Diverse Perspectives and Transdisciplinarity in English and the Humanities
The 23rd Southwest English Symposium at Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona
April 6-7, 2018

Keynote Speaker: Catherine Connors, University of Washington
Professor and Chair of Classics and Adjunct in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies

The Southwest English Symposium (SWES) is a regional humanities conference held at Arizona State University. The conference provides graduate and advanced undergraduate students with an opportunity to present current work before an interdisciplinary audience. We encourage a diverse range of humanities proposals including (but not limited to) literature, writing, rhetoric, literacy, composition, pedagogy, education, social transformation, history, religious studies, film, creative writing, linguistics, and more.

The theme for the 23rd Southwest English Symposium is Diverse Perspectives and Transdisciplinarity in English and the Humanities. This conference seeks to celebrate this diversity of scholarship where we, as scholars in the humanities, contribute to various fields from increasingly diverse perspectives and experiences. The aim of this conference, harkening to the mission statement from the host institution is “measured not by whom we exclude, but rather by whom we include and how [we] succeed.” We are seeking to explore and showcase how the humanities intersect, interact, influence, and are influenced by other disciplines in order to display how diverse and interdisciplinary scholarship contributes to the study of the humanities.

Some questions we might ask include:
● In which ways can more approaches diversify perspectives of the humanities?
● How can the studies of the humanities and sciences intersect?
● What methods from other disciplines can we adapt into the humanities and vice versa?
● What changes are required to better engage with interdisciplinarity and new theories?

We cordially invite all to submit a diverse range of proposals. The symposium is an ideal venue for presenting seminar papers and current research projects. Possible topics might include:

● Health and medical humanities, including expressive and creative art therapy
● Intersections between ecocriticism, environmentalism, sustainability, and the humanities
● Digital humanities, pedagogy, and methodologies
● Statistical approaches to literature and reading
● Inclusion of visual and performative humanities
● Embodied technologies and multi-modality within curriculum design
● Technical writing and communications in the sciences
● Considerations of materiality and material cultures
● Political, social, and economic realities (e.g. systemic racism or global climate change)
● De/re-constructing literary canons
● Diversifying theory/methodology through feminism, reflexivity, and inclusion of experience

We invite abstracts for 20 minute presentations, with 10 minutes of Q&A following the presentation.

Submission deadline: Friday, January 26th, 2018.

Submit your proposal to: swes.asu@gmail.com
The email should also include the following:

● The subject line of the email should read “SWES 2018 Abstract”
● Title of the presentation
● Attached abstract of 200-250 words in length
● Author(s) name(s)
● Author(s) school(s)
● Preferred email

Please see our website for more information: http://swesatasu.wixsite.com/home

Please send any questions to the organizing committee.

Conference Co-Chair: Jordan Claire, jcclaire@asu.edu
Conference Co-Chair: John W. Powell, jwpowell@asu.edu