A RIVER RUNS THROUGH US: Exploring the Poetics of Place
Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, Lock Haven, PA

Inspired by the host university's setting on the banks of the Susquehanna River, between the Alleghenies and Appalachians, the 2010 EAPSU conference theme "A River Runs through Us" invites exploration of the possibilities and permutations of place and its representations wherever we live.

In Susquehanna, River of Dreams, Susan Stranahan recognizes the dynamic intersections of the local with the global when she observes:

Rivers offer the perfect framework for a storyteller. They provide a beginning and an end with an obvious flow from one to the other. They neatly link people and events in history. They serve as paths of discovery and arteries of commerce. Not only can rivers be counted on for moments of great drama, but they also invariably attract their share of eccentric characters.

With Stranahan's observation in mind—and in hopes of gathering stories and attracting "eccentric characters"—we invite proposals for individual papers, panels, and roundtables from faculty and graduate students that examine topics pertaining to river cultures, to the many environmental, economic, and geopolitical issues raised by representations of rivers and interconnected waterways, and more generally to the nexus of real/imaginary places and their representation.

Topics/Subjects may include, but are not limited to: Landscape, Memory, and Identity; Forests or Rivers in Literature; Ecologies of Place; Ecocriticism & Ecofeminism; Globalization & Natural Resources; Water Stories & Journeys; Rivers & the Human Spirit; Dynamics of Representing Space/Place; Rhetorics of Environmentalism; Local Color Writing; Watersheds & Boundaries; Place-Based Writing & Pedagogy; Literature of Exploration: Parks, Trails, Hikes, Adventures; Environmental Partnerships & Place-Based Education; Place and Poetics of Conservation; PA Literature & Culture; PA Wilds: Representations of Nature; Viewsheds, Tourism, and the Picturesque; Literary and Literal Work of Restoration; Environmental Education for Schools

Keynote Speaker: James Prosek.

Please submit 250-word proposals by April 15, 2010 to Dr. Richard Van Dyke . Please include title, presenter, affiliation, abstract, as well as phone and email contact.