The Light
newsletter of ACETA
The Association of College English
Teachers of Alabama
An Affiliate of the National Council of Teachers
of English
For all conference information about the 2009 annual meeting
at Huntingdon College, Montgomery, see below orClick on this link to The Light, our newsletter
Conference registration is on page 7February 20-21, 2009 Huntingdon College, Montgomery
"Visions of the Historical and the Personal in Time and Space"
Flowers Hall, Huntingdon College
(photo by Jennie Sumner)
photo by Su OfeWelcome to ACETA's sixty-first annual conference, hosted this year on Friday and Saturday, February 20th and 21st, at Huntingdon College in Montgomery.
Montgomery, Alabama, a city famous, sometimes infamous, conjures up different images for different people. In a September 2008 meeting at Samford University, ACETA's steering committee and several invited guests reflected on Montgomery's rich, varied history and culture as they considered themes for the 2009 conference. When Jackie Trimble, chair of Huntingdon's Department of Language and Literature, spoke about her students using the title of Tim O'Brien's story "The Things They Carried" as a metaphor to center their writing about their own lives, themes emerged, particularly "in this time, in this place" and "intersections of the historical and the personal." To encourage wide participation, the theme the committee agreed on, "Visions of the Historical and the Personal in Time and Space," encompasses Montgomery and the rest of Alabama but also goes past their boundaries. After all, as Emily Dickinson observes, "The Brain is wider than . . . Amherst," or something like that.
The schedule of Friday afternoon concurrent sessions (see page 2 of The Light) suggests that place and time are alive and well in the theory and practice of college English in Alabama. The plenary session following these, featuring Kirk Curnutt, award-winning fiction writer and chair of Troy Montgomery's Department of Language, Literature, and Philosophy, will highlight the conference theme as it relates to one of Montgomery's most famous native daughters: Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald. Curnutt will be presenting in Huntingdon's neo-Gothic Ligon Chapel.
Kirk Curnutt
Photo by Diane ProthroThanks to Dr. Curnutt, who is a member of the board of the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum, the Felgar Avenue home where the Fitzgeralds lived in 1931 will be open from 5:00 until 5:45 for conference attendees to visit.
ACETA's annual dinner will be served at 7:00 at the Embassy Suites Hotel. For those who desire some libation beyond tea, coffee, and water, a cash bar will be open from 6:30 until 8:30.
At Huntingdon on Saturday morning, breakfast will be available before and possibly after the annual business meeting and reading of award-winning papers. Norman McMillan, winner of the 2008 Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinction in Literary Scholarship and a former member of ACETA's steering committee, will give the keynote address, titled "Literary Dialect and Allusion in Harriet Hassell's Rachel's Children." For those who can stay in Montgomery after lunch, a tour of the Rosa Parks Museum will be available from 1:30 until 3:00 for $5.00 a person.
Book Hotel Rooms at Conference Rates
ACETA has conference rates at the Embassy Suites Hotel and at the Renaissance Hotel, but these rates are good at the Embassy only until January 27 and at the Renaissance until February 1. See contact information on page 3 of The Light.
Photos by Su OfeSchedule of Conference Events
Friday, February 20, 2009
12:00-3:00 p.m. Registration Flowers Hall, first floor lobby
1:00 Welcome
1:15-2:15 Concurrent Sessions
1. "Truman Capote and the Legacy of In Cold Blood"
Ralph Voss, University of Alabama
"Driving Truman: A Memoir"
Theron (Tem) Montgomery, Troy University
2. "Using 'Persona Writing' to Help Students Find Their Own Voices"
Gloria Horton, Jacksonville State University
"History and Story: How Emerging Writers Discover Voice in the Past"
Chantel Acevedo, Auburn University
3. "The Southern Literary Trail Fest.
Susan Perry, Grants Director, Alabama Humanities Foundation; and William Gantt, SLT Project Director
"Transition Fiction in the Sunbelt South: From Place to Space in Walker Percy's The Last Gentleman"
Paul Pickering, graduate student, University of Alabama at Birmingham
2:30-3:30 Concurrent Sessions
1. "Stand in the Place Where You Are: History, Pedagogy, and Place in Tony Grooms's Bombingham"
Debbie Davis and Tim Edwards, University of West Alabama
"In Our Lifetime: A Phenomenological Reading of Alain Locke's The New Negro"
Gatsinzi Basaninyenzi, Alabama A & M University
2. "I Am Providence': The Importance of Time and Place in the Work of H.P. Lovecraft"
Alan Brown, University of West Alabama
"Casa di Dante: The Architecture of Isolation and Transcendence for Dante's Divine Comedy"
Rebecca M. Duncan, University of Alabama at Birmingham
3. "Revisioning the Pedagogy of Freshman Composition: Taking Best Practices in the Field of Student Services and Applying These Practices to the Classroom"
Cynthia C. Walker, Faulkner University
"Learning to Look Differently: Re-envisioning Writers and Scenes of Writing"
Kevin Roozen, Auburn University
3:45-4:30 "Growing Up Montgomery: Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald and Belle Culture"
Kirk Curnutt, Troy University Montgomery
Ligon Chapel, Flowers Hall
5:00-5:45 F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum
6:30-8:30 Cash Bar: Embassy Suites Hotel
7:00 Dinner: Embassy Suites Hotel
Saturday, February 21, 2009
7:45-8:30 Registration Flowers Hall, first floor lobby
Breakfast Flowers Hall, first floor lobby
8:30 Welcome Ligon Chapel, Flowers Hall
Business Meeting
9:00-10:15 Presentations of Award-Winning Papers Ligon Chapel
10:30 "Literary Dialect and Allusion in Harriet Hassell's Rachel's Children"
Norman McMillan, University of Montevallo, Emeritus, and
Winner of 2008 Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinction in Literary Scholarship
Ligon Chapel
11:30 Concluding Remarks
12:00 Lunch Russell Dining Room
1:30-3:00 Tour, Rosa Parks Museum
Hotel Reservations
The Embassy Suites Hotel and the Renaissance Hotel have rooms available for ACETA members at conference rates ($129 before taxes). Please note the deadlines for conference rates. When you call, mention the Association of College English Teachers of Alabama.
The Embassy Suites (site of ACETA's Friday night dinner)
300 Tallapoosa Street
Montgomery, Alabama 36104 Phone: 1-334-269-5055
www.embassysuites1.hilton.com
Rooms $129, including breakfast and drink vouchers (can be used at Friday evening dinner or on your own).Embassy Suites deadline for conference rate: January 27
*****
The Renaissance Hotel
201 Tallapoosa Street
Montgomery, Alabama 36104
Phone: 334-481-5000; toll free: 1-877-545-0311
(website for our conference reservations) http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/mgmbr?groupCode=colcola&app=resvlink&fromDate=2/20/09&toDate=2/21/09
Rooms $129.Renaissance deadline for conference rate: February 1
Thank You
Planning for this year's conference began at Samford University in September 2008 when Jackie Trimble, Chair of the Department of Language and Literature at Huntingdon, and her colleague Katherine Perry met with the steering committee and former ACETA Presidents Janice Lasseter and Mark Baggett. Back in Montgomery, Professors Trimble and Perry and their colleague Robin Gunther have worked out most of the conference details. As mentioned elsewhere, Kirk Curnutt, English Chair at Troy Montgomery, has made possible the event at the Fitzgerald Museum. To all these and others who are helping to make the conference successful, ACETA's steering committee says as one voice, "Thank you!.
Founded in 1854, Huntingdon College is an independent liberal arts college of the United Methodist Church. Huntingdon serves more than 1000 students in traditional day programs and an evening Adult Degree Completion Program offered in five sites around the state of Alabama. Through the Huntingdon Plan, full-time traditional day students are provided a lap-top computer for use during all four years of enrollment (theirs to keep at graduation); Levelized Tuition, so that tuition does not increase for all four years of consecutive full-time enrollment; and a travel-study experience during the junior or senior year, with most costs covered by tuition and fees. A 15:1 student-to-faculty ratio, average class sizes of 20 students, and nearly 30 programs of study provide a rich array of academic offerings and the level of attention and encouragement from faculty to be a place where students may "know and be known.. Graduates enjoy excellent placement rates into graduate and professional schools and into their professions. Student Life programs include 14 academic honoraries, Greek life, and a broad array of clubs and organizations. Known also for its emphasis on service through Student Life and academic programs, Huntingdon's motto is, "Enter to grow in wisdom; go forth to apply wisdom in service."
The Department of Language and Literature offers a major in English with concentrations in creative writing, film studies, and theater; and minors in creative writing, English, and women's studies. English majors may also be certified to teach in the area of English Language Arts for grades 6-12.
Article courtesy of Su Ofe, Associate Vice President for Communications and Marketing
Kirk Curnutt Headlines Friday Plenary Session
"Growing Up Montgomery: Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald and Belle Culture"
As much as any American writer's work, F. Scott Fitzgerald's fiction gives readers memorable stories of the American rich and would-be rich between the two world wars. Stories of Fitzgerald's marriage to Montgomery native Zelda Sayre and of their extravagant lifestyle and its consequences have endured perhaps as much as his novels and short fiction. Decades after their deaths, this continuing popular fascination with their lives lies behind "Growing Up Montgomery: Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald and Belle Culture." Friday's keynote presentation by Kirk Curnutt, Chair of the Department of Language, Literature, and Philosophy at Troy University Montgomery.
A passionate devotee of all things F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kirk Curnutt is the author of The Cambridge Introduction to F. Scott Fitzgerald (2007) and the editor of A Historical Guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald (2004). He also serves as vice-president of the International F. Scott Fitzgerald Society and as a board member of the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery. Of his conference presentation, he writes, "I'll be talking about the influences
on Zelda that help account for the qualities that Fitzgerald would capitalize upon to create his flapperesque characters"
In addition to his scholarship on the Fitzgeralds, Dr. Curnutt is a prolific novelist and short story writer. His work includes the novel Breathing Out the Ghost (2008); the forthcoming thriller Dixie Noir (Fall 2009); Coffee with Hemingway (2007), an entry in Duncan Baird's series of imaginary conversations with great historical figures: and the story collection Baby, Let's Make a Baby (2003). Breathing Out the Ghost was named the Best Fiction in the Indiana Center for the Book's 2008 Best Books of Indiana Competition. It also won a bronze IPPY from the Independent Publishers Association and was a finalist for ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards.
Curnutt's other awards include three consecutive Hackney Awards for short-story writing (2004-2006) and the gold medal in nonfiction in the 2008 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition sponsored by the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society.
It is indeed a pleasure to welcome Kirk Curnutt to speak at the 2009 ACETA conference.
Norman McMillan, Winner of 2008 Current-Garcia Award, Is Saturday Keynote Speaker
"Literary Dialect and Allusion in Harriet Hassell's Rachel's Children"
Norman McMillan, an Alabama native, is a long-time member of ACETA, which he formerly served as president. He is professor emeritus at the University of Montevallo, where he was named University Scholar in 1987 and winner of the Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award in 1993. In 1998, ACETA named him winner of the Sam and Lizette Mitchell Award. He is a former president of the Alabama Writers' Forum. In Montevallo, McMillan has served as president of the Montevallo Arts Council and of the Montevallo Main Street Players, and he has served on the Parnell Memorial Library Foundation board. McMillan is author the memoir Distant Son and of two plays, Truman Capote: Against a Copper Sky and Ashes of Roses, a play based on short stories of Mary Ward Brown.
In May 2008, at Alabama Southern Community College's annual Alabama Writers' Symposium, McMillan received the Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinction in Literary Scholarship. As is the custom for Current-Garcia winners of the previous year, he will deliver the Saturday keynote address. His paper, "Literary Dialect and Allusion in Harriet Hassell's Rachel's Children,"originates in his experience as a student at Tuscaloosa County High in the 1950s when he first became aware of Hassell, a member of the first graduating class of the school. Hassell studied under Hudson Strode at the University of Alabama, and Rachel's Children, which Harper & Row brought out in 1938, was the first novel published by one of his students. Hassell never published another novel even though this one was well-received. In 1990, the University of Alabama Press republished the book as part of the Alabama Classics Series.
At the 2008 Alabama Writers' Symposium Awards Luncheon, the equally prestigious Harper Lee Award for Alabama's Distinguished Writer was presented to playwright Rebecca Gilman. Both awards are funded through the generosity of George Landegger and the Alabama River Pulp Company.
ACETA congratulates Norman McMillan and Rebecca Gilman for winning these prestigious awards.
Awards Given by ACETA in 2008
William J. Calvert Award for a Paper on a Scholarly or Theoretical Subject
Chris Metress, Samford University: "Making Civil Rights Harder: Literature, Memory, and the Black Freedom Struggle"
Honorable Mention: Amie Fletcher, Auburn University: "Cultivating the Tame Beauties': Contained Women and Enclosed Land in The History of Emily Montague"
James Woodall Award for a Paper on a Pedagogical Topic
Cathlena Martin, Samford University: "Launching into the World of Wikis: Martin's Pedagogical Voyage"
Mary Evelyn McMillan Award for Undergraduate Writing
Ronald L. Harness, Lurleen B. Wallace Community College: "Gooney Birds"
Honorable Mention: Andrew McLeod Wells, Samford University: "Familiar Structures in Elizabeth Bishop's .The Moose'"
Congratulations to winners of the 2008 Current-Garcia, Calvert, Woodall, and McMillan Awards!
Registration for ACETA's Annual Conference
Huntingdon College, February 20-21, 2009
Mail this form, with your check made payable to ACETA, to Steve Hubbard, Executive Secretary, ACETA, Lurleen B. Wallace Community College, P. O. Box 1418, Andalusia, AL 36420-1224. Deadline for registration by mail is February 13, 2009.
Name___________________________________________________________________
Department _____________________________________________________________
College or university _____________________________________________________
College or university address
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Office phone _________________________ Office e-mail_______________________
Home address & phone (optional)
_____________________________________________________________________
Are you a member of NCTE? ____ Yes _____ No
Registration and membership options (choose one)
$50 Early conference registration & ACETA membership _______________
55 On-site registration & ACETA membership _______________
20 ACETA membership only (if not attending conference) _______________
10 Graduate student registration & ACETA _______________
membership
5 Graduate student ACETA membership (if not _______________
attending the conference)
Meals (choose one option if desired)
$50 Friday evening dinner and Saturday luncheon _______________
35 Friday evening dinner only at Embassy Suites _______________
20 Saturday luncheon only at Huntingdon College _______________
TOTAL SUBMITTED _______________
ACETA Steering Committee, 2008-2010: Michael Orlofsky, Troy, President; Steve Hubbard, Lurleen B. Wallace CC, Executive Secretary; Dawn Miranda-Fraser, Alabama A & M, Vice President; Gloria Horton, Jacksonville, NCTE Liaison; George Crandell, Auburn, Immediate Past President; Rosemary Fisk, Samford; Melinda Byrd-Murphy, Alabama Southern CCInstitutional Members of ACETA
Institutional memberships help ACETA to keep individual membership dues low, to fund the annual Calvert and Woodall Awards, and to pay conference expenses that exceed income from individual dues and registration. They also demonstrate support for the work of college English teachers everywhere in Alabama. ACETA's steering committee thanks the following twenty-seven institutional members of the 2007-2008 academic year :
Alabama A & M University, Alabama Humanities Foundation, Alabama State University, Auburn University, Auburn University Montgomery, Calhoun Community College, Gadsden State Community College, Jacksonville State University, Judson College, Lurleen B. Wallace Community College, Miles College, Northeast Alabama Community College, Samford University, Snead State Community College, South University, Southern Union State Community College, Spring Hill College, Troy University, Tuskegee University, University of Alabama, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Alabama in Huntsville, University of Montevallo, University of North Alabama, University of West Alabama, Wallace Community College (Dothan), Wallace State Community College (Hanceville).
2008 Auburn University
Critical Conversations: "They Say / I Say"
Alan Gribben, AUM
Cathlena Martin, Samford University
ACETA Steering Committee 2008
Left to right, Mike Orlofsky, Troy University; Rosemary Fisk, Samford University; Steve Hubbard, Lurleen B. Wallace CC, Gloria , Jacksonville State University; George Crandell, Auburn University
Glenda Weathers and Ralph Voss
Steve Hubbard
Executive Director, ACETA
Award Winners: Ron Harness, Lurleen B. Wallace Community College (McMillan Award); right, Cathlena Martin, Samford University (
Johnie Hargrove, Alabama A & M
Susan Perry
Alabama Humanities Foundation
Mattie Thomas, Alabama A & M
George Crandell
President, ACETA, 2007-08
Cynthia Birkenstein-Graff and Gerald Graff
Michael Orlofsky, Troy University, and Norman McMillan, Montevallo
Past winners of Eugene Current-Garcia Award
2007 Lurleen B. Wallace
Community College, Andalusia"Sweet Home Alabama": Celebrating Alabama Writers
Two students from Lurleen B. Wallace Community College welcoming ACETA
Steve Hubbard
Executive Director, ACETA
ACETA Steering Committee
At the panel discussion
The Calhoun Folks
Dr. Gunn, Grant Ballard, and Rashad Daniels
Elaine Hughes, responding to being named winner of the Eugene Current-Garcia Award
,%20Adrian%20Evans%20(Bishop%20State%20CC),%20Mar.jpg)
George Crandell
President, ACETA
LBWCC student Erica Knight talks with Roy Hoffman
Midge Coats,
Alabama Center for the Book,
on This Goodly Land
Mike Persons with Andalusia Patrons
Susan Perry
on The Secrets of Successful Grantsmanship
Roy Hoffman
Bill Thompson on
The Sacred and the Profane
A Storyteller in the House
Roy Hoffman, author of the novels Almost Family (winner of the Lillian Smith Award) and of Chicken
Dreaming Corn and of the nonfiction essay collection Back Home: Journeys Through Mobile, will read from
his work at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, February 16, 2007, at the Andalusia City Hall auditorium. John Sledge,
Books Editor of the (Mobile) Press-Register and author of the books Cities of Silence: A Guide to Mobile’s
Historic Cemeteries and An Ornament to the City: Old Mobile Ironwork, will moderate the event. Books
provided by the Alabama Booksmith will be available for purchase and signing.
Lurleen B. Wallace Community College, with the generous support of the Andalusia Public Library, the
City of Andalusia, and other organizations, is sponsoring this humanities event titled A Storyteller in the
House. Admission is free, and ACETA members, as well as the general public, are invited and encouraged
to attend.
Hoffman, a staff writer for the Press-Register, is a former speechwriter and communications aide for L.
Jay Oliva, Chancellor, then President, of New York University, and for New York Governor Mario Cuomo.
Sledge is an architectural historian with the Mobile Historical Development Commission. Both Hoffman
and Sledge are widely published and are well-known as engaging speakers.Conference Events
Friday, February 16, 2007
Lurleen B. Wallace Community College
12:00-3:00 p.m. Registration
1:00 Opening plenary session
1:15-2:00 Concurrent sessions
2:10-2:55 Concurrent sessions
3:00-4:00 Panel of scholars: Philip Beidler, Elaine
Hughes, Bert Hitchcock, Don Noble; Margaret Davis, moderator
Andalusia Country Club
4:30 Cash bar open (drink tickets purchased here)
5:15 Dinner (ticket required)
Andalusia City Hall
7:00 A Storyteller in the House:
An Evening with Roy Hoffman and John Sledge
Book-Signing (books from The Alabama Booksmith)
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Lurleen B. Wallace Community College
7:45-8:30 a.m. Registration and continental breakfast
(breakfast courtesy of W.W. Norton)
8:30 Business meeting
9:00-10:15 Presentations of award-winning papers
Calvert, Woodall, and McMillan winners
10:30 Keynote Address: Nancy Grisham Anderson
Auburn University at Montgomery
Eugene Current-Garcia Distinguished Scholar for 2006
“L & C, MADD, ACETA, ABC, WB, and Other Letter-Litters”
Hickory Ridge Lodge
12:00 Lunch (ticket required)
Speaker: Norman McMillan (University of Montevallo, Emeritus)
“Turning Silk Purses into Sows’ Ears: The Fears of an Adapter”
ACETA'S 58TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE
February 24-25 in Birmingham
2006 Samford University, Birmingham
"FILMS AND TEXTS:
TAKING ENGLISH TO THE MOVIES"The 58th annual ACETA conference, held on February 24-25 in Birmingham, featured the showing of a number of award-winning films with Alabama connections, including "The Cracker Man" by John DiJulio and Bruce Kuerten of Auburn, which is based on a short story by Alabama writer Helen Norris; "Tackle Box," a short film by Matthew Mebane, based on a poem by Patricia White, the chair of the University of Alabama Department of English; and several short award-winning films screened by Erik Jambor, the director and co-founder of the acclaimed Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival in Birmingham.
In addition, the sessions on Friday examined the number of ways films are used in the English classroom, from using of classic film adaptations of literary texts, to crafting writing assignments about film, to teaching screenwriting, to the use of film as a way of enhancing literacy, to teaching ethnic diversity with film, to developing a film major or concentration.
Robert W. (Bob) Halli, Jr., Associate Professor of English, Director of the University Honors Program, and Dean of the Honors College at the University of Alabama, delivered the keynote address as the 2005 winner of the Eugene Current-Garcia Award. Auburn University at Montgomery Professor Nancy Anderson was announced as the winner of the 2006 Current-Garcia Award winner. See the full list award winners and the full program below.
George Crandell, Professor of English at Auburn University, succeeded Mark Baggett of Samford University as ACETA's president, and Cynthia Denham of Snead State Community College in Boaz was named to the Steering Committee.
Scenes from 2006 ACETA (top row): Bob Halli, making the keynote address as Eugene Current-Garcia Award winner; Dawn Miranda-Frasier, Alfreda Handy-Sullivan, and Dwaynia Wilkerson of Alabama A & M University; (second row) the Tutwiler Hotel, site of the conference; Donna Estill of Alabama Southern Community College and her former professor at Auburn, Bert Hitchcock; (third row) a scene from the short film, "Tackle Box" by Matthew Mebane and based on a poem by University of Alabama English Chair Patti White; Don DiJulio and Bruce Kuerten, producers of "The Cracker Man," a 1999 film based on a short story by Alabama writer Helen Norris. Above left, George Crandell of Auburn University, becomes ACETA's President; above right, Bob Halli congratulates his sucessor as Eugene Current-Garcia Award winner, Nancy Anderson of Auburn University Montgomery. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24 Tutwiler Hotel, Birmingham
Session 1: "Teaching Ethnic Diversity with Film: A Roundtable Discussion"
Ridgely Ballroom, North
Lesa Shaul, University of Alabama, "Teaching Cultural Contexts by Using Hispanic Literature and Film"
Yolanda Manora, University of Alabama, "Through a Lens Darkly: Film as Text in the African American Women's Literature Class"
Lea Davis, Miles College, "White Trash Figures in American Film" (Bastard Out of Carolina, To Kill a Mockingbird, Cry Baby)Session 2: Starting Film Studies in the English Major Ridgely Ballroom, South
Bryan Johnson, Christopher Metress, Julie Steward, Samford University
Designing Film Studies courses and curriculumSession 3:
"Reanimating Dead Words: Literary Cinema in the Literature Classroom"
Jemison Room
Donna Estill & Jim Hilgartner, Alabama Southern Community College
Session 4:
"Films and Texts: Film Adaptations of Literary Classics" Ridgely Ballroom, North
Larry Gray, Jacksonville State University, "Film as Informed Re-Reading: Scrooge, Haunted by His Author's Spirit"
Alan Brown, University of West Alabama, "Using Film Adaptations such as Clueless (Emma) and O (Othello)in the Literature Classroom"Session 5: "Teaching Screenwriting" Ridgely Ballroom, South
George Wolfe, University of AlabamaSession 6: "Writing About Film" Jemison Room
Debbie Davis, University of West Alabama, "Film, Critical Analysis, and Research (using the 2005 film Crash)"
Michelle Sidler, Auburn University, "Combining Film, Science, and Social Issues with the Composition Research Paper"
Kristen Miller, Auburn University, "Teaching Classical Appeals and Film in Composition"
4:30 p.m. "The Cracker Man"
An award-winning film by John DiJulio and Bruce Kuerten, Auburn
Based on the short story by Alabama native Helen Norris, "The Cracker Man" is
an original southern drama about family ties, fireworks, and romantic possibilities
See the website at www.crackerman.com
Followed by a discussion of the film with DiJulio and Kuerten7:00 p.m. Dinner in the Ridgely Ballroom (ticket required)
Erik Jambor, Director and Co-Founder, The Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25 Samford University, Brock Forum, Dwight Beeson Hall
Mary Evelyn McMillan Award for Undergraduate Writing
Lee Steely, University of Alabama, "To Knit and Knot"
(nominated by Prof. Wendy Rawlings, University of Alabama)Honorable Mention:
Kathryn Turley, Auburn University Montgomery, "Wheatfield with Crows: A Changing Landscape"
(nominated by Prof. Nancy Anderson, Auburn University Montgomery)James Woodall Award for paper on a pedagogical topic related to English studies:
Julie Hawk and Juliette Kitchens, University of Alabama at Huntsville
"Going Over the Break: Using Alternative Texts to Transgress Nonfiction Analysis
in a Composition Classroom"Honorable Mention:
Rebecca M. Duncan, University of Alabama Birmingham,
"Transforming Pedagogies for Online Writing Instruction"William J. Calvert Award, for paper on any scholarly or theoretical topic in English studies
Julie Steward, Samford University
"Gender Borders and the Limits of Agency in Stevie Smith's Over the Frontier"
Honorable Mention:
Nancy Kearns, Alabama A & M University
"An Examination of Good and Evil in Shakespeare's The Tempest"Keynote Address: "An English Gallimaufry at 60"
Robert W. Halli, Jr., University of Alabama,
2005 Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinction in Literary ScholarshipSpecial Presentation: Samuel and Lizette Mitchell Award for Service to ACETA
Janice Lasseter, former President of ACETA and Professor of English, Samford UniversityAnnouncement of 2006 Eugene Current-Garcia Award
Nancy Anderson, Professor of English, Auburn University MontgomeryLuncheon Samford University, Flag Colonnade
"Tacklebox," a short film by Matthew Mebane
Based on poem "Tackle Box" by Patricia White, University of Alabama, Chair, Department of EnglishA short bio of Bob Halli, 2005 Eugene Current-Garcia Award Winner
Near the end of the Saturday morning session at the 2005 ACETA conference, ACETA President Mark Baggett announced the winner of the 2005 Eugene Current-Garcia Award: Robert W. (Bob) Halli, Jr., Associate Professor of English, Director of the University Honors Program, and Dean of the Honors College at the University of Alabama.
Known among students at Alabama as teacher and advisor extraordinaire, Halli has published numerous essays on English Renaissance literature as well as essays on teaching college English. In one of his most recent works, An Alabama Songbook: Ballads, Folksongs, and Spirituals Collected by Byron Arnold, published by the University of Alabama Press, he brings to bear his considerable organizational and narrative skills to tell the story of a young UA music professor's travels throughout Alabama in the mid-1940s as he recorded more than five hundred ballads, folksongs, and spirituals of the people he met. Halli also includes the music of more than two hundred of these songs and shares the stories Professor Arnold left about these songs and their singers. One reviewer of An Alabama Songbook calls it "a major contribution to folk music scholarship and to our knowledge of southern culture."
Many ACETA members know Professor Halli as Bob and gratefully remember his years of service on the ACETA steering committee and as ACETA's president. This winner of the Samuel and Lizette Mitchell Award for Service to ACETA and now the winner of the Eugene Current-Garcia Award will be the keynote speaker at the Saturday session of the 2006 ACETA conference.
2005 Alabama A & M, Huntsville
"Beyond Race: Complicating Language, Culture, and Technology"
Meeting for the first time at an historically-black college, ACETA celebrated 57 years of service to Alabama's teachers of English as it convened at Alabama A & M University in Huntsville March 4-5.
Welcomed by the conference organizers, Mattie Thomas and Dawn Miranda-Frasier (above) and byAlabama A & M's Department of English and Languages, ACETA members attended sessions on race and canon formation, on the new linguistic landscape in teaching English, and on the impact of distance learning and other technologies on English teachers.
Dr. Benjamin Williams, Professor Emeritus of Auburn University Montgomery and winner of this year's Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinction in Literary Scholarship, delivered the keynote address, which recognized antebellum Alabama writers such as Caroline Lee Hentz, Ann Newport Royal, Julia Pleasants-Creswell and Thomas Bibb Bradley, Maria Howard Weeden, Wylie Conner, and Jeremiah Clemens.
Pictures above: Row 1 (left to right): Mattie Thomas, Chair of Alabama A & M's Department of English; Adrian Evans, Bishop State Community College; Jean McIver, University of South Alabama, and Nancy Whitt, Samford University. Row 2 (left to right): Ahsan Chowdhury, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Alabama, winner of the Calvert Award; Annette Cederholm, Snead State University; Glenda Conway, University of Montevallo and the winner of the Woodall Award; Gale McCall, who produced a slide show of Alabama A & M history. Row 3 (left to right): Judith Hayes, Alabama A & M University; Johnnie Hargrove, Alabama A & M University; Mary Angel, a student from AUM and the winner of the McMillan Award; Dawn Miranda-Frasier, Alabama A & M and conference organizer; and Thelma Townsend of Alabama A & M University. Row 4 (left to right): Nancy Anderson, AUM; Vertricia Jefferson, Alabama A & M; Virginia Gilbert, Alabama A & M; Ben Williams, Professor Emeritus of AUM and winner of Eugene Current-Garcia Award.
Rev. Dr. Homer McCall (above left), University Chaplain and Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Foreign Languages, delivered a slide show history of Alabama A & M and its founder, Dr. William Hooper Councill, in the Saturday morning session. Born a slave in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1848 on the Councill Plantation, Councill returned to Alabama and went to Quaker School and to Colored Normal School in Huntsville. He established St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church (where McCall has been pastor for 34 years) and Alabama A & M in Normal, which opened on May 1, 1875. He was a lawyer who practiced before the Alabama Supreme Court and later a member of the Alabama Legislature.
In the picture above right, Arts and Sciences Dean Jerry R. Shipman and Interim President Virginia Caples welcome ACETA in the State Black Archives Research Center and Museum on the A & M campus.
(Above left) Friday afternoon's panels were (1) "Race, Gender, and the Politics of Canon Formation" (from left are Dr. Gatsinzi Basainyenzi of Alabama A & M, Dr. Paul Mahaffey of the University of Montevallo, and Dr. Sandra Shattuck of Alabama A & M; and (2) "Shifting Linguistic Gears: Ebonics, Spanglish, and Standardization" (see picture below right). One panel focused on privileged and marginalized texts while the other considered the diverse students many of us teach.
(Above right) Bert Hitchcock of Auburn University and Benjamin Williams of Auburn University Montgomery take part in the conference. Williams was chosen as the Eugene Current-Garcia winner this year, and Hitchcock is a past winner.
(Above left) Friday afternoon's third panel, on high-tech teaching methods (pictured are Tamela McKinney, left, and Jetuan Stevens, right), might rate the support of the practical Booker T. Washington. In terms of his low-tech metaphor, we are casting down our buckets where we are. On the other hand, the spirit of Du Bois among us may raise critical questions: Are high-tech methods improving our teaching, are our students learning more, or are we just playing it safe, riding the technology boats some of our administrations are buying?
(Above right) Saturday morning sessions included the annual business meeting and the reading of winning papers in the Calvert, Woodall, and McMillan categories.
(Above left) At the Friday night session at the State Black Archives Museum, three poets from the Pudding House Press "By Invitation Only" Greatest Hits volume of poetry read their works. The poets from left are Virginia Gilbert, Susan Luther, and Bonnie Roberts.
(Above right) Mydell Smith and Rosetta Glasper of Alabama A & M welcome ACETA members to conference.
CALL FOR PAPERS
William J. Calvert Award & James Woodall Award
The Calvert paper may be on any scholarly or theoretical topic related to English studies; the Woodall paper may be on any pedagogical topic related to English studies. A prize of $100 will be awarded to the college English teacher or graduate student in English submitting the best paper in either category, and the winners will be invited to submit their papers to Alabama English. Papers may not have been read or published previously. Short versions of the winning papers will be presented at the annual meeting of ACETA, March 5, at Alabama A & M University. The name, with title of the essay and institutional affiliation, should appear on a cover sheet and not on the paper.
Deadline:Papers will be judged by a panel appointed by the ACETA Steering Committee.
SEND ENTRIES TO:
ACETA President
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Mary Evelyn Mcmillan
Undergraduate Writing AwardThe McMillan Award honors the memory of Dr. Mary Evelyn McMillan, charter member of ACETA and long-time faculty member at Jacksonville State University, for her deep commitment to her students and to the teaching profession.
The McMillan Award is presented each year to the undergraduate student at an Alabama college or university whose informal essay is judged most outstanding by a panel of judges chosen by ACETA. The essay, written for a class taken during the current or previous academic year, may be on a personal or literary topic, and it may be descriptive, reflective, or analytical, but it may not be a formal research paper. It must not exceed 2,000 words.
The essay must not have been published previously except in campus publications, such as school newspapers or literary magazines. The English instructor for whose class the essay was written should submit the essay. An instructor may submit only one essay in each year's competition.
A cover sheet should be attached to the entry stating the title of the essay, the author's name, the name of the college or university, and the name and title of the nominator, with address and phone number. No name should appear on the essay.
Deadline:
SEND ENTRIES TO:
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
THE EUGENE CURRENT-GARCIA AWARD
FOR DISTINCTION IN LITERARY SCHOLARSHIPThe Association of College English Teachers of Alabama (ACETA) solicits nominations for the Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinction in Literary Scholarship.
Nominations must include a vita reflecting the course of the nominee's scholarly career, a detailed bibliography of the nominee's scholarly productions, and a cover letter clarifying and supporting the nominee's qualifications for the award. Nominations may contain other letters of support from recognized scholars in the nominee's field of specialization; they should not contain copies of actual publications.
The ACETA steering committee will review all nominations and select a winner. The award carries a $5,000 stipend. The award is presented annually at the Alabama Writers Symposium in Monroeville, Alabama. The award includes The Clock Tower Bronze, a re-creation by renowned sculptor Frank Fleming of an Alabama literary icon, the clock tower of the historic courthouse on the Monroeville town square.
Last year’s winner of the Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinction in Literary Scholarship was Trudier Harris-Lopez of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Lopez formally received the award at the Alabama Writers Symposium and Literary Awards at Monroeville last May.
MAIL LETTERS OF NOMINATION TO:
ACETA President
Jim Jolly, Cynthia Denham, and Harper Lee
at the Alabama Humanities Foundation luncheon October 3, 2002
