Supporting a New Home for the Writing Studies Community

Vershawn Young

We demand the the chair team we voted on lead our independent organization as we intended separately and apart from NCTE. PeriodT.

Kelly Kinney

As a former executive board member of CWPA and the 2026 CWPA conference chair and local host, I whole heartedly agree that CCCC should take on a new form independent from other entities. I offer the new name of the organization as follows: College Composition and Rhetoric (CCR), with it's journal College Composition and Rhetoric: A Journal of Writing Studies (CCRWS).

Betsy Gilliland

CCC represents a unique focus that is quite different from the broad areas covered by NCTE's College Section.

Jennifer Wilson

Honestly, it never felt to me like NCTE was a good match with the expansive nature of what it means to teach college writing and communication. (I don't consider myself an English teacher!) It seemed like a marriage of convenience by the end, so now we have a chance to build something by and for ourselves.

Matt Hill

I’ve never felt comfortable in the NCTE and would welcome a more indie approach to our field.

Natalie Dorfeld

I am severely disappointed with NCTE. Unfortunately, I think this rash decision will come back to bite them in the ass. I strongly support the work of CCCC, and I am excited to cheerlead the organization in its new and improved form. Onward.

David DeVine

Community makes the work not /easier/ but possible. Especially after watching close friends and pedagogical and academic family members put in effort, for years, and at times in great volume, I agree with Doug, and would love to see this flourish.

James Austin

Organization, press, conference independent of NCTE is the way to go. Perhaps existing organizations can band together to make this happen.

Supporter

Writing Studies has reached the end of a fruitful and trustworthy relationship with NCTE. This is the moment for CCCC folks to strike out in an independent direction.

Supporter

As a past chair of CCCC, who has served on numerous committees and worked in service of both CCCC and NCTE through years of dedicated service to the joint Black Caucus, I am horrified by the lack of respect the leaders of NCTE have given to a 77 year old organization that has walked hand in hand with NCTE and contributed to the wealth of knowledge and capital throughout that decades long partnership. You don't reward that kind of loyalty with cowardice.

Rebecca Mlynarczyk

CCCC was so important for me throughout my career. Today’s scholars in writing studies deserve similar opportunities for professional support and warm collegiality.

Heather Falconer

NCTE has shown us who they really are. We need to believe them.

Mara Holt

As someone whose entire career has been bookmarked with CCCC, I can't imagine a world without it. I remember several moments of despair in departments characterized by literary supremacy when a CCCC respite reminded me that I belonged to a community outside of any particular department that valued what I valued. That knowledge and the intellectual stimulation of being around real peers kept me and many others moving forward.

Supporter

Yes to a NEW, INDEPENDENT, and INTERNATIONAL writing and rhetoric studies association!

Carl Whithaus

With the decision by the NCTE Executive Committee to decharter CCCC, it is clear that writing studies has outgrown the narrow focus on classroom literacy practices. Forming a new organization outside of the control of NCTE will allow us to reflect the field's interdisciplinary (and international) reach.

Howard Tinberg

I agree absolutely. The CCCC ought to stand on its own, vibrant and free.

Christina M. LaVecchia

The past week's decision-making has shown us who NCTE is. Let's believe them and break free. WE are what makes the Cs the Cs.

Jonathan Engeln Lambinet-Lacson

I'm signing because a 77-year-old scholarly organization was dissolved by a 16-member vote with no consultation of the membership it represented, and because governance that opaque disqualifies NCTE as a steward of the field's future. Writing studies needs an organizational home accountable to the people who do the work.

Supporter

NCTE's decision is stunning and wrong-headed, an insult to decades of work and dedication among writing scholars to build a disciplinary community.

Peggy ONeill

Writing studies is more important than ever . Writing scholars and teachers deserve to be treated with respect and their work supported. Unfortunately, the current NCTE leadership has failed to do that.