Old Email Archive

digest 2004-04-16 #001.txt

litsci-l-digest         Friday, April 16 2004         Volume 01 : Number
065



In this issue:

     paris meeting
     SLS name change (from Henderson and Clarke)

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Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 16:38:27 -0700
From: jal@its.caltech.edu 
Subject: paris meeting

For the Paris SLS meeting this June, there is now a list of possible 
hotels posted on the conference website 
(http://www.univ-paris8.fr/colloques/SLS/), none of which is 
apparently very close to the meeting location.  It might be nice to 
coordinate our hotel choice, so we're not scattered all over the 
city.  Anyone planning to attend and interested in that idea, please 
e-mail me, and we can consider the choices.  (Note: some of the deals 
the organizers have arranged on room rates are only good through the 
end of April.)

Jay
- -- 
Jay A. Labinger
Beckman Institute
California Institute of Technology
139-74
Pasadena, CA 91125
tel: 626-395-6520
fax: 626-449-4159

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Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 12:11:27 -0500
From: "Linda D. Henderson" 
Subject: SLS name change (from Henderson and Clarke)

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Dear SLS members:

Those who have been a part of the SLS for a number of years will
remember 
that the idea of changing the name of the SLS, with regard to making the

arts a part of it, has been a perennial topic of discussion since the
mid 
to late-90s.

The issue came to the fore once again with the strong art and new media 
component of the Austin meeting, where a third of the attendees were
from 
the arts. At the conference wrap-up and in initial Executive Committee 
e-mail discussion there was considerable enthusiasm for this
inclusionary 
step and general opening up.

A key goal of the proposed name change to SLSA is to highlight the
central 
role that art and visual culture play in the work of many members of the

group across a variety of fields. It is also a chance to reach out to 
scholars of the arts and new media as well as practicing artists and 
musicians who are vitally concerned with science and technology. This 
outreach to the arts and visual culture signifies inclusiveness without 
losing the original SLS base.

We agree with almost everything in the statement circulated the other
week 
by Liz and Arkady. For us as well, the debate on the name change is not 
meant to be divisive, and we will go forward together whatever the
outcome 
of this vote. However, we do not feel that "something valuable may be 
lost," by the inclusion of the Arts in the title of the organization.
The 
SLS will not be sacrificed to the SLSA. It will acknowledge the past and

future contributions of the arts constituency in our membership. The
need 
for the name change is based on the conviction that the SLS ought to
factor 
the arts, the visual arts in particular, explicitly and in plain sight, 
into the next organizational phase of the Society.

Please do consult the current Decodings for the ballot, join in the 
discussion, and vote by June 15. Below are the motion and the condensed 
arguments in its favor, which were printed in fuller form in the 
fall-winter 2003 Decodings.

Best,
Linda Henderson and Bruce Clarke


PROPOSAL TO CHANGE NAME OF SOCIETY

As members in good standing of the Society for Literature and Science,
we 
would like to propose that the Society amend its name to reflect more 
accurately its current membership.
Linda Henderson and Bruce Clarke move that the Society amend its name
to: 
Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA). Hugh Crawford,
Susan 
Squier, and W. J. T. Mitchell second the motion.

Arguments in favor of the name change to SLSA by Bruce Clarke, with
input 
from Linda Henderson and Hugh Crawford

A name-change to SLSA confirms the growth of the society's disciplinary 
base from literature to a wider arts-and-humanities population. The
inside 
front cover of Configurations reads: "The Society for Literature and 
Science fosters the multi-disciplinary study of the relations among 
literature and language, the arts, science, medicine, and technology." 
The 
name-change to SLSA both preserves the original acronym and makes clear 
that the organization recognizes the arts (both visual and performative)
as 
a central type of the "configurations" it studies.

The descriptive extension to SLSA clarifies that the Society promotes 
scholarship on a variety of creative fields in the context of science
and 
technology, in addition to scholarship exploring textual approaches to 
science and technology.

The name-change to SLSA both preserves the original acronym and makes
clear 
that the organization recognizes visual imagery and media technology as 
prime interests.

A name-change to SLSA will be an opportunity to actively secure the
ongoing 
participation of arts attendees.

With the name-change to SLSA we become the home organization for media
arts 
and ratify our connection with this increasingly active creative and 
academic area.

A name-change to SLSA will create opportunities for new publicity to 
reintroduce the society to the wider scholarly community both nationally

and internationally.



Linda Dalrymple Henderson
David Bruton, Jr.Centennial Professor in Art History and
         Distinguished Teaching Professor
Department of Art and Art History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station   D1300
Austin TX 78712-0337

Phone/Voice mail: 512-232-2474
Fax: 512-471-5539


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Please see the following URL for the LITSCI-L archive, Web resource
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End of litsci-l-digest V1 #65
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