The International Writing Centers Association (IWCA) offers The Ben Rafoth Graduate Research Grant to encourage the development of new knowledge and the innovative application of existing theories and methods.
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Grants & Awards
The International Writing Centers Association (IWCA) serves to strengthen the writing center community through all of its activities. Our organization offers several grants and awards of recognition in order to support work and research within the profession of writing centers.
The Ben Rafoth Graduate Research Grant
The IWCA Dissertation Research Grant
This grant supports doctoral students as they work on writing center-related dissertations. The grant is intended to fund expenses incurred by doctoral student members who are working toward completion of a dissertation and a doctoral degree. The funds may be used for living expenses; supplies, materials, and software; travel to research sites, to present research, or to attend conferences or institutes relevant to the profession; and other purposes not covered here but supportive of a dissertating graduate student.
IWCA Future Leader Award
This award provides professional development opportunities to student members of the writing center community and recognizing peer tutors and/or administrators at either the undergraduate and graduate level who demonstrate strong leadership skills and interest in writing center studies.
The IWCA Outstanding Article Award
This award is given annually and recognizes significant work within the field of writing center studies. Members of the Writing Center community are invited to nominate articles or book chapters for the IWCA Outstanding Article Award.
The IWCA Outstanding Book Award
This award is given annually. Members of the writing center community are invited to nominate books or major works that engage writing center theory, practice, research, and history for the IWCA Outstanding Book Award.
The IWCA Research Grant
This grant is awarded to scholars advance existing theories and methods or create new knowledge. This grant supports quantitative, qualitative, theoretical, and applied projects associated with writing center research and application. While travel funding is not the primary purpose of this grant, we have supported travel as part of specific research activities (e.g. traveling to specific sites, libraries or archives to conduct research. This fund is not intended to support conference travel only; instead the travel must be part of a larger research program stipulated in the grant request. (Travel Grants are available for the IWCA Annual Conference and the Summer Institute.)
IWCA Travel Grant
This grant provides travel grants to help IWCA members attend our annual conference.
Muriel Harris Outstanding Service Award
This award is named after its first recipient and given at every other International Writing Centers Association (IWCA) conference. The Muriel Harris Outstanding Service Award recognizes outstanding service that has benefited the international writing center community in significant and broad-based ways. Read about the history of the MHOSA in Writing Lab Newsletter 34.7, pp. 6-7 . The Muriel Harris Outstanding Service Award is given out in even years.
International Writing Centers Association (c) 2026