“Spaces can be real and imagined. Spaces can tell stories and unfold histories. Spaces can be interrupted, appropriated, and transformed through artistic and literary practice.”

~bell hooks

 

The Pennsylvania College English Association (PCEA) will hold its annual conference at Slippery Rock University on April 25, 2024. “Narrative Matters” is the theme for PCEA 2024, and this play on words aims to invite both presentations that focus on any element of narrative and presentations that speak to the importance of narratives in our personal lives and in our classrooms.

 

In an age that sees an ever-expanding number of platforms for expression, we also see accelerated competition for audience attention, and with it more grounds for debate over what is expressed and how it is expressed. From traditional forms of print to an array of online venues, contested spaces around narrative expression and production raise questions over whose narratives are told, how they are framed, and even who constitutes the audience. These spaces range from debates over traditional scholarship and practice, to curricula at grade schools, secondary schools, and at the university level, and to areas of public discourse and history. These often fraught terrains include debates over areas as disparate as public monuments, dress codes, libraries, book bans, drag shows, and political speech.

 

We invite proposals from faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and independent scholars from all areas of English and Language Studies for individual presentations, panel proposals, roundtables, and poster sessions, with particular emphasis on narrative matters in the following areas:

 

Literary History                                                Queer Activism, Theory, and Topics

Literature                                                         Critical Theories of Race and Ethnicity

Film Studies                                                     Ecocriticism and Environmental Justice Issues

English Education                                           Adaptation Studies

Language Education                                       Popular Culture

Professional Writing                                        Censorship

Composition                                                    Pedagogy

Linguistics                                                        Theater and Performance Studies

Book Arts                                                         Translation

Comics Studies                                                Language Acquisition

Creative Writing                                              Cultural Narratives

Critical Videogame Studies                            Digital Humanities

 

We especially welcome the reading of original Creative Writing. Proposals from undergraduates will be considered when sponsored by a faculty member who co-presents or chairs the presentation panel.