The European Writing Centers Association (EWCA) was founded in 1998 in an effort by Anna Challenger (The American College of Thessaloniki, Greece) and Tracy Santa (The American University in Bulgaria) to integrate universities in Europe into a framework for exchanging ideas and establishing an infrastructure for Writing Center goals and objectives.
EWCA is a regional affiliate of the International Writing Centers Association (IWCA). As EWCA was the first regional affiliate to be added outside of US borders, its formation and recognition contributed to the US-based National Writing Centers Association (NWCA) changing its name to IWCA (International Writing Centers Association) and expanding its focus to foster writing center work across the globe. Hence EWCA’s mission is to solicit engagement with institutions and individuals interested in the interactive and collaborative work of Writing Centers everywhere.
EWCA strives to connect all those interested and involved in Writing Center pedagogy, theory and practice: teachers, researchers, administrators, tutors and peer tutors. Our goals and mission include:
To realize these aims, EWCA holds a biennial conference at one of the Board members’ European universities to which all EWCA members and those interested and involved in Writing Centers are welcome to attend.
The mission of EWCA is to integrate universities in Europe into a framework for exchanging ideas and establishing an infrastructure for Writing Center goals, practice and scholarly research.
The European Writing Centers Association [EWCA] was founded in Spring 1998 by Dr. Anna Challenger and Dr. Tracy Santa. As EWCA was the first Regional Affiliate to be added outside of US borders, its formation and recognition contributed to the US-based National Writing Centers Association [NWCA] changing its name to IWCA.
The EWCA held its first international gathering in Bulgaria [March 2000] where the focus was on: The Relation of Writing Centers to Writing Across the Curriculum Programs. This event was sponsored by the American University in Bulgaria.
Following the Co-project, European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing [EATAW] & EWCA Conference in Groningen, the Netherlands [2001], in June 2002, EWCA held an international workshop on Writing Centers and Peer-Tutor Training in Halkidiki, Greece, sponsored by the American College of Thessaloniki. Workshop participants were from institutions of higher education in Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Sweden, and the United States. This was a search conference for the EWCA Board members. What followed the formation of the first EWCA Board was representation at the EATAW Budapest Conference, Hungary [2003] where EWCA's new action plan, including a revised website, listserv, exchange programs, and small annual international conference/ seminars, was announced.
The first academic event in line with the action plan introduced in Budapest was the Regional Writing Centers Seminar: How Do We Make Writing Centers Matter to Bilingual Communities? hosted by Sabanci University Writing Center in Istanbul, Turkey [April 16-18, 2004]. The EWCA Board members' interaction with the 84 regional and international guests and participants of this seminar served for the design of the EWCA 2005 Conference in Halkidiki, Greece.
EWCA 2005 - Local Practice, Global Vision in Halkidiki Greece [June 17-19, 2005] was again a small conference with high spirits and a meaningful message for fostering our longing and reinforcing our skills to value and honor a uniqueness in every participant of the academic gatherings as well as every member of the writing and Writing Center community [Please click EWCA 2005 for details].
With its same mission to foster Writing Center awareness and institutional collaboration among Writing Centers, high schools, and various communities including the business world, EWCA designed the EWCA 2006 Conference Connecting the Dots, hosted by Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, on June 24-26, 2006 [Please click EWCA 2006 for details on the program. You can find the Press Release for EWCA 2006 with the numbers of participants on this Website’s Archives].
EWCA 2008 - Initiating Writing Center Work - Connecting Secondary, Higher, and Professional Education was hosted by Freiburg University, Freiburg, Germany on June 19-22, 2008. Writing tutors’ contributions in the design of many activities and performance were appreciated by the European and US scholars in the field.
EWCA 2010 which celebrated the EWCA's 12th birthday and our 7th international gathering of a community of scholars, professors, administrators, students, writing center tutors, and professionals, was held at the American University of Paris, France on May 24 - 28, 2010 with important names as keynotes.
EWCA 2012 - Creating Communities of Collaboration: Writers, Learners, Institutions in Blagoevgrad on May 6 - 9 was held at the American University in Bulgaria, where EWCA had its first international gathering in March 2000. This event provided a chance to discuss issues of space, time, vision, and scope, as well as variety of activities from both local and global dimensions within EWCA’s 14 years of growth. Writing peer tutors’ contributions to the spread of the Writing Center phenomena and practice were highlights to make the EWCA Executive Committee think about inviting a peer tutor to the Committee for membership as their voice.
EWCA 2014 - Let’s Peer across Borders - Writing Centers in Motion was hosted by the European University, Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany on July 19th - 22nd. A Peer Tutor Day as a pre-conference event, a peer tutor slot, and a keynote of a peer tutor were opportunities to get connected with peer tutors in discussions related to writing. The hosts of the conference share their impressions in their blog.
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