2012 Conference Registration
The 2012 Graduate Interdisciplinary Conference, "Forces at Play: Bodies, Power, and Spaces," will be opening registration, starting February 9th, 2012.

Upon receiving the acceptance, you may register to present up until February 20th, 2012. Please refer to [http://www.umassenglishgrad.com/2012-conference] for further details.

2012 UMass Graduate Conference: Bodies, Power, and Spaces

Forces at Play: Bodies, Power, and Spaces

Cyber bullying, the male gaze in cinema, SlutWalk in Toronto, the canonization of slave narratives, border rhetoric in the classroom – issues such as these take up the ways bodies, power, and spaces converge in a re-seeing and re-interpreting of historical and contemporary social complexities. Investigating this nexus in our discursive and material realities gives us the language for articulating the machinations of power and space that construct and dismantle singular and collective (im)material bodies.

The English Graduate Organization of the University of Massachusetts Amherst invites submissions to our graduate interdisciplinary conference on March 31st, 2012. This year’s conference will push against standardized and finite notions of body, power, and space to explore how these three variables act upon each other to produce layered, complex, and radical permutations. We urge submitters to investigate the systems of regulation and control that maintain power over singular and collective bodies within various spaces. We invite submissions from a diverse range of disciplines, critical perspectives, and time periods; all three terms need not explicitly be examined in the project, though the possibility of convergence is an encouraged angle. Projects may include papers and/or panel presentations, performance pieces, and multi-media approaches on the following topics:

-literary theoretical approaches
-social spaces and institutions
-composition and rhetorical studies
-canonical studies of bodies of literature
-national and communal boundaries (migrant communities, diasporas, refugee camps)
-(post)colonialism and global studies
-gender and sexuality studies
-animal studies
-social thought and political economy studies
-media studies and digital spaces
-visual and performing arts
-pop culture/material culture
-emerging creative projects
-disability studies

SUBMISSIONS:
We accept three different types of submissions:
1. Individual papers/projects: please submit an abstract of no more than 350 words. Include your name, paper title, institution, and email address.
2. Panels: please submit an 800 word proposal for an entire panel of presentations (3-4 presenters). Included in this proposal should be abstracts of all presentations, title of the panel, and information for each presenter (name, paper title, institution, and email address). If you are forming your own panel, you have the option of providing your own chair.
3. Performances and creative presentations/panels: we welcome submission of creative works, including creative writing, visual art, and dramatic performance. Please include a brief description of your project, as well as your name, project title, institution, and email address.

Email submissions to moc.liamg|fnocgnessamu#moc.liamg|fnocgnessamu no later than January 25th, 2011.

UMass EGO Minutes 10/11

Graduate Studies Committee

Faculty at GSC are discussing what sort of direction grad students would like in the program. What can faculty do to assist with professionalization? Discussion around this followed:

• Open communication regarding EGO Professional Development Seminars (perhaps faculty can give suggestions on what kinds of topics we should be considering and also offer to serve as co-leader with graduate students on those topics).
• We would also like to suggest rethinking of the role of advisors (how are advisors debriefed on interacting with their advisees; how often we meet seems to be based on whether or not our advisors are a match to our interests)
• There's a written archive of alumni that needs to be transcribed/made digital so we can have some sort of alumni list. Grad students are interested in maintaining connections with our alumni.
• Issues with graduate courses: can EGO advertise people interested in pursuing independent studies based either in interests (and a course isn't being offered/hasn't been offered in a while) or to fulfill requirements.
• We will ask Celeste or whomever else can edit the department webpage to include a link to the EGO wiki.

GSS Finances:

AN met with Graduate Student Senate, who is transitioning away from the graduate school to student affairs. This has led to some changes and ultimately may be the reason for the misplacement of funds. However, that process is in recovery. However because of some changes at GSS, EGO will be making changes in how we do reimbursements.

• GSS will only allow a single ad-hoc request per event with the maximum amount of $250. Last year, we requested $300 for the conference so we will be $50 short in that request due to budget changes. Thus, we will keep all conference funds tied to our GSS account.
• GSS also prefers not to do small amount reimbursements so our goal is to take care of all our reimbursements through petty cash. This would include all event-related funds such as meetings, PDS, end of semester party.

GSS General Info:

FA met with a GSS representative so we're all updated on GSS activities for this semester/year. They are encouraging people to attend GSS meetings as they are in the process of negotiating a stronger relationship with the University. The next meeting is on Tue, Oct 18 from 12:15-1:45 in Campus Center 803. They are expecting to vote on changes to the GSS constitution, which can be reviewed in the current edition of VOICE or on the GSS website.

They have three concerns they'd like senators to share with departments:

1. Encourage colleagues in other departments to attend/participate in GSS, especially in math, sciences, and philosophy. Currently, some departments have no representatives. Meetings are from 12:20 - 1:30 one Tuesday a month.
2. Due to budget cuts, organizations such as the Everywoman Center, the Graduate Women's Network, the Student Legal Services, and Family Housing may not be able to maintain their current levels of functioning. Toward this, GSS is proposing an increase of $20 in the Graduate Student Tax we all pay. It would go from $100 to $120. Thus far, it has been very poorly received. GSS is looking for your input on this issue.
3. The English department, due to its size and activity, has two GSS senators. We have been offered the option of selecting an alternate senator in the event that our two senators are unable to attend meetings so that we still have 2 votes in GSS. CH volunteered to do this for us.

9/12/11 First EGO Meeting of the Semester
EGO Minutes 9/12

• Issues GEO is taking up this semester:
• family housing increased rates
• for some people the birth control pill continues to cost over $10; keep receipts for reimbursement
• remember to enroll in dental/vision: that process is now open. Coverage begins Nov 1
• Linda Haines at Accounts Payable is the person to talk to for reimbursements once you’ve spent over $250 on your prescription expenses.
• For more information on GEO’s work: http://www.geouaw.org/

EGO EVENTS (FALL 2011)
9/26, 2pm: Intro to Professional Development (PDS)
10/11, 2pm: EGO Monthly Meeting
10/24, 2pm: Applying to Conferences (PDS)
11/7, 2pm: EGO Monthly Meeting
11/14, 2pm: Attending Conferences (PDS)
12/5, 2pm: EGO Monthly Meeting
End of semester party: TBA

PDS for the Spring: Looking for a Summer Job, Managing Research Through Tools like Zotero and EndNote, Applying for Fellowships/Outside Funding, Publishing Articles and Book Reviews

Grad Student Colloquia: LS will coordinate schedules/presenters. We might want to talk with Comp folks to see how CompShare works as a model and what we can glean from it. KM and NQ have a meeting with Joe Bartolomeo (Monday, 10 am tentatively) and Stephen Clingman (TBD).

EGO Bulletin/Booster: AW will coordinate a monthly bulletin.

Bartlett to Bookmill Bike Ride
Join the English Graduate Organization for a bike ride through the scenic Pioneer Valley to a local favorite, the Bookmill (& Lady Killigrew Cafe). We will meet in front of Bartlett at 1:30 pm and leave at 2 pm.

The ride is approximately 12-15 miles between Bartlett and the Bookmill. There is a crew of people who will be returning to Northampton. Car rides back are available, too.

If you don't bike, we'd love to see you via other modes of transportation at the Bookmill by say 3:30 pm.

No spandex required (though it won't be turned away). Spare tubes and inflation devices (compact pump or CO2 cartridges) are recommended, but if "CO2 cartridges" sounds too MacGyver for your leisurely Friday afternoon, no worries: folks will be ready to help with flats. Helmets are strongly encouraged.

This ride is open to English grad students, faculty and staff, their lovers, friends, and frenemies.

Check out the route. Email EGO with any questions.

2011 ISHA Residency
Smulyan, Drummond, & Washington in Concert
Saturday, 9 April
8:00pm
Buckley Recital Hall, Amherst College
Free and open to the public, seating by general admission

This April, ISHA will host three remarkable jazz musicians, Gary Smulyan, Ray Drummond, and Kenny Washington in collaboration with the UMass Amherst Department of Music and Dance and Amherst College for the ‘Beyond Borders’ Residency Program. The Residency will feature a Master Class with the musicians on Friday, April 8th from 4:30-6:30pm at UMass Amherst in Room 44 of the Fine Arts Center, as well as a concert on Saturday, April 9th at 8pm in the Amherst College Buckely Recital Hall, followed by a discussion with the audience. For more information, visit http://www.umass.edu/hfa/isha/Residency.html.

ISHA Annual Lecture 2011
“The Evolution Wars: Why Do They Matter? Why Do They Continue?”
Kenneth Miller, Brown University
Thursday, March 31
4:30pm
Campus Center 165-69

Eighty years after the notorious Scopes Monkey Trial, the powerful Intelligent Design movement continues to claim that evolution is ‘only a theory.’ The ensuing debates go to the heart of what counts as rational and scientific in the public arena. Professor Kenneth Miller was the lead witness in the historic Dover Trial, where his testimony proved instrumental in the judge’s ruling that the local school board had no right to require teachers to offer Intelligent Design as an alternative to evolution. Professor Miller is a bestselling author and repeat guest on The Colbert Report; his books include Only A Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul. The topic of the Annual Lecture coincides with the ISHA theme for the year, on ‘(Ir)rationality and Public Discourse.’

EGO minutes 12/5/11
EgO at UMass
28 Jan 2012 22:39
-Smoking ban all over campus for all tobacco products. Student government proposed alternate plan: smoking gazebo, etc? input from different grad orgs welcome
-Senate approved funding for grad conference!
-Healthcare subcommittee investigating the recent changes in policy; a lot of official support from graduate program directors across the board regarding the effects of healthcare changes on the graduate student population (talking points specifically regarding English graduate students: significant financial burden spec for Eng grads, due to the stipend rate, which is one of the lowest on campus; recent increase in workload, teaching in the dorms)

EGO minutes 11/7/11
EgO at UMass
05 Dec 2011 16:44
Spring 2012 PDS topics

• Advisory Session PDS, Areas PDS, Job Market PDS (spearheaded by Joe Black and Jocelyn Almeida-Beveridge), Summer Jobs PDS, Managing Research PDS
• Department-sponsored (mixed faculty/grad students) or regular PDS format (only graduate students)? A PDS-like “supersession” workshop, co-led by students and professors: trying to get department to provide a space for talking about important department issues applicable to all.
• CO-DEPT/EGO SUPERSESSION TOPICS: advisory session and areas, job market, a day in the life of a professor

2012 UMass Graduate Conference: Call for Papers
EgO at UMass
19 Oct 2011 21:35
Check out the CFP for the EGO Conference we're hosting March 31st, 2012!