Texas Regional SSAWW Study Group – Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024

The next meeting of the Texas Regional SSAWW Study Group will be Saturday October 5, 2024 at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX, hosted by Dr. Elissa Zellinger. Our common reading will be Christina Sharpe’s Ordinary Notes(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023) and a nineteenth-century companion text (TBA). Dr. Joycelyn Moody will be a special guest participant.

Please RSVP to Dr. Zellinger at elissa.zellinger@ttu.edu by September 25, 2024, and indicate whether you plan to attend the dinner.

About the Study Group: We are an informal gathering of professors, graduate students, and independent scholars who share an interest in American women’s writing. We share a lunch (provided by the host campus), spend the afternoon discussing the common reading, and have dinner at a local restaurant (paid individually). We welcome new participants to join the conversation, which is always rich and stimulating, and often touches on larger professional concerns (teaching, publishing, mentoring, etc.).

More details regarding the schedule, location, lodging, etc. will be available on our website in the Fall: http://txssaww.wordpress.com/

Call for Consultants: Recovery Hub for American Women Writers (Deadline: 5.24.2024)

Recovery Hub for American Women Writers: Call for Consultants

Join a network of consultants, built of people (researchers, technicians, scholars) interested and invested in the recovery of the work of women writers using digital methods. This network includes people with a variety of skills and experiences who can help those working on new and growing digital projects engage in the recovery of women’s writing. Consultants advise projects’ members on what technologies can be explored, leading them to information, resources, and methods. Consultants will have a general familiarity with the digital humanities, experience with current tools and methods, and an awareness of projects that can serve as models.

The Recovery Hub for American Women Writers supports projects recovering the work of women writers by providing digital access to forgotten or neglected texts and/or extending them with network mapping, spatial analysis, multimedia storytelling, innovative contextualization, and the distant reading of massive datasets. The Recovery Hub explores the intersecting relationships between feminist practice, content, and technical specifications with an awareness of the ways that the design and implementation of technology can exclude and objectify people. The Hub fosters collaboration, mentorship, and community-building among women working in the digital humanities while seeking feminist and decolonial approaches to the creation, curation, design, sharing, and archiving of digital content.

Duties

Consultants will commit to working with the Hub for one year and be paid $25 per hour of consultation, including paid training over Zoom. They should expect to support a wide range of projects that approach the Recovery Hub each year and participate in monthly meetings with Recovery Hub staff. Consultations take 45 minutes, after which consultants compile notes about recommended next steps, remaining questions, and relevant resources for the project team.

Qualifications

The Hub is looking for consultants from a wide range of academic backgrounds, including faculty, staff, graduate students, programmers, designers, independent scholars, etc. Committed to cultivating a community of diverse scholars as well as inclusive project content, the Hub’s Advisory Board aims for at least 50% of its affiliated projects to recover Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and LGBTQIA+ stories, texts, experiences, and voices.  The Recovery Hub is looking for consultants with one or more of the following:

• GIS
• TEI
• Text analysis
• Project management
• Network analysis
• Web development
• Graphic design
• Web accessibility design
• Digital archiving
• Digital storytelling
• Metadata 
• Audio and video production
• Ethics of digital production and technology
• Grant writing 
• Digital community engagement

The work of consultants should be consistent with the principles outlined in the Recovery Hub mission statement.

How to Apply
Submit a one-paragraph statement of interest with a two-page CV and (optionally) links to relevant project experience or a portfolio to margars@siue.edu. For priority consideration, apply by May 24, 2024. However, if you submit after the deadline, we will still consider applications as needed.

CFP: Emily Dickinson International Society, Annual Meeting

Emily Dickinson International Society, Annual Meeting, July 26-28, 2024

EDIS’s Annual Meeting returns to Amherst! This year’s theme, “Neighbor Dickinson,” celebrates the reopening of Austin and Susan Dickinson’s home The Evergreens, which has been closed to the public since 2019, and the publication of the first new complete edition of Dickinson’s letters in almost 70 years. Talks and panel presentations will discuss the idea of neighborliness, what it was like to have Dickinson as a neighbor, and what neighborliness meant to her. Talks will focus on family and friends at The Evergreens and throughout Amherst, and those like Charles Darwin who inhabited her intellectual neighborhood. As well as showcasing exciting new Dickinson scholarship, the meeting includes open tours of the Dickinson houses, a walking tour of Dickinson’s neighborhood (taking in downtown Amherst  and Wildwood Cemetery), and a luncheon in the Museum gardens.

Special events include a marathon reading inspired by the new edition of Dickinson’s letters and an opportunity to transcribe the manuscripts of nineteenth-century letters written by Dickinson’s neighbors. In addition to these activities and presentations, the meeting gathers “Dickinson Communities” to discuss research, pedagogy, translation, and the arts.

Join us in Amherst, 26-28 July 2024, to learn more about Dickinson and her neighborhood and to celebrate and share insights about her life and writings.

Further Information, including the draft program and details of how register, is available here: https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/edis-annual-meeting-2024/

CFP: Edith Wharton Review “Notes On…”

Edith Wharton Review

Announcing: “Notes On…”

for the Edith Wharton Review (the official refereed journal of the Edith Wharton Society)

Broadening the journal’s practice of including shorter essays alongside full-length scholarly articles, the Edith Wharton Review introduces a regular, ongoing section that aims to give greater visibility to shorter, less formal commentary while also expanding the scope of Wharton-related topics. The new section, entitled “Notes On …” (with a strong emphasis on the ellipses), aims to highlight the joys and inspirations – intellectual, emotional, professional, personal, among other possibilities – that Wharton’s works offer to her readers. “Notes On…” reflects the editors’ interest in the range of epistemologies that we all bring to the reading and teaching of Wharton’s work, and that of her contemporaries. While the journal’s anonymous peer-reviewed articles are crucial to advancing historical and critical scholarship in the fields of literary studies and provide intense gratifications of their own, essays appearing in the “Notes On…” section invite readers and writers to reflect together about the pleasures and challenges of reading, teaching, watching, discovering and thinking with Wharton’s work today. “Notes On…” invites reflections on the illuminating moment in the many forms that it may take in Wharton’s work. The section’s focus – more embodied at times; at times more affective – offers a greater use of the personal voice and formal experimentation than those that appear among the anonymous peer-reviewed articles (submissions to “Notes On …” are peer-reviewed by the editors). Contributions may offer perspectives on teaching a particular novel or range of texts; insights arising from archival work; ruminations upon what it means, or even how it feels, to read Wharton’s work in a particular historical context, place or at different life stages; reviews of and responses to popular culture productions and discussions of Wharton’s work presented in different formats – or any number of other subjects edifying, engaging, and perhaps diverting for our Wharton readers.

Suggested length for submissions is approximately 5-10 pages. Queries about possible topics can be directed to the editor: (rbode@trentu.ca), or any one of the associate editors: (sbrennan@carthage.edu); (myrto.drizou@nord.no), (hornk@uni-greifswald.de).

The journal continues to welcome, with appreciation and enthusiasm, full-length critical, scholarly essays on Wharton for its blind peer-reviewed articles section and is open to all Wharton-related topics from a broad range of theoretical perspectives. Suggested length is approximately 20-30 pages. Enquiries welcome (rbode@tretu.ca).

Details on submission are available at: https://www.psupress.org/journals/jnls_EWR.html

CFP: The Routledge Companion to Sylvia Plath (Proposals Due: 5.1.2024)

Call for Papers: The Routledge Companion to Sylvia Plath

This call for papers invites submission to The Routledge Companion to Sylvia Plath, edited by Janet Badia, Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick, and Emily Van Duyne. The collection, now under contract, will be a new addition to the Routledge Literature Companions series—highly regarded, field-defining volumes that showcase exciting areas of literary studies. These volumes are ideal introductions for beginners and useful volumes for those already working in the field. By design, they summarize current scholarship while simultaneously highlighting emergent approaches to authors and areas of study.

The editors seek proposals for chapters that explore Plath’s work, life, and cultural and historical contexts. Proposals on any aspect of Plath studies will be considered, but the editors especially welcome chapters that investigate the following topics:

• Plath’s life and work after the Beuscher letters and/or in light of recently acquired and newly accessible archival materials
• Criticism and reception in countries other than the U.S. and U.K.
• Plath in cross-cultural contexts and/or through the lens of globalization, including her cross-cultural influence and appeal
• Plath and trauma studies, including domestic and sexual violence, suicide, racism and sexism, etc.
• Intersectional approaches to Plath’s writing, including new perspectives and orientations to her life and work that value anti-racism and social justice
• Plath’s engagement with constructions of manhood, masculinities, and queer sexualities
• Plath in creative contexts, including how she has served as inspiration for new literature and the ways her work is taught in creative writing classrooms
• Plath and social media and/or in the context of mass media consumption
• Plath through new disciplinary perspectives and/or through cross- and transdisciplinary perspectives
• Plath in the classroom, including approaches to teaching her work in a variety of educational contexts and through different disciplinary lenses. Reflections on the challenges of teaching Plath in the contemporary classroom in the context of current cultural politics are especially welcome.
  

The editors welcome work by established, emerging, and new scholars. Work by scholars outside the United States and the United Kingdom, women, minorities, and underrepresented voices is especially encouraged.

To be considered, please submit an abstract of 300-500 words describing your topic and/or approach to Plath, as well as a short author biography of no more than 250 words that includes your current professional affiliation, publication record, or relevant qualifications given the goals of the collection suggested above.

The deadline for proposals is May 1, 2024. Review of proposals will begin immediately.

If accepted, chapters of 3,000-6,000 words would be due by December 1, 2024. We expect to submit the completed manuscript by November 2026.

Please send your queries and/or proposals to routledgesylviaplath@gmail.com.

Call for ALA Reporter: Catharine Maria Sedgwick Society Panels

Planning to attend the American Literature Association conference in May 2024? The Sedgwick Society will reimburse the ALA conference registration fee for one CMSS member to cover and report on the Sedgwick Society sessions for our Fall 2024 newsletter. Please email Emily.VanDette@fredonia.edu to express interest or for more details.

Call for student papers: Emily Dickinson Undergraduate Scholarship Award (Deadline: 6.30.2024)

EDIS Undergraduate Scholarship Award 2024

The Emily Dickinson International Society is pleased to sponsor a prize for undergraduate work on Emily Dickinson. Our goal is to encourage, recognize, and publicize outstanding scholarship among undergraduate students. Students whose work was created for any undergraduate course, and touches on any aspect of Dickinson, are eligible to submit. Papers and projects should be no longer than 15 pages or the equivalent and should include a heading with the student’s name, undergraduate institution, and email address; a title; and a work cited list. We are also happy to receive experiential and experimental work in different media. A panel of Dickinson scholars will review all submissions and provide feedback to highly ranked submissions. The author of selected submissions will receive a small cash prize and can list this national award on their resumés. In addition, the selected work will be posted on the EDIS website in September and will be noted, either by an interview with the writer, or by publication, in the EDIS Bulletin.

Teachers: please encourage your students to submit their work.

Send it, with a cover page that contains the student’s email and mailing addresses, and a short recommendation or contextualization from the instructor, to Elizabeth Petrino, Professor of English, Fairfield University (<a href="http://epetrino@fairfield.eduepetrino@fairfield.edu<mailto:epetrino@fairfield.edu). The deadline for papers to be submitted is June 30, 2024.

Virtual Event: “Learning from Legacies of Phillis Wheatley Peters” 5:30 pm CT/6:30 pm ET – April 17th, 2024

Dear SSAWW members,

As we continue to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the publication of Phillis Wheatley Peters’ Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, I want to invite you to an exciting virtual event on April 17, 6:30-8 pm ET. This is an interactive discussion in which K-12 and college teachers will present and reflect on their creative and pedagogical work on Wheatley Peters. This event is the culmination of a project for teachers of which I am the lead humanities scholar, “Learning from Legacies of Phillis Wheatley Peters.” Cosponsored by the National Writing Project and Humanities Texas, “Learning from Legacies of PWP” is one part of the larger initiative “The Genius of Phillis Wheatley Peters.”

In “Learning from Legacies of PWP,” Sarah Ruffing Robbins and I have been working with a spectacular group of teachers who have immersed themselves in Wheatley Peters’ life and poetry and have created outstanding lesson plans, some for college students, some for K-12 students; the latter can easily be adapted to college-level courses You are certain to be energized by these participants and their work, to get a sense of the resources available at “The Genius of Phillis Wheatley Peters” website, and to come away with new ideas about teaching and researching PWP.

Go to this link for fuller information and to register for the April 17 event:

https://wheatleypetersproject.weebly.com/overview.html

and

scroll down to

April 2024

Mapping and Visiting the Phillis Wheatley Peters Project Online

I hope to see many of you on April 17.

Warmly,

Sandy Zagarell

SSAWW President 2018-2021

Virtual Event: “Scholarly Editing: Fostering Communities of Recovery” April 4th and April 8th (registration required)

Please consider joining “Scholarly Editing: Fostering Communities of Recovery,” a two-part webinar series hosted by eLaboratories and presented by Dr. Noelle Baker, Dr. Raquel Baker, Bianca Swift, and the Artist Marcia X that will explore the community building work of Scholarly Editing. The first part will be held on April 4 at 11:00 AM EDT, and the second on April 8 at 1:30 PM EDT. More details are provided below. Please share these event details widely.

Scholarly Editing: Fostering Communities of Recovery

Scholarly Editing is an open-access, peer-reviewed annual that fosters multiple communities of recovery. The journal seeks to amplify contributions from and about Black, Latinx, and Indigenous peoples; Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders; women; LGBTQ+ individuals; and peoples and cultures of the Global South. A public-facing publication platform, the journal welcomes contributions from all custodians of knowledge, including academics from all disciplines and at any career stage, K-12 teachers and students, community groups, collectors, and local genealogists. In addition to textual scholarship theory and praxis, we welcome interviews, oral histories, creative works of “rememory,” and the decolonizing of artistic works, archives, records, and editions for the discoverability of underrepresented stories and artifacts. 

In a two-part event series, two of Scholarly Editing’s editors and two of its contributing authors will explore the nature and impact of the journal’s expanding content and communities of journal editors, readers, contributors, and genres. In the second part, they will also invite you to engage in project planning exercises similar to those asked of authors, peer reviewers, and other collaborators.  

Part one, which will be held on April 4 at 11:00 AM EDT, will welcome Co-Editor in Chief Noelle Baker and author Artist Marcia X. Baker will introduce the journal’s philosophy and infrastructure, and will discuss how these components have been essential to cultivating communities of recovery. Following, the Artist Marcia X will share their art, demonstrating how their recovery work evolved as a result of engaging with the Scholarly Editing community. To register for part one, please visit https://elaboratories.org/event/scholarly-editing-fostering-communities-of-recovery-part-1/.

Part two, which will be held on April 8 at 1:30 PM EDT, will welcome Essays Section Co-Editor Raquel Baker and author Bianca Swift. Together, they invite you to workshop your scholarship goals and to apply Scholarly Editing’s community-driven philosophy to your own work. To register for part two, please visit https://elaboratories.org/event/scholarly-editing-fostering-communities-of-recovery-part-2/.

New Book: Reading Madeleine L’Engle Ecopsychology in Children’s and Adolescent Literature by Heidi A. Lawrence

Author: Heidi A. Lawrence

Reading Madeleine L’Engle: Ecopsychology in Children’s and Adolescent Literature

Routledge – 2023 (e-book edition available)

Using a critical lens derived from ecopsychology and its praxis, ecotherapy, this book explores the relationships Madeleine L’Engle develops for her characters in a selection of the novels from her three Time, Austin family, and O’Keefe family series as those relationships develop along a human-nonhuman kinship continuum. This is accomplished through an examination both of pairs of novels from the fantastic and the realistic series, and of single novels which stand out as slightly different from the most prominent genre in a given series. Thus, this examination also shows L’Engle’s fluid movement along a fantasy-reality continuum and demonstrates the integration of the three series with each other. Importantly, through examining these relationships and this movement along continuums in these novels, the project demonstrates how ecopsychology and ecotherapy provide strong and important – and as-yet virtually unexplored – intersections with children’s literature.

This book is available for purchase in hardback and E-book editions: https://routledge.comReading-Madeleine-LEngle-Ecopsychology-in-Childrens-and-Adolescent-Literature