Call for Papers: MCEA Conference on Friday, October 10, 2008

Theme: Argument, Evidence, and Intuition

Featured Speaker: Award-Winning Poet Judith Minty

Location: Baker College in Auburn Hills

Argument—implicit or explicit, personal narrative or data-based, narrow or comprehensive—lies at the heart of our work as teachers. First, as leaders, we tacitly act to persuade our students that the work we assign is worthwhile and relevant to their lives, and we encourage them to throw themselves into discussions and writing that we and they find important. We present evidence that they are progressing, that they lack certain skills or perspectives, that they can do better, or that they have talents they should build on. Second, the literature we teach—fiction and non-fiction—is ultimately all argument. As Joan Didion points out, writing is “an imposition of the writer’s sensibility on the reader’s most private space,” an act of saying “listen to me, see it my way, change your mind.”  Third, we ask students to construct arguments, both in class discussions and in their essays. 

Because arguments are pervasive and embedded in popular culture, they may be difficult even to recognize. Immersed in the language of advertisers and politicians and wrapped in our own assumptions, we may overlook our susceptibility to groupthink and may not realize how our prior knowledge and life experiences influence our assertions and our interpretation of evidence. For this conference, we invite you to investigate your own relationship to argument: How do you teach argument? How do you evaluate students’ arguments? How do you present the argumentative strategies of authors you teach in your courses? How do you (or others) approach evidence, voice, tone, and audience? How do you acknowledge the role of intuition in argument (as in Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink)? How do you analyze arguments in the current political campaign or arguments relating to the media? What are you arguing as a teacher/scholar?

The Michigan College English Association invites proposals for individual papers and for complete or open panels for our Fall 2008 meeting. We welcome proposals from experienced academics as well as from young scholars and graduate students. We encourage a variety of papers, including pedagogical and scholarly essays. We also welcome poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction from creative writers. We will award a $25 prize for the best scholarly paper and for the best creative writing by a graduate student.

Proposals are due by September 15, 2008. Early submissions are welcome. Please submit proposals to Janet Heller and Anne G. Berggren, Program Chairs, via email or snail mail: janet.heller@wmich.edu or Janet Heller, English Dept., Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo MI 49008; agbergrn@umich.edu or Anne G. Berggren, 1420 Golden Avenue, Ann Arbor MI 48104. Please specify your needs for audio-visual equipment and the best time of day for your presentation.

Anthology of Scholarly Essays about Conflict

The Michigan College English Association wants scholarly essays about conflict in literature, pedagogy, academia, etc., for an anthology.  Please send essays as Word attachments in MLA Style by June 1, 2008, to the editors Janet Heller and Marianne DiPierro of Western Michigan University at janet.heller@wmich.edu and marianne.dipierro@wmich.edu or snail-mail to Janet Heller/ English Dept./ Sprau Tower/ Western Michigan University/ Kalamazoo MI 49008-5331.