Ann Mott, American University of Paris, France

An active member of the EWCA since 2002, I have helped host and presented a paper at each of our biennial conferences since 2004, hosted the 2010 EWCA Conference at the American University of Paris (AUP), Paris, France, and was honored to serve as Chair of the EWCA Board from 2008 – 2010. I am also Professor of English and Director of AUPs Writing Lab (for 25 years already!!)

My ten years on the EWCA Board have been both a privilege and a joy, making it possible for me to meet so many extraordinary people in our field, many I can count as good friends!  I have also had the great opportunity to raise awareness of the work of European writing centers, to foster fledgling centers and support young WC tutors and administrators across Europe, and to help launch the Anna Challenger Peer-Tutoring Fund. The EWCA is THE organization for Writing Center specialists, administrators, and tutors across Europe and beyond to connect with each other and share goals, challenges, obstacles and successes.

I would be honored to continue this meaningful work for the next two years and then happily pass the baton to an enthusiastic and committed younger member of our thriving EWCA community.

Birte Stark, Peer Tutor at the Schreibwerkstatt Mehrsprachigkeit (writing center multilingualism) at the University of Hamburg, Germany

I am studying educational sciences as an MA student and am working as a Peer Tutor at the Schreibwerkstatt Mehrsprachigkeit (writing center multilingualism) at the University of Hamburg (Germany) since April 2012. The topic of my BA thesis is how writing centers can support students in achieving academic writing competencies.

At the German Peer Tutor conference in 2013 I held a workshop about networking between Peer Tutors. At the EWCA in 2014 I will speak about multilingualism as a resource in writing counseling. In the Gesellschaft für Schreibdidaktik und Schreibforschung (community of writing education and writing research) I am engaged in the special interest group of the interests of Peer Tutors.

I am very interested in the work of writing centers and the corresponding research. Working at the writing center and the feeling of being a member of the Peer Tutor community is important for me, because through this work I could see the value of my studying. I would be very honored to represent the Peer Tutors as a member of the EWCA board and grateful to obtain the opportunity to become acquainted with the European writing center movement and research.

Dr. Vassiliki Kourbani, Writing Center Director, Hellenic American University, Greece

As the Writing Center and Writing Program Director at Hellenic American University, Athens, Greece, I have over 10 years of experience in Writing Centers, WAC/WID programs and visual literacy.

Intrigued by what really happens in writing center tutorials, I have recently completed my Ph.D. thesis with the title ‘Writing Center Asynchronous/ Synchronous Online Feedback: The Relationship between E-feedback and its Impact on Student Satisfaction, Learning and Textual Revision’, aiming at contributing to a greater awareness of writing center research, theory, and practice.

Being an active EWCA Board member since 2010, I have had the chance to get to know some very talented, hardworking, enthusiastic and dedicated colleagues; if I have the chance to continue working with them, as well as taking up Board duties, I would like to focus on facilitating exchanges as well as creating a supportive scholarly community of writing center tutors and professionals across writing centers and writing programs in Europe and beyond.

Dr. Katrin Girgensohn, European University Viadrina; Germany

After attending my first EWCA conference in Halkidiki in 2005 I was inspired and motivated to become an active member of the EWCA community, which helped me very much with my efforts to found a writing center at European University Viadrina. I opened and directed this writing center from 2007-2010. During the academic year 2011/12 I was a visiting scholar at the Writing Center of the University of Wisconsin Madison, USA, to conduct a research project on writing center leadership. Since October 2012 I am back at the European University Viadrina as Academic Director of our Writing Center and Director of the Center for Key Competences and Research-oriented Learning. I am EWCA board member since 2008 and served as chair since 2010. I would be honored to continue to work with dedicated board colleagues from various countries and to take board duties.

Franziska Liebetanz, European University Viadrina; Germany

Since 2008 I am a member of the EWCA. This Summer I am hosting the EWCA Conference 2014 together with Katrin Girgensohn at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). I studied Cultural Sciences and Creative and Biographical Writing. 2005 I discovered my passion for the writing center work and started to work at the Viadrina as a writing peer tutor. Now I have grown up and I am in the lucky position to be the director of the writing center at the Viadrina, working together with an amazing team.

Over the last years, more and more writing centers opened their doors, not only in Germany, but all over Europe and in neighboring countries. I believe that our work is powerful, meaningful and important for universities, schools and other institution. An organization such as the EWCA is therefore important to teachers, to those who are working in writing centers, to peer writing tutors and to everyone who is dealing with writing pedagogies and research, because the EWCA is a network for everyone to share their ideas and to connect with each other beyond borders.

I met many great people who are working or who were working for the EWCA and for me it would be a pleasure to contribute to their great achievements or to continue their work.

Dr. Doris Pany, University of Graz, Austria

After being a researcher in Romance studies for some years at the Universities of Graz and Göttingen, my growing interest in Writing Center pedagogy led me to complete the course “Schreibzentrumsarbeit und Literacy Management” 2011/12 at the European UniversityViadrina. At the same time I assumed a position at the Department of Educational and Student Services at the University of Graz where I had the chance to implement a package of measures to improve Academic Writing in three interdisciplinary masters programs. This pilot project proved to be successful and in 2014 the University of Graz put me in charge of establishing a permanent Writing Center.

In my new position I regard the EWCA as a highly relevant forum for exchange, discussion and the further development of policies for European Writing Centers. In terms of the ongoing consolidation of the European Higher Education Area a trans-European exchange is becoming even more important: The significance of intercultural and diverse study paths is growing and interferes with the practices in European Writing Centers. Considering this context of transformation it would be a privilege and a great pleasure for me to participate actively in the trans-European dialogue of Writing Centers and to become a EWCA board member.

Brandon Hardy, Middle Tennessee State University, USA

I am working on my Master of Arts degree in English at Middle Tennessee State University, where I serve as a Peer Mentor for other tutors in our writing center. In addition to tutoring students, I help organize an annual event for regional tutors and administrators called Tutor Collaboration Day, serve on a social media outreach committee, lead a creative writing group, and conduct student writing workshops.

My research focuses on peer collaboration in digital spaces, using Google Hangouts and Google Docs for creative writing, collaborative scholarship, and as a means of creating partnerships between writing centers at various institutions.

At the EWCA conference this year, I will present plans for an international peer tutor (virtual) conference to encourage discussion and collaboration between writing centers all over the world. At the Southeastern Writing Centers Association conference in 2015, I will introduce the keynote speaker using this technology and moderate a virtual panel on global peer tutor exchange.

I would like to develop as a scholar and as a writing center administrator through EWCA, and serving as a Peer Tutor representative on the board will be an opportunity to grow our field, dissolve borders, and enrich our global writing center community.

Assist. Prof. Dr. Elif Demirel, Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey

I will be very pleased and proud to be given a chance to be a part of the EWCA organization. I have attended and presented at previous conferences organized by EWCA and EATAW and have benefited greatly from the vision of EWCA in setting up and running the existing Writing Center at my institution. I believe that I can contribute to the board with my experience and innovative ideas in the future.

Łukasz Salski,  University of Łódź, Poland

I have been interested in writing center pedagogy since I started teaching EFL writing in 1996 at the University of Łódź, Poland, where I am also involved in EFL teacher training. I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation on the place of contrastive rhetoric in teaching EFL writing, and since 2009 I have organized a biennial conference devoted to theory and practice of foreign language writing FLOW (Foreign Language Opportunities in Writing).

I set up a writing center at Institute of English Studies, University of Łódź, after I attended my first EWCA conference in 2010 in Paris. Our writing center has to rely mainly on volunteer peer tutors, and while my initial motivation was, quite obviously, to help student writers develop their skills, I soon realized that peer tutoring benefits both tutees and tutors.

Since the 2012 conference in Blagoevgrad, I have been on the EWCA board, and I have supported peer tutoring as much as I can. I believe EWCA has a great role to play bringing together writing center practitioners as well as writing instructors, especially those working in the areas where writing instruction and research is underrepresented. Of course, I see the future of writing center pedagogy in peer tutoring and peer tutors.