[Vwoolf] Graduate students and Woolf conference

Thu Oct 23 18:50:19 EDT 2014

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.

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.
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! :)

all the best,
Diana

Diana L. Swanson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Women's Studies & English
Faculty Associate of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Studies
Faculty Associate of Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability, and Energy 
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-6611
dswanson at niu.edu 
>>> "Detloff, Madelyn" <detlofmm at miamioh.edu> 10/23/2014 11:26 AM >>>
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. 

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. 

best,

Madelyn 

On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 10:56 AM, ANNE Fernald [Staff/Faculty [A&S]] <fernald at fordham.edu> wrote:

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.

As for grad students, I think they should be treated like every other professional.

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.

On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 9:41 AM, Barbara Green <bgreen at nd.edu> wrote:

> Dear Julie,

Liz Evans and I are organizing our graduate class this term so that we
can help our students develop conference papers. At least one member
of our group intends to submit an abstract to the 2015 Woolf
conference. We'd be delighted if our student has a chance to
experience the Woolf conference, since the community is so
consistently generous toward graduate students. It would be an
excellent place for her to grow.

Thank you, Julie, for giving us a chance to consider this important
professionalization question.

Best,

Barbara

Barbara Green
Department of English
University of Notre Dame

>
>
> 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
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Vwoolf mailing list
> Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
> https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Vwoolf mailing list
> Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
> https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Vwoolf mailing list
> Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
> https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf
> _______________________________________________
> Vwoolf mailing list
> Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
> https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf
_______________________________________________
Vwoolf mailing list
Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf

-- 
Anne E. Fernald
( http://www.fordham.edu/academics/programs_at_fordham_/english/faculty/english_faculty/anne_fernald_28537.asp) 
Director of Writing/Composition at Lincoln Center,
Associate Professor of English
( http://www.fordham.edu/academics/programs_at_fordham_/english/index.asp)  and Women's Studies
( http://www.fordham.edu/womens_studies) 
Fordham University
113 W 60th St.
New York NY 10023

212/636-7613
( tel:212%2F636-7613) 
fernald at fordham.edu

_______________________________________________
Vwoolf mailing list
Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf

-- 
Madelyn Detloff
Director of Graduate Studies, English Department
Associate Professor of English and WGS
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056
(513) 529-1395

Please note that Miami has changed its domain name to miamioh.edu. My new email address is detlofmm at miamioh.edu. 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/vwoolf/attachments/20141023/c5ad0ef3/attachment.html>