4C's 2010 (3/17-3/20): "Titillations and Tribulations: Directing First-Year Writing Programs at the SmallLiberalArtsCollege"
This panel seeks to represent the unique and significant “titillations and tribulations” experienced by writing program directors at small liberal arts colleges. Though often underrepresented in literature and at the national convention, the liberal arts institution offers an ideal setting for cultivating innovative first-year writing programs and for providing strong writing instruction across the curriculum. We welcome papers that present various approaches to directing first-year writing programs at these institutions; particularly, we are interested in papers that explore the importance of these programs in relation to the larger missions and values of their respective institutions. How does the first-year writing program at the liberal arts college support and align with the values of the liberal arts education? What tensions exist among first-year writing programs and other disciplines? How do new theoretical trends pose problems and/or invite new possibilities in first-year writing at the liberal arts institution? What is the future for writing programs at these institutions?
Please submit abstracts of 250 words to Terra Caputo at by Friday, May 1st.
The invitation to “revisit, rethink, revise, renew” in the 2010 CCCC Call for Proposals suggests the important work done when Composition was a young field and scholars such as Richard Braddock and Mina Shaughnessy revisited common wisdom about the teaching, learning and practices of writing; their revisitations allowed them to rethink seeming truths and prompted the field to revise our understandings of error, of the thesis, of the teacher’s role in the classroom. This panel proposal undertakes a project in the spirit of these earlier revisitations. Specifically, I am seeking papers that revisit and rethink the intersection of commenting and genre in our freshman writing classes in order to renew our conversations about the work of Composition. Embedded in our decisions about the kinds of writing to assign – and the ways we respond to these kinds of writing – are our assumptions about the work of composition and assumptions about what knowledge “transfers” with the students when they leave our courses. How do our decisions about genre affect decisions about how to respond to student writing? How have new media options affected commenting? To what extent does commenting on student writing produce change?
Please email paper proposals and cv to Brenda Glascott () by April 25, 2009.
Wikis are becoming increasingly common as pedagogical tools in composition classrooms, as the nature of a wiki allows for easy collaboration among students and increased communication beyond the face-to-face classroom.
I'm hoping to put together a CCCC panel that questions and/or explores commonly held assumptions or beliefs about the wiki. Proposals might also explore how elements found in the traditional classroom change when moved to a wiki.
For example:
- How does the collaborative nature of a wiki change writing?
- Is the wiki truly more democratic than a face-to-face classroom?
- What is the relationship between students and teachers when using a wiki?
- How does the level of engagement change?
These are, of course, only a few examples. This panel should allow for a fairly broad discussion.
Please email me your proposal by April 25 if you are interested in joining this panel. Proposals should be no more than 250
CFP: 2009 Great Plains Alliance for Computers and Writing (GPACW) Conference
St. CloudStateUniversity is proud to host the 2009 Great Plains Alliance for Computers and Writing (GPACW) conference. The conference will be held on October 23rd and 24th at St. CloudStateUniversity, overlooking the Mississippi River in St. Cloud, Minnesota. We invite everyone interested in the role that computers and computer-mediated technologies play in composition to participate in this year's conference.
In his successful bid for the presidency, Barack Obama made extensive use of online communities. He not only established a social networking site, my.barackobama.com, to help disseminate his message and organize supporters, but also took advantage of the opportunities afforded by virtual communities such as Facebook and Second Life. In an attempt to understand how similar strategies might prove successful in our classrooms, this year's conference focuses on the relationship among computers, writing, and online communities. How does writing facilitate community within social networking sites, massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGS), wikis, blogs, or any number of other computer-mediated spaces? How is this writing taught? How is it learned? How is it policed? How is it challenged? How can knowledge of such practices help us better understand the way writing is taught, learned, policed, and challenged in our classrooms and at the institutions where we teach?
Conference organizers welcome individual or panel proposals that address these issues or any related themes, including:
-- Analyzing the intersections of culture, computers, and pedagogy
-- Theorizing, implementing, and assessing computer-mediated pedagogies
-- Bridging, challenging, or empowering disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and institutional structures through computer-mediated communication
-- Identifying and exploring cross-linguistic and cross-cultural intersections involving computers, pedagogy, and second-language writing and acquisition in English.
While we encourage presentations that address the themes listed above, we also welcome any presentations that enhance our understanding of the complex relationships among computers, computer-mediated technologies, and composition.
If you are interested in presenting at the 2009 GPACW conference, please submit 250-word abstracts for panels or individual presentations to by August 15, 2009. Abstracts should include the title of your presentation or panel, your name, institutional affiliation, email-address, and the names and affiliations of co-presenters (if applicable).
We are pleased the announce the launch of an open-access online video archive and research project on Asian performances of Shakespeare.
This site offers an extensive collection of videos of Shakespeare performances for scholars, students, and any one interested in Shakespeare or Asian cultures. Here you will also find interactive maps and timelines, interviews, biographies of directors and actors, for understanding intercultural theatre from Asia.
While Shakespeare and Asia have been connected on stage and screen for centuries, Asia-related performances in Asia, the U.S., and Europe are currently experiencing an exciting new wave of creativity. Such encounters have generated extraordinary artistic and intellectual energy, leading to the transformation of traditions that has worked in both directions at once.
Showcased here on Shakespeare Performance in Asia (SPiA) are video highlights with English subtitles, photos, and texts from Asia, the U.S. and Europe. This database is intended to promote cross-cultural understanding and serve as a core resource for students, teachers, and researchers.
Current features of the archive include:
* A catalogue of more than 200 productions researched by Alex Huang, which will be continuously updated.
* A collection of video clips from major productions.
* Interactive maps and timelines.
* Interviews and biographies of directors and actors.
* Essays on Asian Shakespeare by major scholars.
Regular updates will greatly expand the above resources, and introduce new features, including glossaries of key terms and full videos of many productions.
As Shakespeare Performance in Asia (SPiA) grows, we will launch an innovative workspace with a suite of advanced research tools that allow users to make virtual clips of performances for replay within the system, to tag videos, to make and store annotations to visual and textual materials, and to compose multimedia essays.
In keeping with SAMLA’s theme for this year (Human Rights and the Humanities) this panel aims to examine the ways in which the scrutinizing view of the public eye impacts the construction of a character’s identity in the work of William Faulkner. For example, in her book Race, Ethnicity and Sexuality (2003), Joane Nagel argues that race is a social construction rather than an inherent aspect of identity and writes that racial divisions are created in order to “form a barrier to hold some people in and keep others out, to define who is pure and who is impure, to shape our view of ourselves and others.” How do racial divisions—or other socially constructed divisions, such as sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, etc.—impact relationships within a society? How does such an impact dictate the way in which a person is regarded/treated by the public in question? What does this suggest about Faulkner’s view of human rights? Are these rights bestowed upon an individual by their community, or are they inherent but encroached upon via that community’s scrutinizing eye? Deadline for 250-word abstracts, full contact information, and requests for A/V equiptment is May 15. Send electronically to .
Michael J. Meyer
Seeking submissions for a book of essays to celebrate the 60th anniversary of John Steinbeck's East of Eden -- publisher secured list of possible topics to address is avail from the editor by e-mail deadline flexible but proposals / precis should be submitted by end of summer with completed papers due by the spring of 2010. Especially seeking younger scholars whose voices have not been heard
Seeking essays for a volume on Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2010. Publisher secured and volume to appear in winter of 2010 or early 2011 so time is short. List of potential topics to be addressed is avail from the editor. New voices encouraged to write and experienced scholars as well -- Since criticism on the novel is very sparse at the moment this volume is a much needed one for high school and middle school libraries as well as for academe and public libraries
H.G. Wells once wrote that Oscar Wilde’s 'The Soul of Man Under Socialism' offers “an artist’s view of socialism, but not a socialist’s.” George Orwell, reviewing the essay in 1948, called Wilde’s vision of socialism “Utopian and anarchistic.” So was Oscar Wilde a socialist? an anarchist? an “individualist”? or politically unquantifiable? He was acquainted with the leading socialists of the time, from William Morris to G. B. Shaw, his sympathy for socialist and anarchist ideas was well known, and 'The Soul of Man' attained great popularity with the radical movements of Central and Eastern Europe and the USA. This refereed special issue of Oscholars, a widely read electronic journal devoted to Wilde and the fin de siècle, solicits essays on any aspect of 'The Soul of Man' or, more broadly, Wilde in relation to socialism and anarchism.
Please submit 300-word proposals to Anna Vaninskaya at by 15 July 2009.
The deadline for submission of completed essays (1500-2500 words) is 15 December 2009.
For more information about Oscholars and to view previous special issues please consult
Thomas de Quincey, Manchester and Medicine, 1785–1859
A one-day conference to be held at the University of Salford on Friday 4th December 2009
It has been 150 years since Thomas de Quincey died on the 8th December 1859: conference papers are invited on any topic concerning his work, Manchester, and medicine, during the period of his lifetime (1785–1859). Plenary speaker Peter Kitson (author of Romantic Literature, Race, and Colonial Encounter, 2008) will speak on ‘Mr De Quincey and Dr White: The Racial Politics of Manchester Medicine’, and Grevel Lindop (author of The Opium-Eater: A Life of Thomas De Quincey, 1981) will speak on ‘Confessions and Case Histories: De Quincey and the Medical Sublime’. We are hoping to show an exhibition of de Quincey books from the University of Salford’s archives to accompany the conference.
Please send abstracts of no more than 200 words to Sharon Ruston, , by 31st May 2009.
This conference is sponsored by BARS, the British Association for Romantic Studies.
The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (NEPCA) is now accepting proposals for its upcoming Conference in October.
The conference will be held on Friday October 23 and Saturday October 24, 2009 on the campus of QueensboroughCommunity College (Bayside, Queens, New York City).
Proposals will be accepted on all aspects of mystery, detective, thriller, and crime fiction (literature, film, television, comics, games).
The deadline for proposals is June 1, 2009.
Please e-mail a 1-2 page paper proposal and a one-page vita to Ellen Higgins, Area Chair of Mystery/Detective Fiction at: .
A copy should also be sent to the 2009 Program Chair, Professor Mark Van Ells at: . NEPCA welcomes both single-paper proposals and complete three-person panels.
NEPCA presentations are generally 20 minutes in length and may be delivered either formally or informally. NEPCA conferences involve a blend of senior scholars, independent researchers, graduate students, and professors at various stages of their careers. NEPCA also encourages scholars to test work-in-progress and prides itself on offering a supportive environment in which intellectual rigor and risk-taking can coexist.
More information about submitting a proposal, the conference, and the organization is available at its NEPCA’s website:
The University of Dundee will host an international conference from July 7-9 2009 sponsored by the British Arts and Humanities Research Council. The conference will study the historical forces which shaped frontier communities around the globe and will consider which forces could be considered common to all frontier societies and which forces were unique to particular times and place. Panels will include sessions and papers on Australia, South Africa, Europe and North America.
The plenary speakers are Michael McDonnell - University of Sydney, Randy Roth - OhioStateUniversity, Warren Hofstra - ShenandoahUniversity, Barry Godfrey - KeeleUniversity, Nigel Penn - University of Cape Town, William O'Reilly - University of Cambridge
For more details please visit
Call for Papers: "Talking Green: Oral History and the Environment"
_Oral History Forum d’histoire orale_ invites submissions for a special 2010 issue on “Talking Green: Oral History and the Environment.” Over the last several decades, environmental history has bloomed. How have oral historians engaged with this new field? What stories about nature, environmental activism, ecological disaster and natural catastrophe, green living, conservation, climate change, etc. have oral historians collected and interpreted? This special issue will feature scholarly articles as well as op-ed pieces, reports on works-in-progress, teaching resources, discussions, and reviews. _Oral History Forum d’histoire orale_ is a peer-reviewed online journal of the Canadian Oral History Association, welcoming submissions from around the globe that present and discuss oral history research.
This special issue will be guest edited by Ryan O’Connor and Alan MacEachern of the University of Western Ontario. Proposals of maximum 500 words should be sent to by 1 June 2009. Final papers are to be submitted by 1 November 2009. This special issue will be opened online in 2010.
_Oral History Forum d’histoire orale_ is co-edited by Alexander Freund, Nolan Reilly, and Kristina Llewellyn. It is a multimedia journal that utilizes image, audio, and video files, as well as PDF-format files of articles and other contributions. Its editors encourage the inclusion of audio and video excerpts and high-quality photographs to accompany the articles. For more information about the journal, please visit or contact .
“New Grounds: Ecocriticism, Globalization and Cultural Memory”
13 – 15 January 2010
Radboud University, Nijmegen (the Netherlands)
The first conference on ecocriticism in the Netherlands aims to bring together scholars from different ecocritical networks and countries to explore recent themes in ecocriticism. After its initial focus on the local and the regional, ecocriticism is now facing challenges posed by globalization, as explored in for instance Ursula Heise’s Sense of Place, Sense of Planet (2008). Also, ecocriticism is still coming to terms with postmodernism and its implications, while interdisciplinary approaches to ecocriticism from the point of view of evolutionary psychology, cultural memory and biosemiotics are gaining ground. “New Grounds” will serve as a platform and forum for developments in ecocriticism, offering the possibility for interaction and an exploration of a variety of ecocritical themes in order to further define and broaden the ecocritical field.
Organized in association with ASLE-UK and EASLCE, this international conference aims to bring together scholars working in the fields of literature, drama, the visual arts, film and music. Responses to postmodern theory, globalization and cultural memory are particularly encouraged. Also, the conference aims to explore (European) ecocriticism to date, in particular during the plenary panel which features panellists working on ecocriticism in a number of European countries.
Topics can include but are not limited to:
• Post-modern – post-nature?
• The local and the global
• The future of ecocritical theory
• Ecocriticism and the visual arts
• Postcolonial ecologies
• Animal studies
• Figures of memory of nature
• Cultural memory
• Eco-cosmopolitanism
• Place and space
• Apocalypse
• The nature of cities
Confirmed plenary speakers:
Greg Garrard
Catrin Gersdorf
Serenella Iovino
Richard Kerridge
Plenary panel “The State of Ecocriticism in Europe”
A selection of papers will be published in a special issue on ecocriticism of English Studies.
Please send proposals of 250 words for 20-minute papers by 1 September 2009 to: Astrid Bracke (a.bracke [dot] let [dot] ru [dot] nl) and Marguérite Corporaal (m.corporaal [at] let [dot] ru [dot] nl).
Call For Papers
BODIES
February 25-27, 2010
Sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Asian Studies, the Confucius Institute at USC, and Women’s and Gender Studies
Directed by Jeanne Garane, Jie Guo, Yvonne Ivory, and Ed Madden
Plenary Speakers:
Shigehisa Kuriyama, Harvard U, East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Peter McIsaac, York U, German
A lot has been said about bodies, yet the body still remains one of the most contested concepts in a wide range of fields, such as art, anthropology, history, literature, medicine, philosophy, religion, as well as the study of gender and sexuality. Thinking about bodies has occasioned ongoing encounters, clashes, and border-crossings between these disciplines.