A reprint of a press release of interest.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 3, 2008)—American educators across the country are encouraged to apply now for 2009 summer study opportunities in the humanities. Each summer, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports rigorous national, residential seminars, institutes, and workshops located in the United States and abroad. Program participants receive stipends to help defray travel and living expenses.
Reading levels are on the rise according to a new report from the National Endowment for the Arts. Here is a brief excerpt from the Preface by NEA Chairman Dana Gioia:
Reading on the Rise, the National Endowment for the Arts’ new report, documents a significant turning point in recent American cultural history. For the first time in over a quarter-century, our survey shows that literary reading has risen among adult Americans. After decades of declining trends, there has been a decisive and unambiguous increase among virtually every group measured in this comprehensive national survey.
New York Times reporter Matt Richtel has interviewed ALSC Secretary-Treasurer William Flesch for an article on alternatives to workforce reduction in the current economy. Speaking in his capacity as head of the faculty senate at Brandeis University, Flesch is quoted on his suggestion that the school’s faculty give up 1 percent of their pay. “What we are doing is a symbolic gesture that has real consequences — it can save a few jobs . . . It’s not painless, but it is relatively painless and it could help some people.”
A message from Ignatius Critical Editions series editor Joseph Pearce.
We are looking for critical essays for the forthcoming Ignatius Critical Edition of Gulliver’s Travels. The first three titles in this new series of critical editions were published this Spring (King Lear, Frankenstein, and Wuthering Heights). The second and third batches are already being edited (Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Merchant of Venice, Huckleberry Finn, The Scarlet Letter, and The Romantic Poets) and we are now ready to accept essays for the edition of Gulliver’s Travels.
Three ALSC members were recently named finalists for the 2008 National Book Award for poetry: Frank Bidart for Watching the Spring Festival (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), Reginald Gibbons for Creatures of a Day (Louisiana State University Press), and Richard Howard for Without Saying (Turtle Point Press). Winners will be announced in each of the categories (Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature) on Wednesday, November 19 at the 59th National Book Awards Benefit Dinner and Ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. Morgan Entrekin, Sonny Mehta, Lynn Nesbit and Holly Peterson are chairing the event, and Eric Bogosian will emcee.
What is the good life? What is friendship? What is good government? Is there a human nature, and, if so, what is it? What are the limits of science? Enduring questions such as these have long held interest to college students and allow for a special, intense dialogue across generations.
The National Endowment for the Humanities has recently launched “Enduring Questions: Pilot Course Grants.” This new grant program will support college faculty from any discipline with up to $25,000 to develop and to teach a new undergraduate humanities course that addresses questions like these.
This is part one of a retrospective on the 2007 ALSC Conference in Chicago. To learn more about our upcoming conference in Philadelphia, visit http://www.bu.edu/literary/conferences/.
We are pleased to announce that David Ferry, poet, translator, and lifetime member of the ALSC, will read at Boston University’s Katzenberg Center (871 Commonwealth Ave, 3rd floor) on Thursday, September 25 at 5PM. He will be reading from his new translation of the first three books of Virgil’s Aeneid, among other works.
Ferry is the author of Of No Country I Know: New and Selected Poems and Translations, which won the 2000 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry and the Academy of American Poets’ Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, as well as numerous volumes of translation.
One seminar of the 2008 ALSC Conference in Philadelphia to be held October 24-26 has re-issued its call for papers. The seminar is “Literary Magazines: Meeting Places.” All submissions must reach the convener of the session by Friday September 19, 2008.
Morris Dickstein, distinguished professor of Theatre and English at the CUNY Graduate Center will chair the seminar. Papers should be sent to Professor Dickstein as well as to the Association’s office. Additional prospective members and current members alike are encouraged to apply.
For further information on requirements, our seminars in general, or this seminar in particular, please visit our conference website here.
Welcome to the future home of the ALSC News Weblog. While we get settled here, please visit our Website to learn more about us and our activities. Forthcoming events include our 2008 Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 24-26, which you can learn more about here.
You might also be interested in visiting The Valve, a literary blog that we sponsor.
– E. Christopher Clark