rhetoric and composition

The early twentieth century witnessed not only a variety of aesthetic experiments with language, but also a new wave of writing about language theoretically. The most well-known is the work that shaped what was to become twentieth-century linguistics: Saussure, Meillet, Benveniste, Jakobson, and the like. But it was not just linguists who tried to frame new conceptions of language: a wide variety of intellectuals from other fields decided, as if in concert, that understanding language was the key to understanding the basic problems of their disciplines and, in many cases, the very fate of European society. A few of these intellectuals, like Wittgenstein and J. L.

PopMatters Call for Papers: Pixelated Brains and the New Media
Pitch Deadline: 30 April 2009.
Contact: Karen Zarker

The invitation to "revisit, rethink, revise, renew" in the 2010 CCCC Call for Proposals suggests the important work done when Composition was a young field and scholars such as Richard Braddock and Mina Shaughnessy revisited common wisdom about the teaching, learning and practices of writing; their revisitations allowed them to rethink seeming truths and prompted the field to revise our understandings of error, of the thesis, of the teacher's role in the classroom. This panel proposal undertakes a project in the spirit of these earlier revisitations. Specifically, I am seeking papers that revisit and rethink the intersection of commenting and genre in our freshman writing classes in order to renew our conversations about the work of Composition.

Wikis are becoming increasingly common as pedagogical tools in composition classrooms, as the nature of a wiki allows for easy collaboration among students and increased communication beyond the face-to-face classroom.

I'm hoping to put together a CCCC panel that questions and/or explores commonly held assumptions or beliefs about the wiki. Proposals might also explore how elements found in the traditional classroom change when moved to a wiki.

For example:

- How does the collaborative nature of a wiki change writing?

- Is the wiki truly more democratic than a face-to-face classroom?

- What is the relationship between students and teachers when using a wiki?

- How does the level of engagement change?

Cultures of Recession
An Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference Hosted by The Program in Literature, Duke University
November 20 & 21, 2009

Keynote Speaker: Stanley Aronowitz (CUNY), author of How Class Works and Just Around The Corner: The Paradox of a Jobless Recovery

Eldred and Mortensen, in their article "Reading Literacy Narratives" published in College English (1992), call for the movement of literacy studies "in one important direction: into the study of literary texts" (512). Toward this goal, the article identifies categories of literacy-centered literary texts: the "literacy myth," "narratives of socialization," "literature of the contact zone," and "literacy narratives" (Eldred and Mortensen 512-513). However, to date, this article has failed to make a significant impact on literary criticism.

This panel submission to the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) will examine literacy narratives (broadly defined) that show a link between human dignity and the acquisition or practice of literacy (reading or writing), or the influence of literacy on interpersonal communication and relationships. In particular, we are interested in

*Links (positive or negative) between literacy (the ability to read and/or write) and human dignity

*Portrayals in narrative fiction or creative nonfiction of the acts of reading and writing as a means to understanding of human dignity

*Literate techniques of interaction ("reading" others' actions or personalities) as a means of humanizing or dehumanizing the Other

Cultural Consequences of Unmotherhood

Scholars in the fields of Anthropology, Biology, Cultural Studies, Economics, English, Gender Studies, History, Medicine, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Women's Studies, and others are engaged in attempting to understand the construction and consequences of motherhood. A woman's physiological ability to conceive, carry, and birth children, the assumption that the ability to raise children is a natural physiological trait, the ideological pressures to do so, the unique duties and responsibilities of motherhood, and subsequent rewards and penalties are just a few of the areas of inquiry found in literature.

This panel is open to any paper submissions dealing with the reading, adaptation, pedagogical use or critical interpretation of children's literature.

Paper topics may include, but are not limited to:
Themes in children's literature, past to present
Role of friends and enemies
Adults as villains
Evolving ideologies of children's literature
Classroom use of children's literature (elementary, secondary or higher education curriculums)
Reception of children's literature, past and present
Adaptation of children's literature into film or television
Critical studies on specific genres and/or periods of children's literature

Girls Interrupted: Disruptions of/by the Sex/Gender System

The 10th Annual New Voices Graduate Student Conference focuses on representations of the Apocalypse as they manifest throughout history, across cultures, and in language. The conference committee invites papers dealing with any aspect of mankind's conception of the End-of-Days. Individual papers or panel proposals may center upon any time period and any culture or people. They may furthermore draw thematically from such academic disciplines as literary criticism and theory, poetry, fiction, philosophy, religious studies, medieval and renaissance studies, art history, biblical history, cultural geography, and folklore.

The Queer Politics of Harvey Milk: An Edited Collection

"If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."

- Harvey Milk, "In Case" [Audio Tape]: 1977

"Harvey's life was theater."

- Anne Kronenberg, Oscars interview: 2009

Call for papers and panel proposals.
All disciplines invited.

Re-Viewing Black Mountain College
An International Conference
October 9-11, 2009

The legacy of Black Mountain College continues to influence contemporary culture in multiple realms. This conference aims to investigate its history as well as the multiple paths of influence, actual and possible, identifiable in the contemporary world and beyond.

Co-hosted by The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, and
The University of North Carolina, Asheville

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Sigma Tau Delta – Xi Alpha Chapter

present

The Second Annual Graduate and Undergraduate Student Conference on Literature, Composition, and Rhetoric

October 16 – 17, 2009

Call for Papers: