Trixie Smith, Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures (WRAC) at Michigan State University, recently was awarded a Strategic Partnership Grant from MSU’s Center for Gender in Global Context to attend the Fifth Annual International Conference on Water in Africa (ICWA), scheduled for March 2026, with additional support from MSU’s College of Arts & Letters and WRAC.
This is the second time Smith will participate in the ICWA, a four-day conference annually hosted by the Water and Public Health Research Group at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Earlier this year, Smith attended the Fourth Annual ICWA, held March 19-22, 2025, where she hosted three writing workshops.
The ICWA was established to address the sustainable development challenges in sub-Saharan Africa with the aim of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. As noted in a conference flyer, the ICWA “has, for its first 10 years, the goal of mobilizing, motivating, and moving stakeholders to explore the Prime Place of Water towards the successful delivery of the SDGs in sub-Saharan Africa.” This work demands not just scientific conversations but a collaborative approach involving the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.
Smith is the Director of the Red Cedar Writing Project, a National Writing Project site devoted to strengthening literacy education across the state of Michigan. Her leadership extends globally as well as Director of the Global Alliances in Literacy and Engagement (GALE) at MSU, for which she helps build partnerships in literacy and teacher development around the world.
Smith was invited by Professor Vincent Chigor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, to attend the Fourth Annual IWCA to help fulfill attendees’ needs for further writing support and training, which is part of the goal of GALE.
“Supporting people in the dissemination of their research through publication in a variety of venues was part of the impetus for me attending,” Smith said. “The research they do changes people’s lives, makes people healthier, and helps them to have access to safe and clean water; communicating their research is a part of that process.”
The three workshops Smith hosted during the Fourth Annual ICWA included a workshop on day one where she reviewed writing processes and how processes change across genres. The second workshop, “Publishing in Scopus Journals and Avoiding Predatory Journals,” explored global editing practices and trends and applied it to participants’ work. The final workshop, “Writing to the Call,” examined calls for proposals and journal guidelines and gave attendees time to examine their own manuscripts and engage in group peer review.
“Supporting people in the dissemination of their research through publication in a variety of venues was part of the impetus for me attending. The research they do changes people’s lives, makes people healthier, and helps them to have access to safe and clean water; communicating their research is a part of that process.”
“The ICWA was a great opportunity for me to meet a number of scholars doing research focused on water in a lot of different disciplines and contexts,” Smith said. “Having conversations with these colleagues helped me understand where people want support and where I could help them build upon their strengths.”
Smith is vocal in her support for women scholars, and her involvement in the ICWA is no exception. The conference and the partnership between Michigan State University and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) focuses on supporting UNN women scholars while they conduct research in and around the topic of gender disparities in water and health.
Women consistently have less training, support, and opportunities in scholarly areas and the workshops Smith led at the Fourth ICWA — and will lead at the Fifth ICWA — focus on creating spaces for women to succeed and receive support. Attendees receive assistance with their writing, research, and publication processes, with support provided for the researchers as they continue to work within the topics of gender, water, and health, as well as developing new opportunities to further support their research and community engagement to achieve their goals.
Each year the ICWA focuses on a collection of themes related to water and collaboration. The Fourth Annual ICWA promoted a triad of topics: clean water and sanitation, hunger elimination, and climate action. The Fifth Annual ICWA will stay true to these overarching themes by focusing on lessons learned from current efforts as well as calling for partnerships and advances in the conference’s multidisciplinary frontiers.
“The ICWA was a great opportunity for me to meet a number of scholars doing research focused on water in a lot of different disciplines and contexts. Having conversations with these colleagues helped me understand where people want support and where I could help them build upon their strengths.”
The ICWA also includes an artistic experience each year that is related to the conference theme. During the Fourth Annual ICWA, an art installation, titled “Mmiri bu Ndu” (Water is Life), was featured, with Smith cutting the ribbon at the grand opening on March 19 during the opening of the conference. This group exhibition of art and poetry ran for one month in commemoration of the Fourth ICWA.
Smith’s participation in the Fourth ICWA was made possible by the support of the College of Arts & Letters, WRAC, MSU’s Alliance for African Partnership, the African Studies Center, and International Scholars Program.
The Fifth Annual ICWA will be held both virtually over zoom and in person at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, March 18-22, 2026. The ICWA invites abstracts for presentations, with an abstract-submission deadline of Dec. 26, 2025. To submit abstracts or for more information, please contact waterconference@unn.edu.ng.
ICWA is also calling for applicants to participate in the 2026 writing workshop that will be held in person at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The conference is looking for early career researchers to participate and develop their skills in academic and grant writing. To apply, each applicant must have a Mentor or Supervisor and should provide a tentative title and draft of the manuscript they plan to develop during the workshop. Applications are due by January 30, 2026, with acceptance occurring on a rolling basis until February 15, 2026. For more information please contact Trixie Smith (smit1254@msu.edu) and Vincent Chigor (vincent.chigor@unn.edu.ng).
By Nathaniel Weeldreyer
