TRANSFORMATIONS 

JOIN CEA IN ATLANTA!

The Big Peach. The ATL. The Dogwood City. Atlanta is a city always reimagining itself. The city’s history parallels America's own complicated and continuing story. This spirit of TRANSFORMATION—the theme of CEA 2024—is captured in the city's seal featuring a phoenix rising from the ashes. The image captures Atlanta's resilience as a city in how it emerged from the devastation of the Civil War to become a modern industrial metropolis, the center of the movement for Civil Rights, and what the New York Times describes as “hip-hop’s center of gravity.”

In Atlanta’s transformative environment, CEA 2024 welcomes papers and panels that address a wide range of areas across literary studies, creative writing, rhetoric, composition, technical communication, linguistics, and film. We are especially interested in presentations that incorporate topics related to TRANSFORMATIONS in texts, disciplines, people, cultural studies, media, and pedagogy.

We also welcome papers on areas that influence our work as academics, including student demographics, student/instructor accountability and assessment, student advising, academic leadership in departments and programs, and the place of the English department in the university. Dare we add the transformations of AI/ChatGPT?

We are particularly interested in papers that explore diverse and transformative ways to teach all facets of English studies from developmental writing to graduate courses. Pedagogy is at the heart of the CEA experience.  

RETURNING FEATURE: ROUNDTABLES

Once again, the CEA Conference will include “Roundtable Sessions,” a feature introduced at the 2023 CEA Conference in San Antonio. These sessions are designed to encourage lively discussions of the conference theme. Each table features presenters who deliver “flash essays.” These 500-word papers, rather than fully realized arguments, are meant to be kernels of ideas. With ample time for response from colleagues, the roundtable offers a chance for presenters to test a notion, discover other resources, or begin imagining the next steps towards developing ideas into longer, more typical conference papers or even articles.

A DIVERSE PROGRAM FOR A DIVERSE CITY

Many attractions celebrate Atlanta's diverse story and beckon conference attendees. Between panels, one can sample the city’s many cultural sites—for example, the High Museum of Art or the Museum of Contemporary Art. For pop culture fans, there is Swan House, featured in The Hunger Games. And, of course, there's a Walking Dead Tour! Stop along the way to have “A Coke and a Smile” at the World of Coca-Cola. Music fans can grab a copy of the ATL Rap Map for a tour of Atlanta’s hip hop legacy. Into the news? Visit the CNN Center or the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. Most prominently, there are the powerful National Center for Civil and Human Rights and The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change. These institutions remind us of the transformative effects of Dr. King’s struggle for the dignity of all people.

CEA WELCOMES EMERGENT SCHOLARS

As always, the CEA extends a special invite to graduate students not only to attend the conference but to submit their presentations to the CEA Outstanding Graduate Student Paper competition. The award carries a grand prize of $250 and publication of the winning essay in the CEA’s flagship journal The CEA Critic. Submissions will be solicited via email in January 2024 from those whose papers have been accepted.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS AND DEADLINES

The submission deadline for all proposals is November 1, 2023. Only one submission per individual, please. Notifications of proposal status will be sent in early December. Electronic submissions should be made here: https://www.conftool.pro/cea2024/ Note that all presenters must me members of CEA. Please direct any questions to Conference Chair, Susanna Hoeness-Krupsaw at hoeness@usi.edu.

To learn more about CEA and our 2024 Conference, please visit us at https://cea-web.org/