2000 JA CCUTE NewsletterMarch I Published by the Association of Canadian College and University Teach.ers of English Office 1062 • Science Building• Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's• Newfoundland• AlB 3X9 Telephone (709) 737-8463 • Fax ,(709) 737-4528 Email [email protected] • Web Page http://www.mun.ca/accute President: Noreen Golfman • Secretary-Treasur:er: Stella Algoo-Baksh Executive Assistant: Amy Tompkins The City of Edmonton - Photo Courtesy Rob Lake IMPORTANT: If your label contains (99), it's time to renew your membership! Please note that the password for the electronic version of this newsletter is mchOO. Table of Contents · President's Column .................................................................................. 4 Noreen Golfman Secretary-Treasurer's Column ................................................................ 10 Stella A/goo-Baksh . CACE Meetings .............................................. ......................................... 11 Sherrill Grace Professional Concerns .............................................................................. 11 Mary L. Griffin Graduate Student Report ........... ........................................... .................. 12 Batia Boe Stolar 'ESC Workshop Announcement. ... ........................................................... 13 1000 ACCUTE Conference Program ...................................................... 14 ACCUTE AGM Agenda .......................................................................... 32 Symposium on Creativity and Innovation in the Arts and Sciences ...... 33 Women in the Academy ........................................................................... 34 Winner of the Raymond Klibansky Prize in English .............................. 35 Call fo·r Papers .......................................................................................... 36 News of Members ..................................................................................... 37 page 3 ********************************** "k PLENARIES * * May 24, 10:45 a.m.: Elaine Scarry, "On Beauty and Being Just" * * May 26, 2:00 p.m.: Terry Goldie, "Lifewright: Identifying and Identity Defying" * · * May 27, 2:00 p.m.: David Norbrook, "Republicanism, Identity Politics, and the Eng- * * Iish Revolution" * *********************************** * May2S 2:30 p.m.: Congress Book Fair Readings Kristjana Gunnars George Bowering 0 May24 12:15 p.m. HCL1 Ride off (this) Horizon: Readings by Alberta Writers . Greg Hollingshead Fred Wah May26 6:00 p.m. Faculty Club Readings Stephen Scobie & Doug Barbour Hiromi Goto Nicole Markotic Ted Blodgett page4 President's Column newsletter a,rticles on the subject have appeared Noreen Goljman (Memorial) throughout the past year, a gathering of sessional members will decide on a representative for This newsletter is coming to you a little later 2000-2001. Please encourage anyone you know than usual, but I hope that your curiosity about who fits this employment category to attend the the Congress 2000 proceedings has been par­ Congress and get involved in this new set of du­ tially satisfied by the availability of the draft pro­ ties and responsibilities. gram on the ACCUTE website. We have been busy as usual, but we delayed printing this issue • CACE Hiring Surve)I, before we were able to receive some vital pieces We are now in our third year of administering of information. Moreover, one of our plenary the hiring practice survey first developed for us speakers, Professor Elaine Scarry (Harvard), and the Canadian Association of Chairs of Eng­ only recently confirmed her participation, and lish by Heather Murray (Toronto). At the we wanted to make sure that her presence at the CACE Executive meetings last fall, under the Congress was widely announced. We are de­ direction of President Slrerill Grace (UBC), the lighted that she will be joining us, of course, so Executive agreed to expand the survey to create please pass the news along. a wider and more useful database of information. Letters exhorting all chairs of English depart­ The ACCUTE office always finds itself busiest ments across the country to fill out the survey in March and April, as if a whole year's worth of were sent ouUn March. The intrepid Paul Ste,·­ activity were converging on us at once. I wish to ens (Queen's), Past President ofCACE, gener­ highlight three items at the top of the column, ously agreed to continue to tabulate the findings and then invite you to read below to note the and report on these to our AGM in Edmonton. various categories of information. Most of us are under the impression that the em­ ployment market has improved considerably in • Sessional Representation. the last year ,or so, but we are also curious to You will recall that the 1999 AGM in Sher­ hear how the actual hirings across the country brooke passed a motion directing the Executive break down in terms of real contracts, gender, to consider a mechanism for naming a sessional location of university degrees, and .so on. Thanks member to the Executive, with a view to having so much to Paul Stevens for continuing to carry the position in place by December 2000. The out this important and useful task. Those of you Executive is now prepared to recommend an ap­ who attended last year's AGM will recall his propriate mechanism for determining the ses­ report as being a model of lucidity and tact. sional member. We aim to follow the model of Naturally, we expect the same this year. the Graduate Student meeting, which names its own representative to the AGM. We are now • Career Resources Website prepared to give notice of a motion to that effect Ifyou have traveled to the ACCUTE website (see AGM agenda). Meeting space has already lately you will have noticed a new ~ge titled been reserved for a sessional caucus (May 25, ACCUTE Career Links. Please take a moment 12:15 p.m, HC 2-34) in Edmonton. With the to check out this most valuable addition to our dedicated help of Anne Quema (Acadia), whose site. A project initiated by Marjorie Stone (Dalhousie) and Manina Jones (UWO), the site page5 was developed as a way to guide our graduate of the submissions to readers across the country. students towards teaching and research opportu­ We are so grateful to the dozens of scholars who nities, these not always being apparent to those kindly agreed to assess the papers and proposals ofus long settled into our career tracks. The for us. Thank you for showing the proposals your work grew largely out ofManina Jones' role as interest and respect, and for sending them back Career Placement Officer at Western, and fortu­ to us with helpful commentary and wise sugges­ nately for us has naturally extended to meet our tions. Not surprisingly, in the majority of cases own association's interests. The site includes the readers agreed on the quality and eligibility useful information on careers in academia, inter­ of the proposals. When readers agree, or differ national listings and links, 'preparation, applica­ ever so slightly, our job is made so much easier. tion, and interviews,' post-doctoral programs, But as sometimes happens, when two readers documents on employment, and more - every­ disagree widely, and each has solid reasons for thing you needed to know about the search for justifying either a recommendation or a rejec­ work - for a life! -with a humanities back­ tion, then suddenly everything becomes as clear ground. The Executive recognizes the enormous as bog. As Program Chair, and in consl.J].tation commitment that Manina Jones has made to the with executive members, I try to give the pro­ production of this site, and we are especially posal the benefit of the doubt, unless the unfa­ grateful to her for agreeing to maintain it. We vourable assessment seems irrefutable, persua­ are recommending that Professor Jones be ap­ sive beyond question. But almost always we end pointed to a newly designated position of AC­ up seeking a third opinion, especially when con­ CUTE, 'Career Resources Website Coordina­ sidering an unfamiliar subject or an area in tor.' We know that Manina Jones already infor­ which we can claim no special expertise. It mally fills this position with honour, and we needs to be said here that every effort goes into look forward to acknowledging her efforts at the making sure that we have a strong pool of cho­ AGM in Edmonton. sen proposals, a pool selected fairly and as objec­ tively as possible. Smaller and even medium­ Congress 2000 sized associations do not normally have the lux­ ury of such a process, but we think it guarantees The Edmonton proceedings have been falling the integrity of our meetings and marks the steadily into place. Note the draft program, still event as a more challenging opportunity. We all subject to some changes, in this newsletter. We tmderstand, of course, that judgement calls need received many more submissions this year than to be made, and that the business of shaping a last year. Edmonton and the capacious Univer­ conference program as extensive as the one we sity of Alberta campus appear to be a good draw design annually is never straightforward or un­ for the meetings, or perhaps we are experiencing complicated. But the final program comes into a surge of general conference interest and/or an being only after many eyes have had a chance to urge to go west. The effect is bound to be a assess the submissions. larger Congress overall, a healthy sign for the sometimes anxious Congress Secretariat. When the first draft of the program flashes up on