Footnotes: The Department Newsletter

Volume 52 | January 14, 2008| Number 15

FROM THE GRADUATE STUDIES OFFICE

WELCOME BACK! 

Spring 2008 – Dates to Remember
January 14: Instruction begins
January 14: Last day to register without penalty
January 21: Martin Luther King Day (all-campus holiday)
January 25: Last day to add name to May degree list using Web Self-Service
January 28: Last day to add/drop a semester course on Web Self-Service
January 28: Last day to add a first-half session course
February 22: Last day to add a semester course at OAR without department approval
February 22: Last day to elect or change credit/no-credit option for a first half-session course
February 22: Last day to drop a first half-session course
March 10: Second half-session courses begin
March 15-23: Spring Break
March 14: Instruction resumes
April 4: Last day to add a second half-session course
April 4: Last day to add name to May degree list
April 11: Last day to withdraw from a current term without a grade of W
April 11: Last day to elect/change credit/no-credit option for a semester course
April 11: Last day for student to drop a semester course without a grade of W (without
approval)
April 11: Last day to take final exam for May doctoral degree
April 25: Last day to elect/change credit/no-credit option for a second half-session course
April 25: Last day to drop a second half-session course
April 25: Last day to deposit May master’s theses
April 30: Last day of instruction
May 1: Reading Day
May 1: Last day to add or drop a semester course with approval (a W is recorded)
May 1: Last day to remove an I grade from fall 2007 to prevent F by rule
May 2-9: Final examination period
May 2 : Last day to deposit May doctoral dissertations
May 11: May degree conferral (Commencement)

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

Purdue University – Calumet
Purdue University Calumet will be holding its second annual graduate student scholarly conference at its campus in Hammond, Indiana, on March 28 and 29, 2008. We will consider a wide range of papers on topics in the humanities, the social sciences, the sciences, technology and professional studies. The conference is open to both masters and PhD students and we welcome submissions from both. A $50.00 registration fee will be required for all accepted submissions. Proceedings, including the complete text of all papers presented, will be published. Registration details can be found at the following website: http://www.calumet.purdue.edu/gradschool/conferencegs.html. Email abstracts to: gradconf@calumet.purdue.edu. See file in 213 EB (Journals Room).

 

FELLOWSHIPS

The Department of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara
DISSERTATION FELLOWSHIP
FOR 2008-2009

The Department of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites applications for two fellowships for the academic year 2008-2009. Applicants must be advanced to candidacy at an accredited university. The department is particularly interested in scholars whose research focuses on intersections of race, class, gender or sexuality in African/Caribbean/ African-American or Diasporic Studies.

The duration of the award is nine months and the fellowship grant is $20,000. Scholars are required to be in residence during the entire fellowship period and there is an expectation that the dissertation will be completed during the term of residency. Dissertation scholars will teach one undergraduate course and present one public lecture.

To apply, complete and mail the application to UCSB Black Studies Dissertation Fellowship along with a curriculum vitae, a brief description of the dissertation project (2-3 pages), a writing sample (approx. 20 pages) and three letters of reference to:

Dissertation Fellowship Committee
Department of Black Studies
3631 South Hall
University of California
Santa Barbara , CA 93106-3150

All materials must be received in our office no later than February 4, 2008.
No fax or e-mail submissions will be accepted.

Please go to the following URL to download the application:
http://www.blackstudies.ucsb.edu/student_info/fellowship.html

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer. The department is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community through research, teaching and service.

Raphaëlla Nau, Academic Program Assistant Department of Black Studies University of California, 3631 South Hall, Santa Barbara , CA 93106-3150, (805) 893-3800 , (805) 893-3597 Fax, rnau@blackstudies.ucsb.edu, www.blackstudies.ucsb.edu.

 
Social Science Research Council Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship 2008

The Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship (DPDF) supports early-stage graduate students in the humanities and social sciences in formulating doctoral dissertation proposals that are intellectually pointed, feasible for completion, and competitive in fellowship competitions. Funding for the program is provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Early-stage graduate students, generally in their 2nd or 3rd years, apply to one of five research fields led by two research directors. For each research field, twelve fellows are selected. Fellows participate in two required four-day workshops, (May and September 2008) that frame their summer 2008 research experiences. The Spring workshop emphasizes preparation for predissertation research; the Fall workshop guides fellows through the synthesis of their summer research into dissertation proposals and applications for dissertation research funding. DPDF Fellows are eligible to apply for up to $5000 from the SSRC to support predissertation research during summer 2008.

2008 Research Fields:
Animal Studies
Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change
Muslim Modernities
Critical Studies of Science & Technology Policy
Urban Visual Studies

Information about the DPDF program, including eligibility and selection criteria, is available through the DPDF website, http://programs.ssrc.org/dpdf/. Fellowship applications are available at http://applications.ssrc.org/.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: February 8, 2008

Social Science Research Council
810 Seventh Avenue, 31st Floor
New York, NY 10019

See file in 213 EB (Journals Room).

 

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellowship
Georgia Tech’s School of Literature, Communication, and Culture (LCC) is seeking applicants for its Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellowship. The Brittain Fellowship offers recent PhDs an opportunity to work with talented undergraduates while participating in a rigorous program for professional development. For move information please visit: http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/communications/mlb/. See file in 213 EB (Journals Room).

 

POETRY CONTEST

Dislocated Poetry Contest
Dislocate, a literary journal at the University of Minnesota, announces its first Dislocated Poetry Contest: Poems on the theme of Dislocation. The Winner will receive $500 and publication in the 4th print issue of Dislocate. All entrants will receive a copy of Dislocate and be considered for publication.
 
Entry fee: $10
Page Limit: 5 pages
Deadline: January 31, 2008

We welcome both experimental and traditional forms which stretch the boundaries of poetry.

Each contest submission must include an entry fee. Submissions must also include a self-addressed stamped envelope and cover letter with your name, address, phone number, e-mail, and entry title. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities English department students and faculty are ineligible for this contest.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted; previously published work or e-submissions are not.

Manuscripts will not be returned without a SASE and correct postage. Make entry checks payable to Dislocate Magazine.

Send all entries to:
Dislocate—Attn: Dislocated Poetry Contest
Department of English
222 Lind Hall
207 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0134

*Please note that non-contest submissions for poetry, fiction, and non-fiction do not require an entry fee and are welcome from September 15 - December 15 every year.

Contact us at dislocate.magazine@gmail.com with questions. To view previous issues, visit our website at www.dislocate.org.

 

PUBLICATION

Joyce Studies Annual (JSA)
Will resume publication in late 2007 at Fordham University – submissions invited. February 15 deadline for 2008 volume JSA welcomes manuscripts of 20-50 pages on any aspect of James Joyce studies:

- Archival
- Theoretical
- Comparative

Fordham University Press uses Chicago Manual of Style format. Please send hard copy and e-mail copy to: Moshe Gold/Philip Sicker, editors, Joyce Studies Annual, Dept. of English, Fordham University, Bronx, NY 10458. Direct inquiries to: mgold@fordham.edu or sicker@fordham.edu. See file in 213 EB (Journals Room). 

 

SYMPOSIUM

Research Integrity
The Graduate College, in conjunction with the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, presents its Sixth Annual Symposium on Graduate Education. This year's theme, Research Integrity: Whose Rights? Whose Responsibilities? explores responsible conduct of research as it plays out in many disciplines of graduate study. Our keynote speaker is Dr. Drummond Rennie, Deputy Editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at University of California San Francisco. Following the keynote address are a resource fair and breakout sessions with information about copyrights and patents, research compliance regulations, human subjects research, animal research, responsible data reporting and more. This event is open to all graduate students, faculty, staff and alumni. Advance registration requested. Program and registration at www.grad.uiuc.edu.

Monday, February 25, 2008
1:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Illini Union Rooms B & C

See file in 213 EB (Journals Room).

 

AWARD WINNERS

Congratulations!
---Mary Hays, Instructor in English, won first place in the “Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award” competition. Here is the story as reported by WCIA.

Winning Writers
Reported by: Betty Simpson/WCIA-3 News
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2007 @12:00pm CST

Two local writers are honored for their works in the 3rd Annual Illinois Emerging Writer's Competition." Secretary of State and State Librarian, Jesse White created the competition to promote writing and creativity, plus recognize new literary talent within the state. First place in the "Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award" went to Mary Hays of White Heath for her poem, "Tippet Hill."

Second place went to Samira Didos of Urbana for her poem, "Antiques." Third place went to Samira Didos, of Urbana for her poem, "Fear of Laughter." Winners receive cash awards, plaques, and get their poems submitted for review and possible publication. To read this year's winning entries, log onto their website, illinoiscenterforthebook.org.

---Also, Ian Clausen, a senior majoring in English and Religious Studies, won a Marshall Scholarship to study in the United Kingdom. For more information, see the story in the LAS online newsletter: http://www.las.uiuc.edu/news/2007fall/07nov_marshall.html.

 

WRITING TEACHING OPPORTUNITY

SUMMER 2008
Who:
Johns Hopkins University - Center for Talented Youth We seek enthusiastic writing instructors and teaching assistants to work in our summer programs for gifted elementary, middle, and high school students. CTY offers intense, 3-week academic programs for highly talented students from across the country and around the world.

Where:
We have residential sites located in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. We have day sites for commuters located in the Baltimore, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and San Diego areas.

When:
Session 1: June 26 – July 19
Session 2: July 19 – August 9
Instructors and teaching assistants can work one or two sessions.

Why:
CTY staff work with exceptional students, make contacts and friendships with dynamic colleagues, and gain valuable teaching experience in a rigorous academic setting.

Courses:
CTY offers critical and creative writing courses ranging from Stories and Poems (2nd and 3rd grades) to The Critical Essay: Popular Culture (7th grade and

above) to The Crafting of Fiction (7th grade and above). For a complete list of writing courses, including course descriptions and sample syllabi, please visit www.cty.jhu.edu/summer/employment/writing.html. New courses this year include The Critical Essay: Film (7th grade and above).

Salary:
Instructors start at $2,100 to $3,000 per 3-week session.
Teaching assistants start at $1,100 per 3-week session.
Room and board is provided at our residential sites.

TO DOWNLOAD AN APPLICATION AND LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR PROGRAMS AND SITES: Please visit www.cty.jhu.edu/summer/employment, or contact us at (410)
735-6185 or ctysummer@jhu.edu.

Johns Hopkins University is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.

See file in 213 EB (Journals Room).

 

CONFERENCE

The Tenth Annual Conference of the Marxist Reading Group
Whither Culture?: Toward Histories, Futures, Theories, and Productions of the Social
Keynote Speakers: Michael Denning, Paula Rabinowitz, and Andrew Ross 
University of Florida , March 27-29

“Culture” is just as vexing today as it was in 1976 when Raymond Williams wrote that the term “is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language.” Challenged by a disciplinary backlash in a literary field that turns from cultural orientations to aesthetics and formalism, in studies of history where the term is often perceived as a historical and reductive, in anthropology departments where it is frequently associated with Western biases, and in still other fields where it is perceived to be vague to the point of emptiness, “culture” now faces a future as uncertain as its definition is ambiguous. 

The Tenth Annual Conference of the Marxist Reading Group investigates culture from a Marxist perspective and challenges Marxist scholars to clarify and explore such questions as: How might we, or do we want to, revive or refurbish “culture” after the turn away from it? How can we use cultural studies methodologies after the critique? What is the value of preserving “culture” in different disciplines? What are the consequences of mobilizing concepts of culture around discursive subjects? What are the limits of political agency in cultural productions? 

This conference seeks papers that investigate “culture” from a Marxist perspective.

Michael Denning is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of American Studies at Yale University. His 1996 book, The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century, argues for the centrality of the Popular Front in twentieth-century American culture. His most recent book, Culture in the Age of Three Worlds, studies the prominence of the culture concept as a symptom of the Cold War years. In addition to his scholarship and teaching, Denning works as a labor activist.

Paula Rabinowitz is the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Art’s Samuel Russell Chair in the Humanities. Her department affiliations include English, Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, American Studies, and Feminist Studies departments. Her research and teaching interests consistently combine film, literature, painting and photography. Rabinowitz’s Labor and Desire: Women’s Revolutionary Fiction in Depression America reconsiders the role and production of women during an era famous for its male actors in the radical left. Her current projects include an analysis of pulp fiction and American modernism, modernist women painters, and women’s time-based art since the 1970s.

Andrew Ross chairs the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. His work on popular culture and technology has established him as one of the leading figures in cultural studies in the U.S. More recently, his work has focused on class and labor in the context of globalization, notably in No Collar: The Humane Workplace and Its Hidden Costs (2002); Low Pay, High Profile: The Global Push for Fair Labor (2004); and Fast Boat to China: Corporate Flight and the Consequences of Free Trade—Lessons from Shanghai (2006).

Possible topics include but are not limited to the following:

Histories and theories of the culture wars
Culture and globalization
Culture and commodities
Appropriation of radical culture by the mainstream publics
Interdisciplinarity after the backlash against cultural studies
Disciplinarity and boundaries of “culture”
Culture in the context of literature, film, and other media
Culture and new media
Immigration, migration, and culture
National identity and culture
The politics of cultural actors
Studies of popular culture
Studies of subculture
The culture industry in the age of globalization
Rhetoric of culture in electoral politics
The Subversive
Hegemony and culture
Academic cultures

Please submit a 250-word abstract (and some key words) for a 20-minute presentation along with a short bio and contact information by February 1, 2008 here:
http://grove.ufl.edu/~gsg/bwwc/index.php?cf=5

Authors of accepted papers will be notified by February 5, 2008.

More information on the Marxist Reading Group and our previous conferences can be found here:  http://www.english.ufl.edu/mrg. Questions about the conference may be directed to 2007mrg@gmail.com.
 --
Jordan J. Dominy, M.A., GTA/Ph.D. Student, University of Florida, Department of English, P. O. Box 117310, Gainesville , FL 32611-7310 , jjdominy@ufl.edu, http://plaza.ufl.edu/jjdominy.

 

FACULTY ACTIVITIES AND PUBLICATIONS

Zohreh T. Sullivan….
---- “Iranian Cinema and the Critique of Absolutism,” Media, Culture and Society in Iran: Living with Globalization and the Islamic State. Ed. Mehdi Semati.  NY: Routledge, 2007. 

---- “The Body and the City: Evelyne Accad’s and Etel Adnan’s Beirut,” On Evelyne Accad: Essays in Feminism, Literature, and Cultural Studies. Ed. Cheryl Toman. Birmingham: Summa Publication, 2007.