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Welcome to the Summer/Fall 1999 edition of NewsNotes

In this issue:

Welcome to NewsNotes

We are pleased to introduce to you this newly-reformatted edition of MELUS NewsNotes. As an electronic publication, NewsNotes can bring you more current information on a wider range of topics. If you have ideas for ways to enlarge our Table of Contents, send suggestions to:
Katharine Rodier
Assistant Professor of English
Marshall University
400 Hal Greer Blvd.
Huntington WV 25755-2646
rodier@marshall.edu
Detailed submission information is available on our Calls for Submissions link. Also in this edition, Monica Brooks, our Technical Editor, has outlined subscription information for future issues. If you would prefer to receive NewsNotes in print copy or in another format, please let us know. We look forward to receiving your comments.

Katharine Rodier, Editor
Monica Garcia Brooks, Technical Editor


Letter from the President:
By John Lowe, Louisiana State University
Summer 1999

Dear Colleagues:

I write this from Rome, where I'm directing LSU in Italy and also getting in touch with our many European members. Interest is high in our June 2000 MELUS Europe conference in Orleans, France, and several friends hope to attend the January 2000 MELUS India Conference in Hyderabad. Our European colleagues are also excited about the many changes MELUS has undergone during this past busy year, and I want to take this opportunity to provide a summary of these events.

First, the executive committee concluded its long and thorough search for a new editor for MELUS. At our MLA banquet in San Francisco, Joe Skerrett, our beloved outgoing editor, introduced his successor, Professor Veronica Makowsky of the University of Connecticut. Her home institution presented us with a handsome proposal, and since December, much work has been done to facilitate the journal's gradual move from Amherst to Storrs. Please join me in thanking Joe for his invaluable and splendid stewardship, and in congratulating Veronica on her appointment.

The journal will have another new look, in that Amritjit Singh, our dedicated Book Review Editor, has resigned that post. Veronica has appointed Professors Robert Tilton and Karen Chow of the University of Connecticut as co-holders of this position. A hearty welcome to them both! And once again, thank you, Amritjit, for your myriad contributions over the years, and for all that you've done to assist Veronica in the transition.

There is yet another important change in the works. Our own Richard Tuerk, who has served MELUS so well in so many offices over the years, had asked that we find a new coordinator for the MELUS email list-serv. This increasingly important function lies at the heart of our work, and we all owe a hearty thank-you to Richard for doing the difficult pioneering work. I am happy to announce that his successor is right down the road from Richard; longtime MELUS member Stephen Souris of Texas Women's University has agreed to take on this important mission, and he has secured the necessary technological and administrative support at his university. We look forward to working with Stephen, and we welcome Texas Women's University into the charmed circle of MELUS sponsors.

The MLA banquet was especially memorable this year for other reasons too as C. Lok Chua also details below. Program Chair Mary Young selected an exotic Moroccan restaurant, Marrakech, as our locale, and the food was delicious. It was especially fine to have so many noted scholars of Native American literature present to join our applause for Helen Jaskoski, this year's recipient of the MELUS Lifetime Achievement Award in Ethnic Studies. The presentation was made by the legendary Lavonne Ruoff, who spoke eloquently of all Helen has meant to us over the years, as a pioneering scholar, exemplary editor, and loyal friend. Ishmael Reed and his daughter Tennessee gave riveting readings from their work, and as a lagniappe event, Ishmael did a spirited duet with the restaurant's belly dancer! Thanks, Ishmael, for always shaking things up, both that night and throughout your dazzling and provocative career.

We have also elected a new editor for NEWSNOTES, as this issue announces. We are especially pleased that our long and fruitful relationship with Marshall University will continue, with Professor Katharine Rodier taking over the reins from our outgoing editor, Professor Shirley Lumpkin, who will now co-direct the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia, located on the Marshall campus. Like Joe, Shirley has been a magnificent editor; she has forged NEWSNOTES into a marketplace of ideas, replete with news of MELUS members, key publications, conference announcements, and a cornucopia of other information vital to the work we all share. We wish her well in her new endeavors, but remind her that Professor Rodier and MELUS will be counting on her wisdom and expertise for a long time to come! Thanks too to Marshall University for continuing to provide such cordial and consistent support for MELUS NEWSNOTES.

Finally, we were blessed this year with one of our most fascinating and smoothly integrated conferences, Migrating Bodies, which was held at Vanderbilt University, March 18-21. Conferees were palatially ensconced in the Loew's Vanderbilt Plaza Hotel, just across the street from Vandy's verdant campus. Co-conveners Professors Jay Clayton and Thadious Davis saw to it that every MELUS need was addressed; the facilities were excellent, the audio and visual equipment WORKED, and best of all, the program had been fine-tuned and balanced so as to provide a full exploration of the theme (movements in ethnic, racial, and gender discourses) without shutting out ancillary topics. The range and excellence of the presentations provided an opportunity for all MELUS scholars from graduate students and independent scholars through professors to share their work with others. Our plenary session speakers, Betty Bell and Marilou Awiakta, gave stirring presentations on Native American literature and culture, and the third plenary event featured a riveting reading by Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat. There was a moving trip to the legendary Fisk University campus for a viewing of the fabled Carl Van Vechten Gallery and a gracious reception. The MELUS Buffet Dinner at Branscomb Quadrangle concluded dramatically, as Professor Sheila Smith McKoy of Vanderbilt had arranged a post-prandial performance by the electrifying African Culture University Drum and Dance Ensemble.

As always at our conferences, members mixed and met at the many social moments that punctuated the meeting, either at morning breakfast buffets or afternoon cocktail hours, most held in the spacious lobby of the ultra-modern Wilson Center. The opening reception at Benson Hall appropriately featured the rockin' sounds of The Yoknapatawpha County Glee Club Rock and Blues Review. Similarly, MELUS rocked and harmonized to perfection in Music City. As a son of Vanderbilt, and a former Nashvillean, it gave me deep pleasure to see my beloved MELUS family have its annual reunion there!

Plans are well underway for our next conference, which will be held in New Orleans at Tulane University, March 9-12, just after Mardi Gras. Convener Professors Gaurav Desai, Felipe Smith and Supriya Nair have a webpage for the conference up and running, and have mapped out an exciting topic, Ethnic Literatures and the Idea of Social Justice." Don't miss this Louisiana special you'll pass a good time with us, Cher!

The coming academic year will bring further changes to MELUS; the current officers will be retiring, and we want some spirited and dedicated members to step forward to fill our shoes. A nominating committee will be seeking candidates shortly, so plan to suggest yourself or a colleague to help keep the MELUS flags snapping sharply in the wind; our battles are not yet won, and our potential remains glorious.

 
MELUS Journal:
By Veronica Makowsky
University of Connecticut
 
Here at the University of Connecticut we have been busily preparing for the journal's transition from the University of Massachusetts. We have moved to an office suite, acquired two additional computers and printers, and purchased some furnishings and software. Down the hall from our offices, a storage closet is being built for all the back issues and is almost complete. I have chosen a local printer, after examining various bids, but am still looking into possibilities of publication by a university press and on-line.

I have some new staff to introduce. Our book review editors are Robert Tilton and Karen Chow, both assistant professors of English at U. Conn. Bob's specialty is Native American literature, and he is best known for his Cambridge University Press book, Pocahontas, the Evolution of an American Narrative. Karen publishes in Asian-American literature and is very active with the Asian-American Cultural Center at U Conn. Our Managing Editor is Katharine Capshaw Smith, who is writing a dissertation on children's literature of the Harlem Renaissance. In the spring semester, she will be joined by Assistant Editor Tanyss Ludescher who is writing her dissertation on Arab-American literature. We also hope to have some undergraduate interns and work-study students with us in the fall.

I would like to thank Joe Skerrett and his staff at U. Mass, and Amritjit Singh at Rhode Island College for all their help and patience in answering my seemingly endless questions during this transition. Without their help, none of this would have gone so smoothly.

We will be publishing the 2000 issues while the U. Mass staff completes the 1999 issues, so be prepared for a lot of good reading at once. The 2000 issues will mainly consist of articles already accepted by the previous editor and, at this point, I see them as issues on Jewish American literature; Borders, Frontiers, and Margins; History and Ethnicity, and one issue on a variety of ethnic literatures. For 2001 and beyond, I am interested in special issues on ethnic children's literature and ethnic hybridity, but am also open to your suggestions.

At this point, all submissions should be sent to MELUS, Department of English, U-25, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-1025. Our telephone number is 860-486-2320, and we do have voice mail. Our faxes will go through the English Department so please mark them for MELUS and send them to 860-486-1530. Our e-mail is melus@uconn.edu, but if you wish to address me directly, write to makowsky@uconnvm.uconn.edu. I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

The 1998 MLA Convention in San francisco
By C. Lok Chua
 
The 1998 Convention of the Modern language Association, held 27-30 December in San Francisco, drew more than 11,000 people despite a fog that closed the San Francisco Airport unpredictably. MELUS made its presence felt during this MLA by putting on two sessions and a dinner event under the guiding hand of Program Chair Mary Young. At the dinner, Helen Jaskoski was honored with the MELUS Award for Distinguished Contribution to Ethnic Studies, and Ishmael Reed gave a reading from his works.

The First MELUS session (27 December) was entitled "Shifting Ethnicities: 1848, 1898, and 1998." Chaired by Mary Young, it featured papers by Helen Yue-ling Chu of Berkeley, Julie Ruiz also of Berkeley, and Anneliese Truame of the University of Washington, Seattle. The other MELUS session (29 December) focused on "The Beats and Ethnicity." It was chaired by Lok Chua, and heard papers presented by Katie Mills of the University of Southern California, Barbara Louise Ungar of the College of St. Rose, and Sandra Stanley of California State University, Northbridge. Both sessions were very well attended, with audience members spilling into he corridor during the second session, and a scout from College Literature soliciting papers from the speakers.

The MELUS Dinner was held on the evening of 28 December in the Marrakech Restaurant, only a stone's throw from the main convention hotel, and the MELUS crowd took over the restaurant's premises that evening. We were regaled by North African cuisine and beguiled by a belly dancer. Amidst this conviviality, Helen Jaskoski, a former member of the MELUS executive Committee, and current Professor of English at the California State University, Fullerton was honored with the MELUS Award for her distinguished contribution to the study of Native American Literature. Presenting the award was none other than LaVonne Ruoff, herself, a veritable doyenne of Native American literary studies. Following the award ceremony, Ishmael Reed, sharing the mic with his daughter, treated the audience to a spirited reading from some of his most recent work. Marco Portales, past President of MELUS, provided the introduction.

News

Executive Committee Announcements
The Executive Committee of MELUS has voted to confer its 1999 MELUS Award for Distinguished Contribution to Ethnic Studies to Dr. Raymund Paredes, Associate Vice-Chancellor, University of California, Loa Angeles. The Award will be conferred at the annual MELUS banquet held during the MLA convention in Chicago, December 1999.

 

 

From Dorthea Fisher-Hornung
MELUS Europe Announcement
A short note about the email application form I distributed recently: Several people have asked about te possibility of filling out their MELUS Europe application form via E-MAIL. Of course you can simply fill out the email application you received, indicating the amount you would like to pay, and them simply push the reply button. We do not need your signature for email applications. That line was just included for those who do not have or do not wish to pay with a credit card. They can print out the form and send it via snail mail.

 

 

From The Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia at Marshall University
The Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia invites humanities scholars to apply for a resident fellowship funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. We particularly welcome proposals that fit the interdisciplinary focus of the Center, which is to examine the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and region (Appalachian) with a primary goal of developing a research database to undergrid paradigms that encompass multiple aspects of identity. Preference will be given to scholars who focus on those ethnic and gender aspects of identities that have been most invisible-African Americans, especially women; persons of alternative gender identities; persons of Native American ancestry. Scholars are also encouraged to use Oral History as a primary methodology in their research. Questions that scholars could address include: How has African American identity been shaped by the Appalachian identity (Affrilachian)?; How was slavery different in Appalachia than in the South and what legacy did Appalachian slavery leave for Appalachian race relations?; What is the meaning of 'interracial marriage' in Appalachia;? How has gender identity in Appalachia been challenged by the gay and lesbian movement?; What is the nature of racism and/or homophobia in Appalachia?; How has Native American identity reasserted itself in Appalachia? To be considered, candidates should have the doctorate or equivalent professional experience. Awards will be a maximum stipend of $17,500 for a semester, plus housing stipend, travel allowance, and health benefits. Complete applications, including letters of reference, are due by Feb. 15, 2000 for a resident fellowship in the fall of 2000 or spring of 2001.
For more information and application materials, contact: Mary Thomas, CSEGA, 400 Hal Greer Blvd., Huntington, WV 25755. Email: csega@marshall.edu Web Page: http://www.marshall.edu/csega/ 
From Sharon Jessee

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse invites applications for Assistant Professor in English, tenture rack, beginning August, 2000. Committment to undergraduate teaching with expertise in U.S. Latina/Latino literatures. 4/4 teaching load will include composition. Send letter of application, vita, transcripts and at least three letters of recommendation to Raymnd Schoen, Chair, Department of English, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, WI 54601. Deadline for receipt of all application materials Nov. 20, 1999. MELUS member to contact: Sharon Jessee at jessee@uwlax.edu.

 

From Clinton Machann
Eakin Press of Austin, Texas will release a book entitled Czech-Americans in transition in July 1999. Edited by Clinton Machann, a professor of English at Texas A&M University, this collection of papers is based on presentations made at the 1997 conference of the Czechoslovak Society of the Arts and Sciences held July 12-13, 1997, in Belton, Texas, in conjunction with the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas.
In addition to a critical introduction by Machann, the contents of the book are as follows: Alexander Vondra, "The Czech Ambassador's Address on the Occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the SPJST;" Zdenek Lycka, "The Czech Republic and Czechs Abroad: Past, Present and Future;" Leonard D. Mikeska, "A Brief History of the SPJST;" Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr., "Bohemian and Moravian Pioneers in Colonial America;" Peter Bisek, "The Czech-American Journalist: A Bridge Between the Old Country and the New;" Daniel Hrna, "Genealogy: Building a Bridge to the Past;" Leo Baca, "Documenting Czech Immigrant Arrivals;" Joseph N. Rostinsky, "The Moravian Folk Song: The Best means of Preserving Czech Culture in Texas;" Robert Janak, "The Czech Heritage Society of Texas and Bridges to the Czech Republic;" Clinton Machann, "A Short History of the Czech Educational Foundation of Texas and Description of Its Current Projects;" Milada Polisenska, "Subject; Conversation with Czechoslovak President (Reports on T. G. Masaryk in the American Diplomatic Correspondence in Prague);" Ludmila Dutkova, "Texas Biography of Thomas Capek 1861-1950): Sources: Life Sketch, and Biographical Models;" and Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr., comp, "Czech-Americans: A Selected Bibliography of Publications in English."
This book, which should be of interest to all Czech-Americans, is available from Eakin press, P.O. Drawer 90159, Austin, TX 78709-0159; tel. 512-288-1771.

 

From Dr. Dubem Okafor
Dr. Dubem Okafor, professor of African, English, and World Litaratures at Kutztoen University of Pennsylvania, has a new book, The Dance of Death: Nigerian History and Christopher Okigbo's Poetry, published by Africa World Press in Trenton, NJ (ISBN: 0-86543-55-3, 0-86543-554-5 [cloth]). A postcolonial treatise, this book is a definitive re-reading of Okigbo's poetry, as well as a meditation on the tortured and tortuous historico-political trajectory of a paradigmatic postcolonial state, Nigeria. It is a book that must be read by everyone interested in African studies/affairs, and could be used in such courses as: African Studies, Black Studies, African/Black Literature, Postcolonial Literature, World Literature, etc.
Dr. Dubem Okafor's recent selection of his own poetry, GARLANDS OF ANGUISH, (Eagle & Palm Publisher, 1997, ISBN 1-890232-00-9), is now available from DIASPORA PUBLICATIONS, BOX 13261, READING, PA 19612, for only $7.00, postage paid!
Dr. Dubem Okafor is now publisher/Managing Editor of Books for Black Children, Inc., a new publishing company devoted to Books for Black and Other Children. Members are urged to to to visit the web site at ; to spread the word about this mission for all our children; and help make BBC, INC. a household name among children and parents, etc. We can be reached via our e-mail address: , and phone: 610-376-6996.

 

From Paul Capronesi
AfroCubaWeb Newsletter #6, 9/1999

AfroCubaWeb is bringing film maker Gloria Rolando back to the US in October. She will make a presentation on a work in progress which deals with the 1912 genocide carried out by the Cuban army against members of the Independents of Color, an early all Black political party. We have photos from this film. This is the first time this topic, which has long been ignored, has been treated in a film. Gloria will also have her previous videos, which include Oggun, Eyes of the Rainbow on Assata Shakur, and My Footsteps in Baragua. Dates are available.
Extensive new listings on music tours: Anacoana, Los Van Van, Sintesis, Pancho Quinto, Cubanismo, Chucho Valdez, Buena Vista Social Club, Irakere, AfroCuban All Stars, many others. Manolin, el Medico de la Salsa, to come in Sept, dates available. The legendary Sintesis group is in the Bay Area and looking for gigs.
Conference on Afro-Cubans in Cuban Society: Past, Present and Future, September 16-17, 1999. John Hopkins University, TransAfrica, Black Caucus, Havana's Fundacion Ortiz. Many prominent AfroCubans in the fields of race and identity to attend in Washington, DC.
"Why Black Cuba Is Suffering," in Essence, 7/99, by TransAfrica's Randall Robinson, introduces the much awaited TransAfrica Report on Cuba that details the impact of the US embargo on AfroCubans.
Amelia Pedroso, famous traditional percussionist - singer, in CA, OR, NY: 7/99 - 9/99, concerts & workshops. Dates available. Amelia is a star of Clave y Guaguanco, very knowledgeable in the traditions, and has been here before with an all-women group she directs, Ibu Okun.
Eleggua Project, Interdisciplinary Conference and Field research, 1/00 and History, Culture And Society In The African Diaspora, 7/00 (cosponsored by the Association of Black Anthropologists).
Indigenous Knowledge of the Caribbean: Music, Plants and Healing, 12/13/99 - 12/20/99, Santiago, Guantanamo, Baracoa. Curriculum by the editor of Native Americas.
Lisa Brock & Digna CastaÒeda's book, Between Race and Empire: African-Americans and Cubans before the Revolution, garners great reviews.
AfroCubaWeb - check us out for music, books, articles, conferences, tours, and news relating to the African cultures of Cuba. http://afrocubaweb.com

 

From Yiorgos Kalogeras 
The sixth volume of Gramma: Journal of Theory and Criticism has been published. It includes eight articles on the topic "Of People and Places: Decentering Ethnicity" Anthony Molho "Jews and Marranos before the Law: Five mediterranean Stories"; Michalis Chrysanthopoulos "Fluid Identity and Internal Otherness: Greeks Inside and Outside the Kingdom during the late Nineteenth Century" (in Greek); Yiorgos Kalogeras "The Ottoman Native as Greek Politician and Intellectual of the Diaspora" (in Greek); Ioanna Laliotou ""Bios and Subjectivity: Migration in Life -story Narration"; Smaro Kamboureli "Canadian Multiculturalism and the Diasporic Critic's (Self)-Location"; E. San Juan "Decentering Ethnicity: The Situation of Asian Americans in Contemporary Global Capitalism"; Sara Soncini "Questioning Subjectivity in Contemporary Scottish Theatre: Nation , Identity and Difference in Chris Dolan's Sabina!"; Litsa Tragianoudi"Paterson, Gloucester, Anonymous Cities of Eponymous Citizens: William Carlos Williams's Patterson ad Charles Olson's The Maximus Poems." Gramma is published annually by the Dept of English, School of Philosophy, Aristotle U of Thessaloniki 54006. Editor Yiorgos Kalogeras kalogera@enl.auth.gr

From Marco Portales
Colleagues who may be looking for a book on Chicano literature for their spring and fall, 2000 courses should visit the Fall/Winter 1999 New Releases of Temple University Press' website under their "What's Hot" button (yea!): 
In January, Temple will publish my "Crowding Out Latinos: Mexican Americans in the Public Consciousness," a book with an autobiographical thread buttressed with what little helpful data we have had on U.S. Latinos. This study connects education to the media representation of Hispanics and to Chicano literature. The endeavor seeks to provoke discussions about the place of Americans of Mexican and other Latino ancestry in American society and culture. I am hoping that people will find the study useful, and that the book helps usher in many needed changes for U.S. Hispanics.

 

From Marta Caminero-Santangelo 
Antipodas: Journal of Hispanic and Galician Studies, has just put out a special issue with a section on Dominican American writer Julia Alvarez. The title of the special issue is: "Cultural Collisions and Cultural Crossings: Psychic Borderlands in the Works of Julia Alvarez, Manlio Argueta, and Alfredo Conde." The issue can be purchased by contacting Prof. Roy C. Boland, P.O. Box 114, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia; email: R.Boland@latrobe.edu.au (price is $25.00 for individuals plus $2.50 to cover postage).

 

From Martha J. Cutter
Martha J. Cutter's book, "Unruly Tongue: Language and Identity in American Women's Writing, 1850-1930" has just been published by the University of Mississippi Press. It contains chapters on African American writers such as Anna Julia Cooper, Frances Harper, Harriet Wilson, and Jessie Fauset. It also discusses the social, cultural, and linguistic context of African American women and Anglo-American women writers attempts to find voice in this time period. 
From The Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia

Announces Piecing It Together: Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia, a conference to be held on March 3, 4, and 5, 2000 at Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia.

Conference details will be forthcoming in December 1999. There is no registration fee. Please contact us for more information by phone: (304) 696-3348, email: csega@marshall.edu, or visit our website: http://www.marshall.edu/csega/. The conference is sponsored by the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia, which is funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Reviews

Identity Lessons
A Penguin Paperback Original $16.95
ISBN:0140271678

Identity Lessons: Contemporary Writing About Learning to Be American Edited by Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Jennifer Gillan

Identity Lessons, ($16.95) is a sweeping new anthology that gathers together the best contemporary writing on the different ways we are taught to be Americans. Featuring prose and poetry by Amiri Baraka, Robert Creeley, Edwidge Danticat, Allen Ginsberg, Grace Paley, Diane Di Prima, and others, Identity Lessons looks at the wide range of American Experiences and the way they shape both our individual and cultural identities.

Identity Lessons is divided into eight sections, each of them the site of the struggle to define, influence and retain one's identity:

Family Primer I & II deals with origins and with family relations. "Remember, there is nothing/you will not bear/for this woman's sake" - Lucille Clifton, fury

Calling Role is about the categorizing of others based on appearances. "And it goes on that way until you get/to Nebraska, where it gets even worse./There, the people never met a Jew before./They think you have horns, &will want/to look for them. That's why you should never move/too far away from me" -Hal Sirowitz, Horns On Your Head

Pledging Allegiance Confronts the feeling of being pressured into choosing sides, and the difficulties of living with competing allegiances. "My sister has a photo of me from those days/What a strange, muscular clown I was./Stripped, button-down shirt. Hush puppies/and pressed corduroy slacks/and that goofy flat-top with wings//No men wore braids back then/and I was ashamed of my Indian blood/Grandfather.. . .no shit. Sometimes/I still am" ---Adrian Louis, Half-Breed's Song

School Daze focuses on the new experience and ways of thinking that can be learned in school. "I still think longingly/of the flamenco clatter and pistol fire/on the old Washington School/Auditorlum floor." - - - Diane Wakoski, from Fpersonal And Impersonal Landscapes

Learning by Rote on the other hand deals with the darker side of education: formulaic learning and conformity. "Sis and I walked two miles on red earth/to the crossroads schoolhouse./And what magic we had left was taken, beginning with the teacher yanking/penny pencil out of my left hand,/cramming, it into my right" - David Ray, Pennies

Our Bodies, Ourselves is about the information, or lack of information, that our culture provides us about gender. "We called it practicing and/one was the boy, and we paired of - maybe six or eight girls - and/turned out/the lights and kissed and kissed until we were stoned on kisses" - Marle Howe, Practicing

Beyond Dick and Jane challenges limited conceptions of personal and national identity. " When she was done she would ask you to name each braid after those nine hundred and ninety-nine women who were boiling in your blood, and since you had written them down and memorized them, the names would come rolling off your tongue. And this was your testament to the way that these women lived and died and lived again." -- Edwidge Danticat, from KirkKrak!I

Identity Lessons examines the delicate balance between conformity and individuality in their lives, providing readers with an enormous tapestry of American ethnic experience.

About the Authors

Maria Mazziotti Gillan is the founder and director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College, editor of The Paterson Literary Review. She has won numerous awards of her work, including the May Sarton Award, two New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowships, and a Chester H. Hones Foundation Award. She is the author of six books of poetry, and is co-editor, with Jennifer Gillan, of Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry.

Jennifer Gillan is an Assistant Professor at Bentley College in the Boston area. She is co-editor, with Maria Mazziotti Gillan, of Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry.

Growing Up Ethnic in America
Contemporary Fiction About Learning to Be American
Edited by Maria Mazziotti Gillan And Jennifer Gillan
ISBN: 0-14-028063-4 $16.95

 A moving collection featuring some of the nation's brightest voices on the complex and profound subject of race and ethnicity in America. The editors who brought us Unsettling America and Identity Lessons have compiled a short-story anthology that focuses on themes of racial and ethnic assimilation. With humor, passion, and grace, the contributors lay bare poignant attempts at conformity and the alienation sometimes experienced by ethnic Americans. But they also tell of the strength gained through the preservation of their communities, and the realization that it was often their difference from the norm that helped them to succeed. In pieces suggesting that American identity is far from settled, these writers illustrate the diversity that is the source of both the nation's great discord and infinite promise.

Contributors include:

Selected Calls for papers

For access to more comprehensive CFA sites, link to the MELUS Journal Homepage and MELUS 2000

JANUARY 2000 JULY 2000
FEBRUARY 2000 AUGUST 2000
MARCH 2000 SEPTEMBER 1999
APRIL 2000 OCTOBER 1999
MAY 2000 NOVEMBER 1999
JUNE 2000 DECEMBER 1999
Deadline October 15, 1999

From: Gaurav Desai 

Dear Colleagues,
I would like to invite you all to participate in the MELUS 2000 conference that we are hosting in New Orleans on March 9-12, 2000. The topic of the conference is Multiethnic Literatures and the Idea of Social Justice. A Call for Papers and other conference information is available at http://www.tulane.edu/~adst. The deadline for submissions is October 15th. We look forward to your paper and panel proposals!

Deadline October 15, 1999

Dear Fellow Listmembers,
I am pleased to see that MELUS members are already beginning to think about their paper and panel proposals for MELUS 2000 which we are hosting in New Orleans. If you haven't already done so, I invite you to visit our special conference website at http://www.tulane.edu/~adst The website is updated regularly and has a Call for Papers, information on Registration, Accomodations, Transportation etc. Please remember that the paper/panel proposal deadline is October 15th. I encourage you all to submit a proposal and of course the less hectic time over the summer may be perfect to do it! I look forward to seeing you all in New Orleans!

Gaurav Desai Department of English Tulane University New Orleans LA 70118 (504)862-8162 gaurav@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu
Deadline October 31, 1999

CALL FOR PAPERS

MELUS-INDIA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AT the American Studies Research Centre, HYDERABAD, INDIA. (Sponsored by USIS, New Delhi) To be held on 7-11 JANUARY 2000

"CROSS-CULTURAL TRANSACTIONS: REPRESENTATIONS OF RACE, GENDER, AND CULTURE IN MULTI-ETHNIC LITERATURES OF THE U.S."

Conference Theme: The theme for the January Conference is "Cross-Cultural Transactions: Representations of Race, Gender, and Culture in Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the U.S." The thrust will be on the complex relationships between the centre and the margins, the mainstream and the minority. Some of the subjects on which papers are invited are: questions of hybridity, the crossing of frontiers, the politics of borderlands, the language of silence, the location of the voice, and the identity of the mestiza. Tentatively speaking, panels would focus on the following areas: (i) Politics of race and ethnicity; (ii) Gender representations; (iii) Popular literatures; (iv) Mass media: film, TV, the press; (v) Immigrant literatures.

Announcement of the Conference was made in November 1998 by post and by email. Interested participants have been asked to submit a 200-word abstract along with a brief CV to: Dr Manju Jaidka (President, MELUS-India), Dept of English, Panjab University, Chandigarh - 160014. INDIA. Phone/Fax: 91-172-554155. Email: jaidka@ch1.dot.net.in

Deadline for Submission: Proposals are invited early, on or before June 30, 1999. [If you do not get an acknowledgement within two weeks, do follow up with a letter or phone call.] Acceptance letters will be sent by the 31st of July, 1999. Completed papers [of about 3,000 words] will be required no later than October 31, 1999.

Participants will be expected to travel on their own expense. In addition, there will be a delegate fee.

Deadline November 1, 1999

From: Eric G. Anderson 

For a special (i.e. not yet approved) session at the 2000 meeting of the South Central Modern Language Association -- to be held at the Camberley Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, November 9-11, 2000.

NEW MULTI-ETHNIC TEXTS IN AMERICAN LITERATURE COURSES

Strategies for including multi-ethnic 1990s texts in American literature courses. How? Why? (or why not?) Which texts? Which contexts? Which trade-offs?

The theme of the *conference* is "Teaching Languages and Literatures: Histories, Practices, Speculations." I'm hoping that this proposed special session will give interested teachers of American literature the opportunity to talk together about what's new, multi-ethnic, and good to teach -- and about the histories and speculations that both drive and enfold the practices of teaching multiethnic American literatures.

Submit 250-word abstracts by November 1, 1999, to Eric Gary Anderson Department of English Oklahoma State University 205 Morrill Hall Stillwater, OK 74078-4069 FAX: 405/744-6326 Internet: ericag@osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu
For general queries about SCMLA or the 2000 conference, please don't contact me. Instead, please check out SCMLA's website: http://www-english.tamu.edu/scmla/ Or send your query by e-mail to , attention Jo Hebert.

Deadline December 1, 1999

 FILM & HISTORY PANELS FOR TEXAS/SOUTHWEST REGIONAL POPULAR CULTURE/AMERICAN CULTURE MEETING. (Deadline for proposals is 1 December, 1999.)

Last year, the Film & History sessions at the Texas/Southwest PCA/ACA meeting were a big success. We are now planning for the February, 2000 meeting in Albuquerque and would love to hear from interested participants. Here are some current areas of interest:

OTHER DECADES AND TOPICS WELCOMED

Join our milling throng in Albuquerque, February 9-12, 2000. We had 350 people at lunch on Friday, last year, and we made quite a few new friends for Film & History!

For general information about the conference, check out the web site: http://ww2.okstate.edu/swpca

For detailed information about the journal entitled Film & History, see http://h-net.msu.edu/~filmhis/

Send 100-word proposals about Film & History to the Area Chair:

Peter C. Rollins Film & History RR 3 Box 80 Cleveland, OK 74020 RollinsPC@aol.com
Deadline December 1, 1999

Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association Albuquerque, February 9-12 Section on Fantasy and Science Fiction Call for Proposals
The section on fantasy and science fiction of the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association invites proposals for presentations on all forms and aspects of fantasy and science fiction. In the past, presentations have been on such diverse topics as _Xena_, _The X-Files_, L. Frank Baum, Mary Shelley, Robin McKinley, Stephen King, and _The Thing from Outer Space_. Proposals are welcome about literature, film, television and video, games, associations, and any other aspects of fantasy and science fiction.

Send proposals of about 200 words to

Richard Tuerk Department of Literature and Languages Texas A&M University-Commerce Commerce, TX 75429-3011 903-886-5266; FAX 903-886-5980 Richard_Tuerk@tamu-commerce.edu Email proposals are welcome. Deadline: 12/1/99 Richard Tuerk 
Deadline January 30, 2000

Constructions of Memory in Contemporary American Literature International Conference organised by Universite Paul Valery, Montpellier III at Centre Universitaire Vauban, Nemes June 21-23, 2000

The construction of American identity accompanying the territorial expansion of the United States involved the rejection or negation of Old World and Native American cultures. Now, however, with the rise of ethnic or minority literatures, contemporary U.S. writers are returning to this "forgotten" past. These alternative sites of memory may have no more valid claims to representing objective reality than the federating concepts that formed an earlier national literature. But in contrast to that work of homogenization the new literatures of the United States are characterized by plurality, interactivity and synergy. They announce a multi-cultural United states whose features are not yet defined. Contemporary acts of memory are not simply nostalgic returns to the past; rather, in the most accomplished works, they are transfigurations of the present.

We invite scholars of contemporary literature to reflect on the rediscovery and transformation of the past, following a number of possible directions:

Emphasis should be given to the new artistic forms employed in these acts of memory and to the redefinition of American modes of expression that they entail. Send abstracts of 150-200 words before January 30, 2000 to any of the organisers listed below:

by e mail to: Wendy Harding: harding@bred.univ-montp3.fr Jacky Martin: jwmartin@bred.univ-montp3.fr Simone Pellerin:
by post to: Jacky Martin Universite Paul Valery Route de Mende 34199 MONTPELLIER CEDEX 5 France

Deadline April 1, 2000

CALL FOR PAPERS 2000 CONFERENCE "SF and ... " THE MANY DIMENSIONS OF SCIENCE FICTION SCIENCE FICTION RESEARCH ASSOCIATION (SFRA) & IMAGINATION, a writers' conference sponsored by Cleveland State University June 28-July 2, 2000 Cleveland, Ohio at Cleveland State University and the Comfort Inn, 1800 Euclid Avenue

The Science Fiction Research Association solicits papers, paper proposals, and panel proposals from scholars interested in any aspect of Science Fiction. In particular, the 2000 Conference will focus on science fiction's current status as a genre (in relation to other genres, including mainstream, slipstream, fantasy, horror, and detective fiction), prospects for the coming millennium, and connections to other disciplines (film & television, utopian studies, futurology, science, mathematics, the social sciences and history, children's and young adult fiction, classroom teaching ... and everything else!) Topics may include (but are not limited to): Any author, including Richard A. Lupoff (the Guest of Honor), Karen Joy Fowler, Geoffrey A. Landis, Maureen F. McHugh, Mary Doria Russell, and Joan Slonczewski (Special Guests) Any topic that demonstrates SF's connection to, and relevance for, other disciplinary studies PAPER PROPOSAL: For a paper proposal, send a 250 word abstract. (Maximum 20 minute reading time for the finished paper.) Please include the presentation title, your name, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address. Receipt of proposal will be confirmed by e-mail. PANEL PROPOSAL: For a panel proposal, send a panel name and a 250 word abstract. Please include the panel title, the panel chair (who may be one or more of the presenters), mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address of each presenter. Receipt of proposal will be confirmed by e-mail. Panels at recent SFRA conferences have considered The Year's Best Fiction, Alternative Futures and Counter-Factual History, Teaching Science Fiction, and Stanley Kubrick's Legacy.

MAIL OR E-MAIL SUBMISSIONS TO: Joe Sanders, EnglishDepartment, Lakeland Community College, 7700 Clocktower Drive, Kirtland, OH 44094 (440) 953-7215
DEADLINE FOR ALL SUBMISSIONS: SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 2000 FOR MORE DETAILS CONSULT OUR WEBSITE: www.sfra.org

DUES

MELUS dues are by the calendar year and are $20.00 for students and $40 for regular memberships. You may send your check to:

Arlene Elder,
MELUS Treasurer
University of Cincinnati
Dept. of Engish and Comp. Lit.
Cincinnati, OH 45221

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Page last modified, Tuesday, November 23 1999  (c) 1999 by MGB