THE CEA CRITIC

The CEA Critic (1939 - Present)

The CEA Critic has been in print since 1939, starting as a four-page tabloid titledThe News Letter of the College English Association. In various formats, the journal has appeared in paper ever since. While other journals have gone digital,The Critic, published by the prestigious Johns Hopkins University Press, continues to appear in hard copy three times each year. Not only is the result a permanent part of “the conversation,” almost all authors, when pressed, will cheerfully admit that no online website feels as wonderful as a print copy.

What You'll Find in Our Pages

The CEA Critic seeks scholarly works that, through "close reading" methodology, examine the texts of fiction, poetry, drama, nonfiction, and film studied on the college level. Bridging traditional academic scholarship with practical pedagogy, the journal encompasses a broad range of interests gathered traditionally under English studies: literature, women's and gender studies, speech, composition & rhetoric, minority studies, creative writing, popular culture, film & screen studies, technical communication, and language & linguistics. By focusing on the contextual as well as the theoretical aspects of texts,The CEA Critic provides a refreshingly sharp academic and practical perspective for teachers and scholars alike.

Keeping Current

The Critic has always been attentive to the changing nature of our profession while keeping a close eye on the evolution of our discipline. Here are a few examples:

At the start of the COVID outbreak, The Critic was among the first publications to deliver a special issue about teaching during the pandemic (2020 Vol. 82 No.3).
The Critic has been prescient in considering how our field and profession have evolved. A 1996 special issue explored the debate between multicultural versus international literature.
In 2010, The Critic published an issue devoted to teaching the graphic novel.
In 1990, The Critic considering the place of “Visual Texts in the English Classroom,” and
A 1998 a special issue looked at the emerging genre of creative non-fiction.

And we can’t forget that in 2010, the same year The Walking Dead debuted on the small screen, essays about Zombies appeared in The Critic.

The Critic's COVID Issue is Featured in a 2020 JHUP Podcast

As members of The College English Association prepared for their annual conference last spring, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic led organizers to a now all too familiar decision: the conference had to be cancelled. CEA Critic Editor Jeraldine Kraver was not only gutted about missing this annual event, but now had another challenge: the journals' third issue each year was normally a proceedings of the annual meeting. Along with everything else going on, she was now without a journal issue. But Jeri did what all talented educators know how to do well: change the plan and pivot accordingly. Within a few short weeks, The CEA Critic put out a call for papers for reflections of educators' and students' experiences teaching and learning during the early days of the pandemic. Join us in a candid and congenial conversation to find out how this special issue, Living the Teaching Life in a Time of COVID-19, came together.

LISTEN HERE

The Critic Supports Emerging Scholars

The CEA Critic seeks to encourage the newest members of our community, whether graduate students or early-career professors. To assist them toward publication, a familiar feature at the annual CEA conference is a round-table featuring the editors of The Critic and the members of the editorial board discussing the publishing process. Not to be overlooked, too, is that The CEA Critic itself routinely seeks to publish essays written by graduate students. Click on the link below for advice on writing a conference proposal/abstract, converting a seminar paper to a conference presentation, and a conference presentation into an article.