GUST English Language and Literature First International Conference - 22-24 April, 2012

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Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST)
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GELL is GUST's first international conference, organized by the English Department. In a globalized world where the English language has become an established language of communication, new forms of the language, new ways of expression, new meaning, new metaphors have gradually evolved, over the past decades, to embrace, embody and express new themes and concerns not only for newcomers to the language, but also even native speakers. How does this evolution in language and expression affect the language and its literature(s)? Has this evolution enriched or impoverished the language and its literature(s)? Do we now have one global English language/literature, or many different Englishes and English literatures? Where does English tend? And, finally, what are the challenges this evolution poses for scholars and teachers of the language and its literature(s)? GELL's first international conference seeks to address these questions, and many more, under the overarching theme, Englishes: English Languages and Literaturse in a Globalized World. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
• Should linguistics, language pedagogy, and literature be housed together?
• Why isn't poetry popular anymore?
• Canonical literature
• English literature or literatures in English
• Why are we still teaching British and American Literature?
• Creative writing in a globalized world
• Does translation impoverish language?
• Untranslatability
• The power of language and translation
• Language pedagogy: what English are we teaching?
• Colonizing the language of the colonizer
• Language acquisition and multilingualism
• The OTHER and hegemonic discourse
• Syntactic variation in the dialects of English
• The effects of globalization on standard English
• English phonetics in an era of multiple Englishes
Submissions:
Scholars, Practitioners and students in the fields of Linguistics, Literature and language teaching are invited to participate. Participants are requested to submit a short autobiographical note along with proposals for 20-minute presentations which should be a maximum of 250 words and include at least a working title. . These will be arranged into panel groups. All proposals should be submitted online (conferences@gust.edu.kw) by Thursday, 15th December, 2011.