On Friday, April 7, 2017, the UConn First-Year Writing Program held our twelfth annual Conference on the Teaching of Writing, an event co-sponsored by the Aetna Chair of Writing, the English Department, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. The conference theme was Humility and Conviction, and participants considered the roles of—and tensions between—humility and conviction in writing and writing instruction. John Duffy of the University of Notre Dame delivered our keynote speech: “Radical Humilities: Post-Truth, Ethics, and the Teaching of Writing.” Presenters were asked to submit proposals responding to the following questions:

• What does it mean to write or to teach writing with humility and/or conviction?
• What is the role of humility when convictions clash—for example, between student and instructor?
• How do rhetorical concepts come into play in writing with humility and/or conviction?
• How can we reframe the relationship of writer and audience as working between humility and conviction?
• How do we negotiate differing understandings of humility and conviction across cultural boundaries