GEO Unveils Program for Graduate Conference
July 10, 2010
The Department of English presents "Nomenclature," a graduate conference organized by GEO, March 5 and 6 in Tawes.
The Graduate English Organization is proud to announce its annual conference, sponsored by the Department of English at the University of Maryland and the Graduate Student Government. Friday and Saturday, March 5-6, 2010, students will gather to present original work on the conference theme "Nomenclature." The conference aims to interrogate the causes, conventions, and consequences of the human impulse to name, label, and categorize.
With eight panels showcasing graduate student work on various topics -- ranging from early modern texts to creative writing to narrative theories -- the conference is sure to create space for inquiry across boundaries of time and genre. The conference format is designed to emphasize conversation, collegiality, and community.
Following up on the success of the 2009 conference, GEO extended invitations to other graduate students in DC Consortium universites as part of our efforts to increase collaborative opportunities for graduate students in the Washington metro area. Students from the Graduate English programs at American, Catholic, and George Washington Universities will be participating along with 19 MA, MFA, and PhD students from Maryland's Department of English.
This year's conference will also feature an impressive cadre of faculty members who have generously volunteered their time. Jonathan Auerbach, Jane Donawerth, Michael Israel, Peter Mallios, Keguro Macharia, and Brian Richardson will be serving as respondents for the paper sessions. Carla Peterson and Martha Nell Smith will lead a pre-conference professionalization session on archival research. There will also be two keynote speakers: Kavita Daiya (George Washington University) will speak on "Taxonomies of Violence" on Friday and Tita Chico will present her keynote on "Why Details Matter" on Saturday. The keynote talks will be followed by responses from graduate students Porter Olsen and Kim Calder.
Visit the conference blog for the full schedule.