ASLE News Spring 2009
A Quarterly Publication of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
In This Issue:
ISLE and OUP
New ISLE Features
"Island Time" Update
2009 Election Results
Notes from the Managing Director
ASLE Mentoring Program
The Graduate Student Page
EASLCE Update
OSLE-India Update
Collecting Terra Firma
ASLE Bookshelf
ASLE Seeks Nominations
ASLE PhD
ASLE Emeritus
ASLE News Notes
ISLE Finds a New Home at OUP
ASLE and Oxford University Press (OUP) have entered into an exciting new partnership.
Since its inception in 1993, ISLE-the official journal of the organization-has
been published with the assistance of the University of Nevada Press. Now, thanks
to our new affiliation with OUP, the journal has a permanent home.
"In a sense, we've self-published the journal," says Scott Slovic, ISLE editor and
long-time ASLE advisory board member. "For several years now, we've felt that in
order to make the journal sustainable we should really try to find an academic press
that could help us with some of the aspects of the journal-particularly production,
marketing, and distribution-that we were not well prepared to manage ourselves."
Working with George Hart, an executive council member and former acting editor of
ISLE, Slovic began contacting a few publishers. Once he and Hart spoke with Trish
Thomas, executive editor for humanities and social science journals at OUP, they
knew they had found the perfect press.
"I was immediately impressed by her and by the array of services OUP could offer
the entire community of ISLE's contributors and readers," said Slovic.
Chief among these is the wide distribution of the journal in paper and electronic
formats, along with the increase from two to four issues per year.
"It has long been our dream to make ISLE available in both paper and electronic
formats and to facilitate access to the journal for the many scholars outside of
North America who are working in the field of ecocriticism--OUP is already helping
us to achieve this."
Slovic said the efficiency and flexibility of OUP's manuscript receiving system,
along with the Advanced Access System (which displays accepted and edited manuscripts
even before they are placed in a specific issue) were also big advantages at this
press-along with the friendly and highly competent staff.
"All of us who work on ISLE are thrilled to be working together with our colleagues
at OUP. I view this new relationship as a major step forward for the journal-and
for the entire discipline of ecocriticism," says Slovic.
According to Thomas, the feeling is mutual.
"Speaking for myself as well as for my colleagues at Oxford University Press, I
can say that we are very pleased and excited to begin a publishing partnership with
ASLE and for ISLE to join the Oxford Journals list beginning this year. We think
the benefits will be mutual -- not only will ISLE broaden and strengthen the Oxford
journals list, but the journal's new electronic platform and our planned marketing
and consortia efforts will heighten the profile of ISLE and increase readership
worldwide."
Thanks to such efforts, says Slovic, ISLE will be available to scholars and students
of ecocriticism worldwide.
"Students in Nairobi and Buenos Aires and Beijing need only have access to the Internet
in order to read the latest work published in ISLE and the back issues that are
now available in a digital archive. We'll also be able to see an increased publication
of diverse ecocritical studies from scholars throughout the world."
But, adds Slovic, the core identity of ISLE will still remain very much the same.
"For various reasons, I am committed to continuing this hybrid focus of the journal
as long as I serve as editor. I have always considered ASLE a wonderful umbrella
for people interested in 'literature and environment,' broadly conceived. This
includes literary scholars and practicing writers, among many others."
* * *
You may notice that the website banner says "ISLE is free online for a limited time".
This is our way of introducing ISLE to all browsers at the website. After May 15th,
access controls will be switched on, but ASLE members will still be able to gain
access to current and archive content through the Member Log-in on the ASLE site.
(Homepages, abstracts, and tables of contents are always freely available to any
browser for all the journals on the Oxford Journals website.)
As an ASLE member, you will still receive your print copies of the journal. We are
pleased that our printer can provide a quality text paper that contains 30% post-consumer
waste, and cover stock that is 10% post-consumer waste. The printing plant is accredited
by the Forestry Stewardship Council, and all of their paper comes from managed forests.
In fact, Oxford Journals has just announced that beginning this year all of our
journals will be printed using paper certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council
and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes.
New ISLE Features
> More issues! ISLE has gone to quarterly publication to accommodate increased submissions
and a growing interest in the field.
> Online features and capabilities: take a look at www.isle.oxfordjournals.org and:
* See the Winter 2009 issue online; download in PDF or HTML format;
* Click on "Advance Access" and see the articles that will be included in future
issues posted online in final form-considered the official date of publication;
* Browse the online archive back to volume one, number one (1993);
* Enter search terms to locate topics, article titles, and authors in ISLE;
* Sign up at the link for free "Alerting Services" on the journal's homepage for
e-mail alerts (which will let you know when a new issue has been posted and list
the table of contents), CiteTrack, or RSS feeds;
* Fill out a subscription recommendation form to e-mail to your local librarian;
* Click on the "Submit now" link to electronically submit your article to be considered
for publication in the journal.
What's Not on the Program for "Island Time"
by Dan Philippon
One of the first lessons any student of literature learns is to "read between the
lines," to consider what's "in the margins," to look for the absences, erasures,
and omissions in a text. In that spirit, I want to call your attention to something
that is not on the program for ASLE's upcoming biennial conference in Victoria but
that nonetheless will be vital to the conference's success.
As I indicated in the Fall 2008 issue of ASLE News, this year we tried hard to build
more time into the program for conversation, dialogue, and discussion. We expanded
the concurrent sessions from 75 to 90 minutes, increased the time between sessions
to 30 minutes, and extended the lunch time to 90 minutes and the dinner time to
2.5 hours. We weren't able to meet all of our goals--many sessions will have four
presentations, for example, rather than our target of three--but I believe we succeeded
at fulfilling the core mission the Executive Council identified at our spring retreat
in Idaho: to create an intellectual and creative space where things can happen that
would not happen otherwise.
What this means in practice is that the success of the conference will depend in
part on what, in our wired world, has come to be called "user-generated content"
(UGC). We can find you a room, make sure you are well fed and watered, make sure
the plenary sessions run on time, and so forth, but in the end the success of the
conference is up to you. Just as YouTube, Wikipedia, and Facebook could not survive
without UGC, so too will the conference depend on what you bring to it. This has
always been true for the concurrent sessions, of course, but it is especially true
this year for what's not on the program: the discussion periods, coffee breaks,
meal times, and many other moments of "down time."
It's a bit like college, I suppose: despite all the knowledge we share with our
students in the classroom, it's their experiences outside of the classroom that
often make the biggest impression. I certainly have found this to be true at all
of the conferences I have attended, as the memories that loom largest for me are
the smaller moments of personal interaction: the conversations with a colleague
in the airport or on a bus ride, the dinners with old and new friends, the discussion
periods following prepared presentations, the latest gossip (academic and otherwise)
over coffee on a sunny patio.
Our task this year is not to supplant these easy exchanges-for they are vital to
our lives as teachers, scholars, artists, and activists-but to augment them, to
enhance them with a new sense of urgency about the environmental and critical challenges
we face. As you will see, many of our plenary sessions this year will be dialogues,
and we have crafted these quite intentionally to model the kind of conversations
we believe this moment requires: human conversations held face-to-face (or "F2F"
in the current lingo) that not only address questions of meaning, purpose, and value
but that also seek solutions to our most pressing environmental and cultural problems,
particularly those that involve climate change, social justice, and the economic
and technological transformations now reshaping our world.
Every generation believes it lives at a moment of great historical consequence,
and to some extent every generation does. Our goal for ASLE's gathering in Victoria
is simply to rise to the occasion of our own particular moment by thinking deeply
about "the fate of place in a wired, warming world" as only ASLE can do, and by
doing so not only in the plenary and concurrent sessions but also in the margins
of the program-and even off the page if needed. Please join me and the rest of
the Executive Council as we try to answer Bill McKibben's challenge to us in Spartanburg:
that if we are going to travel to a conference in a time of climate crisis, we should
"make it count." I hope to see you in Victoria as we respond to Bill's challenge
with "Island Time."
* * *
A reminder: Canadian law requires that all persons entering Canada carry both proof
of citizenship and proof of identity. U.S. travelers, in particular, should bring
their passports, no matter what method of transport they are using, because they
will need them to return to the U.S. After June 1, all U.S. travelers ages 19 and
older arriving into the U.S. by land or sea from Canada must show a passport or
one of several federally approved IDs to enter. (Travelers entering by air from
Canada have needed passports since early 2007.) For more information, see http://travel.state.gov/passport/
and http://www.cbsa.gc.ca/noncan-eng.html.
2009 ASLE Election Results
by Catherine Meeks
As spring slowly but surely makes its way across the country, ASLE can look forward
to a season of exciting new voices in its leadership. The recent ASLE election cycle
saw, as usual, a wonderful and diverse array of individuals offering to serve the
organization in a variety of roles. After the votes were counted (which was, for
the first time, a primarily online process), Annie Merrill Ingram of Davidson College
was named Vice President, and Chia-ju Chang of Brooklyn College and Amy Patrick
of Western Illinois University were elected to serve on the Executive Council. These
three newly elected leaders, as well as the newly appointed Graduate Student Liaison
Sarah Jaquette Ray of the University of Oregon, all bring new energy as well as
important experiences to ASLE.
Ingram, a Professor of English in the piedmont of North Carolina, gives to ASLE
a unique perspective on the importance of coupling on-the-ground work toward environmental
sustainability with scholarly and creative pursuits. As she puts it, the small,
liberal arts college where she teaches is located "smack-dab in the middle of some
of the most rampant development in the country," in the so-called "research triangle"
near Charlotte, N.C.
Living in the midst of such development has made her aware of the great challenges
of incorporating an ethic of environmental responsibility into one's work. To that
end, Ingram has, in her words, "advocated for increased education for sustainability
in the academic curriculum and in a range of co-curricular settings."
Ingram has past experience serving as a member of the ASLE leadership-from 2000-2004
she was the organization's Secretary-Treasurer-and she will now be working closely
with current president Dan Philippon and immediate past president Rochelle Johnson
as she begins her term. She has noted that the Executive Council's goals established
last fall during the early stages of strategic planning for the organization's future
are "both sound and ambitious," and she looks forward to helping ASLE "maintain
our current successes" as well as "increase our public presence and improve how
we serve our members."
"One of many things I love about ASLE is that we're a friendly, welcoming, fun bunch
of folks," Ingram said, noting that "we will need all this good energy and more
in the time ahead." Thus, while she approaches her role with high hopes for the
future, she recognizes the challenges of the times, too. One way she plans to meet
those challenges is through reaching out to incorporate even more voices into ASLE's
membership: "We need to inspire others-especially those who will diversify the organization,
both demographically and disciplinarily-to join us in our endeavors."
Notes from the Managing Director
by Amy McIntyre
It has been an incredibly busy and productive year for ASLE, even without having
to put on a big conference. We launched a newly redesigned and upgraded web site
early last summer, and hopefully you have been finding it useful. My work to transfer
the copious amounts of information from our old site continues slowly but surely.
We are also about to enjoy the fruits of the Executive Committee's labors to find
a better way to publish ISLE and add an online version. As most of you know, Oxford
University Press will be putting out four issues of the journal beginning this year,
giving you more of the latest scholarship and creative writing in the field (check
out the full story in this issue of ASLE News).
Our strategic plan is nearly finished and will help guide our projects and new initiatives
in the coming years. ASLE has also had a successful financial year, marking the
first non-conference year since I have been with the organization that we were able
to balance our budget. The reason for this is that our membership numbers did not
experience the decrease they historically have in a non-conference year. This bodes
well for the future financial and organizational strength of the organization, and
is therefore worth noting. For detailed information on the 2008 fiscal year, see
http://www.asle.org/site/about/finances/.
Our international membership has also grown, I believe partly due to the higher
profile of our new website and the ease of joining online. Whatever the reasons,
it is something to celebrate, as we currently have more than 170 international members
from 30 countries contributing their voices to ASLE. When added to the nearly 900
stateside members from all across the US, we are more than 1000 people strong.
If you know colleagues and friends with an interest in writing and the environment
in any form, tell them about ASLE or have them visit the website for more information:
http://www.asle.org.
I look forward to seeing many of you, members old and new, in Victoria in June!
ASLE Mentoring Program Activities in Victoria
by Mark C. Long
The ASLE Mentoring Program, a cornerstone of ASLE's community-building efforts since
the inception of our organization, continues to bolster the strong sense of community
that ASLE members find so invigorating and meaningful. At this summer's conference
in Victoria, the program will be offering two mentoring opportunities.
Individual Mentoring Meetings: The Mentoring Program and the Graduate Student Caucus
will once again co-sponsor one-on-one professional mentoring meetings with experienced
faculty and department chairs. The one-hour meetings offer mentees an opportunity
to ask specific questions about the ASLE community, preparing for the job market,
working conditions at small and large institutions, the relationship between scholarship
and teaching, and non-academic work options. Beginning graduate students can benefit
from hearing about work in the field as they begin to imagine a professional horizon
beyond graduate school. Graduate students nearing completion of their programs,
or those who are seeking academic positions, will find an opportunity to ask questions
or talk about preparing a job portfolio. One-hour conferences will take place throughout
the week, mostly during concurrent session slots that do not conflict with community
events, including plenary talks and dinners. Please watch for more information on
the ASLE Listserv. If you would like to sign up for a meeting, or volunteer as a
faculty mentor, please contact the coordinator of the ASLE Mentoring Program, Mark
C. Long, at mlong@keene.edu.
In Conference Workshop for Faculty: While traditionally focused on graduate students
and younger faculty, the Mentoring Program is sponsoring an in-conference workshop
in Victoria, Staying Alive, that focuses on living an emotionally, ethically, and
spiritually healthy life in academia-no matter what happens. This workshop begins
with the idea that we benefit from mentoring across all phases of a career. Co-facilitators
John Tallmadge and Mark Long are offering the workshop to meet the needs and concerns
of our ASLE colleagues at any stage in their careers. To find out more about the
staying alive project, and join the conversation, visit our blog at http://onstayingalive.wordpress.com.
The Graduate Student Page
by Angela Waldie & Sarah Jaquette Ray
New Graduate Student Liaison
We are thrilled to introduce our newest graduate student liaison, Sarah Jaquette
Ray. Sarah is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oregon in Environmental
Sciences, Studies, and Policy, with English as a focal department. Her research
interests are interdisciplinary environmental humanities, environmental justice
studies, ecocriticism, American studies, and geography.
Many thanks to our outgoing GSL, Paul Bogard, for his two years of service to the
ASLE Executive Council. We look forward to Paul's continued involvement with graduate
student initiatives as he helps to facilitate the pre-conference graduate workshop
at the 2009 Biennial Conference and participates as a speaker on the publications
panel.
2009 Conference Plans
We hope that many of you are registered to attend the upcoming ASLE Conference in
Victoria. We have numerous professionalization and networking opportunities planned
for graduate students.
> On Tuesday, June 2, a pre-conference workshop with Mike Branch will allow grad
students to gain practical experience and advice in preparing for the job market.
We will discuss issues such as when to go on the market and how to define the scope
of your search. We will also discuss how to make the most of ecocritical and interdisciplinary
areas of specialization when applying for jobs, and we will attempt to demystify
the application and interview processes. There are still seats available in this
workshop, so please join us. To enroll, email Dan Philippon at danp@umn.edu.
> On Wednesday, June 3, the graduate professionalization panel entitled "Finding
Your Niche: Thoughts on Negotiating the Job Market" will provide further insights
on the current ecocritical job market.
> On Thursday, June 4, the professionalization panel "Finding Your Audience: Insights
on Publishing" will acquaint graduate students with a range of opportunities to
publish scholarly and creative work.
> A graduate student reception following the professionalization panel on June
3 will give graduate students a chance to meet, mingle, and continue the conversation
begun during the panel. We also hope to organize some breakfast discussions for
graduate students. Please watch for these events in your conference program.
Graduate Student Paper Awards
If you are attending the Victoria conference, please consider submitting your conference
paper (either in ecocriticism or environmental creative writing) for consideration
in the 2009 Graduate Student Paper Awards. Winning papers will receive a prize of
$100, publication in ISLE, and inclusion in the conference banquet program.
Papers must be submitted as an email attachment by May 1, 2009 to Tom Lynch at
tlynch2@unl.edu. For further guidelines, please see the information regarding
the Graduate Student Paper Awards on the ASLE website:
http://www.asle.org/site/publications/awards/papers09/.
GSL Working Group
We are always soliciting volunteers for the Graduate Student Working Group. The
working group meets over email periodically to discuss issues pertinent to graduate
students, plan professionalization and social opportunities for conferences, and
share ideas. This is a great way to get involved with ASLE from anywhere in the
world, and we look forward to having the opportunity to meet in person in Victoria.
Please let us know if you'd like to join.
If you have any questions about opportunities for graduate students within ASLE
or if you would like to suggest additional projects or initiatives, please contact
Graduate Student Liaisons Angela Waldie (arwaldie@ucalgary.ca) and Sarah Jaquette Ray
(sjaquett@uoregon.edu).
Hello from Overseas!
By Serenella Iovino, President of EASLCE
University of Turin, Italy
Many ASLE members are already acquainted with EASLCE (pronounced IZ-L-CEE), the
European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture and the Environment.
For those who are not, our association was founded in 2004 by a group of European
and non-European scholars (Patrick Murphy and Molly Westling were among us) in order
to provide a European forum for the exchange of ideas and information about ecocritical
issues.
Since then, our organization has really grown up: we've hosted three international
conferences, published two collections of essays, and also sponsored local workshops
and events. Crossing the boundaries of disciplines and countries, EASLCE has expanded
outside Europe, and it now includes members from India, Australia, Canada, Japan,
Taiwan, Eastern Europe, South Africa, and the US.
In this process of growth, cooperation and interconnectedness are the key words.
This is visible in our next projects, first of all the launch of Ecozon@: European
Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment, an electronic journal intended to
represent an interdisciplinary and multilingual forum for ecocriticism. Ecozon@,
whose first issue is expected this fall, represents a collaboration between its
founding core GIECO (the Spanish Grupo de investigación ecocrítica-Group for Research
on Ecocriticism, lead by Carmen Flys Junquera) and EASLCE.
Another big step under the sign of teamwork will be our next biennial conference.
The conference, which will be hosted by the University of Bath, UK, September 1-4,
2010, will be organized by EASLCE and ASLE UK together, being the first joint-conference
of the two major ecocritical associations in Europe.
Doubtlessly vital to our growth, we also look forward to reinforcing our transatlantic
dialogue with ASLE. And this is why I am deeply grateful to the editors of ASLE's
Newsletter for offering EASLCE the chance of introducing itself and advertising
its activities.
Many representatives of EASLCE will be in Victoria this June. All of us who will
be there are looking forward to exchanging experiences, ideas, expectations, and
projects. Above all, we look forward to meeting you personally, and enriching this
feeling of interconnectedness also with our faces, voices, and different accents.
Ecological health flourishes through diversity, exchange and mutual awareness. May
next meeting bring all of us and our ideas the vitality of a shared venture!
See also EASLCE's website: www.easlce.eu or subscribe to EASLCE's listserve:
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (with the following text: "subscribe EASLCE - Name
Last Name").
OSLE-India Reflects on a Busy 2008
By Rohini Ramakrishnan and Rayson K. Alex
It has been a wholesome year for OSLE-India in all its endeavors. Visits, presentations,
talks and lectures have instilled in us a sense of wonder for the world we live
in and has opened us to the diverse richness it offers. These dialogues have made
us also aware of the rapid destruction that this world faces, if we are not quick
to respond to the plight that we, as humans, are directly and indirectly responsible
for.
OSLE-India has been involved in too many endeavors to list here. But some of our
highlights include the first anniversary of the OSLE-India Study Circle. To celebrate
the occasion, we hosted a screen of the documentary, The Queen of Trees. This past
year, we also launched two activity-oriented forums: The Argument Forum, which facilitates
focused research for scholars in the area of ecocriticism, and the tinai forum,
which focuses exclusively on tinai (an ecoregional approach to anthropological,
semiotic, political, and ecological theory). We are also proud to report that the
Indian Journal of Ecocriticism (IJE) edited by R.Swarnalatha, Department of Humanities
and Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai, and published by Sarup
and Sons, Delhi and OSLE-India, Chennai, is printed and ready to be sold.
Finally, OSLE-India celebrates three new PhDs, including two that are the first
of their kind. K. Premkumar, Lecturer in English, Bishop Heber College has been
awarded PhD by Bharathidasan University, Trichy, for his thesis entitled Symbiosis
in the Schemata of Tagore's Poems. Ms. G. Ruby, Head, Department of English, Nandha
Arts and Science College, Erode has been awarded the first PhD in Oikopoetics by
the Bharathidasan University, Trichy. Her dissertation is entitled Poems of Robert
Frost: An Oikopoetic Dimension. The researcher has tried to unearth the underlying
ecological truths in Frost's poems using the Oikopoetic method. Mr. Rayson K. Alex
received the first PhD in Ecocriticism from Madras Christian College for his dissertation
entitled Symbiosis in the Songs of Mudugar.
Collecting Terra Firma
The Library of America is something of a lion in the world of literary anthologies.
So when the organization contacted Bill McKibben with the prospect of an Environmental
Writing anthology, he knew he had his work cut out for him.
After several years of research, deliberation, and discussion with writers and scholars
(including several members of ASLE), he says he finally had an anthology he could
be proud of. Entitled American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau, the
immense volume brings together nearly 200 years of reflections on the natural world.
The Library of Congress describes the book as "an unprecedented, provocative and
timely anthology that brings together much of the best that has been thought and
said about the interconnectedness of the natural world, our place in it and our
responsibility to it."
To do so, McKibben sought to include writers both classic and contemporary, including
the likes of Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson, John McPhee and Sandra Steingraber.
It also includes wonderfully unexpected, but no less relevant, voices such as P.T.
Barnum, César Chávez, and Joni Mitchell.
For McKibben, narrowing down the list of contributors was a labor of love, but one
that came with some painful decisions. "This book is a thousand pages long but
it really should be 10,000 pages long. And cutting those 9,000 other pages was
extremely painful for me because an awful lot of stuff that was dear to my heart
got left on the cutting room floor as it were."
Still, he says he thinks the end result is a powerful collection of important voices-made
all the more so by the Library of America.
"They have done a really unbelievable job of making this thing look incredibly beautiful.
The amount of behind-the-scenes work that it requires to stitch together all this
stuff and to get all the permissions from it is massive. They did a terrific job."
ASLE Bookshelf
The following works were recently published by ASLE members. If we've missed your
publication, please send bibliographic information to Catherine Meeks (catherine-meeks@utc.edu).
Cuadra, Pablo Antonio. Seven Trees Against the Dying Light. Translation by Steven
F. White and Greg Simon. Northwestern University Press, 2007.
Gifford, Terry. Ted Hughes. New York: Routledge, 2009.
Gillis, Christina. Writing on Stone: Scenes from a Maine Island Life. University
Press of New England, 2008.
Graham, Vicki. The Tenderness of Bees. Red Dragonfly Press,
2008
Holleman, Marybeth and Anne Coray (Editors). Crosscurrents North: Alaskans on the
Environment. University of Alaska Press, 2008.
Hurd, Barbara. Walking the Wrack Line: On Tidal Shifts and What Remains. University
of Georgia Press, 2008.
Marshall, Ian. Walden by Haiku. University of Georgia, 2009.
Miles, Kathryn. Adventures with Ari: a Puppy, a Leash, and our Year Outdoors. Skyhorse
(W.W. Norton), 2009.
Price, John T. Man Killed by Pheasant. Da Capo Press, 2009.
Sherwonit, Bill. Living with Wildness: An Alaskan Odyssey. University of Alaska
Press, 2008.
Wohlpart, A. James and Peter Blaze Corcoran (Editors). A Voice for Earth: American
Writers Respond to the Earth Charter. University of Georgia Press, 2008.
ASLE Seeks Nominations
Candidates are being sought to run for ASLE Executive Council (EC) and Vice President
(VP), for terms beginning January 2010. EC members serve a 3-year term, as does
the VP: one year as VP, one year as President, and one as Immediate Past President.
If you or another member you know would like to run for an ASLE office, please
contact 2009 President Dan Philippon (danp@umn.edu) by August 1, 2009.
ASLE PhD
This past year, Jodi Elisabeth Grimes successfully defended her dissertation, "Rhetorical
Transformations of Trees in Medieval England: from Material Culture to Literary
Representation," at the University of North Texas (Department of English). Her
project was directed by Robert Upchurch. Committee members included Nicole D. Smith
and Jacqueline Vanhoutte.
ASLE Emeritus
Longtime ASLE member Jeri Pollock has retired after a long and varied international
career in education. She has been affiliated with Our Lady of Mercy School, Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil (K-12) since 1991, serving as a curriculum coordinator and educational
consultant. She has also developed and taught environmentally themed sections of
Freshman Composition and Literature and Composition in recent years at Moorpark
College, Pepperdine University, and College of the Canyons, all in California.
Jeri has been active throughout her career in ESL teaching and programs for study
abroad, and is fluent in Portuguese, having spent many years living in Brazil.
Many of you know her as our "list mother" for ASLE's active list-serv, and while
retired from teaching she is still actively filling this role for us! We thank
and commend Jeri for her work in the field.
ASLE News Notes
New ASLE News Editor
ASLE News welcomes its new editor, Catherine Meeks. Catherine is a Lecturer of English
at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she teaches undergraduate courses
in rhetoric and composition and Western Humanities and explores the Tennessee River.
She studied Environmental Writing while earning a Masters of Science in Environmental
Studies at the University of Montana-Missoula, and continues to write creative nonfiction.
Catherine will take over the helm of ASLE News beginning this summer. You can
contact her at: catherine-meeks@utc.edu).
SAMLA Secretary
SAMLA (South Atlantic Modern Language Association) is looking for an ASLE member
to be the Secretary for this session; the Secretary will become next year's Chair
of the session. If you are interested in serving or learning more about the post,
please contact Jim Clark (jclark@barton.edu).
ASLE Emeritus
ASLE News honors those ASLE members retired or retiring from teaching. If you would
like to acknowledge someone in this new feature-or if you yourself will be retiring
during the coming academic year-please contact please contact Catherine Meeks
(catherine-meeks@utc.edu). We will include a brief account of scholarly
interests, the institutions of employment and years taught in the next newsletter.
ASLE PhDs
Have you or one of your students recently defended a dissertation? If so, ASLE
News wants to know. Each issue, we include announcements commemorating those members
who have recently completed their doctoral work. If you would like to be included
in this feature, please contact Catherine Meeks (catherine-meeks@utc.edu)
with the dissertation title, degree-granting institution, and committee members.
Register for the 2009 ASLE Biennial Conference!
June 3-6, 2009
University of Victoria, BC Canada
Contact Information:
ASLE
Amy McIntyre, Managing Director
info@asle.org
www.asle.org
Phone & Fax: 603-357-7411
Association for the Study of Literature and Environment | P.O. Box 502 | Keene | NH | 03431