Affiliated Symposia

To find out more about past US and international events, visit our symposia archives.

Rural Heritage Institute

June 11-15, 2008, Sterling College, Craftsbury Common, VT.

RHI is a four-day series of interdisciplinary academic, experiential, and instructional field-based workshops scheduled for June 11-15th, 2008. The event will highlight and strengthen connections between scholarship on rural communities in the Northeast broadly – and in the Northeast Kingdom specifically – and field experience with/in the working communities in the region. The Institute capitalizes on the integrative model of community learning and experiential academics practiced by our host, Sterling College. Located only 30 miles from the Canadian border in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, it is an ideal place to explore interwoven threads of place, culture, and community in the fabric of the region’s agricultural and land-use heritage. RHI ntegrates the Sterling College mission of environmental stewardship and sustainable community-based approaches to global issues with an innovative approach to experience-based education. RHI can serve as the base for a cross-disciplinary exploration of rural heritage in Vermont and across northern New England. For more information, contact Pavel Cenkl (pcenkl [at] sterlingcollege [dot] edu).

Sharp Eyes V: John Burroughs, Nature Writing and 19th-Century Science

June 15-19, 2008, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY.

Fifth in the John Burroughs Nature Writing Conference and Seminar Series. We will consider the effects on literature of some of the scientific revolutions of the nineteenth century, such as biological evolution, the magnitude of geologic time and consequent interpretations about the history of the earth, and the emerging sense of the environmental limitations of the planet. Papers are delivered to plenary sessions of students, faculty, and visiting scholars. The conference will also include a special session in the Vassar College Special Collections to view their extensive Burroughs collection.  For more information, please contact Jeff Walker, Department of Earth Science and Geography, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie. NY 12604. (jewalker [at] vassar [dot] edu).

The Keyboard in the Garden: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Literature and Mediated Nature

June 27-29, 2008. Delaware Valley College, Doylestown PA.

The Keyboard in the Garden: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Literature and Mediated Nature is an ASLE off-year symposium, hosted at Delaware Valley College.  Panel and paper topics include: Nature and design; Parks, both city and national; Gardens, formal, informal, or vegetable; Landscape design and designers; The garden as repository for scientific study (e.g. Bartram’s Gardens); Botanical gardens; The garden as archetype; The garden as metaphor; The garden of earthly delights; Creative writing: fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. Due both to the general idea of the off-year symposium and to the relatively small size of the college, the conference is limited to roughly 100 participants. On-campus housing for all participants will be available for the full conference. Keynote speaker is Annie Merrill Ingram. For more information, please contact Richard Hunt (richard [dot] hunt [at] delval [dot] edu).