Call for Papers

(This announcement may be freely reproduced, circulated, and linked)

Sharp Eyes II:
Multicultural Perspectives On Environmental Writing:

(The Burroughs Nature Writing Symposia)

Keyknote Speakers:

JOY HARJO, author of The Woman Who Fell from the Sky, Secrets from
The Center of the Earth, The Spiral of Memory, etc.

PATRICK MURPHY, editor of Environmental Literature: An International Handbook

June 23 - 29, 1996

State University of New York
College at Oneonta

  The second "Sharp Eyes" Conference will focus on multicultural perspectives in environmental writing. Papers are sought on cultural or social analysis of environmental writing, and on Native-American, Hispanic- American and African-American nature writers, as well as writers from the Southern Hemisphere, Europe, and the Middle and Far East. Papers on moving beyond cultural bias in environmental writing, on environmental racism, and on environmental history are also invited. When we approach nature writing from varying cultural perspectives, what new works emerge and how is the genre affected? University of Illinois Press has expressed interest in publishing a volume from the Conference papers, and possibly a related anthology, for its "Environment and the Human Condition" series.

  The Conference will also offer papers and events honoring the influence of John Burroughs on American nature writing. Papers are invited on Burroughs and Whitman, Burroughs and religion, and other topics on John Burroughs, especially any which might related to the multicultural focus of the rest of the Conference. The Conference will include visits to the new American Indian Wing of the Fenimore House in Cooperstown, to the archives of the New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown, and to sites in Burroughs' nearby hometown, Roxbury.

  Send proposals or queries mentioning this Internet posting to Charlotte Zoe Walker, (walkercz@oneonta.edu) English Department, SUNY Oneonta, Oneonta, NY 13820 (607-436-3036). Deadline, March 1, 1996. Graduate and undergraduate credit available for those wishing to attend the Conference in conjunction with course work.

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