[Type text]
PCEA OFFICERS AND BOARD
President, Michael W. Cox, Univ. of Pittsburgh at JohnstownVice President, Abby Aldrich, Lehigh UniversitySecretary, Bim Angst, Penn State University-SchuykillTreasurer and Membership Chair, Gay Chow, Indiana University of PennsylvaniaPennsylvania English Editor, Tony Vallone, Penn State University-DuBoisImmediate Past President, Jackie Atkins, Penn State University-DuBoisArchivist and CEA Liaison, Jerry Siegel, York CollegeWeb Site Director, Gian Pagnucci, Indiana University of PennsylvaniaNewsletter Editor, Charlie Marr, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania
SPRING CONFERENCE 2009
PCEA and the national CEA collaborated on presenting this spring’s conference at the Omni-William Penn in Pittsburgh. The event celebrated the seventieth anniversary of the CEA and was the fortieth conference. Over six-hundred participants presented papers, creative works and panels. Numerous seventy-five minute sessions as well as a number of plenary and general sessionsmet over a three day period.
A highlight of the conference was the presentation at the awards luncheon by Dr. Susan Shannon of HowardUniversity on August Wilson and Barack Obama. A performance featuring readings by a Pittsburgh professor from Wilson’s works and interviews and statements by the president on building community supplemented Prof Shannon’s discussion, which took place within looking distance of the lower Hill District,that vibrant community disrupted by urban re-developmentthat is at the heart of Wilson’s dramatic corpus.
PCEA sponsored one of the coffee breaks in the registration area, which served as conference central. Past officers and fresh graduate students mingled there and in the book display room, where more than twenty scholarly presses and publications from some
state affiliate CEA organizations displayed their offerings. The traditional door prize book draw saved members several dollars on scholarly editions.
Evening receptions and entertainment, as well as the many hotel cafes and nearby restaurants, provided opportunities for social interaction within a group from such diverse institutions as the military academies and community colleges, and from as far as Jordan and South America. Next year’s national CEA conference will be in San Antonio, Texas in late April. Such features as the Riverwalk, the Mercado and the Alamo will provide entertainment in this city of grand hotels and great legends. Perhaps a barge ride on the river and a Mariachi band will be on offer. Do not pass up the chance to have some of the mango ice cream, a local delicacy.
Jerry Siegel of YorkCollege is CEA Liaison and can answer general questions that are not covered at CEA’s website.
THANK YOU
The response of the membership of the board and the general membership to the call for assistance at registration at CEA Conference was gratifying. The very complex system of finances dealing with membership fees and conference fees, as well as the numerous side options of special lunches and excursions required a lot of bookkeeping. In addition, the William Penn is an old fashioned hotel with cubby-hole rooms, split levels and different banks of elevators.
Attendees found their conference material, rooms and assistance with very little difficulty, thanks to the many volunteers staffing the registration desk. Those who remember the old William Penn will be happy to know that the mural Relief of Fort Pitt still dominates the East wall of The Palm Court.
$$$$$
At a meeting of the PCEA board in Pittsburgh, Treasurer Chow informed the group that we are solvent with a little cushion in the bank. CEA will rebate some of the registration fee to PCEA once the books of the national convention are finalized. We did not, however, accumulate the surrounding trickles that come in when we hold our own conferences, and the cost of Pennsylvania English looms. Still, reserves are more than adequate.
The membership sharing with CEA has helped add dollars to the treasury and individual memberships to our roster. Here’s hoping that these new members will continue to participate in PCEA activities.
The board will attempt to hold the line on conference costs next spring. Members wishing more precise sums may contact Treasurer Chow or wait for this fall's CFP.
2010 PCEA CONFERENCE
The Board met June 27 and finalized the decision to hold the conference in the LehighValley area, at the Hotel Bethlehem in Bethlehem, Pa., April 8-10,2010. Thursday the Board will meet at 5:00 P.M. and afterward, at 8:00 P.M., members are invited to mix and mingle at a nearby watering hole, to be posted.
The theme of the 2010 conference will be “Social Justice. “ It is time to begin thinking about the subject, as the formal call for submissions will soon circulate.
We will continue to honor our past practice of including student participation.
In this era of limited travel budgets, you should be aware of the excellent opportunity to present scholarly and creative works at the spring conference. We will be returning to the traditional format for submission and presentation of papers. The membership may also want to take advantage of the opportunity to submit to nearby state conferences and the N.E.M.L.A. and the State College E.A.P.S.U., which meets in the alternate semester.
PUBLICATIONS
The 2006-07 edition ofPennsylvania English went into the mail on June 15. A subscription to this journal of scholarly papers, creative prose and poetry is a benefit of membership in PCEA. If yours has not arrived please contact this newsletter, or the General Editor. Address lists deteriorate over time. Editor Vallone expects to have the next volume of the journal in the mail by the end of summer, if no glitches intervene.
In Pennsylvania, the wide variety of programs in the discipline of English is worthy of sharing. Many of us are restricted to our campus or little corner of the state. News of new programs, publications, positions, promotions and items of concern to the membership or for the good of the order may be forwarded to me (). I will try to include such information as space permits.
WEBSITE
Webmaster Pagnucci is in the process of updating the website. Do you have any photos or archival information which should be included? You can notify him, President Cox or me by e-mail.
Keep an eye on the site (just Google PCEA) and check from time to time. We will be posting more information about the 2010 conference, including the keynote speaker, in the fall. Pennsylvania has yielded quite a number of first rate creative and scholarly individuals, as you are aware, and several of them have been our featured speakers. Frequently, members know of potential speakers and we always welcome your nominations.
You will also find the call for papers and as time goes by information on the scheduling of conferences and events.
PROFESSING ENGLISH
One of the special joys of attending conventions in this region comes from the diversity of the programs and faculty one discovers at the numerous institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Perhaps our greatest richness lies in the wealth of fine men and women who have been part of the profession, and I would like to
use some space in our newsletter to praise and fondly remember some of these people. To this end I solicit your contributions and to start the “mass-skate” number will begin with a tale or two of an elderly Oxbridge type scholar, John Crow, visiting Mellon Professor at Pitt in the mid-sixties. The tales of his eccentricities are many, and his “take it as you may attitude” concerning his moments of wit delivered in a deep plumy voice was a hallmark. Graduate students were not his only target. Once when informed by an eager graduate student of available cafeteria seats beside an administrator, he boomed out, “Never dine with Mr. so-and-so. He cannot converse, he can only lecture!”
Professor Crow, who left a substantial personal collection of early print to a LondonUniversity, was a first line specialist in incunabula. When some students asked him about the room site for his MLA presentation on “Foxing” in early 16th century print works, he remarked with full blown dignity, “Just follow the crowds, just follow the crowds.” But this belied the pleasure he took in his scholarship and the flare with which he could convey the technicalities of this medium and its importance to the interpretative reading of texts.
I have often been struck by the development of the entire field of narratology growing out of the knowledge acquired concerning the narrative distinctions between stage and film/television. Change and modernity reveal the shallowness of many assumptions. Certainly the invention of the codex rang the death knell for bucephalon text and made possible cross referencing and indexing, and the printing press and typewriter have given us strong ideas about how poetry and prose should look on a page. I wonder what Professor Crow would have to say about scrolling, hypertext jumps and the potential to add music, loops and action to texts.
Crow was aware that poems looked like this or that, on pages of this size, and sounded so. Folio, quarto, letterpress, all spoke to the reader. Subscription and binding, silk or feathered fly-leafs, spoke. And, what is the result of twitters and tweets of “verse”? I think the old fellow would love it.
INVESTING IN THE FUTURE
Those of us in the grandparent business are well aware of Curious George and Where the Wild Things Are. It is only natural that English professors would know the advantages of books in the crib and reading to children. When I am reading my morning paper, my two year old grandson picks up a magazine and pores over it, imitating Grandpa. Familiarity with books from an early age helps to facilitate reading and literary skills. Book children are not afraid of books and learn to turn to them as well as the television or internet.
My fraternity, which started as a professional education fraternity, has as its charity a program by which it contributes children’s books to a public library in the national convention city and gives library grants and book donations to the children’s collections in the hometowns of the three most successful book collecting chapters. I learned of a similar program during a chat with PCEA member Dean Baldwin, past member of our board. A little known organization, Books for Kids, occupies the leisure time of this Behrend faculty member. The goal of this organization is to ensure that children have books of their own. A key to its approach is the physical ownership of the book. In this, Books for Kids differs from other groups and library support organizations which support the children’s literature sections of public libraries.
One of the pleasures of approaching retirement is the number of former students’ children who are now in my classes. I like to think that teaching an appreciation for literature as an enjoyable subject has stimulated these parents in advocating my class. Certainly, putting books in the hands of youngsters who will one day be in the education system and eventually our own classrooms is in our best interest.