[Discussion] CFP: Rhetorics of Place (9/15/04; NEMLA, 3/31/05-4/2/05)

[sule tarakcioglu]

Rhetorics of Place in Literature: Issues in the Field

Northeast Modern Language Association Conference
March 31-April 2, 2005
Boston, MA

Roundtable Description: Presentations sought for Northeast Modern
Language Association Conference in Boston (March 31-April 2, 2005) that
address contemporary discussions about rhetorics of place; in
particular, this roundtable will discuss how writers today examine the
influence of place upon individual and/or communal identities and how
such influences translate into efforts to protect the environment.
Papers drawing upon ecocriticism and ecofeminism encouraged. Email
500-word abstracts to Jen Riley (j1riley@umassd.edu) by Sept. 15, 2004.

Detailed proposal: This roundtable will provide an opportunity for
graduate students to engage with faculty in a discussion regarding the
growing literary fields of ecocriticism, ecofeminism, and what many
scholars are calling a rhetorics of place. Many writers today are part
of a rhetoric of placean ongoing discussion of place and its influence
today. There are a number of questions that arise during this
discussion, among them:

**How do we define place?
**How does ones country and history, both individual and national,
affect ones sense of place?
**What does it mean to be a placed person?
**What are the differences between a placed person and a displaced
person?
**What do people gain from knowing and understanding the idea of place?

More importantly, how can knowing our sense of place lead to protection
of the environment? These questions point to the need to examine how
history, national identity, environment, and community affect peoples
sense of place and peoples identities. In our ever changing locations
and our growing urban centers, how to locate, establish, and understand
place appears increasingly important. Perhaps Wallace Stegner says it
best: Only in the act of submission is the sense of place realized and
a sustainable relationship between people and earth established (206).

This roundtable is especially intended for graduate students in the
field. 4-5 graduate student presenters will be selected. I am also
looking for 1-2 faculty members who have works-in-progress or published
works in the rhetorics of place to contribute as respondents. The
following steps will be taken for this roundtable:

1. Selected papers MUST BE COMPLETED FIVE weeks prior to the conference.

2. Papers will then be posted on a website that will be password
protected (my campus will provide this service).

3. The selected presenters, as well as myself and other faculty
respondents (who may also present works in progress) will read the
papers prior to the panel session.

4. The roundtable session will be composed of brief presentations
(overviews of the papers) that provides a sense of the major issues
regarding the growing discussions regarding a rhetorics of place that
emerges in all of our respective works. These brief presentations will
be followed by questions from the faculty respondents, with the graduate
students having questions prepared as well.

The objective of this roundtable format is to create conversation about
the issues, rather than static presentations that tend to ensue when
papers are merely read to an audience. Graduate student presenters can
gain something practical from the experience, such as practice for oral
comps and dissertation defenses and questions that will help them build
their conference presentations into articles to send out for review (the
faculty respondents will also provide written feedback to the
presenters). Also, the audience will gain a sense of the conversation of
this particular area in literary studies. The significance of this
roundtable is that the format provides a different model for NEMLA to
pursue, as the director suggested at the 2004 conference in Pittsburgh.

Please email 500-word abstracts to Jen Riley (j1riley@umassd.edu) by
September 15, 2004. Please indicate in the email subject line that you
are submitting for the NEMLA Rhetorics of Place Roundtable. Note: all
roundtable presenters must become NEMLA members.