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56th Annual RMMLA Convention

Hikers on Camelback Mtn.

Elaine Kim, Professor in the Asian American Studies Program at UC-Berkely and Associate Dean, Graduate Division, was the keynote speaker at this convention. In addition, Ofelia Zepeda of the University of Arizona, a McArthur Genius grantee, a poet, a nationally recognized specialist on the condition of Native American Languages in the United States, and the author of the only pedagogical textbook on the Tohono O'odham language, A Papago Grammar, was one of our guest speakers. Local Chicano/a writers Alberto Rios and Margarita Cota-Cárdenas were featured speakers and read from their works.

Back by popular demand was William Germano from Routledge Publishers. Bill has published extensively (University of Chicago Press, PMLA, Chronicle of Higher Education) on the topic of scholarly publishing and gave a talk in our Publishing Forum entitled "Publishing the Academic Book: An Essential Survival Guide." Maureen Smith was back to give a very important session on "Interview Etiquette." Maureen is with Human Resources Development at the University of Idaho and brought a wealth of information to our members. On Thurdays evening, members were invited to join us on a no-host trip to downtown Scottsdale to participate in ARTWALK. Each night we showed a film. Our Open Forum (Friday) focused on "Curricular Change and Program Survival" and featured a panel of faculty members who have recently 'survived' major curricular reform in their departments. The Graduate Student Forum presented a panel of recent graduates who spoke on different career possibilities for English majors. Representatives from ACLS and NEH returned for two sessions to present valuable information on their grant and fellowship programs. Michael Delahoyde (Wahington State University) and Walter Tschacher (University of North Dakota) offered a CV / Cover Letter Help Session. Bob and Sura Rath organized an open session on Tenure and Promotion. Marjorie Lightfoot, from Arizona State University, and members of the Readers Theatre Group performed a dramatization of Virginia Woolf's The Waves. The Women's Caucus Luncheon on Saturday featured Dianne Wolfthal, Professor of Art History at Arizona State University, who gave a talk entitled "The Woman in the Window: Gender and Spatial Topography in Images of Brothels." Finally, members took part in an excursion to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West and the Desert Botanical Garden near Scottsdale. All in all,it was a great convention and we appreciated seeing so many of you there.