Call for Chapters

Teaching Writing in English at the Decolonial Turn in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia

an edited collection with The International Exchanges on the Study of Writing Book Series 

from The WAC Clearinghouse

Proposal Deadline: August 15, 2025

Contact:  decolonialwritingbook@gmail.com

We invite contributions from colleagues in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia who are affiliated with colleges and universities where the language of instruction is English. Perspectives from instructors who specialize in writing, in composition and rhetoric, in writing center praxis, in literature, and in linguistics are welcome, as are contributions from disciplinary specialists who teach writing in their primary field of study. We especially hope to hear from early career researchers. 

This collection will offer perspectives on writing and teaching writing in English in the countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia at the decolonial turn. We situate our questions within a framework of epistemic reconstruction (decoloniality) to emphasize complex relationships  between writing, writing research and teaching in these areas of the world and the Western systems of knowledge that dominate the field (Mignolo, 2000; Tlostanova 2015).  

This collection responds directly to the challenge facing scholars in these regions, articulated by Tlostanova (2015), and to her call to decolonize knowledge and “get rid of the self-colonizing syndrome” (p. 54) persistent in post-Soviet academia. We premise our study of writing and writing instruction on the notion that these practices are epistemic and that “all knowledges are epistemically located in the dominant or the subaltern side of power relations” (Grosfoguel, p. 213-214). Such geo- and body-politics of knowledge define decolonial rhetorical practices as localized and embodied like the first volume dedicated to decoloniality in our field, Rhetorics of the Americas (Baca & Villanueva 2010), demonstrates. We invite scholars of writing in/about Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia to challenge the universality of Western epistemologies, interrupt enduring macro-narratives, and allow for pluriversity of the many local voices, histories, and politics while still writing in English. 

We look forward to submissions on a variety of topics and offer this non-exhaustive list as prompts to open the scholarly conversation with our colleagues in our regions of interest.  

Overarching questions relative to decolonial practices of writing and writing instruction:

• Epistemic geo-politics: What opportunities are there for epistemic embodiments of writing, which recover local histories of knowledge and political histories, and also construct the writing subject as emplaced? How do they, or can they, contribute to “radical and transformative disruption of Eurocentric knowledge production” (Garcia & Baca, 2019, p. 5)?

• Rhetorical traditions: How can one write themselves out of English (while writing in English) to exemplify and give voice to local rhetorical traditions? To what extent is it possible to perform de-linking within alphabetic writing in one language which is already situated in a colonial context with its ideological underpinnings? 

• Writing program administration: How do local curricular models of writing instruction speak to the intersections between a post-Soviet/post-communist education system and North American writing program models? Chapters engaging with this question may look at local curriculum design, writing centers, and administrative policy, juxtaposing them with North American writing program administration and highlighting points of resistance and change.

• Politics and linguistic identity: How do faculty and students view and understand their own multilinguality in relation to their (post)colonial positionality? What drives their language choices in writing both within academic and non-academic contexts? How are these language choices subject to political, social, and cultural forces? How do instructors and students utilize code switching among languages, dialects, and registers in order to maintain their identities? To what extent do local writers in English resist colonial forces and perform their local identities in their discourse?

• Social justice: How are issues of linguistic justice, anti-racist academic practices, and access to foreign-language education understood, appropriated, and/or revamped in teaching and writing practices in these regions? What local histories of racism and linguistic justice need to be accounted for? 

• Localized theories of writing: What do theorizations of writing drawn from local contexts look like, and how do they interrogate Western theories? How are North American theories of writing adapted to these regions, and how functional are these adaptations? What is the purpose of adapting these theories and practices?

• Localized writing pedagogies: How is writing in English taught in academic settings in these regions? How is it perceived and used both within and outside of academic settings? How do local histories, political structures, and social realities present opportunities and/or challenges to the teaching of writing in English? What are the linguistic identities of the faculty teaching these courses and where were they trained?

• Positionality: What are the (de)colonial identities of faculty teaching English in these regions? How do these identities interact with decolonial pedagogies, writing practices, and curricula? Do local programs, instructors, and students understand the teaching of English as a liberatory project, a colonizing one, or a complex mixture? In what ways is the turn toward English and the West swapping one empire for another? How does the turn toward English create a new colonial allegiance? What kind of de-linking theories and anti-colonial resistance practices are developed?

• Geopolitical pressures: Within the dynamics among the triad of super-powers — US/Europe, Russia, and China, how do colonial powers exert pressures on administrative decisions, programs, and curriculum design in English language and writing courses? How do different localities negotiate among the conflicting political demands? What intersectional models do political, social, and cultural alliances produce? 

• Technology: How do technological tools–social annotation, video-conferencing, collaborative documents, AI search tools, and AI chatbots–facilitate writing instruction in English in multilingual contexts? Conversely, how do these technological tools confound the learning process?

Expected Timeline (tentative): 

August 15, 2025–Submission of proposal and author biographies

September, 2025 –Decisions

January 15, 2026–Submission of full chapters, 6,000-8,000 words (including notes and bibliography)

April, 2026–Response from editors

Summer, 2026–Revisions due

Proposal Submission Guidelines: 

Submit via email to decolonialwritingbook@gmail.com

In one PDF, please send–

• A 100-200 word biography for each author, including

• Current academic affiliation and rank, or independent scholar status

• Scholarly interests and expertise relevant to the submission

• Contributors may choose to be anonymous in the final publication

• A 750-1000 word proposal, including

• Connections to the themes and questions identified in this CFP

• Discussion of local and global relevance or application

• Connection to local and global scholarly conversations

• Grounding in the current relevant literature

• Identification of proposed methodology; for example, quantitative or qualitative theory, mixed methods research, auto-ethnography or reflective narrative, case study, interdisciplinary collaboration

Contributions will be written in English, but may include short passages quoting relevant literature or student writing in the local languages of our region of interest. 

In our work as editors, we are committed to anti-racist scholarly review and editorial practices that are tailored to account for local histories of colonialism, imperialism, and racism and respective practices promoting linguistic justice. The WAC Clearinghouse is an Open Access publisher, whose e-books are available free of charge. There is no cost to contribute a chapter (no APC fees).

Editors: 

Elitza Kotzeva (AUA) & Kate Koppy (NES)

Kate Koppy is the Director of the Writing and Communications Center and an Assistant Professor of English in the Department of Humanities and Languages at the New Economic School (Moscow). Her research focuses on the intersection of narrative and community, specifically the ways in which the stories we tell foster and maintain individual and community identities. Her work on textile production as a vehicle for marginalized voices can be found in “Writing Our Stories with Hooks and Needles” (Cultural Studies, 36.5) and in the Narrative Textiles Database project. Her current research explores student agency and its interaction with both generative AI and with plagiarism in “Exploring Generative AI in the Writing Classroom and the Writing Center” ( Journal für Schriebwissenschaft, vol. 26) and an in-progress article titled “Orientation and Authority in the First-Year Writing Classroom.” Koppy holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Purdue University (USA) and has also written extensively about fairy tales.

Find her online: kkoppy@nes.ru, http://katekoppy.hcommons.org, @katekoppy.bsky.social

Elitza Kotzeva is an Assistant Professor of English at the American University of Armenia (AUA). Her scholarship explores the intersections of material rhetorics, feminist ethnography, and performance theory. In her work, she studies the relationship between the ideological, the rhetorical, and the material. Her writing and translations have appeared in Intraspection: A Journal of Rhetoric, Culture, and Style; Material Culture Review; Peitho; Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation; Apofenie; and edited volumes focusing on gender and rhetoric in East European and Eurasian cultures.

Email: elitza.kotzeva@aua.am

Professional website: www.elitzakotzeva.com

References: 

Anti-racist scholarly reviewing practices: A heuristic for editors, reviewers, and authors. (2021). Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/reviewheuristic.

Baca, D., & Villanueva, V. (2010). Rhetorics of the Americas: 3114 BCE to 2012 CE (1st ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.

García, R., & Baca, D. (2019). Rhetorics Elsewhere and Otherwise: Contested Modernities, Decolonial Visions. Conference on College Composition and Communication, National Council of Teachers of English.

Grosfoguel, R. (2007). The Epistemic Decolonial Turn. Cultural Studies, 21(2–3), 211–223.https://doi.org/10.1080/09502380601162514

Mignolo, W. (2012). Bilanguaging love: Thinking in between languages. In Local histories/global designs: Coloniality, subaltern knowledges, and border thinking. (2nd ed., pp. 250–277). Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/hps://doi.org/10.1515/9781400845064

Tlostanova, M. (2015). Can the post-Soviet think? On coloniality of knowledge, external imperial and double colonial difference. Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics, 1(2).https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v1i2.38