This year’s conference in Philadelphia on March 27-29, 2025, was widely attended by 265 presenters organized into 73 sessions. Schools from every part of the United States and nine foreign countries were represented, including universities in Nepal, Canada, Lebanon, China, Saudi Arabia, and Italy.
Featured Speakers
The plenary speaker, Dr Daniel Ernst of Texas Women’s University, spoke about the impact of artificial intelligence on higher education and assessment.
Ahmed Badr, an Iraqi-American author, poet, and social engineer, was the featured speaker at the Diversity Luncheon.
Poet, essayist, and literary critic Artress Bethany White of East Stroudsburg University spoke at the Women’s Connection Reception.
Playwright and poet Lorene Cary of the University of Pennsylvania spoke at the All-Conference Luncheon.
Michigan Presenters
Cheryl Caesar, Michigan State University
Aaron Bush, University of Michigan
Lynne Johnson, Northern Michigan University
Susanna Engbers, Ferris State University
John Staunton, Eastern Michigan University
Roundtable Topics
This CEA innovation included three sessions. Roundtable discussions are less formal than panels. Presenters offer “flash essays” of about 500 to 700 words, and the audience is invited to engage in open discussion. Three sessions were offered this year:
English Education Programmatic Assessment: Navigating the Accreditation Process
Freedom to Get Fat: A Discussion about Fatness and Fatphobia in Fiction
Bringing Arts, the Outside, Rituals to the Classroom
Emphasis at this Conference
Over the years as trends change, we have seen an emphasis on new topics. Once women in literature headlined the conference, then use of the internet, indigenous work, comic novels, LGBTQ, etc. This year, AI seemed to dominate with sessions such as
- AI in the Writing Classroom: Friend, Foe, or Facilitator
- Reimagining Writing Pedagogy: Harnessing AI for Educational Success
- Freeing the Writer Within: Empowering Student Writers through Effective and Ethical Use of AI
- Surveying the Landscape: Student and Faculty Experiences with Generative AI
Affiliates’ Breakfast
At the breakfast, there was some discussion of conference modalities post-COVID: in-person, Zoom, or hybrid.
Peter Elliott of Anderson University in Indiana would be interested in talking with MCEA about how we manage a Zoom conference. He has also launched a new journal, Indiana English, which is accepting submissions.
The Florida CEA is “reaching out for partners,” and our MCEA’s Board member RaSheeda Brown has reached out to this group by email. The Florida CEA also has a journal, the Florida Scholarly Review.
Gloria Lessman and Heather Ann Johnson from the University of Nebraska attended the breakfast. They are not yet Affiliates, but Jeri Kraver has reached out to them from the Rocky Mountain group.
Conference Proceedings
The CEA Critic will publish its usual conference proceedings issue in the fall that will feature a selection of representative essays from those chosen “Best of Section,” award-winning essays, and more news from the conference.
Save the Date
At the conference President’s Reception, we announced that the 55th conference will take place March 26-28, 2026, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Our theme will be “Declarations,” fitting for the first state to declare independence from Great Britain. The submission site will open August 15, 2025.