The theme of this year’s CEA convention–“Is There, Should There Be, a New Aestheticism?”–asks whether English, film, and cultural studies should de-emphasize the political issues that have dominated criticism for the past generation and turn once again to questions of aesthetics.  This is not a backward-looking question, but a forward-looking one, speculating about and attempting to answer where our discipline is and should be headed.  Have we, as some claim, lost sight of formal and aesthetic issues?  If so, should we reclaim such issues for a new generation of students, and, assuming this should be our direction, how can we go about this project? 

Many of the speakers and presenters at the 2004 CEA convention will directly address these and related issues.  As the downloadable program shows, some panels will examine traditional canonical texts, while others will analyze new and/or previously neglected authors.  A series of panels applies these questions to the practical problems of educating teachers, while other panels examine the possibilities for our classroom practices both in literature and the teaching of writing.  A series of four panels applies aesthetics to the teaching of technical writing.  Panels on film studies and popular culture will explore aesthetic ideas in these areas.   Teacher/scholars interested in the intersection of newer literary theories will want to attend sessions on postcolonial issues, feminist concerns, and the intersection of politics and aesthetics.  Of particular interest to many will be the President’s Forum, “Art for Teaching’s Sake: Teaching the Beauty of Language.”

Of course, questions of form and beauty can never be far from the imaginations of creative writers, and so there will be three panels of CEA members presenting their newest work, one in honor of deceased colleague and former CEA Treasurer, William A. Sullivan. 

For those interested in art as performance and performance as art, the “Gender Flipped” production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, directed by  Colleen Sullivan and featuring a cast of graduate students from Mary Baldwin College, will be of particular interest. 

We are fortunate this year, as in the past, to offer invited speakers of outstanding talent and achievement:

• The opening plenary session on Thursday night will feature Prof. Jerome J. McGann of the University of Virginia speaking on “Interpretation.”  Many participants will recall Dr. McGann’s work on the English Romantics, while readers of The Chronicle of Higher Education will know that he has recently turned his attention to “Literary Scholarship in the Digital Future.” 

Those interested in the future of interactive technology will be fascinated by the demonstrations by Bruce W. Bassett on a computerized question-and-answer program, featuring the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz.	Terry Belanger
Also from the University of Virginia is Prof. Terry Belanger, who reminds us at the concluding luncheon on Saturday that “A Book Is Something You Can Pick Up and Hold in Hand: Teaching with Stuff.”

A historic Richmond-Poe Museum bus tour rounds out festivities Saturday afternoon.

Taken together, all the events and sessions promise a CEA convention as lively and challenging as any in recent memory.  Best of all will be the perennial CEA conviviality and congeniality–the opportunities to meet old friends and make new ones that create the unique CEA atmosphere.

Join us, and enjoy all of this in the affordable and gracious surroundings of the Omni Richmond Hotel, in Richmond, one of Virginia’s loveliest cities.

Have theories and pedagogies that focus on political and historical issues exhausted themselves?  Are we at the beginning of a new age of aesthetic theory?  Are we ready to return to questions of quality in literature, film, composition and rhetoric?  Can aesthetic issues be revived in our scholarship and teaching?  Should they be?  Did we ever really abandon aesthetics and questions of aesthetic merit?

Recent scholarly and opinion publications have questioned the continued validity and usefulness of purely political approaches to cultural studies and have suggested that it may be time to re-examine aesthetic, formal, and rhetorical questions that have been largely ignored for a generation or more.

Proposals of 500 words engaging the conference theme must be postmarked by 1 November 2003.  Notification of acceptance will be made soon after 15 November.  All presenters must be paid members of CEA, in good standing, by 15 December 2003. 

Proposals for either individual papers (15 minutes) or single-focused sessions or forums (60 minutes) must include:

• phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and postal addresses of organizer and all participants;
• a description of content and method, with attention to how the topic addresses the conference theme.

• CEA membership is required (membership forms will accompany acceptance letter).
• Only one paper or panel per person will be accepted.
• Presenters are eligible to serve as chairs or respondents for sessions. Notify the program chair if you wish to be considered.
• Graduate students, please self-identify at the proposal stage; you are eligible for a Best-Paper Award of $50. Three final copies of your paper will be required, postmarked by 1 March 2004.
• CEA cannot sponsor or fund travel or participant costs.

    Dean Baldwin
    2004 CEA Program Chair
    Penn State Erie
    The Behrend College
    Erie, PA  16563

    Phone: (814) 898-6214
    FAX: (814) 898-6032
    E-mail: dxb11@psu.edu

What is our ethical responsibility to graduate and undergraduate students?  AAE will sponsor sessions on this topic at the 2004 CEA Conference in Richmond.  See the call for papers at the following link: <http://www.as.ysu.edu/~english/cea/AAEcallforpapers-9-03>.  Deadline for proposals is November 1, 2003.

ATTW invites proposals for presentations at the 2004 meeting of the College English Association (CEA) in Richmond, Virginia, April 1-3.  CEA is a general conference for English scholars from all disciplines. 

Sessions at CEA will give ATTW members an additional opportunity to meet, as well as to reach out to members of other disciplines who teach technical communication as a secondary area.

Please send proposals for presentations or panels by October 28, 2003, to miles.kimball@ttu.edu or by mail to the following address: 

Miles Kimball
Technical Communication & Rhetoric Program
Department of English, MS 3091
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX 79409

If you have questions, please e-mail Miles at miles.kimball@ttu.edu, or call him at (806) 742-2500, ext. 227.