Other Conferences, Announcements, CFPs, and Job Listings

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Please send your announcements in electronic format to wal@usu.edu.

Southwest/Texas Popular and American Culture Association

31st Annual Conference February 10-13, 2010

Our 12/15/2009 Submission Deadline is rapidly approaching!

Reduced registration rates in effect until 12/15/2009 Sign up available now for our train trip to the Georgia O'Keefe Museum in Santa Fe. Join us in sunny Albuquerque!

Take the New Train to Santa Fe, Visit the Pueblo Cultural Center, Eat Tacos, Go Ski, and More: http://www.itsatrip.org/media/whats-new/default.aspx

Noted as "One of the best conferences of the year," the SW/TX PCA/ ACA invites papers for one of its 70+ Area offerings in American Studies, Literature, Film, Television, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Native American Studies, Latino/a Studies, Ethnic and Gender Studies, Ecocriticism, Southwest Culture, Western Studies, Writing Pedagogy, Creative Writing, and many more! Details on how to submit an abstract to one of our areas can be found at: http://SWTXPCA.ORG

Since the 1970s, the Southwest/Texas PCA/ACA has sought to foster interdisciplinary study of popular and American literary, historical, visual, and other cultural and media texts. We like to think we are a unique organization that pioneered the study of Popular Culture before it was cool. While our offerings have grown over the years to include areas of international study, we still invite scholars and artists to share their perspectives on American life in the diverse region of the Southwest. Information about our areas of study, graduate student awards, conference travel, lodging, and the organization can be found on our regularly updated website: SWTXPCA.ORG If you still have questions, contact our conference administrator: Sally Sanchez: pcaacaswtx@sbcglobal.net
 
Conference information:
Albuquerque, New Mexico
February 10-13, 2010
Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
330 Tijeras
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Phone: 1-505-842-1234
Fax: 1-505-766-6710

Conference website: <http://www.swtxpca.org/> (updated regularly)

Call for papers. Deadline: January 15, 2010

ASLE-sponsored panel at the
American Literature Association
“The Nature of Truth in the Age of American Transcendentalism” (panel title)
San Francisco, May 27-30, 2010

Abstract submissions are invited for 18-minute presentations addressing the relationship between the concepts of “nature” and “truth” in American literature during the period of American Transcendentalism. The panel’s title-- “the nature of truth”--puns deliberately on understandings of the natural world that were foundational to understandings of truth for so many writers of the period. Papers may focus on authors traditionally considered central to the movement or on authors who worked during the period but are not typically considered transcendentalists.

For consideration of inclusion on the panel, please submit a two-page c.v. and a 500-word abstract (as email attachments) to Rochelle Johnson at rjohnson@collegeofidaho.edu by January 15, 2010. The panel is guaranteed a slot on the ALA program. Queries welcome.

Application deadline: January 22, 2010

The Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library (SWC/SCL) invites applications for the Formby Research Fellowships which support short-term fellowships of 1-3 months. The fellowships, which carry a stipend of $2,000 per month and must be taken between June 1, 2009 and May 31, 2010, are open to researchers residing outside the Lubbock area. Fellows are expected to be in residence and conduct research in the collections during the majority of the award period. Funding for the fellowships comes from the Sharleen and Marshall Formby Endowment.

• SWC/SCL research topics include: the American West, ranching, agriculture, transportation, politics, wind research, Texas music, military affairs, the financial planning movement, water resources, oil production, and the environment.
• The James Sowell Family Collection in Literature, Community and the Natural World includes the papers of contemporary writers on the literature of place: Rick Bass, Max Crawford, David James Duncan, Gretel Ehrlich, Bill Kittredge, Barry Lopez, Walter McDonald, Bill McKibben, Susan Brind Morrow, Doug Peacock, David Quammen, Pattiann Rogers, Sandra Scofield, and Annick Smith.
• The SWC/SCL is also a major center for the history of American sports. It holds the organization records of the Southwest Athletic Conference, as well as a substantial collection of oral histories, scrapbooks, and memorabilia on America’s sporting heritage. Other collections include regional oral histories and photographic images and records for the Millennial Collection, a photographic documentary project. The Rare Books department holds collections focusing on Joseph Conrad, John Donne, Rudyard Kipling, W.H. Auden, Walt Whitman, Marianne Moore, Kay Boyle and James Dickey, as well as a growing collection of contemporary artist’s books.

There is no special application form and this notice provides all the essential information needed to apply. Applicants should submit the following:
(1) cover sheet stating a) name, b) title of project, c) expected period of residence, d) institutional affiliation, e) mailing and email address, f) telephone numbers; (2) a letter (not to exceed 1,000 words) which briefly describes the project, states the specific relevance of the Library's collections to the project, and indicates expected results of the research (such as publications);
(3) a curriculum vita or resume; and
(4) one letter of reference.

Guides to the SWC/SCL holdings are available at the website: http://swco.ttu.edu <http://www.swco.ttu.edu/> . Applicants are encouraged to consult the SWC/SCL staff by mail or phone. Inquiries may be addressed to SWC/SCL staff or to the Formby Research Fellowship Committee. Email or fax submissions are acceptable.

Address application or inquiries to: Dr. Diane Warner, Chair
Formby Research Fellowships Committee
Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library
MS 41041
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX 79409-1041

Fax: 806-742-0496 Phone: 806-742-3749

2009 American Studies Association of Texas Conference

Conference Theme: The Beat Goes On: The Music of American Literature, History, and Culture
Conference dates: November 12-14, 2009 San Angelo, TX

We are looking for scholarly essays, nonfiction essays, or creative works that explore the rhythm and beat of literature, history, and culture. What is the influence of rock and roll on literary production? How does culture come alive through music? How do we teach a generation used to picking and choosing music for an IPod? These and other questions provide interesting fodder for essays and conversations.
(All topics related to American Studies will be considered)

Submit proposals and paper topics by October 5, 2009 to

John Wegner (john.wegner@angelo.edu or Terry Dalrymple (terry.dalrymple@angelo.edu)

OR

John Wegner
Box 10894, ASU Station
Department of English
Angelo State University
San Angelo, TX 76909-0894

FMI visit the ASAT web site at http://orgs.tamu-commerce.edu/ASAofTX/.

ASAT encourages graduate student participation at the conference. Contact John Wegner for more information regarding potential graduate student travel grants.

Introducing:

Journal of Sustainability Education

The Journal of Sustainability Education (JSE) is a new, peer-reviewed journal that focuses on critical issues of sustainability by cultivating educational research and practices that explore the meaning and necessity of living sustainably. JSE serves as a forum for academics and practitioners to share, critique, and promote research, practices, and initiatives that foster the integration of the economic, ecological, and social-cultural dimensions of sustainability within
formal and non-formal educational contexts. JSE is an open access trans- and interdisciplinary e-journal. Each issue will include research and practice feature articles, professional and news reports of projects and initiatives, opinion pieces, announcements of educational and research opportunities, and book and other media reviews. JSE encourages submissions from educators active in a wide variety of settings: public and private K-12 schools; higher education; early childhood education; environmental, outdoor and experiential education; community organizing and education; residential and nonresidential treatment
and therapy programs; as well as informal and non-traditional educators.

For more information or if you are interested in being a contributor or reviewer,
please contact editor@journalofsustainbilityeducation.org .

Under Western Skies: Climate, Culture and Change in Western North America

Mount Royal University

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

October 13 – 16, 2010

Submission Deadline : January 15, 2010

This interdisciplinary and cross-cultural gathering welcomes presentations on the environmental challenges now faced by diverse populations, human and nonhuman, in the Western lands of Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

Academics and other stakeholders from the wider community are invited to participate in this urgent and compelling dialogue.  The conference invites academics from the humanities, social and natural sciences, as well as activists, businesses, artists, and others to speak across the boundaries that conventionally divide them.   

Since both the geographical and critical terrains at issue are considerable, a wide array of topics and time periods is welcome.  The shared concern will be the interaction between humans and the natural environment in the context of Western history, geography, climate change, and commercial/sustainable development of lands and resources.

Possible directions may include, but are not restricted to, the following:

--sustainable economic development

--indigenous ways of knowing

--urbanization/suburban sprawl in the “New West”

--literary or filmic representations of natural, urban, or industrial environments

--popular culture and the mass media 

--government action/inaction on the environment

--ecofeminism

--environmental racism and justice

--ecological or ecocritical examinations of particular Western environs and climes

--specific issues such as the Kyoto Protocol or oil sands development

--the borderlands of Canada / United States / Mexico

--environmental education in K-12, postsecondary, and community contexts

--historical perspectives

--environmental activism

--environmental law and policy

A selection of papers will be put forward for a book publication or special journal issue.

Proposals should run no more than 250 words in length and be attached to an email as a .doc or .docx file.  Direct these to Dr. Robert Boschman at rboschman@mtroyal.ca or to Dr. Mario Trono at mtrono@mtroyal.ca.

The conference website is www.skies.mtroyal.ca.

ROBINSON JEFFERS ASSOCIATION
16TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE
February 12–15, 2010
Carmel, CA

Conference Theme: “Robinson Jeffers and the Poetry of the West”

Many critics have described Robinson Jeffers as the greatest poet of the American West. Whatever one’s response to such a claim may be, the answer may ultimately be less interesting than the underlying assumption that makes the claim possible in the first place: that there is such a thing as poetry of the West. Defining such a genre is not a simple matter. If it does exist, who is part of it?  Poets who were raised in the west but left (Robert Frost)? Poets who moved to the west only well on in life (Czeslaw Milosz, W. S. Merwin)? Poets who address it thematically but never lived in the west (Longfellow, in “The Cross of Snow”)? Poets who lived in the west but do not address typical western themes (Yvor Winters, Charles Bukowski)? For that matter, where is the West? What are its boundaries, both geographically and imaginatively? What about the poets of Hawaii, western Canada and Mexico? What about Native American traditions? In what sense can a poetry be regional and yet transcend region? What is the history of the poetry of the West? What is its current situation, and what might its future look like?

The Robinson Jeffers Association invites proposals on any aspect of “Robinson Jeffers and the Poetry of the West,” from examinations of western themes in his work to comparisons with other poets, writers, and artists of the west to definitional and theoretical concerns and more.  As usual, serious papers on other subjects and on the relation of Jeffers to other writers, artists, and thinkers are also welcome.

Proposals should be relatively brief and must be postmarked by December 15, 2009. The conference has a number of different formats and includes opportunities for standard academic talks (15–20 minutes), longer plenary presentations, responses to longer talks, panel chairs, participation in discussion sections, and poetry readings.

Please send all queries and proposals both to David J. Rothman, President, at rothmandavidj@msn.com, and Rob Kafka, Treasurer, at rkafka@unex.ucla.edu.

To learn more about the Robinson Jeffers Association, please visit www.jeffers.org.

High Country News recently published a feature story on Annie Proulx and her latest book Red Desert: History of a Place, in which the author takes an unsentimental view of Wyoming’s little-known and somewhat scarred Red Desert and shares her views on conservation, writing, and the future of the Desert. The story is accompanied by a slideshow of photographer Martin Stupich's images, narrated by Proulx.

You can find “The desert that breaks Annie Proulx's heart” here:
http://www.hcn.org/issues/41.6/the-desert-that-breaks-annieproulxs-heart-wyoming.

Access the slideshow “Invading the Silence” here:
http://www.hcn.org/articles/invading-the-silence.

Allan Tooley, a graphic designer from Great Falls, came up with the idea of inventing an imaginary town in Montana not unlike the ones described in Ivan Doig novels. He named it McKinley, Montana. Read the posts or submit a contribution. This is your chance at creating history.

Wallace Stegner's centennial is a reminder of the lack of respect extended to writers from the American West. Check out Timothy Egan's blog in the New York Times at
http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/stegners-complaint/?emc=eta1.

CALL FOR ESSAYS
Letters From Grass Country: Essays on the Contemporary
Poets and Poetry of the Great Plains
Edited by Mary K. Stillwell and Greg Kosmicki
Deadline for submissions: June 30, 2010

• Publication date: Fall 2010, perfect bound
• Scholarly or familiar essays about the poets of the Great Plains, their lives and their work
• Focus on new poets as well as established
• Cultural diversity strongly encouraged
• Interest in neglected poets of the region
• Broader essays about the influence of poetry and poets of the region—
culture, ethos, geography, history, etc. welcomed
• Submit Word 97 or new attachment by e-mail to Lettersfromgrasscountry@yahoo.com
• For further info: www.thebackwaterspress.com

PRAIRIE SCHOONER ONLINE

It’s taken us a while to get to the Internet, but Prairie Schooner is now online! We don’t have much up yet, but you’re welcome to visit and have a look around. We’ve set up a blog at www.prairieschooner.typepad.com. You can also visit our university-sponsored site, prairieschooner.unl.edu, or connect with us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com, where we have a Page and a Group.

The collection was formally accepted and dedicated Sept. 8 in the Albertsons Library at a reception for family and friends of the Bittners. At the reception, Rena Sanderson, professor of English at Boise State, and Marty Peterson, a Hemingway scholar and assistant to the president of the University of Idaho, offered remarks about John Robert Bittner and his legacy to Hemingway scholarship.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Alan Virta, Head of Special Collections
Boise State University, Albertsons Library

avirta@boisestate.edu
(208) 426-3958

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS
ROUTLEDGE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ENGLISH STUDIES:
CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE SECTION

Routledge is proud to announce the launch of the Routledge Annotated Bibliography of English Studies (ABES), a unique reference tool for those working in the field of English Literary Studies.

Routledge ABES is a specialised online bibliography providing annotated entries on all of the most significant research in literary studies published each year. It contains scholarly annotations on all the best new criticism, from which users can find out about a publication, how it might be of use to them, and whether it would be relevant to their work. 

The database is organised around eight key sections: Medieval; Renaissance and Early Modern; Eighteenth Century; Romanticism; Nineteenth Century; Modernism; Postcolonial; Contemporary Literature.

Routledge is currently inviting applications to contribute to the Contemporary Literature section. In order to maintain the distinction between ABES's postcolonial and contemporary coverage, this section deals mainly with writing from The United Kingdom and Ireland, Canada and the USA—though the critical studies represented can originate from anywhere in the world. The section includes work on both established and up-and-coming authors, and covers all the major genres of contemporary writing including fiction, poetry, drama, non-fictional prose, travel writing, literary theory, and life writing.

As a contributor to Routledge ABES you would be called upon to create annotations to some of the best new research in literary studies, helping to provide an indispensable guide for the rest of the literary studies community. Your work would be fully acknowledged, with contributors able to provide a short biography and a link back to their own website or profile.

Each section is headed by a dedicated section editor, who edits and oversees the records in that section. If you are interested in becoming a contributor to Routledge ABES, then please contact the Contemporary Literature section editor:

The first issue contains an excerpt from David Guterson's new novel The Other and an interview with him, and pieces from WLA members Peter Donahue and Nicholas O'Connell, among other works of fiction and nonfiction.

For more information or to find out how to submit your own work: http://thewritersworkshopreview.net/issue.cgi

The Southwestern Writers Collection (SWWC), a part of The Wittliff Collections at the Alkek Library, Texas State University-San Marcos, has acquired the papers of author Cormac McCarthy.

McCarthy’s body of work includes some of the finest novels of our times. In 1992, McCarthy won the National Book Award for the New York Times bestseller All the Pretty Horses, and in 2006 he was given the Pulitzer Prize for his most recent novel, The Road. The recipient of numerous other awards, including a Rockefeller Foundation Grant, Guggenheim Fellowship and MacArthur Fellowship (the so-called “genius” grant), Cormac McCarthy has been highly praised from the very start of his career.

James A. Michener said of McCarthy’s first novel, The Orchard Keeper, published by Random House in 1965, “His use of words is remarkable, for he lures from them a very special music…. But what is best, I think, is his acute observation and his ability to describe things in new ways. The specific gravity of his writing is high indeed….”

No Country for Old Men, on which the recent film by Joel and Ethan Coen is based, was touted by Sam Shepard as “a monster of a book." In December, the movie was named best film of 2007 by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.

THE ARCHIVES

The complete collection of McCarthy’s literary papers documents his entire writing career. At the core is correspondence, notes, hand-written and typed drafts, setting copies, and proofs of each of his eleven novels, from The Road (2006) back to The Orchard Keeper; also included is the draft of an earlier unfinished novel.

Additionally, the archive contains similar materials related to his work on the 1994 play, The Stonemason, as well as four screenplays, including “No Country for Old Men,” which McCarthy began as a screenplay in 1984 then adapted twenty years later as a novel.

In order to maintain the integrity of the Cormac McCarthy Papers, the Southwestern Writers Collection has contracted right of first refusal to purchase all future materials relating to work by the author, who is in the process of writing three new novels.

Typescripts of one play and two screenplays by McCarthy were previously donated by Bill Wittliff and McCarthy. These are photocopies of originals, signed by the author on the title page, and do not include annotations or edits. The play, The Stonemason, was published in 1994. The first screenplay, "Cities of the Plain" (1984), predates the publication of the novel by the same name by fourteen years. Both screenplays in this collection, "Cities of the Plain" (1984) and "Whales and Men" (n.d.) are unpublished.

Lead Archivist Katie Salzmann is currently creating the initial inventory for the Cormac McCarthy Papers and transferring materials into archival folders and boxes for permanent housing. She will then arrange and describe the McCarthy collection according to archival standards, in a manner most effective for research. The number of requests to access the collection is expected to be high once the processing is finished and the complete inventory (finding aid) of the contents is online, perhaps as early as this fall.

A room designated for the Cormac McCarthy Collection, will be located within the Southwestern Writers Collection on the Alkek Library’s seventh floor, and will be equipped for exhibits, study, and related activities.

Public events are being planned, and will be announced.

The Southwestern Writers Collection is online at www.swwc.txstate.edu.

LITERATURE, SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND ENVIRONMENT INITIATIVE
Texas Tech University

The Literature, Social Justice, and Environment (LSJE) initiative in the Department of English at Texas Tech University centers upon the most important developments in the study of the natural environment in literature. Students will revisit important texts in a new light—across political boundaries into bioregions—within environmental historical contexts. Students will have access to the Sowell Collection, which holds the papers of Barry Lopez, William Kittredge, Gretel Ehrlich, Annick Smith, Bill McKibben, Rick Bass, and others.

Click here for more information or contact sara.spurgeon@ttu.edu.

University of New Mexico Libraries and the University of Wyoming have partnered to launch a new regional resource: Rocky Mountain Online Archive. This extensive source of digitized information describes more than 2,000 archival and special collections from cultural institutions in Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

CDP@BCR, formerly the Collaborative Digitization Program, which in April merged into the Bibliographical Center for Research (BCR), is nationally recognized for its digitization expertise, including training and best practices guidelines. For the Rocky Mountain Online Archive project, the Collaborative Digitization Program, then hosted at the University of Denver, provided training for regional partners in digital imaging and metadata capture and acted as the resource for EAD creation and project management for all nine Colorado libraries.

The Rocky Mountain Online Archives specialized guides, called finding aids, give detailed descriptions of the unique primary source materials located at 20 different repositories from the three-state area. Students and scholars can begin their research any number of ways. In addition to browsing by state, users can easily begin exploring the Rocky Mountain Online Archive by subject area. Within minutes of accessing the site, users can find descriptions of collections related to architecture, frontier and pioneer life, land grant and water rights, wildlife conservation and more. Now that these materials are online, the regional research potential of these collections has truly been enhanced.

In addition to the descriptive finding aids created for this project, three institutions in New Mexico have created new digital collections. Those collections, along with many others from Colorado and Wyoming, can be accessed via the Collaborative Digitizations Program’s Heritage West (http://cdpheritage.org) and Digital Collections hosted by UNM Libraries (http://econtent.unm.edu).

Thanks to generous funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, University of New Mexico Center for Regional Studies, and the University of New Mexico Libraries, the Rocky Mountain Online Archive is now available to the public at http://rmoa.unm.edu/.

Call for Submissions of Articles

The editor of The International Fiction Review invites essays on contemporary fiction by international writers, new and established, including minority writers. Equally welcome are essays on literary and narrative theory, comparative studies of world fiction, and surveys of contemporary national literatures or writers. Contributors are invited to explore all narrative forms in any interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and critical context.

Please send submissions to the editor via mail or e-mail.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

The International Fiction Review, now in its thirty-first year, is a reviewed scholarly periodical devoted to international fiction. It publishes articles and book reviews. The journal has a world-wide circulation and a diverse readership which shares an interest in fictions of other cultures and language groups. The journal is available online to subscribers at www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/IFR

RECENT PUBLICATIONS
The Quest for Community in American Postmodern Fiction—The Politics and Poetics of Philippine Festival in Rosca’s State of War—International Fiction vs. Ethnic Autobiography—Oral Tradition and Modern Storytelling: Revisiting Chinua Achebe’s Short Stories—African Interests: White Liberalism and Resistance in Margaret Laurence—Early Precursors to the Egyptian Novel—Writing as Tea Ceremony: Kawabata’s Geido Aesthetics

For any further inquiries please contact the editor:

Christoph Lorey, Editor
University of New Brunswick
Department of Culture and Language Studies
Fredericton, N.B. Canada E3B 5A3

Phone: (506) 453 4636; fax: (506) 447-3166; e-mail: ifr@unb.ca

Call for Papers/Abstracts/Submissions
8th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Arts & Humanities January 13 - 16, 2010
Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa and Hilton Waikiki Prince Kuhio Hotel
Honolulu Hawaii, USA

Since many people have individually asked for an extension of the submission deadline, we are extending the deadline for submissions to Saturday, September 12th, 2009.

Call for papers, abstracts, student papers, work-in-progress reports, research proposals, workshop proposals, poster sessions,research tables, or reports on issues related to teaching, practitioner forums, panel discussions, and tutorials.

All areas of arts and humanities are invited. You may submit your paper/proposal by using our online submission system! To use the system, and for detailed information about submitting see: http://www.hichumanities.org/cfp_artshumanities.htm