New Updates

Make sure to check out the updates under CFP and News!!!

USU Creative Writing Contest

Necessary Skills needed:  Public relations, social networking, contest and magazine promotion, fundraising.  This internship is a new position that seeks to raise the profile of the contest and its magazine primarily through the use of social networking.  The intern will be responsible for maintaining a Facebook page for the contest, regularly adding information and reaching out to students across campus to prepare them for the early February contest deadline. 

 The intern will also design, produce, and distribute flyers announcing the contest in November, and post occasional reminders to Facebook through December and January.

The intern will design, produce and coordinate advertising in The Statesman, the Back-Burner, Hard News Cafe, and other venues.

 

And the intern will also solicit financial support for the contest and the magazine from a variety of campus and community sources.

Logistics

Internship responsibilities begin fall semester 2011 (a.s.a.p.) and carry over into the first few weeks of spring 2012. Credit hours can be received for fall or spring semester.

 This is a great opportunity to take on a public relations campaign for an exciting part of campus life.  The successful candidate will be involved with the creative writing crowd and get firsthand experience generating effective promotional materials and strategies.

Email Prof. Charles Waugh charles.waugh@usu.edu your current resume with a cover letter explaining your qualifications for the internship and how it fits with your career plans.

 

Note: Graduate students are eligible for Internship Credit under Engl 6900.

Check with your supervisory committee to get approval for your Program of Study. 

10th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities

Submission/Proposal Deadline Extended to: September 30th, 2011
 The 10th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities will be held from January 10 (Tuesday) to January 13 (Friday), 2012 at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa.  and the Hilton Waikiki Beach Hotel  in Honolulu, Hawaii. Honolulu is located on the island of Oahu. Oahu is often nicknamed "the gathering place".
The 2012 Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities will once again be the gathering place for academicians and professionals from arts and humanities related fields from all over the world.
 For full conference details, visit our website at: http://www.hichumanities.org
  

Topic Areas (All Areas of Arts and Humanities are invited)

·Anthropology
·American Studies
·Archeology
 ·Architecture
·Art
·Art History
· Art Management
·Dance
·English
·Ethnic Studies
· Film
·Folklore
·Geography
·Graphic Design
 ·History
· Landscape   Architecture
· Languages
· Literature
· Linguistics
·Music
· Performing Arts
·Philosophy
·Postcolonial Identities
·Product Design
·Religion
·Second Language Studies
·Speech/Communication
 ·Theatre
·Visual Arts
·Other Areas of Arts and Humanities
·Cross-disciplinary areas of the above related to each other or other areas.

To submit your paper/proposal and for information, please go to the following website: http://www.hichumanities.org/cfp_artshumanities.htm

Sponsored by:   University of Louisville - Center for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods http://www.louisville.edu/org/sun

Organized By: Hawaii International Conferences For more information, please contact:
Liz Curley, Conference Coordinator Phone: 808-941-6008  Fax: 808-947-2420     

(Re)Framing & (Un)Mapping

(Re)Framing & (Un)Mapping

The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

February 17-18, 2012

Keynote address by
Dr. Michael Ann Williams
(Western Kentucky University)

We are happy to announce the 5th annual collaborative conference between The Ohio State University Folklore Student Association and the Folklore & Ethnomusicology Student Associations at Indiana University. This conference aims to create a space for graduate and undergraduate students to share their research in folklore, ethnomusicology, cultural studies, material culture, performance studies, and related disciplines connected to the study of academic and vernacular interpretation(s) of everyday life.

In “A Theory of Play and Fantasy” (1955), Gregory Bateson makes reference to an Andaman Island peace-making ceremony in which participants strike one another to enact, then dispel their anger. Investigating the fine line between play and aggression, Bateson writes, “(t)he discrimination between map and territory is always liable to break down, and the ritual blows of peace-making are always liable to be mistaken for the ‘real’ blows of combat.” Bateson’s example leads us to think about the “maps” that organize our interpretations of cultural “territories”: systems of meaning, practices of communication, and theoretical and ideological frames. Inspired by Bateson’s seminal text, this year’s conference seeks to explore the following questions and themes:

●     What devices do folklorists and ethnomusicologists use to (re)frame and (un)map? How are these concepts used to decontextualize, entextualize, and recontextualize?

●     How do ideological frames and maps translate to concrete realities, and vice versa?

●     What effect do frames and maps have on folk groups, music and culture?

●     What are the politics of mapping? How do previously unmappable things become mappable? How do things fall off the map?

●     How do frames and maps work as boundaries that define what lies within and without, sameness and difference?

●     How have concepts of performance, play, ritual and literal frames affected theory and practice in folklore and ethnomusicology?

●     How have frames and maps guided thinking about space, place, land(scape), region and nation-state, and how have the latter complicated our understanding of the former?

●     In what other ways does current research engage with (re)framing and (un)mapping?

*We also welcome submissions on other topics.

The conference will have four opportunities for participation: 20-minute paper presentations, a poster session, 10-minute experimental panels for works-in-progress, and a discussion forum for all attendees. We will be accepting 250-word abstracts for all presentation formats, apart from the forum.

Abstracts must be submitted by November 18, 2011. Please email submissions to osu.iu.2012conference@gmail.com.  
 
Register for this event for free at http://osuiu2012conference.eventbrite.com/. For more information on the details of the conference visit http://cfs.osu.edu/fsa/studentconference in the coming months.

American Folklore Society Women’s Section

Call for Submissions 2011

Elli Köngäs-Maranda Prizes
American Folklore Society Women’s Section

Each year, the Women’s Section of the American Folklore Society awards two prizes in honor of pioneering scholar Elli Köngäs-Maranda. The prizes recognize superior work on women’s traditional, vernacular, or local culture and/or feminist theory and folklore.

Student Prize
· for an undergraduate or graduate student paper (up to 30 pages in length)
· entrants must either be currently enrolled in a degree program as of the submission deadline or have been enrolled in one during the 2008-2009 academic year
· carries an award of $100
· submission deadline is September 30, 2011
· may be submitted as either email attachment (preferred) or as hard copy


Professional/Non-Student Prize
· eligible work includes: publications, films, videos, exhibitions or exhibition catalogues, or sound recordings
· materials should have been published/produced no more than two years prior to the submission deadline
· carries an award of $250
· submission deadline (postmarked) is September 26, 2011
· please submit three copies of books, videos, etc.

The awards will be announced at the American Folklore Society Annual Meeting in Bloomington, IN, October 13 – 16, 2011. Prize recipients need not be members of the Society.

Please direct all submissions and questions to:

Jennifer Spitulnik-Hughes
University of Missouri
Department of English
114 Tate Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
jspitulnik@gmail.com

The Sue Samuelson Award for Foodways Scholarship

The Foodways Section of the American Folklore Society is pleased to announce the Sue Samuelson Award for the best student paper on food and foodways.

Papers should be based on original fieldwork or research and should utilize current folkloric approaches to interpretation.

The contest is open to undergraduate and graduate students.  There is no entrance fee. The contest prize is $200 (USD), publication in the journal Digest, and free membership to the Foodways Section of AFS. 

Winners may apply for a travel stipend to upcoming meetings of the American Folklore Society.

 How to Enter:

Save your original, unpublished essay (from 1,500 to 9,000 words) as a Word document and attach it to your e-mail.   Include the essay title, your full name, postal address, phone number, and e-mail address.   Type "Foodways Essay Contest" in the subject description of the e-mail and send the submission to LuAnne Roth.

·        All entries must be received by September 25, 2011.

·        Entries will be judged according to the following criteria: 

o   Sensitivity to the people and culture being described

o   Depth of analysis into the food tradition

o   Ability to engage the reader

o   Quality of writing.

·       Supporting photos (in .jpg or .gif format) are welcome.

·       The journal Digest reserves first-time Worldwide Electronic rights for winning submissions and the right to reprint the paper in a future publication. The writer may republish the unedited submission as desired six months after initial publication in Digest.

·        Winners will be notified by e-mail.

Contest Terms:

·        Submissions should be previously unpublished, either in print or on the Web.

·        Decisions of the judges are final.

·        The Foodways Section is not responsible for late, lost, incomplete, or illegible e-mail or for any computer-related, online, or technical malfunctions that may occur in the submission process.

·       Submissions are considered void if illegible, incomplete, damaged, irregular, altered, counterfeit, produced in error, or obtained through fraud or theft.

·        The winner will be paid by check.

·        Federal, state, and local taxes are the sole responsibility of the contest winners.

How do I complete the language requirement for an MA Degree?

A Master of Arts (MA) degree signifies proficiency in one or more foreign languages. Students in English (Literature and Writing) or American Studies (Standard or Folklore) must pass a language requirement in order to receive an MA (Master of Arts) degree. To do this, they must demonstrate current ability in one or more foreign languages. Without a foreign language, students will receive an MS (Master of Science).   

Specifically, the MA requirement may be completed in one of the following ways:

1. Test

Pass a test of written and oral comprehension in an approved foreign language through Dept of Languages & Philosophy (If your language is other than Spanish, French, or German, you must have the approval of your Supervisory Committee. Your committee chair should email the DGS with the approval.)

Or

2. Coursework

Can be completed by one of the following:

• Demonstration of proficiency in one foreign language by successful completion of one course at the 2020-level or higher (or its equivalent)
• Demonstration of proficiency in two foreign languages by successful completion of the 1020 course level in one language and the 2010 course level in the second language (or its equivalent)
• Completion of an upper-division (3000-level or higher) foreign language grammar or literature course requiring the 2020 course level (or its equivalent) as a prerequisite. Conversation courses cannot be considered for satisfying this requirement.

NOTES:

• All coursework counting toward MA language requirements must be taken for letter grade. Courses taken as pass/fail cannot count. 
• Students who have passed coursework within the last 5 years, from the date of your matriculation in the department’s program, may petition (language requirement form) for acceptance of coursework to fulfill the requirement.  (You can take as many or as few of these course as you need, provided you pass the final in the two-year sequence with a C or better)

Students fulfilling one of the requirements above, need to contact Dr. Funda, DGS, with proof of language, as above, and a completed Fulfillment of Language Requirement for an MA Degree Form. This form should be filled out by the beginning of their last semester. 

What are the graduate course offerings for Spring 2012?

Course offerings may be found at http://schedules.usu.edu/sb/.
Presently, the following faculty have provided brief descriptions of their courses for Spring 2011*:

FCHD 5550-001/7900-002: FEMINIST THEORIES, Dr. Jamie Huber:

Mondays, 9-11:30am 

FEMINISM is a movement to end sexism exploitation and oppression - bell hooks
Click here for the full course description.

SPCH 5000-002: Gender & Communication, Dr. Jamie Huber:

Studies in Speech Communication

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9-10:15am

CRN # 14936

Click here for the full course description. 

English/History 6720-001: FOLKLORE FIELDWORK, Steve Siporin:

 "Fieldwork" in folklore means observing and recording the performance of folklore by the bearers of tradition.  It also means interviewing the performers, the makers, the usually unheralded experts in vernacular culture.

   This course focuses on the fundamental ideas, techniques, and methods used--with sensitivity and respect--to gain access to this knowledge.

Problems that we consider range from the pragmatic to the ethical to the theoretical.  The course emphasizes doing fieldwork, and the readings are geared to issues students will face in the field during the quarter.

Classroom discussion will focus on the issues raised both by the texts and students' experiences in the field.

English 6350 American Literature and Culture, 3:00-4:15 TR, Steve Shively

The topic of this seminar is the literature and culture of Greenwich Village, center of both cultural and counter-cultural activity since the middle of the 19^th century. This neighborhood in lower Manhattan was home to New York City’s old guard wealth before becoming a haven for creativity and non-traditional lifestyles. Among the many writers and cultural figures who called the Village home are Henry James, O. Henry, Willa Cather, Mark Twain, Edna St. Vincent Millay, E. E. Cummings, Dylan Thomas, Jack Kerouac, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, and Jackson Pollock. The Stonewall Riots and the Beatnick Riots happened in the Village. We’ll explore the Village as both a geographical place as well as a spiritual zone of heart and mind. In addition to reading a representative sample of literature in many genres—fiction, poetry, drama, essays, we’ll study film, visual art, and music. The reading list includes Washington Square, by Henry James; Manhattan Transfer, by John Dos Passos; The Wicked Pavilion, by Dawn Powell, At Home at the Zoo, by Edward Albee, and three anthologies including The Portable Beat Reader. 

“Greenwich Village”

Where now the tide of traffic beats,

There was a maze of crooked streets;

The noisy waves of enterprise,

Swift-hurrying to their destinies,

Swept past this island paradise;

Here life went to a gentler pace,

And dreams and dreamers found a place.”

                                             --Floyd Dell

English/History 6610-Melody Graulich , Seminar in the American West-TTH 1:30-2:45

Narrative Scholarship:

This seminar will focus on what is sometimes called “narrative scholarship” or “personal voice” scholarly writing, which can be practiced in many genres: history, literary or cultural criticism, biography, memoir, essays, photo essays, all of which we will read.  Accepting the premises of postmodernism that all knowledge is constructed, narrative scholarship commonly acknowledges the author’s relationship to his or her scholarly practices and subject matter. Like early feminist and eco criticism, narrative scholarship commonly combines research with personal experience.  It is often essayistic, exploring the writer’s process of discovery, of making connections, of coming to understand.  It also recognizes the fundamental nature of storytelling.  The writer of narrative scholarship speaks to both an academic and a popular audience, eschewing disciplinary jargon, thinking about being artful rather than just getting points across.  Narrative scholarship sits at the nexus of the creative and the academic.  It could be seen as creative nonfiction as written by folks who love primary research.

We will read a variety of examples of narrative scholarship about the history, culture, and nature of the US West, including  all or portions of  Patricia Nelson Limerick’s essays; Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose; David Wrobel, ed.  Seeing and Being Seen: Tourism in the American West; Martha Sandweiss, Passing Strange;  Philip Deloria, Indians in Unexpected Places; John-Michael Rivera, The Emergence of Mexican America; Jane Tompkins, West of Everything; Miné Okubo, Citizen 13660; Ann Ronald, GhostWest; Margaret Brady, Mormon Healer Folk Poet: Mary Susannah Fowler's Life of 'Unselfish Usefulness'; Dan Flores, The Natural West: Environmental History in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains; Evelyn Funda, Weeds, Brandon Schrand.  Four of our authors will visit our class, Ronald, Brady, Funda, and Schrand, to talk with us about their work.  We will also read some examples of my own work in narrative scholarship.

Assignments include two short oral presentations, one or two short papers, and a 20-page final essay of your own narrative scholarship.  I will be very flexible about the genre you choose for your final essay.  The class will include a chance to workshop your final paper and discussion of possible places to send it for publication.

English 6810—Gibson, Intro to Comp Studeis (R 4:30-7:30):

Composition is more than just writing; it is an approach we take to the world around us. Writing is one of the chief methods we have for interacting with large portions of the public, and, as such, it will have a large effect on others' perception of us and even our perception of ourselves. The composition classroom, then, is more than simply a writing workshop, and if we are to be truly effective composition instructors, we must understand how our teaching will shape the way our students see themselves and the rest of their educational experience. In 6810 (Intro. to Composition Studies), we will do this by first examining the work of developmental psychologists who have studied the emotional and intellectual status of first and second-year college students. Robert Kegan, William Perry, Mary Belenky, and others have studied and written about the intellectual development of college-age youth, and we will cover their findings in order to understand the way our students are currently interacting with their environment and with their peers. We will discuss the role teachers need to play to be most effective with our students, and we will discuss a number of pedagogical methods. We will then study different approaches to composition instruction with a particular eye toward how these theories may or may not be effective with our students. Our goal is to be able to enter our own classrooms with a pedagogy that both meets students where they are and challenges them to move further.

English 6340—McCuskey, Brit Lit & Culture (W 4:30-7:00): This course will be on "Victorian Secrets," and will survey the Vicotorian novel from Austen to Hardy. The reading list is below.

Jane Austen, EMMA (Penguin Classics): 9780141439587
Charles Dickens, BLEAK HOUSE (Penguin Classics): 9780141439723
Wilkie Collins, THE MOONSTONE (Penguin Classics): 9780140434088
George Eliot, MIDDLEMARCH (Penguin Classics): 9780141439549
Arthur Conan Doyle, A STUDY IN SCARLET (Penguin Classics): 9780140439083
Arthur Conan Doyle, HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (Penguin Classics): 9780140437867
Oscar Wilde, PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (Penguin Classics): 9780141439570
Thomas Hardy, JUDE THE OBSCURE (Penguin Classics): 9780140435382  

English 6440—Shook, Cultural Issues in Visual Communication
In this class we will take a look at cultural attitudes about visual communication, including: Investigations of what a certain culture may or may not consider permissible to depict; discussions of design issues in icons and logos; taking and presenting photos for international uses; and problems using abstract shapes.

  
English 6884 - Creative Nonfiction Writing—Sinor (Tues. 4:30-7:00)
In this writing workshop, we will be focused on the braided essay, a lyric form of writing that weaves together several narrative strands and then relies on image and  metaphor to bind those strands together. We will look at work by Brenda Miller, John D'Agata, Reg Saner, and others. Students will be asked to complete site visits, conduct interviews, and/or engage in archival work as  they write braided essays of their own.


*Note: this is not a comprehensive list of course offerings.  Descriptions of additional courses and additional information on these courses will be posted as they become available.

What is Continuing Graduate Registration or Continuing Graduate Advisement (6990 or 7990)?

Graduate students using University facilities or faculty time must be registered for a minimum of 3 graduate credits every semester until completion of all degree requirements. Students employed as graduate assistants or graduate instructors during all semesters, except for summer semester, must be registered as full-time matriculated students. More than 3 credits of continuous registration may be required by a department. Continuous registration may be met with courses, seminars, independent study, research credit, or 6990 or 7990 (Continuing Graduate Advisement, sometimes also called Continuous Graduate Registration). The continuous registration requirement goes into effect the semester a student matriculates in the School of Graduate Studies.

A graduate student who is not using University facilities or faculty time may meet the continuous registration requirement by paying the Continuous Registration Fee of $100 per semester (not necessary for summer semester). This alternative requires a written request from the department head, including verification that the student is not using University facilities and/or faculty time. International students usually do not qualify to pay the Continuous Registration Fee because of immigration regulations.

The semester a student defends (or redefends) a thesis, Plan B paper, or dissertation or takes final oral examinations, he or she must be registered for at least 3 credits. Doctoral and master’s Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C students will be given until the last day of the next semester (known as a “grace” semester) following the defense to finish degree requirements, and Plan C students will be given until the last day of the next semester after coursework completion to finish degree requirements. If a student has not completed all degree requirements by the end of the grace semester, the student must pay a $100 Late Completion Fee for each semester following the grace semester. If working with faculty involves more than routine submission of the thesis or dissertation to the assistant dean, registration for 3 or more credits is required. After one year, redefense may be required.

Graduate Students may enroll for 6990 or 7990 Continuing Graduate Registration only with the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies and only when students need to fulfill a Graduate School requirement to register for a certain number of credits. Engl. 6990 credits do not count towards the 30 or 33 required for graduation. These credits do not require students to do any additional work, but they do fulfill the graduate school’s requirement for continuous registration.  These credits are repeatable.

Is it possible to receive additional teaching assignments if I have not completed my degree in the allotted program time?

Students receiving GIs are assigned either two years of teaching for MA/MS students or four years of teaching for PhD students.  Students are eligible to apply for up to one additional year of teaching. Additional course assignments are dependent foremost on the department availability and need for the courses. Because of that, there is no guarantee for additional teaching support. If course assignments are available, however, they will be given based on quality of the applicant’s teaching and consistent progress made toward the degree. Students cannot apply for teaching support beyond this one additional year.  In order to apply for additional teaching support, student applicants must fill out an Application for Additional Teaching Assignments form with the assistance of their Supervisory Committee Chair.  Instructions are on the form. Completed forms are due to Dr. Evelyn Funda, DGS, by April 15.  

Class Registration

Graduate students need to be properly registered for classes they are attending by September 19th (Monday) at 5:00 p.m. The Day 15 enrollment figures are very important to the university as they are used for many state reports, national surveys, and funding decisions.

Do graduates get any travel money?

Travel to conferences requires that you have been accepted to present a paper; similarly, workshop participation requires an acceptance. Just chairing a conference session does not qualify grad students for travel funds. They must also have an accepted paper.  


The old GSS Conference and Travel Awards have been completely replaced by the Office of Research and Graduate Studies Graduate Student Travel Awards, which are explained below. Please do not apply to the old GSS travel awards.               

The Office of Research and Graduate Studies has opened applications for the RGS Graduate Student Travel Award for the coming year. The award promotes student academic involvement by partially funding travel costs associated with professional presentations at regional, national and international conferences. Developing presentation skills is critical to the success of graduate students, and conference presentations represent the best opportunity for developing those skills.
              
The Office of Research and Graduate Studies has funds that have been allocated for students that can cover $100-$400 per student in costs of conference registration, mileage, airfare, hotel, per diem and international travel insurance. All full-time graduate students are eligible to apply, at least four weeks before their travel date.
              
We encourage graduate students to take advantage of this opportunity. A full explanation of eligibility requirements, funding levels and requirements, allocation decisions and deadlines, as well as the application form, are included on the Travel Awards Guidelines. The link to apply on this page is not working so to apply please click here. The English Department will match up to $300 for Master's students and $500 for PhD students per fiscal year. (July 1- June 30) You do have the option of applying to other departments for more funding, but funds are not guaranteed.
 *Before (required): At least four weeks before you trip, apply to the GSS office. When you are accepted, bring or email Robin Wheelwright your acceptance letter from the Grad School and fill out the travel form. This form is found on the departments shared drive. If you do not have access to this, Robin can email you this form.  Take your completed form to Robin in the main office, RWST 201.

*After: When you return, you will need to bring all your original, itemized receipts to Robin, to claim your reimbursement. Please make sure that your receipts show proof of payment. If you have questions please contact Robin Wheelwright.