cfp.english.upenn.edu

Oklahoma State University’s English Graduate Student Association is pleased to announce a call for papers for Frontiers and Borders, its annual conference, to take place March 9-11, 2012 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The conference will feature a keynote presentation on linguistic boundaries from distinguished linguistics scholar, Dr. Dennis Preston. There will also be a reading by Dr. Angie Estes, author of such books as Chez Nous and Tryst, finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize.

Frontiers and borders, in both the literal and metaphorical sense, represent new possibilities and restrictions. While we are most interested in papers that pertain in some way to this topic, EGSA welcomes papers on any topic of literature, film and screen studies, language, philosophy, popular culture, the teaching of writing, TESL, and/or English education. Creative writers are also welcome to submit works of poetry, drama, or fiction.

Although the EGSA conference is organized to meet the needs of graduate students, we welcome contributions from academics at all levels, including undergraduate students and first-time presenters, who are interested in participating in the academic community.

Please submit the title and a 250-300-word abstract to osuegsa@gmail.com by January 20, 2012. Also, please let us know if you are interested in chairing a session, and consult our conference website for information on submitting your paper for the Outstanding Paper Award. Please note that all presentations should be kept to a twenty-minute maximum.

For information on accommodations, and for updates on the conference, please visit the EGSA website: http://english.okstate.edu/orgs/egsa/Conference%202012/osuegsa_conferenc... and e-mail osuegsa@gmail.com with any questions you may have.

Call for Papers
We hope to inspire interdisciplinary discourse through this year’s theme of Frontiers and Borders. We invite paper submissions that address language, ideology, rhetoric, written communication, pedagogical practices, and philosophy in any period or genre of literature, film, or television. We would like to draw together work from a wide range of disciplines, including Literature, Rhetoric and Composition studies, TESL, Film and Screen Studies, Creative Writing, Linguistics, Comparative Literature, American Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, Ethnic Studies, Popular Culture, History, Art History, and Philosophy

Literature and Film Submissions:
In order to consider theorizations, interpretations, and representations of the social and political implications of frontiers and borders and their relation to various forms of text and discourse, we would like to draw together work from a range of disciplines. Paper topics might explore such diverse topics as political identity and hybridity at frontier/border sites; race, sex, gender, and group identity, movements and migration, discussions of ideology, historiography, ethnography, and social change in literature, etc.

TESL, Linguistics, Composition, Rhetoric, and Professional Writing Submissions:
Papers can address a wide range of topics, such as language teaching, language in the composition classroom, discourse analysis, writing pedagogy, sociolinguistics, historical rhetoric, classical rhetoric, visual rhetoric, applied linguistics, philosophy of composition, political ideology, critical theory, borders between students and teachers, and technological frontiers in the classroom.

Creative Submissions:
Fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction presentations are welcome. Please submit an abstract of 100 words or less describing the themes and strategies at play in your texts, as well as the texts you intend to present. You may choose to present poetry, short stories, or an excerpt from a longer work for a reading of 20 minutes. For plays: Last year's conference included several plays on panels; students from our theater department read parts as part of the presentation. This may be considered for this year's conference as well.