CEA PARTNERS: Think Locally AND Globally

CALL FOR PAPERS:

This exciting event will take place over two days. On Friday, Oct. 4, join us in-person at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, GA. In the afternoon, we will have a  tour of "Andalusia," the Milledgeville home of Flannery O’Connor. On Saturday, Oct. 5, join the MCEA online for more presentations and discussion (see below!). Saturday’s featured speaker is fiction and memoir writer Dawn Burns of Michigan State University. Presenters and attendees of Friday’s in-person events may join the online portion for free!

Proposals for the October 4th Conference are DUE SEPTEMBER 10

We welcome papers from faculty and students about literature; composition; pedagogy; film; linguistics; technical writing; race, class, cultural, and gender studies; classroom management; evaluation; research; on-line instruction; and union/administration issues, as well as readings of creative writing. Please send your name, university affiliation, e-mail address, phone numbers, audio-visual requests, time preference, and a 200-word abstract or sample of creative writing to Emily Pucker via email at emily.pucker@gcsu.edu. To submit a panel proposal, please include the information for all members (5 maximum participants) in the same proposal.

Psychologist Laura Campbell-Sills argues that resilience is about more than survival, "rather it can be defined as positive growth or adaptation following periods of homeostatic disruption."   In 2024, we continue to struggle with the lingering social, psychological, and educational effects of the pandemic, as well as violence on our campuses, political polarization, and the splintering of our civil society. And then there's AI and ChatGPT. How will we, as educators, confront these crises and go beyond “simple recovery” to finding the possibilities for “positive growth or adaptation”? We welcome papers from a pedagogical perspective, creative responses to the theme of Crisis and Resilience, and literary analysis of works with these themes.  

Conference proposals are due by September 21, 2024. For information, please contact Program Chairs Ilse Schweitzer, Cheryl Caesar and Lori Burlingame via email at schwei53@msu.edu, caesarc@msu.eduand lburlinga@emich.edu

When: October 11-12, 2024)

Where: Hillsborough Community College, Ybor City Campus, Tampa, FL

Yi-Fu Tuan, a Chinese American geographer and scholar, wrote “A great city may be seen as the construction of words as well as stone,” emphasizing how the formation of establishments, and more broadly places, occurs both physically and mentally. Similarly, liminal spaces can manifest physically and psychologically, and they are frequently characterized as empty, in-between, or uncertain. Beautiful places and liminal spaces are oftentimes embedded in mythological and cultural narratives, and Florida is no exception. Indeed, the Sunshine State has established itself as a place embedded in myth; at the same time, Florida’s myth, like most myths, relies on a more tawdry reality, encapsulating a sub-history of controversies and battles. 

This year, FCEA invites paper proposals of approximately 150 words. Submissions will be accepted until August 1, 2024. Presenters will be notified of acceptance by August 12, 2024.

More information is available here: https://fcea.online/cfp/ 

Thomas Merton and the Spirit of Place 

June 19-22, 2025 Regis University, Denver, Colorado 

In his journeys in California, New Mexico, and Alaska, and in Asia, gazing on Kanchenjunga, Thomas Merton found himself increasingly “on the edge of great realization.” What is the essence of that realization, and what messages might be divined in the spiritual landscapes of Merton’s final year of life? Who are the “ancestors” – human, animal, mineral, cosmic – whose stories provide a word of hope in this moment of reckoning for the human community and the suffering planet? Such questions are especially fitting as we gather at Regis University at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.  

Session formats include:  Scholarly Papers, Workshops, Creative/Dramatic Presentations, and Guided Meditation/Prayer Sessions. 

Proposals of no more than 250 words and a short biographical statement (one to two sentences) should be submitted by May 20, 2024, by e-mail attachment to itms2025@merton.org or by mail to: ITMS 2025, Thomas Merton Center, Bellarmine University, 2001 Newburg Road, Louisville, Kentucky 40205 USA. 

After a period of approximately seven years of dormancy, the Georgia and Carolinas College English Association is back. They celebrated resurrection witha virtual conference in February! The conference offered a collegial experience with papers addresing some of the most pressing issues we are facing in higher education, including AI and diversity, equity, and inclusion.