<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-size: 13px;color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family: arial, sans-serif;">As an undergraduate who occasionally produced a "publishable" paper, and much later as an independent scholar who competed with PhDs to present papers at international conferences of genocide scholars and succeeded, I have to endorse the idea of letting the undergrads and graduate students compete with the scholars. You'd get some fabulous papers. And for those like me who pay their own way to conferences, they would get their hard-earned money's worth of primo new scholarship. I would be furious to travel to Ireland (as I did last time) to hear work inferior to my own. (Not that PhDs. always produce the best work. For real.)<div><br></div><div>Jeannette Smyth<br><br><blockquote style="padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 0px; border-left: #0000ff 2px solid; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; color: black;">-----Original Message-----
<br>From: "Vandivere, Julie" <jvandive@bloomu.edu>
<br>Sent: Oct 24, 2014 10:01 AM
<br>To: Diana Swanson <dswanson@niu.edu>
<br>Cc: "vwoolf@lists.osu.edu" <vwoolf@lists.osu.edu>
<br>Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Graduate students and Woolf conference
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I can't tell you how helpful this has been. In a few days I'll update info on the website. I let you all know when I do to see if I was able to articulate your thoughts. The discussion also gives me some perspective as I talk to people at MSA. I'm hoping
to see scholars who work on some of the other modernist women writers, and they are not as familiar with the inclusiveness of the conference (as I was not). As I reach out to them, I want to make sure I understand both the traditions and parameters of the
Woolf community and conference.
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<div>For example (and here is my second question that I was going to save for next week, but what the heck). Women writers before the 20th-century have enjoyed a real resurgence because of the work of the British Women Writers Association. We don't have a
parallel organization in the 20th-century, and the BWWA is not interested in extending very far into the 20th-century. </div>
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<div>I would like to have this next conference both stress Woolf in ways that are consistent with the mission of the organization and conference and also open up the possibility of discussions about how to create dialogue and space for other women writers.
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<div>I'd be interested in input about what you all think of how I might find the right balance. </div>
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<div>Julie</div>
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Julie Vandivere, Ph.D.<br>
Professor of English<br>
119 Bakeless<br>
Bloomsburg University<br>
Bloomsburg, PA 17815 <br>
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<a target="_blank" href="mailto:jvandive@bloomu.edu">jvandive@bloomu.edu</a><br>
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<div>On Oct 23, 2014, at 6:50 PM, Diana Swanson <<a target="_blank" href="mailto:dswanson@niu.edu">dswanson@niu.edu</a>></div>
<div> wrote:</div>
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<div>I agree that it works to treat graduate students' submissions in the same way as faculty members' and common readers' submissions. One thing that Pamela Caughie and I did do for the 2014 Chicago conference (submissions were reviewed anonymously by the
conference committee, by the way, so the reviewers couldn't tell which proposals were by whom) was to double check that we had a good mix of faculty, independent scholar, common reader, and student presenters before acceptances and rejections were sent out.
We found that we really didn't have to make many adjustments, if any, to the conference committee's rankings in order to get that mix which is so important to the Woolf conference.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I agree with Madelyn that it's a good idea to have a few separate sessions for undergraduates if you have a lot of them presenting or if the conference is linked to an undergrad course in which preparing and presenting a paper or a roundtable is required.<br>
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<div>An approach that worked well for me was to teach a graduate seminar on Woolf the fall before the conference and to make writing a conference proposal and a conference length version of the research paper part of the requirements for the course. That way
my students had conference proposals and papers prepared prior to the Woolf conference submission deadline. I'm proud to say that all my seminar students' papers were accepted through the anonymous review process--go NIU English grad students! :)</div>
<div> </div>
<div>all the best,</div>
<div>Diana</div>
<div><br>
<span style="WORD-WRAP: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-WEIGHT: normal">
<div><br>
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<div>Diana L. Swanson, Ph.D.</div>
<div>Associate Professor of Women's Studies & English<br>
Faculty Associate of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Studies</div>
<div>Faculty Associate of Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability, and Energy
<div>Northern Illinois University</div>
</div>
<div>DeKalb, IL 60115<br>
815-753-6611<br>
<a target="_blank" href="mailto:dswanson@niu.edu">dswanson@niu.edu</a> </div>
</span>>>> "Detloff, Madelyn" <<a target="_blank" href="mailto:detlofmm@miamioh.edu">detlofmm@miamioh.edu</a>> 10/23/2014 11:26 AM >>><br>
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<div dir="ltr">Some of the best papers I have seen at the Woolf Conference have been by graduate students, so I would agree to treat graduate submissions exactly as faculty and common reader submissions. I have also seen some awesome papers by undergraduates,
but I agree that having a separate panel or two for them can make the process less intimidating.
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<div>Diana Royer and I had a graduate class linked to the 17th annual conference and the class + conference experience was a big success. Some of the class participants are on this listserv, so they can correct me if I am misrepresenting their experience.
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<div>best,</div>
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<div>Madelyn </div>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 10:56 AM, ANNE Fernald [Staff/Faculty [A&S]]
<span dir="ltr"><<a target="_blank" href="mailto:fernald@fordham.edu">fernald@fordham.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr">It's an exceptional undergrad who can acquit her/himself well on a panel. I think that's fine and, in fact, terrific: if s/he wants to apply in the rank-blind CFP and gets in, all the better. However, a special panel or stream for undergrads
gives them a chance to taste the conference w/o too much intimidation.
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<div>As for grad students, I think they should be treated like every other professional.</div>
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<div>I would add that in the 2009 conference, I tried to create a couple other opportunities for grad students linked to the conference: a special course that led into the conference, and I worked with grad students not only at Fordham but in the area, who
attended at a reduced rate in exchange for helping work the tables, chair a session, escort a plenarist, etc. I think this helping/organizing work was, in some cases, more valuable professionalization than the paper alone--and in fact, several of the people
who helped me there have gone on to great things.</div>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 9:41 AM, Barbara Green <span dir="ltr">
<<a target="_blank" href="mailto:bgreen@nd.edu">bgreen@nd.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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> Dear Julie,<br>
<br>
Liz Evans and I are organizing our graduate class this term so that we<br>
can help our students develop conference papers. At least one member<br>
of our group intends to submit an abstract to the 2015 Woolf<br>
conference. We'd be delighted if our student has a chance to<br>
experience the Woolf conference, since the community is so<br>
consistently generous toward graduate students. It would be an<br>
excellent place for her to grow.<br>
<br>
Thank you, Julie, for giving us a chance to consider this important<br>
professionalization question.<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
<br>
Barbara<br>
<span><font color="#888888"><br>
Barbara Green<br>
Department of English<br>
University of Notre Dame<br>
</font></span>
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<div><br>
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> I would like the input of the Woolf community on a few things about the Woolf conference. The website and structure of the conference is beginning to come together, and I've purposely left a few things blank because I don't know how to proceed.<br>
><br>
> Take a look at<br>
><br>
> <a target="_blank" href="http://woolf.bloomu.edu/">woolf.bloomu.edu</a><br>
><br>
> You'll notice I have a separate section for high school and undergraduates. I took the organizational handbook at its word and used the conference as an opportunity to pull university and community together. The deans put in money for this because they (and
I) want to make a statement about the importance of the humanities at our institution and in the community.<br>
><br>
> The high school students, community members, and undergraduates will attend events like the theater performance, art opening, and plenaries, but will have sessions and discussion groups in a separate building from the academic conference on Saturday afternoon.<br>
><br>
> The piece I can't figure out is graduate students. Do you feel the conference would be weakened or strengthened if I made a push for faculty to encourage and bring their graduate students? As I see it, the only disadvantage would be that the papers might
not be the quality we want (some conferences have been taken over by graduate students).<br>
><br>
> However, there are tremendous advantages. As I talk to faculty about conferences, many of them are under pressure to professionalize their graduate students and would like to include them. From listening to people, I believe we wold attract more professors
if we let people know they could also bring their graduate students and have them present. But I don't want to put them in a separate session or area (as the undergraduates are).<br>
><br>
> How do you think I should handle this?<br>
><br>
> Thanks (I have another question), but I'll save that one for next week).<br>
><br>
> Julie<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> Julie Vandivere, Ph.D.<br>
> Professor of English<br>
> 119 Bakeless<br>
> Bloomsburg University<br>
> Bloomsburg, PA 17815<br>
><br>
> <a target="_blank" href="mailto:jvandive@bloomu.edu">jvandive@bloomu.edu</a><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
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<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">-- <br>
<div><span style="FONT-FAMILY: sans-serif"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.fordham.edu/academics/programs_at_fordham_/english/faculty/english_faculty/anne_fernald_28537.asp">Anne E. Fernald</a></span><br>
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English</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.fordham.edu/womens_studies">Women's Studies</a></span><br>
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-- <br>
<div dir="ltr">Madelyn Detloff
<div>Director of Graduate Studies, English Department</div>
<div>Associate Professor of English and WGS</div>
<div>Miami University</div>
<div>Oxford, OH 45056</div>
<div>(513) 529-1395</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Please note that Miami has changed its domain name to <a target="_blank" href="http://miamioh.edu/">
miamioh.edu</a>. My new email address is <a target="_blank" href="mailto:detlofmm@miamioh.edu">
detlofmm@miamioh.edu</a>. </div>
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