English Association of Pennsylvania State Universities (EAPSU) Conference

This year’s theme embraces hope, healing, and bringing people together. Should empathy matter to students, teachers, writers, readers, and professionals? How do we reach out to others who suffer? How do we find strength in each other? How do we bridge divides? How do we move forward?

In 2011, after having been diagnosed with breast cancer, Mansfield University English professor Dr. Kristin Sanner penned an article for The Chronicle of Higher Education titled “The Literature Cure.” In it, she describes finding comfort and strength in favorite poems and passages. She was particularly fond of chanting, “Hope is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul.” Kristin continued to teach during her illness, and she increasingly found that literature “helps us understand how to live and how to die. It shows us how to persevere in the face of adversity, how to reach into our personal depths and find both meaning and will. It reminds us of the dichotomous fragility and tenacity of earthly living. It also teaches us how to care for those who suffer.”

We welcome papers, group panels, and creative works that explore the broad theme of hope and healing in any aspect of English studies, including but not limited to composition, creative writing, curricular innovation, digital humanities, film, linguistics, American and British literature, LGBTQ+ literature, transnational literature, new media, outreach, pedagogy, popular culture, recruitment and retention, service learning, and theory. We are particularly interested in devoting one or more panels to professionalism, for example, professional writing, publishing, and careers in English. We also hope to offer contemplative sessions, so if you have any experience with mindfulness, meditation, tai chi, yoga, etc., please let us know!

We are looking for themes and approaches that enable us to combine academic, creative, and pedagogical papers on panels consisting of faculty, students, alumni, and/or institutions. Please submit your 150-word (or less) proposal(s) for individual or group presentations by July 15, 2019, to Jimmy Guignard at eapsu19@mansfield.edu.

Join the conversation: #eapsu19

For the first time ever, there will be three categories for the writing contest: flash fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. More information can be found here.