CALL FOR PAPERS: UPDATE: ABSTRACTS DUE SEPTEMBER 15, 2023
“... Day comes, And the brightness Is hidden around me. Shadows cover the light, Drape it in sandstorms. My beautiful mouth knows only confusion. Even my sex is dust.” – Enheduanna, from AHymn to Inanna, translated by Jane Hirshfield
These timeless lines, composed by the world’s first known author, Sumerian princess, priestess, and prolific writer Enheduanna of Sargon, echo as true today as when she wrote them four millennia ago[1]. Against increasing pressure to censor, to deny history and omit diverse, multicultural perspectives, the Indiana College English Association invites papers for its 88th Annual Conference that engage conversations about “Making the Invisible, Visible” through the discipline of English and its subfields.
How do we encourage the sharing of stories, of research that shines light on disparate truths through reading, writing, analysis, discussion, epistemology? How do we engage English Studies to resist restrictions on bodies, identities, teaching and learning, to resist the banning of books and canonical literature? How do we make the invisible visible, from the unpaid labor of adjunct faculty to the unrecognized work of English students, faculty, and Writing Program Administrators? How do we compose and converse about texts of all kinds? How does our work impact our culture, shape our future, and enrich our everyday lives, our students’ and families’ lives?
Another way to interpret this theme is to approach our work as teacher-scholar-waymakers engaging the next generation of English students and faculty. Areas of potential paper topics might come from the following fields: *Literary analysis and/or textual criticism *Pedagogy, Teaching, and Classroom Practices *Knowledge production and meaning-making in English Studies *Writing across the curriculum (WAC) and/or writing in the disciplines (WID) *Rhetoric and composition *Linguistics/language studies *Historical and/or cultural contextualizations of literature and rhetoric *Professional writing *Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL/TEFL/TELL, etc.) *Cross-disciplinary or interdisciplinary work *Creative submissions … we welcome all post-secondary English studies papers related to our theme or otherwise. Please email your 200-word abstract, along with your name, position, and academic affiliation by September 15, 2023 to [email protected]. Graduate students competing for the ICEA Best Graduate Student Presentation Award must submit a complete paper by September 15. When proposing a full panel, please send a single abstract, with titles and information for all papers and panelists. Undergraduates with faculty sponsors and support will be considered. If your paper or panel is accepted, you will be required to join the ICEA in order to present. Please note: as we are an affiliate of the College English Association, successful papers presented at ICEA 2023 are welcomed for submission and presentation at CEA’s 53rd annual national convention March 2024 in Atlanta; this allows for further refinement of a paper/idea to a broader audience.
[1] For more information about Enheduanna and her work, see “She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and the Women of Mesopotamia, ca. 3400-2000 B.C.,” The Morgan Library & Museum,https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/she-who-wrote