ACETA Archives:
Scenes from past conferences

ACETA
The Association of College English Teachers of Alabama
An Affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English

2008 Auburn University Critical Conversations: "They Say / I Say" Alan Gribben, AUM Cathlena Martin, Samford University ACETA Steering Committee, 2008 Glenda Weathers and Ralph Voss Steve Hubbard Executive Director, ACETA Award Winners: Johnie Hargrove, Alabama A & M Susan Perry and Mallie, Alabama A & M George Crandell President, ACETA, 2007-08 Cynthia Birkenstein-Graff and Gerald Graff Michael Orlofsky, Troy University, and Norman McMillan, Montevallo   Past winners of Eugene Current-Garcia Award Norman McMillan, 2008 Nancy Anderson, 2007 Bob Halli, 2006 Benjamin Williams, 2005 Bert Hitchcock, 2004 Trudier Harris, 2003     2007 Lurleen B. Wallace Community College, Andalusia "Sweet Home Alabama": Celebrating Alabama Writers Two students from Lurleen B. Wallace Community College welcoming ACETA Steve Hubbard Executive Director, ACETA ACETA Steering Committee At the panel discussion The Calhoun Folks Dr. Gunn, Grant Ballard, and Rashad Daniels Elaine Hughes, responding to being named winner of the Eugene Current-Garcia Award George Crandell President, ACETA LBWCC student Erica Knight talks with Roy Hoffman Midge Coats, Alabama Center for the Book, on This Goodly Land Mike Persons with Andalusia Patrons Susan Perry on The Secrets of Successful Grantsmanship Roy Hoffman Troy University's Bill Thompson on The Sacred and the Profane A Storyteller in the House Roy Hoffman, author of the novels Almost Family (winner of the Lillian Smith Award) and of Chicken Dreaming Corn and of the nonfiction essay collection Back Home: Journeys Through Mobile, will read from his work at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, February 16, 2007, at the Andalusia City Hall auditorium. John Sledge, Books Editor of the (Mobile) Press-Register and author of the books Cities of Silence: A Guide to Mobile’s Historic Cemeteries and An Ornament to the City: Old Mobile Ironwork, will moderate the event. Books provided by the Alabama Booksmith will be available for purchase and signing. Lurleen B. Wallace Community College, with the generous support of the Andalusia Public Library, the City of Andalusia, and other organizations, is sponsoring this humanities event titled A Storyteller in the House. Admission is free, and ACETA members, as well as the general public, are invited and encouraged to attend. Hoffman, a staff writer for the Press-Register, is a former speechwriter and communications aide for L. Jay Oliva, Chancellor, then President, of New York University, and for New York Governor Mario Cuomo. Sledge is an architectural historian with the Mobile Historical Development Commission. Both Hoffman and Sledge are widely published and are well-known as engaging speakers. Conference Events Friday, February 16, 2007 Lurleen B. Wallace Community College 12:00-3:00 p.m. Registration 1:00 Opening plenary session 1:15-2:00 Concurrent sessions 2:10-2:55 Concurrent sessions 3:00-4:00 Panel of scholars: Philip Beidler, Elaine Hughes, Bert Hitchcock, Don Noble; Margaret Davis, moderator Andalusia Country Club 4:30 Cash bar open (drink tickets purchased here) 5:15 Dinner (ticket required) Andalusia City Hall 7:00 A Storyteller in the House: An Evening with Roy Hoffman and John Sledge Book-Signing (books from The Alabama Booksmith) Saturday, February 17, 2007 Lurleen B. Wallace Community College 7:45-8:30 a.m. Registration and continental breakfast (breakfast courtesy of W.W. Norton) 8:30 Business meeting 9:00-10:15 Presentations of award-winning papers Calvert, Woodall, and McMillan winners 10:30 Keynote Address: Nancy Grisham Anderson Auburn University at Montgomery Eugene Current-Garcia Distinguished Scholar for 2006 “L & C, MADD, ACETA, ABC, WB, and Other Letter-Litters” Hickory Ridge Lodge 12:00 Lunch (ticket required) Speaker: Norman McMillan (University of Montevallo, Emeritus) “Turning Silk Purses into Sows’ Ears: The Fears of an Adapter”

ACETA'S 58TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE February 24-25 in Birmingham 2006 Samford University, Birmingham "FILMS AND TEXTS: TAKING ENGLISH TO THE MOVIES" The 58th annual ACETA conference, held on February 24-25 in Birmingham, featured the showing of a number of award-winning films with Alabama connections, including "The Cracker Man" by John DiJulio and Bruce Kuerten of Auburn, which is based on a short story by Alabama writer Helen Norris; "Tackle Box," a short film by Matthew Mebane, based on a poem by Patricia White, the chair of the University of Alabama Department of English; and several short award-winning films screened by Erik Jambor, the director and co-founder of the acclaimed Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival in Birmingham. In addition, the sessions on Friday examined the number of ways films are used in the English classroom, from using of classic film adaptations of literary texts, to crafting writing assignments about film, to teaching screenwriting, to the use of film as a way of enhancing literacy, to teaching ethnic diversity with film, to developing a film major or concentration. Robert W. (Bob) Halli, Jr., Associate Professor of English, Director of the University Honors Program, and Dean of the Honors College at the University of Alabama, delivered the keynote address as the 2005 winner of the Eugene Current-Garcia Award. Auburn University at Montgomery Professor Nancy Anderson was announced as the winner of the 2006 Current-Garcia Award winner. See the full list award winners and the full program below. George Crandell, Professor of English at Auburn University, succeeded Mark Baggett of Samford University as ACETA's president, and Cynthia Denham of Snead State Community College in Boaz was named to the Steering Committee. Scenes from 2006 ACETA (top row): Bob Halli, making the keynote address as Eugene Current-Garcia Award winner; Dawn Miranda-Frasier, Alfreda Handy-Sullivan, and Dwaynia Wilkerson of Alabama A & M University; (second row) the Tutwiler Hotel, site of the conference; Donna Estill of Alabama Southern Community College and her former professor at Auburn, Bert Hitchcock; (third row) a scene from the short film, "Tackle Box" by Matthew Mebane and based on a poem by University of Alabama English Chair Patti White; Don DiJulio and Bruce Kuerten, producers of "The Cracker Man," a 1999 film based on a short story by Alabama writer Helen Norris. Above left, George Crandell of Auburn University, becomes ACETA's President; above right, Bob Halli congratulates his sucessor as Eugene Current-Garcia Award winner, Nancy Anderson of Auburn University Montgomery. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24 Tutwiler Hotel, Birmingham Session 1: "Teaching Ethnic Diversity with Film: A Roundtable Discussion" Ridgely Ballroom, North Lesa Shaul, University of Alabama, "Teaching Cultural Contexts by Using Hispanic Literature and Film" Yolanda Manora, University of Alabama, "Through a Lens Darkly: Film as Text in the African American Women's Literature Class" Lea Davis, Miles College, "White Trash Figures in American Film" (Bastard Out of Carolina, To Kill a Mockingbird, Cry Baby) Session 2: Starting Film Studies in the English Major Ridgely Ballroom, South Bryan Johnson, Christopher Metress, Julie Steward, Samford University Designing Film Studies courses and curriculum Session 3: "Reanimating Dead Words: Literary Cinema in the Literature Classroom" Jemison Room Donna Estill & Jim Hilgartner, Alabama Southern Community College Session 4: "Films and Texts: Film Adaptations of Literary Classics" Ridgely Ballroom, North Larry Gray, Jacksonville State University, "Film as Informed Re-Reading: Scrooge, Haunted by His Author's Spirit" Alan Brown, University of West Alabama, "Using Film Adaptations such as Clueless (Emma) and O (Othello)in the Literature Classroom" Session 5: "Teaching Screenwriting" Ridgely Ballroom, South George Wolfe, University of Alabama Session 6: "Writing About Film" Jemison Room Debbie Davis, University of West Alabama, "Film, Critical Analysis, and Research (using the 2005 film Crash)" Michelle Sidler, Auburn University, "Combining Film, Science, and Social Issues with the Composition Research Paper" Kristen Miller, Auburn University, "Teaching Classical Appeals and Film in Composition" 4:30 p.m. "The Cracker Man" An award-winning film by John DiJulio and Bruce Kuerten, Auburn Based on the short story by Alabama native Helen Norris, "The Cracker Man" is an original southern drama about family ties, fireworks, and romantic possibilities See the website at www.crackerman.com Followed by a discussion of the film with DiJulio and Kuerten 7:00 p.m. Dinner in the Ridgely Ballroom (ticket required) Erik Jambor, Director and Co-Founder, The Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25 Samford University, Brock Forum, Dwight Beeson Hall Mary Evelyn McMillan Award for Undergraduate Writing Lee Steely, University of Alabama, "To Knit and Knot" (nominated by Prof. Wendy Rawlings, University of Alabama) Honorable Mention: Kathryn Turley, Auburn University Montgomery, "Wheatfield with Crows: A Changing Landscape" (nominated by Prof. Nancy Anderson, Auburn University Montgomery) James Woodall Award for paper on a pedagogical topic related to English studies: Julie Hawk and Juliette Kitchens, University of Alabama at Huntsville "Going Over the Break: Using Alternative Texts to Transgress Nonfiction Analysis in a Composition Classroom" Honorable Mention: Rebecca M. Duncan, University of Alabama Birmingham, "Transforming Pedagogies for Online Writing Instruction" William J. Calvert Award, for paper on any scholarly or theoretical topic in English studies Julie Steward, Samford University "Gender Borders and the Limits of Agency in Stevie Smith's Over the Frontier" Honorable Mention: Nancy Kearns, Alabama A & M University "An Examination of Good and Evil in Shakespeare's The Tempest" Keynote Address: "An English Gallimaufry at 60" Robert W. Halli, Jr., University of Alabama, 2005 Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinction in Literary Scholarship Special Presentation: Samuel and Lizette Mitchell Award for Service to ACETA Janice Lasseter, former President of ACETA and Professor of English, Samford University Announcement of 2006 Eugene Current-Garcia Award Nancy Anderson, Professor of English, Auburn University Montgomery Luncheon Samford University, Flag Colonnade "Tacklebox," a short film by Matthew Mebane Based on poem "Tackle Box" by Patricia White, University of Alabama, Chair, Department of English A short bio of Bob Halli, 2005 Eugene Current-Garcia Award Winner Near the end of the Saturday morning session at the 2005 ACETA conference, ACETA President Mark Baggett announced the winner of the 2005 Eugene Current-Garcia Award: Robert W. (Bob) Halli, Jr., Associate Professor of English, Director of the University Honors Program, and Dean of the Honors College at the University of Alabama. Known among students at Alabama as teacher and advisor extraordinaire, Halli has published numerous essays on English Renaissance literature as well as essays on teaching college English. In one of his most recent works, An Alabama Songbook: Ballads, Folksongs, and Spirituals Collected by Byron Arnold, published by the University of Alabama Press, he brings to bear his considerable organizational and narrative skills to tell the story of a young UA music professor's travels throughout Alabama in the mid-1940s as he recorded more than five hundred ballads, folksongs, and spirituals of the people he met. Halli also includes the music of more than two hundred of these songs and shares the stories Professor Arnold left about these songs and their singers. One reviewer of An Alabama Songbook calls it "a major contribution to folk music scholarship and to our knowledge of southern culture." Many ACETA members know Professor Halli as Bob and gratefully remember his years of service on the ACETA steering committee and as ACETA's president. This winner of the Samuel and Lizette Mitchell Award for Service to ACETA and now the winner of the Eugene Current-Garcia Award will be the keynote speaker at the Saturday session of the 2006 ACETA conference.

2005 Alabama A & M, Huntsville "Beyond Race: Complicating Language, Culture, and Technology" Meeting for the first time at an historically-black college, ACETA celebrated 57 years of service to Alabama's teachers of English as it convened at Alabama A & M University in Huntsville March 4-5. Welcomed by the conference organizers, Mattie Thomas and Dawn Miranda-Frasier (above) and byAlabama A & M's Department of English and Languages, ACETA members attended sessions on race and canon formation, on the new linguistic landscape in teaching English, and on the impact of distance learning and other technologies on English teachers. Dr. Benjamin Williams, Professor Emeritus of Auburn University Montgomery and winner of this year's Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinction in Literary Scholarship, delivered the keynote address, which recognized antebellum Alabama writers such as Caroline Lee Hentz, Ann Newport Royal, Julia Pleasants-Creswell and Thomas Bibb Bradley, Maria Howard Weeden, Wylie Conner, and Jeremiah Clemens. Pictures above: Row 1 (left to right): Mattie Thomas, Chair of Alabama A & M's Department of English; Adrian Evans, Bishop State Community College; Jean McIver, University of South Alabama, and Nancy Whitt, Samford University. Row 2 (left to right): Ahsan Chowdhury, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Alabama, winner of the Calvert Award; Annette Cederholm, Snead State University; Glenda Conway, University of Montevallo and the winner of the Woodall Award; Gale McCall, who produced a slide show of Alabama A & M history. Row 3 (left to right): Judith Hayes, Alabama A & M University; Johnnie Hargrove, Alabama A & M University; Mary Angel, a student from AUM and the winner of the McMillan Award; Dawn Miranda-Frasier, Alabama A & M and conference organizer; and Thelma Townsend of Alabama A & M University. Row 4 (left to right): Nancy Anderson, AUM; Vertricia Jefferson, Alabama A & M; Virginia Gilbert, Alabama A & M; Ben Williams, Professor Emeritus of AUM and winner of Eugene Current-Garcia Award. Rev. Dr. Homer McCall (above left), University Chaplain and Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Foreign Languages, delivered a slide show history of Alabama A & M and its founder, Dr. William Hooper Councill, in the Saturday morning session. Born a slave in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1848 on the Councill Plantation, Councill returned to Alabama and went to Quaker School and to Colored Normal School in Huntsville. He established St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church (where McCall has been pastor for 34 years) and Alabama A & M in Normal, which opened on May 1, 1875. He was a lawyer who practiced before the Alabama Supreme Court and later a member of the Alabama Legislature. In the picture above right, Arts and Sciences Dean Jerry R. Shipman and Interim President Virginia Caples welcome ACETA in the State Black Archives Research Center and Museum on the A & M campus. (Above left) Friday afternoon's panels were (1) "Race, Gender, and the Politics of Canon Formation" (from left are Dr. Gatsinzi Basainyenzi of Alabama A & M, Dr. Paul Mahaffey of the University of Montevallo, and Dr. Sandra Shattuck of Alabama A & M; and (2) "Shifting Linguistic Gears: Ebonics, Spanglish, and Standardization" (see picture below right). One panel focused on privileged and marginalized texts while the other considered the diverse students many of us teach. (Above right) Bert Hitchcock of Auburn University and Benjamin Williams of Auburn University Montgomery take part in the conference. Williams was chosen as the Eugene Current-Garcia winner this year, and Hitchcock is a past winner. (Above left) Friday afternoon's third panel, on high-tech teaching methods (pictured are Tamela McKinney, left, and Jetuan Stevens, right), might rate the support of the practical Booker T. Washington. In terms of his low-tech metaphor, we are casting down our buckets where we are. On the other hand, the spirit of Du Bois among us may raise critical questions: Are high-tech methods improving our teaching, are our students learning more, or are we just playing it safe, riding the technology boats some of our administrations are buying? (Above right) Saturday morning sessions included the annual business meeting and the reading of winning papers in the Calvert, Woodall, and McMillan categories. (Above left) At the Friday night session at the State Black Archives Museum, three poets from the Pudding House Press "By Invitation Only" Greatest Hits volume of poetry read their works. The poets from left are Virginia Gilbert, Susan Luther, and Bonnie Roberts. (Above right) Mydell Smith and Rosetta Glasper of Alabama A & M welcome ACETA members to conference. CALL FOR PAPERS William J. Calvert Award & James Woodall Award The Calvert paper may be on any scholarly or theoretical topic related to English studies; the Woodall paper may be on any pedagogical topic related to English studies. A prize of $100 will be awarded to the college English teacher or graduate student in English submitting the best paper in either category, and the winners will be invited to submit their papers to Alabama English. Papers may not have been read or published previously. Short versions of the winning papers will be presented at the annual meeting of ACETA, March 5, at Alabama A & M University. The name, with title of the essay and institutional affiliation, should appear on a cover sheet and not on the paper. Deadline: February 1, 2005 Papers will be judged by a panel appointed by the ACETA Steering Committee. SEND ENTRIES TO: ACETA President CALL FOR PAPERS The Mary Evelyn Mcmillan Undergraduate Writing Award The McMillan Award honors the memory of Dr. Mary Evelyn McMillan, charter member of ACETA and long-time faculty member at Jacksonville State University, for her deep commitment to her students and to the teaching profession. The McMillan Award is presented each year to the undergraduate student at an Alabama college or university whose informal essay is judged most outstanding by a panel of judges chosen by ACETA. The essay, written for a class taken during the current or previous academic year, may be on a personal or literary topic, and it may be descriptive, reflective, or analytical, but it may not be a formal research paper. It must not exceed 2,000 words. The essay must not have been published previously except in campus publications, such as school newspapers or literary magazines. The English instructor for whose class the essay was written should submit the essay. An instructor may submit only one essay in each year's competition. A cover sheet should be attached to the entry stating the title of the essay, the author's name, the name of the college or university, and the name and title of the nominator, with address and phone number. No name should appear on the essay. The winner will receive a cash award and will read the paper at ACETA's annual conference at Alabama A & M University, March 5, 2005. Other papers may receive honorable mention. Deadline: SEND ENTRIES TO: ACETA President Dr. Mark Baggett Department of English Samford University 800 Lakeshore Drive Birmingham, AL 35229 CALL FOR NOMINATIONS THE EUGENE CURRENT-GARCIA AWARD FOR DISTINCTION IN LITERARY SCHOLARSHIP The Association of College English Teachers of Alabama (ACETA) solicits nominations for the Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinction in Literary Scholarship. Nominations must include a vita reflecting the course of the nominee's scholarly career, a detailed bibliography of the nominee's scholarly productions, and a cover letter clarifying and supporting the nominee's qualifications for the award. Nominations may contain other letters of support from recognized scholars in the nominee's field of specialization; they should not contain copies of actual publications. The ACETA steering committee will review all nominations and select a winner. The award carries a $5,000 stipend. The award is presented annually at the Alabama Writers Symposium in Monroeville, Alabama. The award includes The Clock Tower Bronze, a re-creation by renowned sculptor Frank Fleming of an Alabama literary icon, the clock tower of the historic courthouse on the Monroeville town square. Last year’s winner of the Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinction in Literary Scholarship was Trudier Harris-Lopez of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Lopez formally received the award at the Alabama Writers Symposium and Literary Awards at Monroeville last May. MAIL LETTERS OF NOMINATION TO: ACETA President Jim Jolly, Cynthia Denham, and Harper Lee at the Alabama Humanities Foundation luncheon October 3, 2002