CEA in Memphis

Join your colleagues in Memphis, Tennessee, April 5–7 for the Thirty-Second Annual Meeting of the College English Association. According to CEA First Vice President and program chair Wendell Aycock, the theme, “Eidólons: Songs of Ourselves at the Beginning of the New Millennium,” promises a wide variety of sessions.

This rich and exciting program will take place at the Peabody Memphis, an elegant, beautifully restored hostelry that lives up to its reputation as “the South’s grand hotel.” On the National Register of Historic Places, the Peabody sits in the heart of the city, close to the riverboats, the tram, the Martin Luther King Civil Rights Museum, Beale Street, Peabody Place, the Orpheum Theater, and the Mississippi River Museum on Mud Island.

If attractions such as Graceland, Beale Street, and the National Civil Rights Museum, aren’t enough to lure you to Memphis, Aycock and CEA Executive Director Bob Hoskins offer the following tidbits to entice you:

As usual, the conference opens Thursday afternoon, with 16 sessions on various topics. Once again, the conference features several panels on literature and the sea, plus a number of sessions sponsored by the Women’s Connection. In addition, there are panels on Shakespeare; pedagogy; literary theory, African American literature; American, British, and Irish literature; film; music; and more. The setting of the conference inspired such panels as “Rock Songs of Ourselves” and “Elvis Returns to Memphis.”

The plenary session will feature Fred Freeman, Honorary Fellow in English Literature at The University of Edinburgh, who has done extensive work on Robert Burns. The producer of “The Complete Songs of Robert Burns ” (Linn Records) and CDs of traditional Scottish music (including Gordeanna McCulloch and Ian Bruce), Freeman has written a book on the 18th-century poet Robert Fergusson, as well as articles and essays on Scottish music, literature, and history. Freeman’s topic for the plenary session will be “Not ‘a trifling business’—Robert Burns as a Song-Writer.”
Freeman’s presentation will be followed by the CEA President’s Reception, an occasion for relaxing, renewing old acquaintances, making new ones, and enjoying some good food and drink.

The Diversity Luncheon on Friday will feature Ramenga Osotis, who will speak on “The Swahili Canon and Its Assessment of Writers in English.” As in the past, the conference will include a Women’s Connection Banquet, a Department Chairs’ Breakfast, and an Affiliates Breakfast. The All-Conference Luncheon speaker on Saturday will be Rolando Hinojosa, an award-winning Chicano author who has long been a voice for Americans of Mexican descent. Known in Europe and Latin America as well as in the United States, Hinojosa has had a distinguished career as a creative writer at the University of Texas.
The program will offer a number of familiar features, such as the CEA book drawing on Saturday morning and the poetry workshop led by Larry Rubin, as well as new panels and topics. Professor Rubin asks that workshop participants bring ten or more photocopies of the poems they want to read. The conference will conclude with an optional excursion to Mississippi’s Faulkner and Blues Country on Saturday afternoon.

Conference information has been mailed to CEA members. The conference program is available at the following link: http://www.jmu.edu/cea/memphisprogram2001. If you are not yet a member and would like more information about the meeting in Memphis, contact Wendell Aycock at the following address:

    Wendell Aycock
    2001 CEA Program Chair
    Department of English
    Box 43091
    Texas Tech University
    Lubbock, TX 79409-3091
    Queries: (806) 742-2500, ext. 261
    FAX: (806) 742-0989
    E-mail: w.aycock@ttu.edu

Images courtesy of the Elvis.com and Graceland websites.