UMass Amherst English Graduate Conference 2007

Call for Papers:
"Negotiating Texts, Contexts & Culture: Crosscurrents in the Discipline"

Abstract deadline: April 15, 2007
Conference date: May 12, 2007

Dear Fellow Graduate Students:

This is your chance to participate in the Annual Graduate Student Conference by sending an abstract to the committee! This year’s conference hopes to attract papers from all of our specialties in the English Department in order to collect and share our most recent negotiations of texts, their contexts, and the culture(s) that envelops them. The Graduate Student Conference is designed to bring together all of the current trends in the department to deepen our understanding of the discipline and to appreciate that sometimes those different currents flow smoothly together into synthesis, and other times ideas meet with a shock of resistance that can create avenues to new perspective. Here, we hope to create a space for conversation within and between specialties on all of these possibilities and enrich our experience here at the university.

As always, our Call welcomes papers on any topic that you are currently working on: any era, theory, theme or author is acceptable. This is a wonderful and fresh opportunity to connect with the English Department graduate community at large to showcase your work, see what others are doing, and gain professional experience. We welcome submissions from all parts of the program: English literature, Rhetoric and Composition, American Studies and the MFA.

The conference will be held on Saturday, May 12, 2007. We will include at least one Round Table discussion on issues in professionalization and will conclude the day with a reception at a local Amherst restaurant. Details will follow as the day approaches! The conference is free to attend as listener or presenter and open to all.

Below are the possibilities for submissions. All proposals are due by April 15th to the email addresses below. In order to accommodate full panels, all presentations should take no longer than 20 minutes (equal to 7-9 pages, double-spaced).

Submission Options:

1. You may submit a 300 word abstract for a paper on your choice of topic. Please include a title and your name on the abstract. We will place you on a panel and notify you of your placement once the program is complete.
2. You may submit a complete or partial panel of papers that are unified by a theme, such as one provided by a class you are taking. Please include a complete (300 word) abstract for each paper you are submitting, along with another abstract on the theme of the panel. Please indicate who will be moderating your panel; if you need a moderator, please let us know and we will provide one for you. A complete panel is 3-4 authors. You may submit a partial panel (2 authors) and we will fill it out.
3. You may submit a creative reading (poetry, short stories, an excerpt from a novel) for our Creative Forum. An academic abstract is not necessary here, but rather a brief summary of the work to be read with a brief excerpt from the work or works proposed for a reading of no more than 20 minutes. More time may be available depending on how large the Creative Forum is. Click here for more information about creative submissions.

Volunteering/Voting:

If you would like to involved in the conference day itself as a moderator, should we need a few, or if you would like volunteer some time at the conference to help with its running, send us an email letting us know what you would like to do.

Also, if there is a particular issue or set of issues to do with the profession that you would like to see a Round Table discussion on, let us know what you are interested in.

How to Submit

1. You can submit your abstract online (registration is required). If you have not yet registered with this site, click "Cancel" when you click to submit your abstract -- you will automatically be taken to the registration page.
2. Email Claire Wilson or Natasha Azank with your proposal in the body of the email or as an attachment (i.e., Microsoft Word). Please include your name, the title of your panel, paper, or Round Table discussion, and an abstract.

Many thanks for your submissions; we’re looking forward to this year’s conference.

Claire V. Wilson, Chair

The Annual Graduate Student Conference Committee