Pacific Rim Conference on English Studies
Call for Papers

Negotiating Identity through Authentic Voice

Date: February 27-28, 2015

Location: Administration Building, University of Alaska Anchorage

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Robert Yagelski directs the Program in Writing and Critical Inquiry at the State University of New York, Albany. He is also Associate Professor of English Education in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice and an affiliated faculty member of the Department of English. Dr. Yagelski is the director of the Capital District Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project, and works extensively with K-12 teachers to help improve writing instruction at all levels of schooling. His recent research focuses on understanding the ontological dimensions of writing and the transformative capacity of writing. He has also studied formal error in the writing of adolescent students and is currently examining the analytical strategies college students employ in their writing. Previously, he explored literacy as a social activity and writing as a technology and examined revision in student writing. Dr. Yagelski has written numerous articles, essays, and books, including Writing as a Way of Being: Writing Instruction, Nonduality, and the Crisis of Sustainability (Hampton Press, 2011) and Literacy Matters: Writing and Reading the Social Self (Teachers College Press, 2000).

Dr. Jennifer Stone is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Stone specializes in sociocultural and critical approaches to literacy studies. Her research focuses on how individuals, families, and communities accumulate literacy resources across home, community, school, workplace, civic, and affinity-based contexts. In particular, her work has examined the roles that language diversity, digital literacies, and popular culture play in contemporary American culture, as well as the implications of such resources for literacy teaching and learning. Her publications have appeared in a number of national and international journals and edited collections. Her current research project is investigating the roles that language, literacy, and technology play in the lives of everyday Alaskans.

The Conference and Call for Papers

Organized by UAA Department of English graduate students, the 20th annual Pacific Rim Conference on English Studies welcomes proposals in literature, composition and rhetoric, linguistics, anthropology, journalism, history, and other related fields. The theme of this year’s conference is “Negotiating Identity through Authentic Voice.” For this year’s conference, presenters and speakers are asked to consider how we as individuals negotiate an authentic, unique voice despite the various roles and situations we are required to navigate in our daily lives, how our voices transmit aspects of our identities, and how we come to find our voice when faced with new rhetorical situations and styles of communication.

Throughout our lives, we learn to adapt to different social, professional, and academic styles of discourse. Our voices are a major tool for expressing who we are and what we value in these varied situations. Through our authentic voices, we reflect and determine both who we are and what we stand for. Through examination of authentic voice (written, verbal, and/or visual) we strive to understand how identity is both developed and expressed in our communication with one another. At this year’s conference, we hope to explore some of these questions:

• How do our unique, authentic voices build on and determine our individual or collective identities?
• Through what methods do we adapt our voice to fit the expectations of different rhetorical situations?
• How do we adapt our authentic voice in unfamiliar styles and discourse communities?
• How might technology help or hinder our expression of identity through authentic voice?
• Is it possible to avoid the unique, individual nature of voice? If so, why might we choose to do so?

Individual Paper Proposals: Please send a 250 word abstract for a 20-minute presentation, including the title of the paper, your name, institutional affiliation, mailing address, phone and fax number, and email address.

Panel Proposals: In addition to providing detailed contact information for each panel member, please send an abstract of no more than 500 words summarizing the panel and describing each paper.

Roundtable Proposals: In addition to providing detailed contact information for each participant, please send a title and an abstract of no more than 250 words for the proposed roundtable discussion topic.

In addition to the aforementioned requirements, your abstract(s) should connect your topic(s) to this year’s conference theme. Please submit your proposals to uaapacrim@gmail.com no later than January 12th, 2015.

Please direct questions to:

September V. Reynaga, Conference Director
Blanche Sheppard, Assistant Director
Department of English, ADM 101, University of Alaska Anchorage
3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, Alaska 99508
uaapacrim@gmail.com