxi Normal University
- Northeast Normal University
- Southeast University
- University of Macau
- Zhejiang University
Distinctive Features of the Conference
- Opportunities for interactive exchanges among international experts, scholars from Hong Kong and Macau, and Mainland China teachers and graduate students on how writing research can align with global trends, including face-to-face conversations with editors of academic monographs and journals in language education.
- Conference proceedings will be published by an international academic press, such as Routledge or Multilingual Matters.
Registration
- Please submit a 250‑word proposal by March 15, 2026, at xuy10).
- Please feel free to share this conference information with your colleagues or graduate students.
Xiaoye You Associate Director, English Graduate Program Liberal Arts Professor, English and Asian Studies Pennsylvania State University 436 Burrowes Building University Park, PA 16802-6200 USA https://sites.psu.edu/xuy10/