ASLE News

At the recent American Literature Association conference in San Francisco (May 2018), ASLE sponsored two sessions on the topic of “Future Earths,” focusing on American literary works that reimagine landscapes or ecologies of the future.

The first session, titled “Future Earths I: Future Past and Future Present,” was chaired by Megan Simpson of Penn State Altoona. In “Atomic Afrofuturism: The Cold War and Apocalyptic Ecologies,” Kristin George Bagdanov from U.C. Davis investigated the intersections of ecology, afrofuturism, and the Cold War through American poet ...

Attention all grad students! Join the ASLE summer reading groups on “Climate Justice in the Anthropocene.” Groups will meet twice over the summer via Google Hangout. This is a great opportunity to meet grad students from other institutions while discussing topics vital to the environmental humanities.   How it works: Groups of up to 10 students will meet twice during the summer via Google Hangouts, likely once in July and August. When exactly you meet will be determined by your own group’s availability. Groups will ...

We are delighted to welcome three new International Co-Liaisons to ASLE, appointed by the Executive Council. Andrea Casals, Chia-ju Chang, and Lauren LaFauci will share this role, and bring a wealth of connections from various parts of the world to the duties of this position. ASLE thanks outgoing International Liaison George Handley for his service to our association and its members since 2012.

Professor Andrea Casals in an English teacher. She holds an MA in Human Settlements and Environment and a Doctor’s ...

Update: Deadline Extended to April 30, 2018

ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment is the official journal of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment. ISLE seeks to explore the relation between human beings and the natural world, and publishes articles from literary scholars, environmental historians, specialists in the visual and performing arts, environmental philosophers, geographers, economists, ecologists, and scholars in other fields relevant to the environmental humanities. The journal also publishes poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction and book reviews pertinent to its thematic ...

We are pleased to introduce ISLE‘S two new Associate Editors, Christina Gerhardt and Jennifer Westerman. The journal is instituting this new editorial model to help ISLE continue to grow and evolve. They were chosen from a deep pool of excellent candidates to fill these new positions, and will begin their work with the journal on July 1, 2018.  Associate Editors will serve for two years and have the opportunity to apply to become Editor at the end of that time.

Christina Gerhardt is Visiting Scholar at the University of California ...

We are thrilled to announce the ASLE grant recipients from our call in late 2017. Applicants applied to one of three categories: Community Grants, Translation Grants, and Subvention Grants.

Funding for ASLE grants come, in large part, from members and supporters like you. Donate today to support innovative research.

Update: All translation grant funds have now been awarded.  Read about the two new grants awarded below.

 

Community Grants: Connect Humanities-Based Research with Place-Based Environmental Organizations 

Africatown Youth Theater Production and Community Digital Archive

“This project argues ...

The ASLE Digital Strategies Committee is interested in forming a working group of members of ASLE to consider open teaching, learning, and research resources. Open Educational Resources (OERs) are materials shared in the public domain under an intellectual property license that allows their free use and re-purposing by others. These educational resources might include individual and collaborative research, course materials and/or modules, textbooks, videos and media projects, to name a few.

How might ASLE offer students free access to materials as well as promote ...

This is a call for members to participate in the newly-constituted Standing Committee on Activism.

Background: ASLE is regularly presented with requests to sign petitions, participate in protest, and otherwise engage contemporary issues related to its mission. ASLE has also confronted proposed meeting sites that are compromised by political controversy. Finally, it has adopted an Advocacy Policy that allows members to bring proposals to the Executive Council for consideration.

In such cases, the leadership requires detailed information about the issues at hand, as well as a sense ...

Cultivating Community in the Environmental Humanities: The Second Annual Environmental Literature Institute at Phillips Exeter Academy

By Stephen Siperstein, Choate Rosemary Hall Academy;Jason BreMiller, Phillips Exeter Academy; and Mark C. Long, Keene State College

This past June, the second annual Environmental Literature Institute (ELI) brought secondary school teachers from around the country together at Exeter Academy, New Hampshire for a week of professional development in environmental humanities pedagogy. Continuing to build on the 2014 ASLE strategic plan’s goal to improve public discourse about the environment through ...

If you are attending the 2018 Modern Language Association Convention, held from January 4-7, 2108 in New York City, consider adding some of these events and sessions to your agenda. If you are on a panel of interest to ASLE members not listed below, please contact us at info@asle.org to have it added.

The MLA Forum on Ecocriticism and Environmental Humanities is a community founded by ASLE members Sharon O’Dair, Stacy Alaimo, Stephanie LeMenager and Jeffrey J. Cohen.  Check out their feed in the MLA Commons and ...