UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School co-presents “Writing Research across Borders,” a groundbreaking international education conference

UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz Graduate School of Education co-presents “Writing Research across Borders” the 3rd International Santa Barbara Conference on Writing Research on February 22-24 on the UC Santa Barbara campus. This three day event – bringing together 500 presenters and 800 attendees from over 35 countries – will feature panel discussions and speakers examining the state of the writing research field. Writing researchers from around the world, drawing on all disciplines, and focusing on all aspects of writing at all levels of development and in all segments of society will take part. It will be an unprecedented opportunity for scholars to learn from different research traditions, share their findings, seek common agendas, and lay the groundwork for future communication and alliances.

“There has never been a conference like this,” states organizer Charles Bazerman, Professor in the Department of Education at the Gevirtz School. “There is a regular European writing research conference, but that’s largely psychology based. This event is much wider in its approaches, including the anthropological, historical, pedagogic, linguistic, textual, cultural, and sociological. The time has come to bring all these groups together, and that accounts for this really remarkable array of people in K-20 education from all over the world.”

The three plenary speakers exemplify the scope of this conference. Emilia Ferreiro from the National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico is called “the goddess of writing in Latin America” by Dr. Bazerman. Gert Rijlaarsdam of the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands is at the center of educational networks in Europe. And David Russell from Iowa State University is considered the major historian of writing education in higher education.

The conference began in 2001 under the theme “Writing as a Human Activity." Planners expected fifty to seventy-five regional participants and had a hundred and twenty-five, including a large national contingent. In 2005, under the theme “Writing Research in the Making” planners expected 125 participants; more than twice as many registered, including a substantial international group.

Conference sponsors are the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, UC Santa Barbara, the UC Santa Barbara Office of the Chancellor, UC Santa Barbara Graduate Division, UC Santa Barbara Writing Program, UC Santa Barbara College of Letters and Science, UC Santa Barbara Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, the South Coast Writing Project, University Writing Program at UC Davis, Bedford/St. Martin’s, Cengage Learning, and Taylor & Francis.

[Charles Bazerman is available for interviews; contact George Yatchisin at 805 893 5789]
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UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School co-presents “Writing Research across Borders,” a groundbreaking international education conference