What is a Thesis/Dissertation Proposal Defense and do I need a form for that?

After you have written your thesis or dissertation proposal and have approval to move forward from your Supervisory Committee chair, your entire committee will convene to discuss the proposal. Your chair will arrange for that meeting.  At that meeting, members of your committee will give you feedback about the viability of your project, its scope, additional sources you might consider, etc.  Then the committee will ask you to briefly leave the room so that they can vote on approving the proposal.  After the vote, the committee may ask for revisions to the proposal or they may approve the proposal with the caveat that you agree to their suggestions.  Before the meeting is over, the committee should sign and date the Thesis/Dissertation Proposal Defense Form.  It is your responsibility to bring this filled-out form to the thesis/dissertation proposal defense meeting.  This form simply formalizes the agreement between the student and the committee members regarding the topic and content of the thesis or dissertation. After you have signatures of all your committee members, put the form in DGS’s mailbox (Evelyn Funda, DGS).  

NOTE: Students proposing a Plan B thesis do typically meet with their committee to defend; however, they do not need to fill out a form.

Fill out the Thesis/Dissertation Proposal Defense Form here.  
***If you are having troubles viewing the document, it may be that you need to upgrade software on your computer. You can also pick up a hard copy from Candi Checketts, RWST 312 E.***

New Page!!!

We have recently added a new page to the blog titled Financial Aid. This is still under construction and will have updates often so please remember to check this page for scholarships, fellowships, etc.

We posted a few items today and yesterday about scholarships so be sure to check them out as the deadlines for these are fast approaching.

Good luck!!!

What should be included in a Plan A or Plan B Creative Thesis Proposal?

Guidelines for Plan A and Plan B Creative Theses
A creative thesis may be in any genre or combination of genres. The thesis proposal, if done well, will aid you in writing the critical introduction to your work, a key component to the creative thesis. Keep in mind that the goal of the thesis proposal is to demonstrate to your committee that you have the necessary background to complete your thesis, that you have organized your thoughts, and that you are able to place your work within a larger tradition.
1) TOPIC
In this section, your goal is to describe the prevailing themes of your work and/or the questions at the heart of your project. Those writing poetry and fiction theses may find it most appropriate to explore the themes they will be addressing, typically two or three larger ideas that their work centers on. For example, the loss of innocence, the mutability of the natural world, how a relationship unravels. Creative nonfiction writers might feel more comfortable naming the questions that they are asking: what does a certain moment in your past have to say to the rest of your life, what is the relationship between natural history and personal history, how does one recover from trauma.
Whether asking questions or stating themes, your goal in this section is to describe why the questions/themes matter (to you as a writer and to others) and how your approach is like and unlike other writers. While your thesis will have a literal subject (which will be described in detail in the next section), here you are getting at the deeper subject. Potentially the themes/questions will intersect with one another, and you can describe why this intersection is particularly useful. In other words, why are you framing your work the way you are and how will the juxtaposition of these ideas move your reader? These themes and/or questions need to be clearly stated and then elaborated on because much of the rest of your proposal (as well as your thesis itself) relies on them. You need to choose between one and three questions/themes to explore, many more and your committee will most likely feel you are not focused.
2) STRUCTURE
In this section you need to address both your choice in genre and your choice of form within genre. You will need to demonstrate that you are familiar with the conventions of your chosen genre and have made choices based on those conventions. Your committee will be looking to see that you think in sophisticated ways about genre and that your choice of genre aligns seamlessly with the themes you are exploring or the questions you are asking.
In this section, you will also need to describe the literal structure of the piece. For poetry, what is the arc of the poems, how will the individual poems move to form a greater whole? For fiction, what are your organizational or underlying principles (plot, character, imagery, or something else) and how do those decisions reflect the theme of your work? For nonfiction, you will want to address choices between lyric, linear, or modular forms, the scope of the work, the stance of the narrator, the use of research. In all cases, you want to make sure your committee understands literally what your work is about, as well the connections between form and deeper subject.
3) LITERATURE REVIEW
In this section you will return to the themes and/or questions that you addressed in your opening paragraphs. Here you need to summarize and discuss the work of other writers whose work bears upon each theme/question.
A literature review does several things:
●    It helps provide a context in which to locate your work, showing the existence of a creative conversation/tradition in which you are about to participate.
●    It establishes your readiness to enter the conversation, showing that you know the appropriate literary tradition.
●    It allows you to shape the conversation, giving your own reading of what has been written so far about the topic.
Your literature review should be organized by the themes/questions you developed earlier. There should be an inherent connection throughout your proposal between what you are writing, why you are writing, and how you are writing, and these connections are informed by both personal experience and the literary tradition. Your literature review will include both examples of the themes/questions you are exploring (meaning poems, stories, or books that center on the same themes), as well as examples of critical and creative essays and books about your genre (for example, writers who discuss fragmented form or confessional poetry).
4) PROCEDURES
This section must demonstrate how you plan to undertake your project. What have you already written? What must you still write? What research will you undertake—interviews, field visits, observation, journaling? All creative work has a research component to it—even if that research is simply listening to conversations at the local diner to learn about dialog. Here, you need to describe the actual labor of your project—what will you need to do, when, and how?
5) OUTLINE
You will need to provide a tentative outline of your thesis, with chapter/section headings and a few lines of explanation under each. As in the literature review, it may help readers if you include transitions to help explain the rationale for your organization of the thesis. Your readers will want to know why you have divided it this way and why you have chosen this sequence for the sections. Help them see and understand the logic of your organization.
6) TIMETABLE
Problems occur in thesis defenses most often when committee members have not had time to read the thesis, to make suggestions, and to see those suggestions incorporated in a revised version that they have time to read before the defense. Your proposal should include a schedule that you plan to follow for completing the research and writing the thesis. Bearing in mind the Graduate School’s deadlines and your own plans for graduation, identify a tentative defense date and work backwards from that. Meet with your committee to determine deadlines that are appropriate for all involved. At the very least, make sure your timetable meets the deadlines listed below:
Submit first complete draft to committee members at least 4 weeks before defense. Draft should be returned to you with comments at least 3 weeks before defense. Schedule defense date with the Grad School at least 2 weeks before defense. Resubmit revised draft to committee at least 10 days before defense.
You may conclude this section by identifying the first or next step you plan to take in your project.
7) BIBLIOGRAPHY
The bibliography at the end of your proposal should be a list of works you have cited and or consulted. Like the rest of your thesis proposal, it needs to demonstrate a deep understanding of the field. Follow the citation style favored in your field—e.g. MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian, etc. You should also buy the Publication Guide for Graduate Students at USU from the Bookstore, or download it from the Graduate School website.
MODIFICATIONS FOR PLAN B CREATIVE THESIS PROJECTS
A Plan B creative thesis involves the same creative and intellectual work. It is just shorter. Students should work with their committee chairs to determine whether Plan A or B makes most sense given their particular needs, constraints, and goals.
CRITICAL INTRODUCTION
Every creative thesis must include a critical introduction that places the work within a larger conversation. These are typically ten to fifteen pages for Plan A thesis projects and potentially shorter for Plan B. Much of the work you do for your thesis proposal—especially the literature review and the section on structure—will aid you in writing your critical introduction. Work with your committee to determine the length and particular parameters for your project. No creative thesis will be accepted without this accompanying document.

What should be included in a Plan A Thesis or Dissertation Proposal?

GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPING A PROPOSAL

The proposal has two purposes: to help you define and clarify your project for yourself and to communicate it clearly and convincingly to your Supervisory Committee. As they read your proposal, they need to understand what you plan to do, why it’s worth doing, how you are going to be able to do it, and how they might help you. You should assume this audience is sympathetic but also skeptical. They want to be on your side, but they want to be convinced that it’s a cause worthy of their time and effort. The most prevalent questions in their minds as they read are likely to be “why?” “how?” and “so what?” Try to anticipate these questions by providing explanations and rationales for your decisions wherever it seems needed.

The guidelines below are arranged in typical sequence, and if possible you should use the numbered headings to organize your proposal. Proposals are typically approximately pages plus a bibliography, all double spaced. Some are longer. An extensive, well-developed proposal is a good investment of time and effort, since it can form the foundation for the early pages of the thesis or project itself.

The guidelines below refer to Plan A theses but should be understood to apply equally to Plan B projects.

1) THESIS TOPIC

A thesis must obviously have a topic—it must be about something—and you should declare this at or near the beginning of your proposal. Beyond that, however, the thesis should identify and address a research problem. All scholarly research projects are driven by problems, which means that they are motivated by a scholar noticing something in his or her field that demands attention. For example, your research problem might take the form of a perceived knowledge gap: you find a subject where little work has been done, not much is known, or many questions remain.

Alternatively, the problem might be that you believe a much-discussed topic demands a critical reexamination in light of new theory or an overlooked perspective; or that a potentially useful connection to another field has not been made and should be explored. The problem could also take the form of a dilemma, puzzle, obstacle, or contradiction that the field needs to confront and resolve or overcome in order to move ahead.

Creative projects, too, may be seen as being driven by a problem--an idea that has not yet been explored in a particular genre, for instance.

In light of the preceding paragraph, the first section of your proposal might address the following headings and questions:
a) Context and research or creative problem

What will your thesis be about?

What will be the subject matter?

What problem will your thesis address?

Why is this problem important to your field? Why does it need to be addressed?

(In this opening section it may also be appropriate to explain how and why you chose this subject matter—what personal connection it has to you.)

b) Scope

What will be the scope or range of your thesis? What material will it include, and why? What material will it exclude, and why? What do you aim to accomplish in this project and what will you not be able to do? Where will you draw the line that marks the outer boundary of your project? (Think about the logic or principle that determines the scope of your thesis. For example, a project might be limited to a specific time period, to a particular geographical area, or to a defined genre of literature, or to a particular author or school of authors, or to a social group.)

c) Research or creative questions

At this point in your proposal it may help to state your research or creative questions. These questions will motivate and guide your work, and your whole thesis will ultimately be your attempt to answer these questions. (A specific “thesis statement” is simply an answer to a research question, but the best thesis statements are the result of asking the right research questions.)

You might be able to boil down your thesis project to one main question, followed by several subsidiary questions that elaborate and explicate the main question. Alternatively, your thesis might be driven by several distinct but related questions that address different parts of the problem or attack it from different angles. Again, each of these questions might need some follow-up questions to make the question clear. Since these questions are the core of your thesis project, it’s worth spending some time considering how many you need to ask, how they relate to each other (e.g. in parallel or in series), and how best to word them.

Identifying and phrasing your research or creative questions will help you bring the project into focus before you embark on it, and while you are working on it you may find it helpful to keep returning to your questions periodically. Reconsidering them from time to time can help renew your motivation and to keep you on track. Revise the questions as necessary to reflect any evolution or refinement of your purpose in the project.

In the opening paragraphs of your thesis proposal, where you describe and explain your topic, the problem, its significance, and the scope of your thesis project, you are establishing a context for your questions. This context should help your readers anticipate your questions, so that when they read them they will readily understand what the questions mean and why you are asking them. In this section, and elsewhere in the proposal, you may need to define key terms for your readers, especially if you are using them in specific or unusual ways. Misunderstandings occur when readers recognize terms but don’t recognize the particular ways they are being used.

2) LITERATURE REVIEW

Like most scholarly journal articles, a thesis proposal should contain a section where you review relevant literature, summarizing and discussing the work of other scholars or writers. Doing so accomplishes several purposes:
It allows you to show how near or far the field has already come to answering your research questions (which may have been the subject of years of discussion by others).
It helps provide a context in which to locate your project, showing the existence of a scholarly or creative conversation in which you are about to participate.
It provides evidence that the subject is important enough to your field to have generated discussion .
It establishes your authority to enter the conversation, showing that you are up to speed with the discussion and would be a credible participant.
It allows you to shape the conversation, giving your own reading of what has been written so far about the topic.
This last point indicates the need to think about how you will organize the literature review. Can you divide the literature into groups, each representing a similar perspective on the topic? What would be the best sequence in which to present the works of other scholars? What organizing principle might you follow? How can you communicate your reading of the scholarly discussion by adding forecasting statements, transitions, and summaries?

You don’t want to distort or misrepresent the work of others unfairly to make your own look better, but your thesis proposal is an argument for a particular perspective on the subject matter, and the literature review should play an important part of the support for that argument. A good review of literature will not only represent other writers’ work in ways they would find reasonable and acceptable but will also interpret and evaluate that work according to your own point of view. As much as you are able to at this point, identify which writers will be your most important sources, explain why, and explain how you plan to use their work to inform yours. At the end of your literature review, it might be useful to revisit your research questions, reminding your readers how your project will extend the discussion you have just reviewed.

Shaping your literature review into a well-structured argument with the characteristics outlined above will help you avoid the tendency of literature reviews to be tedious, plodding summaries, devoid of any opinion or point—the kind of prose that a reader feels tempted to skip. A well-written review of literature should be compelling reading.

3) PROCEDURES
a) Research and analysis

This section of your proposal explains how you will go about your work. If you are doing primary research, what methods of gathering data will you use, and why? If you are doing secondary research, what else will you read besides what you have discussed in your literature review, and how do you plan to analyze your material? If you are doing creative work, it may involve considerable research and analysis too, before the main work of writing begins.

This section might be the best place for you to explain what theory will guide your work and why. It is also the place to mention your experience as a researcher and writer. How has your prior work prepared you to do this project? If your project will involve learning new methods, how will you acquire that expertise? What sources of help are available to you?

At this point in the proposal you should also explain whether or not your research will require Institutional Review Board (IRB) clearance. The IRB ensures that primary research does not endanger or compromise the privacy of human subjects. (If you plan to do folklore fieldwork, see one of the folklore faculty members before approaching the IRB.)

b) Outline

What form will your thesis take when it is finished? For instance, will it follow a traditional thesis structure with chapters? Will it involve forms of creative writing? Multiple genres? Extensive appendices? Electronic or audiovisual media? Provide a tentative outline of your thesis, with chapter headings and a few lines of explanation under each. As in the literature review, it may help readers if you include forecasts and transitions to help explain the rationale for your organization of the thesis. Your readers will want to know why you have divided it this way and why you have chosen this sequence for the sections. Help them see and understand the logic of your organization.

c) Timetable

Problems occur in thesis defenses most often when committee members have not had time to read the thesis, to make suggestions, and to see those suggestions incorporated in a revised version that they have time to read before the defense. Your proposal should include a schedule that you plan to follow for completing the research and writing the thesis. Bearing in mind the Graduate School’s deadlines and your own plans for graduation, identify a tentative defense date and work backwards from that. Make sure your timetable meets the deadlines listed below:

Submit first complete draft to committee members at least 4 weeks before defense.

Draft should be returned to you with comments at least 3 weeks before defense.

Schedule defense date with Grad School at least 2 weeks before defense.

Resubmit revised draft to committee at least 10 days before defense.

You may conclude this section by identifying the first or next step you plan to take in your project.
4) BIBLIOGRAPHY

The bibliography at the end of your proposal should be a list of works you have cited in your proposal. Your committee may also ask for a separate list of works you have consulted (but not cited in the proposal) and works you are planning to consult. Follow the citation style favored in your field—e.g. MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian, etc. You should also buy the Publication Guide for Graduate Students at USU from the Bookstore, or download it from the Graduate School website.

For more on proposals, see the essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education ( http://chronicle.com/article/Demystifying-the-Dissertation/128916/)

CFP: Visual Arts of the American West

Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association

February 8-11, 2012 Albuquerque, New Mexico

Hyatt Regency Hotel & Conference Center

http://www.swtxpca.org
Proposal submission deadline: December 15, 2011
Conference Theme: Foods and Culture(s) in Global Context 

This area seeks papers that explore any aspect of the visual arts in or about the West and its borderlands, including photography, painting, drawing, graphic media, sculpture, mixed media works and installations, video, digital media, architecture, urban planning and design, indigenous art, museum studies, special collections, online collections, public arts, and more. The West is defined very broadly to include everything west of the Mississippi River in the United States.  

In keeping with this year’s conference theme, papers on topics related to the visual depiction of foods, or comparative papers discussing Western art in a global context are encouraged. 

Topics may include but are not limited to: 

--topographical landscape illustration produced during early explorations
--classic painters of the West–Catlin, Moran, Remington, Russell
--California Impressionism
--the Taos artists colonies and early painters in New Mexico
--Regionalist painting of the 1930s in the Southwest, California, and Texas

--New Deal art in the West
--painting in the Pacific Northwest; the Northwest School, Asian and Asian-American influence

--printmaking and lithography
--painting in Alaska and Western Canada
--architecture and urban design of indigenous peoples and colonial settlers in the West
--early modernist and postmodern architecture and urbanism in the West
--perceptions and attitudes toward the West / the uniqueness of the West
--Manifest Destiny and the West / politics and art of the West
--depictions of women, Native Americans, Mexican-Americans, or other minorities in Western art
--issues of the "other" in Western art
--depictions of frontier life
--women artists, Native American artists, and Mexican-American artists from the West
--depictions of the West by artists from the Eastern U.S. and foreign artists
--ecology and environmentalism in Western art and architecture
--portraiture in the West / depictions of famous Westerners
--early modernists who painted the Western landscape
--modernist, abstract art, and Surrealism in the West
--depictions of the urbanized and suburbanized West
--Earth Art
--public art and memorials in and about the West 

Information about our areas of study, graduate student awards, conference travel, lodging, and the organization can be found at http://www.swtxpca.org

Please submit a 250-word abstract for individual papers or a 500-word abstract for panels at http://conference2012.swtxpac.org.

Feel free to contact Area Chair Victoria Grieve with questions: victoria.grieve@usu.edu

New Updates!!

The Call for Papers page has been updated! Check it out and submit some papers!!

Women's History Month

Empowered Women for an Empowered World

Spotlight on Students

An Invitation to ALL USU Students:

The Center for Women and Gender will be celebrating Women’s History Month 2012 with the national theme “Empowered Women for an Empowered World” paying tribute to the millions of women who have taken action to help create a better world for the times in which they lived, as well as for future generations. We’d like to invite all USU students to participate in this significant celebration by creating and sharing a work by and/or about women that centers on this theme.

The accounts of women’s achievements are integral to the fabric of our history.  Learning about women’s tenacity, courage, and creativity throughout the centuries is a tremendous source of strength.  Until relatively recently, this sphere of women's history was overlooked and undervalued. Women’s achievements were often distorted, disdained, and denied.  But the knowledge of women’s accounts will provide valuable inspiration and even essential role models for everyone. Role models are genuinely needed to face the extraordinary changes and unrelenting challenges of the 21st century.

Works will be judged by a panel from supporting groups of Women’s History Month at USU. There will be a cash award for the top seven submissions, one from each category.  Additionally, where possible, all qualified submissions will be published as conference proceedings.   Selected individuals will display their work during an award ceremony on March 6, 2012. You are invited to submit a work from any college or department of Utah State University to one of the following seven categories:

Category 1, Research:  Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math

Category 2, Research: Social Sciences, Education, and Business

Category 3, Research: Agriculture, Natural Resources

Category 4, Audio and Video Works

Category 5, Visual Arts

Category 6, Written Works

Category 7, Performance Arts 

Examples of submissions include, but are not limited to:

Displays, designs, posters, artifacts, research summaries, monologues, choreography, short plays, music compositions, song lyrics, computer graphics, paintings, sculpture, pottery, collages, sketches, photos, costumes, articles, news broadcasts, radio narrations, poems, essays, short stories.

Submission guidelines:

1. Include the name(s), major, minor, and year in school of those responsible for creating the work.
2. The work must center on the theme as described above, “Empowered Women for an Empowered World” in regard to Women’s History Month. This means the work MUST be by a woman (women) and/or about women.
3. Submissions should focus on a personal level. This includes oneself, close friends, family, etc. Do not center works on iconic women from history, such as Amelia Earhart. The work should tell a story of the subject’s history and how those experiences strengthen the fabric of our collective history, and thus our future. Our shared history unites families, communities, and nations.  Although women’s history is intertwined with the history shared with men, several factors - social, religious, economic, and biological - have worked to create a unique sphere of women's history. 
4. Works should include a written explanation if it is not obvious in the work itself of around whom the work centers and how they are empowering the world. This should be typed and not exceed 350 words.
5. Works should adhere to the USU academic honesty policy. All works must be original.
6. Submissions are due by February 1, 2012, at 5 pm in the Center for Women and Gender, TSC 309, with all materials packaged in a labeled envelope including the category the submission falls under. For works that cannot be packaged, such as a piece of art, submit the work in the form of a video, photo, etc.
7. A person or group may not submit more than one work.
8. Submissions that do not meet these guidelines will not be considered.

Works will be judged on the following criteria:

1. Relevance to the theme “Empowered Women for an Empowered World”.
2. Ability to express the theme within the work.
3. Creativity and uniqueness.
4. Presentation quality.

Submissions are due February 1, 2012, at 5 pm in the Center for Women and Gender, TSC 309.

Questions? Call or e-mail Jamie Huber, 435-797-3703, jamie.huber@usu.edu.

Literature, Culture and the Fantastic Challenges of the Fin de Siecle(s)

An Intenational Interdisciplinary Conference

17th & 18th February 2012
Rijeka, Croatia
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Philip Healy
University of Oxford, UK
Dr Thomas Hubbard
honorary fellow of Glasgow University (2004-2011)
visiting professor at Université Stendhal (Grenoble 3), France
Dr Tatjana Jukić
University of Zagreb, Croatia

Hosting institutions:
Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Rijeka
English Department, Section for Literature

Conference Organizing Committee:
Irena Grubica, University of Rijeka, Croatia, president
Dr Zdenek Beran, Charles University Prague, Czech Republic, vice-president
Dr Claire Basin, University of Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense, France
Dr Francesca Saggini, Tuscia University, Italy
Dr Tamás Bényei, University of Debrecen, Hungary
Dr Željka Švrljuga, University of Bergen, Norway
For further information contact the conference organizer:
Irena Grubica, University of Rijeka, e-mail: igrubica@gmail.com

Fantastic literature has been receiving increasing scholarly attention, often in relation to various cultural and discursive practices. This conference invites scholars who orient in their work at exploring the fantastic and related issues and who are interested in various discourses the term itself generates. Although broader inputs are also welcome, we would particularly like to delineate various relations between the fantastic and the fin de siècle(s) and to contextualize their historical and cultural significance. We would, therefore, appreciate discussions on the fantastic in the light of the development of the idea, challenging traditional historical contexts and offering new ones. In this respect we are especially interested in the fantastic and its relation to the genesis of aesthetic ideas, the concept of terror/horror, the sublime, to Gothic and sensation fiction, to the Aesthetic Movement and Decadence, etc.: in what way does fantastic literature (as well as art) of various fin de siècles reflect the dynamic and all too often controversial development of these concepts? At the same time, it seems to be of the equal importance to investigate a broader context of specific social, political and economic conditions along with the development of science and scientific discourses, including psychology and sexology. The fantastic is also a realm of what Stephen Arata calls “the pathology of everyday life” (in Fictions of Loss in the Victorian Fin de Siècle), which addresses more private issues such as personal identity, body or sanity.
In view of the above mentioned the topics may include but are not limited to the following:
• The fantastic and various aspects of the fin-de-siècle(s) aesthetics
• The fantastic and the canon; genres and sub-genres, popular literature, intertextuality, influences
• The fantastic and gender, body, corporeality
• The fantastic and identity, dualism, doppelganger, grotesque
• The philosophy of the fantastic
• The fantastic and memory, cultural memory
• The fantastic and narrative manipulations, supernatural, temporality, scientific development and progress, cultural anxiety and social crisis, cultural subversion
• The fantastic and visual; literary in relation to other modes of representation, visual and performance, film
• A single author/text: e.g. O.Wilde, R. L. Stevenson, Vernon Lee, Grant Allan, George Egerton, etc., comparative analyses and cultural studies approaches
• the fin-de-siècle fantastic as reflected cross-culturally in Scottish, Welsh, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, American, Caribbean etc. writing, emphasising specific predominant cultural or generic aspect, the genesis of the fin-de-siècle fantastic in these cultures and literatures and their relations to wider historical and cultural framework, possible relation to the issue of postcolonialism
• The fantastic and its relation to (post)colonialism, imperialism, nationalism
We also invite papers, exploring the legacy of the term in various fin de siècles and beyond, especially its application to literature and culture of the end of the 20th century, raising or challenging parallels and questioning the very idea of end (fin).

Proposals of 400 words and a short biographical note should be submitted by 20 December 2011 to: igrubica@gmail.com

During the conference the editorial meeting for the book The Fantastic in the Fin de Siècle, ed. by I. Grubica & Z. Beran, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, will take place.
A few selected papers from the conference not included in the book will be published in a special journal issue of Literaria Pragensia.

Women's Studies

Call for papers, panels and proposals for the Women’s Studies Section 54th Annual Conference – April 11-14, 2012

Houston, TX – Hyatt Regency Hotel

Western Social Science Association Conference

WSSA Website (http://wssa.asu.edu/)

Please accept our invitation to participate in the annual meeting of the Women’s Studies Section, Western Social Sciences Association Meeting.

The Women’s Studies Section provides a venue for scholars from many disciplines to discuss issues pertinent to scholarship and leadership among and between traditional disciplines involved in Women’s Studies. The richness of the Women’s Studies Section derives from its very nature as an interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary program.

You can submit proposals, register for the conference, and the hotel via the WSSA website (wssa.asu.edu) or for the form click here.

Proposals need to be send by December 1, 2011 via the WSSA website or e-mail attachment to the Section Coordinator. Abstracts should not exceed 150 words. We encourage the formation of panels as well as paper presentation.

Pre-registration Deadlines

March 31, 2009: deadline date for regular online registration

April 1-11, 2009: late registration with $10 price increase

April 12-14, 2009: no registration

April 15, 2009: on-site registration begins at 3:00 p.m.

For more information please contact:

Dr. Diane Calloway-Graham, Women’s Studies Section Coordinator,

WSSA Past-President

Utah State University, Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology

Old Main 239A

Logan, Utah 84322-0730

Phone: 435-797-2389

E-Mail: diane.calloway-graham@usu.edu

FAX: 435-797-1240