The NCPTW Steering Committee and Board of Trustees have accepted the proposal from the University of New Mexico (UNM) to host the 2027 conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The conference theme “Un Río tan Grande / A River so Big” seeks to bring participants together to consider that water “in the desert is never taken for granted. It flows down, through, and across the desert’s varied landscapes. Its properties are much like writing itself—they flow, they slip, they change even as we attempt to contain and use them.” Conference Chair and newly appointed NCPTW Executive Vice President Jairo Marshall stated that the conference theme is inspired by the work of novelist Rudolfo Anaya (Bless Me, Ultima) who’s protagonist, Antonio, feared the river that “brought both good and ill to his family,” but “its waters always contained lessons to be learned.” Marshall further points to the work of Joanne Barker who writes from an Indigenous feminist perspective, “water teaches us to think about knowledge in continuous movement, transition, change… its analytic values story, humility, care, generosity, and reciprocity.” Marshall concludes that “we should mind the lessons that water, and writing, have to teach us.”
The conference will be held on UNM’s main campus in Albuquerque. Albuquerque has a rich cultural heritage and high desert vistas and will be the third time that NCPTW will be held in the Southwest United States, but, as the Marshall points out “in order to understand the future of higher education, visiting institutions such as UNM–a majority-minority, Hispanic-serving, and first-gen proud institution–is critical.”
The conference will be November 4 through 7th, 2027. The call for proposals and more information will be posted on the Albuquerque 2027 conference website.