Decodings Summer 2017

Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts Newsletter                            

Summer 2017, Vol. 26, No.3

*SLSA 2017, Tempe, Arizona

*Configurations: Call for Reviewers and Contributions

*Election Results for Member-at-large (2017-2019)

*Call for Nominations of Graduate Student Liaisons

*SLSA Bibliographers Needed

*SLSA Website: Contributions welcome

*AnthropoScene: SLSA Book Series

*SLSA Europe

*SLSA 2018 Conference, Toronto, Canada

SLSA 2017 Arizona: The SLSA 2017 meeting “Out of Time” will be located in Tempe, Arizona, November 9-12, 2017; the meeting is sponsored by Arizona State University and will be organized by Ron Broglio and Adam Nocek. They have communicated with all those who submitted proposals and anticipate a lively meeting. The conference website for SLSA 2017 in Tempe, including information about the program, location, and travel appears at this link: http://litsciarts.org/slsa17/ A preliminary program schedule will be posted by mid-August. Direct questions regarding the conference to Ron (Ronald.Broglio@asu.edu) or Adam (Adam.Nocek@asu.edu) or email slsacactus@gmail.com

Membership: All participants in SLSA 2017 must be 2017 members of SLSA. To join or renew membership click on this link: https://slsa.press.jhu.edu/membership/join, or call the
the Johns Hopkins University Press Journals Division at 1-800-548-1784 (US & Canada only, all others call 410-516-6987). Mon-Fri 8:00am-4:30pm, Fax: 410-516-6968, Email: jrnlcirc@press.jhu.edu.

Travel Awards: SLSA provides a limited number of travel awards for underfunded individuals attending the annual conference. Members of SLSA who present at the annual conference may apply for travel subventions. An applicant should email name, title of SLSA presentation, an indication of how long one has been a member of SLSA, and any information about funding for the conference to the Executive Director at carol.colatrella@lmc.gatech.edu by August 1. Please provide estimated travel expenses and the amount of support (if any) anticipated from other sources. If you have received travel support from SLSA in the past, please include information about that support (when and how much). SLSA officers will review applications and approve funds for as many as our budget permits; preference will be given to students and those most in need. Each person awarded funds will be presented with a check at the conference business meeting.

SLSA NSF Travel Grants: The Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA) is a member of a consortium of science societies (led by the History of Science Society) that have received funding from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) to support travel costs to the annual SLSA meeting for graduate students, independent scholars, artists, and recent PhD members who present papers or are involved in governance activities at the conference. The maximum award will be $1,000 for international travel and $500 for domestic travel (airfare will only be provided for travel on U.S. flag air carriers, or on airlines with code-share agreements, or under open skies agreements as stipulated by NSF requirements). Any other airlines, including British Air, Air Berlin, etc. are ineligible unless the flight is code-shared with a US carrier. Please note that, even though airlines may belong to the same “Alliance” (e.g., Star Alliance), their routes don’t automatically have a codeshare. The travel award will be provided as a reimbursement for expenses upon receipt of an official expense report, the appropriate receipts, and documentation of student status for those graduate students applying; these documents must be printed and mailed within 10 days of the conference to Carol Colatrella, LMC, Georgia Tech, 686 Cherry St., Atlanta, GA 30332-0165. A US citizen requesting reimbursement from employment and residence abroad should provide a copy of his/her US passport. SLSA NSF funds can only be awarded to SLSA members who are graduate students, independent scholars, artists, or recent PhDs with formal roles at the meeting. An awardee must be a 2017 SLSA member who is a US citizen or a graduate student enrolled in a US higher education institution. See http://litsciarts.org/awards/

The Bruns Essay Prize: The Bruns Graduate Essay Prize, in honor of Edward F. Bruns, is awarded annually to the best essay written by a graduate student member of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. Graduate students wishing to have their essays considered for the $500 prize should submit them by August 1 to N. Katherine Hayles, Department of English, Duke University, via electronic mail to katherine.hayles@duke.edu. Please send a copy of your formatted essay as a PDF or Word file, or send a pointer to a URL where the essay is posted.

The Schachterle Essay Prize: Lance Schachterle, founding president of the society, established an annual prize of $250 in honor of his parents to recognize the best new essay on literature and science written in English by a non-tenured scholar. Eligible authors wishing to submit essays (published or accepted for publication) should send them prior to August 1 to SLSA’s Executive Director, Carol Colatrella, LMC, Georgia Tech via electronic mail to carol.colatrella@lmc.gatech.edu. Please send a copy of your formatted essay as a PDF or Word file, or send a pointer to a URL where the essay is posted.

SLSA Michelle Kendrick Memorial Book Prize: SLSA holds an annual competition for the Michelle Kendrick Memorial Book Prize awarded each year to the best academic book on literature, science, and the arts published by an SLSA member. The prize will be announced at the annual SLSA conference.  Established in the fall of 2006 in memory of Michelle Kendrick of Washington State University-Vancouver, an energetic, well-loved scholar of literature and science and long-time member of SLSA, the Kendrick Prize is open to any book of original scholarship on literature, science, and the arts published between July 1, 2016, and June 30, 2017. The winner will receive $250.00.To be considered for this year’s Kendrick Prize, an author should have sent three copies of the book by June 30 to: Professor Robert Markley, Department of English, 608 South Wright Street, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801. Send donations for the Kendrick Prize (check written to SLSA, with Kendrick in memo) to Carol Colatrella, SLSA Executive Director, LMC, Georgia Tech, 686 Cherry Street, Atlanta, GA 30332-0165

SLSA Lifetime Achievement Award: The SLSA Executive Committee each spring appoints a committee to seek and review nominations for the SLSA Lifetime Achievement award. Members of this committee includes a former President of SLSA, who serves as chair, one currently serving member at large, and one other SLSA member. The Lifetime Achievement Awards Committee asks members to nominate candidates whose significant, interdisciplinary scholarship is exemplary of SLSA. The committee members will nominate candidates and should collaborate on reviewing nominations from the membership to select a recipient of the award or to decide not to make an award for that year. Members of the Lifetime Achievement Award Committee are Bob Markley (rmarkley@illinois.edu) and Suzanne Black (suzanne.black@oneonta.edu). Please send inquiries about requirements and nominations for the award to both by August 15, 2017.

Note: all of the awards described above are presented during the Business Meeting of the annual fall conference. One may submit only one entry to one of the two essay prize competitions.

Configurations Call for Articles and Reviewers: Journal editors Melissa Littlefield and Rajani Sudan invite articles and book reviews to appear in the society’s journal. The editors and book review editor also called for volunteers to serve as manuscript and book reviewers and asked that members interested in doing so complete the survey at http://goo.gl/forms/DTclrFMJkK

Elections: John Hay, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, has been elected at SLSA member-at-large to serve fall 2017 through fall 2019. Thanks to him and Chris Foltz for running and to members who voted.

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS of Graduate Student Liaisons: Call for volunteers to apply for two graduate student liaison positions with terms running 2017-19. If appointed by SLSA officers, these graduate students will replace Sara DiCaglio and Kari Nixon beginning in fall 2017. Nicole Keller Day will continue through 2018.