Winter 2005 NewsNotes - the E-Publication of the Society for Multi-Ethnic Literature of the US (MELUS)

MLA-MELUS Program Announcements

Black Lit and Culture Division Cash Bar will be in Wilson C at the Marriott on Dec 28 from 5.15 to 6.30 PM. Please stop by. This info is not in printed program. Please spread the word. from Amrit Singh (amrit378@cox.net ), Chair, Black Amer Lit and Culture Division

You’re cordially invited to the MELUS reception at the MLA, in which we will honor Professor Tey Diana Rebolledo for her excellent scholarship and leadership in the field of Chicana literature. The reception will take place in a suite at Marriott Wardman Park on December 29^th between 8 and 10 PM. Please call the front desk to ask for Dr. Andrew Furman’s suite number. from Wenying Xu, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of English, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431, (561) 297-2065, wxu@fau.edu

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR NEW MELUS OFFICERS

The Executive Council of MELUS invites nominations for the six elected officer positions described below. Candidates for office must be MELUS members and possess expertise appropriate to the officer's duties. Term of service is April 2006 through March of 2009.

With special regard for the multiethnic mission of the Society, applications from minorities and women are particularly invited. Self-nominations will be permitted. Emails or letters making nominations should relate the candidate's experience to the duties of the office. Candidates will be asked to submit a brief statement outlining their qualifications and experience and a complete curriculum vitae. Nominations are due January 1, 2005.

Send nominations with supporting statements via email to: Dr. Marcy Newman at marcynewman@mac.com.

President
The President shall chair meetings of the Society and coordinate all of the functions of the Society. He/she shall administer the Constitution and By-Laws throughout the year. With the elected members of the Executive Committee, he/she appoints all non-elected officers, reviews significant expenditures, and shall make arrangements for conferences, national and regional meetings, publications, etc. The President takes ultimate responsibility for all aspects of the Society's programs and activities.

Vice President
The Vice-President and Program Director shall coordinate the annual program , including the national MELUS conference and sessions at other regional and national conferences. The Program Chairperson directs preparations for the annual national MELUS Conference in consultation with the Executive Committee and local organizers. Once the MELUS President has secured a contract with a university that specifies the responsibilities of the campus and the Society, the Program Chairperson or his/her designate serves as a resource person for the campus coordinator, who is expected to follow the guidelines outlined in the MELUS Conference Handbook. The Vice-President and Program Director coordinate MELUS projects (i.e., bibliographies, abstracts, etc). Both shall develop procedures for future projects and programs.

Secretary
The Secretary shall set the agenda and keep minutes of the Executive Committee and membership meetings and shall distribute copies to the Executive Committee before each meeting. The Editor of MELUS NewsNotes should receive a copy of the minutes in time to publish them in the first yearly usually January--issue. In conjunction with the President, the Secretary will also notify the Executive Committee of the time and place of its annual meeting. The Secretary also serves as the liaison between the Executive Committee and the Editor of NewsNotes, the Webmaster/mistrix, the MELUS listserv moderator, and others involved with communicating internally and externally the activities and policies of the Society.

Treasurer
The Treasurer shall establish and maintain a careful bookkeeping system in accordance with the requirements put forth by the non-profit corporation laws. He/she, as well, sends out to the President and the Membership Chairperson a monthly list of all checks received from the membership. He/She reports regularly to the Executive Committee about such matters as the percentage of dues which goes to the journal, regular payments to the journal, and regular financial statements received from the Managing Editor of the Journal, which the treasurer incorporates into his/her quarterly report and] will eventually present in an annual report at the business meeting. This officer also works with the Executive Committee on basic financial operations, ! such as designing a yearly budget, fulfilling contractual obligations, and receiving and keeping track of all MELUS funds, including membership and conference registration fees. Members of the Executive Committee may also call on this officer to assist in soliciting patrons, writing grant proposals and promoting other activities that support the financial health of MELUS.

Membership Chairperson
Is charged with recruiting and welcoming new members and publicizing MELUS activities through distribution of MELUS brochures and other means. This officer will also keep the MELUS membership list up to date (using the Microsoft Access database provided by the Editor of the MELUS Journal and [the latest membership list from the Treasurer). This officer works in tandem with the Editor of the Journal and the Treasurer in responding to members? and nonmembers? inquiries about membership status, changes of address, and generally keeps vital lines of communication open between the Society and its current or potential membership. The Membership Chairperson finally coordinates the publication of the MELUS membership booklet.

Graduate Student Representative
The Graduate Student Representative helps the Society address the specific needs and concerns of MELUS members who are currently graduate students and recruits new members and potential leaders for MELUS from among this population.

Dr. Marcy J. Knopf-Newman, marcynewman@mac.com

Announcing the weblink for Atlantic Studies -- http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/14788810.asp

Atlantic Studies provides an international forum for research and debate on historical, cultural and literary issues arising within the new disciplinary matrix of the circumatlantic world. In particular, it seeks to foster a transcultural dialogue between the two hemispheres and, specifically, among the nations of Europe, the Americas and Africa.

DoubleTake Magazine merges with Points of Entry to form a new documentary studies journal which will be distributed through Johns Hopkins University Press, Journals Division. Editors Dr. Robert Coles and Professors Roberta Rosenberg and Terry Lee solicit essays, photographs as well as fiction and poetry for the next issue.

Newport News, VA--December 1, 2005, DoubleTake, the influential magazine of documentary and literary arts, has done a double-take of its own, returning to publication in January 2006, by combining forces with another journal, Points of Entry: Cross-Currents in Storytelling. The new merger will produce a magazine with the familiar look and mission of the old DoubleTake but also an interest in narrative journalism in both the newsroom and classroom.

DoubleTake was founded in 1995, and went on a publishing hiatus in 2003. The union of DoubleTake with Points of Entry will increase the audience of the two magazines in this project, redoubling each magazine's mission to not only instruct and delight, but to foster connections from the artistic and academic communities to the general public. As Robert Coles noted in the first issue of his magazine in 1995, "We regard the magazine as an educational institution and the teachers and librarians of the country are, for us, colleagues."

The creation of the new DoubleTake/Points of Entry, distributed through the Johns Hopkins University Press Journals Division, is the joint effort of Dr. Robert Coles, well-known for his own documentary work, and Terry Lee and Roberta Rosenberg, the founding editors of Points of Entry, a journal that shared Coles’s vision of honoring documentary