CEAO Spring Conference: Saturday, April 11, 2026
University of Toledo
Theme: Pressures and Possibilities in English Studies:
Navigating Technological, Political, and Economic Forces
Keynote Speaker: Jennifer Cunningham, Ph.D., Writing Program Coordinator, Kent State University
In today’s environment, institutions of higher education across the country are facing challenges from multiple angles, challenges that test our resilience and also reveal possibilities. Artificial intelligence is changing how students compose and how teachers can facilitate learning, while also inviting new models of collaboration, efficiency, and engagement with language. Policy changes are affecting budgets and classroom dynamics, while simultaneously sharpening our purpose and dedication to inclusive teaching. How can instructors in English Studies programs help direct and utilize these challenges to address pressures and discover possibilities?
This year’s conference focuses on current and emerging changes in English studies and its related subdisciplines. Participants may consider ways in which their teaching, service, creative productions, and scholarship will affect and be affected by changing landscapes including technological innovations such as AI text generators; social issues related to gender, sexuality, race, class, and disability; state and institutional policies; navigating constraints of tightened budgets and/or loss of faculty; the literary marketplace; new classroom practices; changing student demographics; and other areas that intersect the field. We welcome all topics relating to English Studies as well as those that speak to our conference theme. Possible topics relating to transformation might include:
- Evolving pedagogy and scholarship in literature and representation
- Transforming views on social media’s role in education
- Teaching and writing in an AI context
- Reconsidering established and emerging classroom practices
- Responding to potential revisions in Higher Education and the Humanities
- Shifting student and teacher demographics
- Adapting discourse in a world of shifting language and communication
- Expanding use of Open Educational Resources in English and composition classrooms
- Rethinking how scholarly and creative works are published and recognized
- Navigating legislative or institutional mandates that seek to limit classroom discourse
- Teaching with care and integrity amid polarization and safety concerns for some campus populations
- Sustaining programs and morale amid enrollment declines and/or budgetary pressures
- Reaffirmating mission, values, and community in response to external constraints
- Research and/or discussion on skill transfer within college curriculums and between college and the workplace
We welcome work by creative writers. We will offer panels with time for 15 – 20 minute readings of creative works, and/ or creative writers are welcome to apply to lead a 60 minute creative writing workshop.
Proposals in all disciplinary areas and fields are encouraged and welcomed, including, but not limited to: African-American Literature /American Literature / Assessment and/or Learning
Outcomes / British & Irish, Scottish and Welsh Literature / Children’s and Adolescent Literature / Composition and Rhetoric: Practice or Theory / Creative Writing: Fiction and Poetry or
Non-Fiction / Disability Studies / Film and Literature / Grammar and Linguistics / Graphic Novels
/ Hispanic, Latino/a, and Chicano/a Literature / LGBTQ+ / Linguistics / Literary Theory/
Multicultural and World Literature / Multimedia / Native American Literature / Ohio Regional Writing / Pedagogy: Diversity in the English Curriculum, Service Learning, Active Learning or other/ Popular Culture / Post-Colonial Literature / Queer Studies / Religion and Literature /
Teacher Education / Technical Communication (ATTW) / Visual and Material Culture / Women’s
Connection, Women’s Literature, and WGST / Writing Across the Curriculum/College Credit Plus/Dual Enrollment
CEAO welcomes proposals for:
- individual 15- to 20-minute presentations (including creative writing readings),
- Pre-arranged panels with multiple speakers (60 minutes)
- 60-minute workshop sessions (all topics)
We seek submissions from full-time faculty, graduate students, adjunct and part-time instructors, as well as individuals living/working both inside and outside of Ohio. Faculty presenting projects with undergraduate students are also welcome. Proposals from faculty and administrators from institutions of all sizes and types—public, private, community, K-12—are encouraged to apply.
For questions about the conference program, please email Dirk Remley at dremley@kent.edu.
For questions about the conference site; please email Anthony Edgington at anthony.edgington@utoledo.edu.
For questions about registration, please email Martin Brick at martinbrick@grcc.edu.
Send proposals of 300 words or fewer by March 16, 2026 to 2026 CEAO Spring Conference Submission
All proposals submitted by the deadline will be considered. Please visit:
https://ceaoenglishnotes.com/ for additional information and for conference registration. Presenters must be registered for the conference by the deadline.
English Notes 