Maggie Fernandes and Megan McIntyre, both assistant professors of rhetoric and composition in the English Department, have been tapped to join the Conference on College Composition and Communication's Special Committee on Generative AI in College Composition and Writing Studies. The CCCC is the largest professional organization for writing faculty in the nation and part of the National Council of Teachers of English. Since 1949, CCCC has supported the teaching of and research about writing education in the United States.

Fernandes and McIntyre have been researching and writing about the impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on writing education since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022.

Their recent work on the subject includes "Drafting Defensively, Documenting Authorship: A Critical Interface Analysis of Draftback and Grammarly Authorship" in Computers and Composition and "Linguistic Justice and Storying Resistance to Generative AI" in Peitho: Journal of the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric.

Their forthcoming book, Unprompted: Pedagogies, Theories, and Futures of GenAI Refusal in Writing Classrooms, explores the impact of GenAI on writing studies and the teaching of writing. (The book is being published by the University Press of Colorado and slated for release in summer 2026). Their website Refusing Generative AI in Writing Studies, which they authored with Jennifer Sano-Franchini of West Virginia University, has amassed more than 50,000 views in the last year.

Fernandes, who teaches courses on technical communication and digital rhetoric, shared her hope that this committee can speak back to arguments for GenAI adoption based on the job market. Fernandes said, "Students need to understand these technologies and their limitations, but the future of GenAI is far from certain. The AI bubble is really precarious, and we need to help students be critical and conscientious."

McIntyre added, speaking in her capacity as the director of the Program in Rhetoric and Composition at the U of A, "By serving on this committee, I'm really hoping that we can broaden the conversation about the ethical questions and pedagogical impacts of GenAI on writing pedagogy and assessment."