A Feast of Words - Fall 2006 - Department of English - Virginia Tech

Graduate Student Conference: With Pen in Hand 2006 by Tim Lockridge
When Matt Beale, last year’s EGSO president, asked me to sit on the Graduate
Student Conference planning committee, I agreed—and soon realized that
I was largely unsure as to what an academic conference is, or how it should be
planned. However, with the help of Matt, Cheri Lemiuex Spiegel, and Sarah
Mitchem, I was soon fielding abstracts and arranging a schedule of what would
become thirty student presentations—a number that made the 2006 installment
of With Pen In Hand the largest and most successful to date.
Outside participation at this year’s conference was particularly impressive,
as we received a number of abstracts from beyond the Virginia Tech community
and ultimately accepted presentations from students at SUNY, UNC-Greensboro,
Central Washington University, and Radford. Panel topics included Professional
Communication, Critical Theory, Southern Writers, Postmodern Writers, and
Feminist Theory.
With the department’s introduction of the MFA in Creative Writing, this year’s
conference also marked the addition of a Friday night poetry reading and Saturday
Cheri Lemieux Spiegel presents a paper at the 2006 graduate
student conference.
afternoon fiction panels. The planning committee was initially concerned with the juxtaposition of scholarly and creative presentations, but
all panels received consistent attendance and were regarded by the panelists as successful.
Planning for the 2007 Conference is already underway as part of a larger movement that will shift EGSO from a solely social enterprise
to a larger academic support network. Looking ahead, we hope to hold the conference at the Graduate Life Center and increase the number
of presenters from neighboring universities. As graduate studies within the department continue to expand, we hope that EGSO can offer
something of a support framework for all English graduate students—not just the GTA population. As such, the conference stands as an
excellent example of what graduate students can offer to the university, and to each other.
Crossing Divides: Undergraduate Research in the Department of English by Gena Chandler
On Friday, March 31, 2006, the English Department presented its
first annual undergraduate student academic conference: Crossing the
Divide: Criticism and Creativity in the English Writing Community.
The Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs, Mary Ann
Lewis, provided the welcome and ushered in a full day of critical and
creative exploration. Over 50 undergraduate students presented work in
the areas of Literature, Language, and Culture; Critical Literary Theory;
and Professional and Creative Writing. Faculty, staff, parents, and
other members of the University community were treated to a full day
of critical and creative thought by undergraduate students, traversing a
wide range of critical and creative interests in English studies. Papers
examined topics ranging from Keats’ editing process in the poem “Bright
Star” to Adorno and Horkheimer’s visions of culture. The conference
was truly a collaborative project between students and faculty. Students
from Eva Brumberger’s Designing Documents for Print class were responsible
for the winning design of the conference program, and eight
members of the English Department community were responsible for
the conference’s planning: Gena E. Chandler (conference chair), Robin
Allnut, Linda Anderson, Mikel Dimmick, Ginney Fowler, Lisa Leslie,
Scott Perkins (undergraduate representative), and Karen Swenson. The
conference was a resounding success and next year’s conference promises
to be even more successful.
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