[Vwoolf] Graduate students and Woolf conference

[Vandivere, Julie]

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. 

Take a look at
 
woolf.bloomu.edu

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. 

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. 

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). 

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).

How do you think I should handle this?

Thanks (I have another question), but I'll save that one for next week).

Julie





Julie Vandivere, Ph.D.
Professor of English
119 Bakeless
Bloomsburg University
Bloomsburg, PA 17815 

jvandive at bloomu.edu