Fall 2010 Newsletter
2010-11 edition Published Fall, Winter, & Spring Volume II, Issue I
"Who Will Speak for the Humanities?"
Dear HERA members,
While the concept of student as customer predates the 1990s, it has increasingly become a topic of debate in the last two decades. In these times of economic uncertainty and competition among institutions of higher learning, I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that colleges and universities are easily persuaded by bottom-line efficiency and the commercialization of education.
Thus, as we have all observed, courses and programs in language arts, fine arts, and other humanities disciplines are being slashed. At the same time, more salable programs with assumptions about salary increases and career advancement after graduation are vigorously marketed; and, in public institutions, the governmental decision makers often know little about the matters under their control.
There is no lack of people who love the humanities. A good book, film, art gallery, ethnic festival, stage or musical production, are eagerly consumed as entertainment. Yet, perhaps because they are so accessible, they are also minimized as irrelevant for serious academic study.
What all this amounts to is that we can expect no one to carry the banner for us. At this moment in history, it is our job alone to uphold the humanistic traditions as a serious enterprise so that they won't be lost in the realm of academia as business.
In 2011, we will be gathering in San Francisco for the HERA conference. If you haven't already submitted a proposal, I hope that you will consider doing so. HERA has always been a lively, collective: post-secondary and secondary educators, researchers, museum curators, independent scholars, and everyone who has an interest in interdisciplinary humanities. We welcome a diversity of topics and perspectives presented by domestic and international participants.
A colleague of mine who participated last year in El Paso remarked that she has continued to communicate with some HERA members since the conference ended and that she enjoyed the conference so much because it enabled her to talk with people outside her research area and connect meanings in ways that wouldn't be possible at other conferences. I hope that all of you who attended the El Paso conference will raise your voices with us in San Francisco as we continue to connect and collaborate and that you will encourage your friends in the humanities to join us there in March 2011.
Best, Terri
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Interdisciplinary Humanities
The Humanities Education and Research Association's Scholarly Journal: Interdisciplinary Humanities is a refereed scholarly journal, published twice a year. There is the possibility that some authors will be asked to revise and re-submit for consideration in future issues. When submitting to Interdisciplinary Humanities, remember all essays and poems should be interdisciplinary in nature. Essays should not exceed 6,000 words and should be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style.
Subscriptions are included as a benefit of membership in the Humanities Education and Research Association. Libraries and institutions may subscribe for $100.00 per year.
Submit articles and Creative Works to co-editors, Stephen Husarik shusarik@uafortsmith.edu and Lee Ann Westman, lewestman@utep.edu. Don't forget to include your e-mail address. Check HERA's website under JOURNAL to obtain information on upcoming editions.
Fall
2011 - (mis)Representing Difference in Media and Everyday Items.
Guest editor Susan Booker Morris, Director of Jim Crow Museum, Ferris State
University. This special issue on the representation of the 'other' invites
analysis of race, ethnicity, nationality, queerness, or gender as found in
representations in television, ads, films, photographs, video games, computer
images, etc. Any theoretical bases are welcome. Use of the Jim Crow Museum
at www.ferris.edu/jimcrow
is particularly encouraged but not required. Send inquiries and papers to
Susan Booker Morris at morrisus@ferris.edu.
Submission Deadline is May 1, 2011.
Spring
2012 - Children's Media.
Wynn Yarbrough, guest editor. This issue will offer up articles, essays, interviews,
and creative works by authors who write or produce works for children. Video
games, picture books, fantasy, hi-hop children's poetry: the various media
that are relevant to children and have become part of twenty first century
humanities warrants study and exploration for teachers and scholars in the
humanities. Send inquiries and submissions to Dr. Wynn Yarbrough at wynnyarbrough@hotmail.com.
Submission Deadline is Nov. 1, 2011.
Fall
2012 - Service Learning in the Humanities,
Isabel Baca, UTEP, guest editor. This issue will include articles, essays,
and reflective pieces on service-learning from various points of view: students,
faculty, agency mentors, and higher-education and non-profit community administration
and staff. Documents may focus on studies, theory, and reflection. Send inquiries
and submissions to Isabel Baca at ibaca@utep.edu.
Submission Deadline May. 1, 2012.
Spring 2013 - Restorying Nature: The Voices of the Natural World
Marion W. Copeland and NILAS (Nature in Legend and Story), guest editor. The
NILAS issue of Interdisciplinary Humanities (NILAS (Nature in Legend and Story
at http://www.h-net.org/~nilas/)
is dedicated to understanding relationships between humans and the natural
world through the mediation of stories, legends, artworks, and other cultural
products. See HERA website for more details. Send proposals to Marion W. Copeland
at mwcopeland@comcast.net.
Submission Deadline is Nov. 1, 2013 Fall 2013 -Conference Issue (2012 and
2013). Submission Deadline is May 1, 2013.
Calling all Book Reviewers!
IH editors are looking for well written book reviews of new publications that educators might use in interdisciplinary classrooms or scholarship. These can be scholarly works as well as textbooks that examine themes and ideas across disciplines. This is an excellent opportunity for young scholars and graduate students to publish! Please submit reviews to Wynn Yarbrough, wynnyarbrough@hotmail.com.
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Member Updates cont'd
Doré
Ripley recently published an article titled "The Maiden with a Thousand
Slippers: Animal Helpers and the Hero(ine)'s Journey" in Goddesses
in World Culture (Greenwood 2010).
Stephen Husarik toured Germany, Austria and Hungary during the early summer playing on Beethoven's pianos in Beethovenhaus, Bonn and the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest.
Viola Lasmana leads a conference session at the
2010 HERA Conference in El Paso. Photo
by Marcia Green
Marker
in Old Mesilla New Mexico as seen on the excursion at the 2010 HERA Conference
in El Paso. Photo by Marcia Green.
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2011
Conference
Transformations
In San Francisco, California March 3-5, 2011 at the
Hotel Whitcomb
Conference Proposals Deadline Extended to December 30
Transformations is the theme for the 2011 San Francisco conference of the Humanities Research and Education Association. You still have time to submit a paper, workshop, or panel proposal. The conference provides an opportunity to gather with your fellow HERA members in one of the world's great cities. This is also a wonderful opportunity to encourage colleagues and grad students to become involved with HERA.
The conference will explore transformations that happen in four groupings or "streams." The conference seeks a very broad range of contributions, but will be structured in such a way that participants can follow one particular "stream" or may move among "streams" if they so desire.
For more information about the specific "streams" see the conference flyer at the end of the newsletter or visit www.h-e-r-a.org/hera_call.htm.
HERA is also trying a unique online conference submission this year. To submit proposals, visit the conference submission portal at HERA Conference Submissions.
For questions about the conference, contact Shawn Tucker stucker@elon.edu or Marcia Green mgreen@sfsu.edu.
Hotel costs for the conference at the beautiful historic Hotel Whitcomb in Downtown San Francisco will be an amazing $79/night. All reservations must be made directly through the hotel by calling 415-626-8000.
The hotel cost is also available to conference attendees for three days prior to and after the conference, which will allow attendees an opportunity to make the most of their visit to the "city by the bay." Make your plans to attend now.
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Member Updates
William (Bill) Chandler and his wife Lenore both retired this past summer. Lenore will continue to teach Art at St. John's Lutheran School where she has taught for more than 30 years. Bill celebrated his retirement by traveling to Spain to walk the Camino to Santiago de Compostela. His 700+ mile walk took him from the east coast of Spain in Barcelona to Santiago in the western province of Galicia. In all he walked 42 days and was in Spain for 53. What a celebration (!?!) now to settle back to write and make art and get done all those things Lenore needs him to do.
Bruce
Louden has a book that will be published in January, 2001, titled Homer's
Odyssey and the Near East. The back jacket describes the books as follows.
The Odyssey's larger plot is composed of a number of distinct genres of myth, all of which are extant in various Near Eastern cultures (Mesopotamian, West Semitic, Egyptian). Unexpectedly, the Near Eastern culture with which the Odyssey has the most parallels is the Old Testament. Consideration of how much of the Odyssey focuses on non-heroic episodes - hosts receiving guests, a king disguised as a beggar, recognition scenes between long-separated family members - reaffirms the Odyssey's parallels with the Bible. In particular this book argues that the Odyssey is in a dialogic relationship with Genesis, which features the same three types of myth that comprise the majority of the Odyssey: theoxeny, romance (Joseph in Egypt), and Argonautic myth (Jacob winning Rachel from Laban). The Odyssey also offers intriguing parallels to the Book of Jonah, and Odysseus' treatment by the suitors offers close parallels to the Gospels' depiction of Christ in Jerusalem.
John Lawson, associate professor of English studies at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, and Craig Smith, former editor of NYU Today at New York University who now publishes Palisade Press books in Arroyo Seco, NM, are editing A Festschrift for Ronald H. Bayes, in honor of the award-winning poet and long-time professor of creative writing at St. Andrews College in North Carolina. Palisade Press will also publish a collection of Lawson's poetry in 2011.
Barry Peterson is very excited to announce the approval of a new course at University of Nevada, Reno that he has been working hard to create. The course is called "Concepts in Peace Studies and Nonviolence."
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