Conference Title: Past and Future Perspectives: Negotiating our Changing
Field
Conference Location: Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
Conference Dates: February 22-23, 2002
Conference Sponsor: The Graduate English Society, Texas Tech University
Co-Chairs: Will Brannon (wbrannon@ttacs.ttu.edu) and Ida Rodgers
(Ida.Rodgers@ttu.edu)
Address:
GES Conference
Texas Tech University
Department of English, Box 43091
Lubbock, Texas 79409-3091
Online: http://english.ttu.edu/gesconference/
See also: http://english.ttu.edu/ges/ (links to conference)
The 7th Annual GES Conference will be held February 22-23, 2002, at Texas
Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. The theme of this year's conference,
“Past and Future Perspectives: Negotiating our Changing Field,” addresses
our changing field from the graduate scholar's perspective. The palindrome
of the year suggests that we examine ways that our past can help us deal
with our future regarding issues arising from new theories, cultural shifts,
evolving technologies, and recent discoveries.
The Texas Tech Graduate English Society welcomes print or electronic
graduate student proposals (250-word abstracts) addressing this year's theme
or any topic of interest to English scholars. The 2002 conference will
include sessions on a range of subjects within the following general
sub-fields: Literature, Composition & Rhetoric, Creative Writing,
Linguistics, Technical Communication, Writing Centers, Graduate Concerns,
and Teaching and Pedagogy.
PROCEDURES AND DEADLINES
Proposals:
-Deadline for proposals: November 1, 2001
-Email proposals strongly encouraged (addressed to Ida.Rodgers@ttu.edu).
-Hard copies should be mailed to "GES Conference" at the English Department
address (above).
-Proposal information must include: your name, email address, mailing
address, telephone number, institutional affiliation, program (e.g., British
Literature), technology requests (not guaranteed), presentation title, and
250-word abstract. If you would like your home web page or a web page
having to do with your presentation linked to your name on the conference
web site, include the URL.
Acceptance procedures:
-Acceptance notices will be emailed by November 20th.
-You must reply with your confirmation of attendance by December 1st.
-Conference packets will be mailed in early January, and the registration
deadline is Feb. 1st.
-Participants are limited to two presentations (including panels).
Conference proceedings:
-Accepted and confirmed presenters are invited to submit their papers for
publication in the conference proceedings.
-Instructions and a style guide for the conference proceedings will be
published on the conference website.
-Proceedings preferred format: email attachment in .rtf format (hard copy
can be mailed with registration)
-Proceedings deadline: February 1, 2002
Questions?
If you have questions about the conference or would like to submit an
electronic proposal, please contact either Will Brannon
(wbrannon@ttacs.ttu.edu) or Ida Rodgers (Ida.Rodgers@ttu.edu).
THEME SESSION
Year 2002: The Challenge of the Palindrome for a Changing Scholarly Field
This special session, right before the luncheon and key note speaker,
addresses the conference theme. It will examine appropriate graduate student
approaches to the struggle English departments face with fundamental
questions of mission and character. These questions are raised in a current
and raging national discussion that includes a continuum of opinions ranging
from community-of-culture to commercial viability. Such soul searching stems
from pressures on university administrators. They face difficult fiscal
choices, pressure to provide objective measures, and the fact that students
often select courses based on vocational viability. In this context
departments are generating new vision statements and restructuring their
programs. Where departments can no longer support broad coverage of large
areas like literature or linguistics, some are thinking in terms of narrow
but deep coverage. Specialization seems to provide an answer, so niches of
interest are beginning to form (more so than before) which will limit
student choices (the downside) and provide more faculty for the specialty
(the upside).
Graduate students may locate some comfort and certain challenge in the words
of Gerard A. Hauser when he states, "Cultural memory places one inside a
tradition in which past and present are constantly fused. A sense of history
provides continuity of customs and traditions, of laws and accomplishments
which fill temporal distance . . . It also provides models with which to
respond to the present and to shape the future." Hauser and others claim
that when a community fractures individuals "find the meaning of their
individual lives impoverished." Thus the kinds of seismic changes being
discussed require graduate student response and test our mettle. Will we
fight change or will we respond productively by actively helping to shape
our future? For graduate students hoping to enter the ranks of the academy
as decision makers, ours is the challenge of the palindrome: to look both
forward and back so as to identify theoretically grounded praxis that best
serve our field.
For this special session we will consider proposals that specifically
address the issue of change to the traditional field of English and discuss
thoughtful, scholarly responses. The intention of this session is to create
a dialogue on the general topic through the ideas introduced by the
presenters. Presentations will be short (about 10 minutes) to allow time for
discussion.
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From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List
CFP@english.upenn.edu
Full Information at
http://www.english.upenn.edu/CFP/
or write Erika Lin: elin@english.upenn.edu
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