2017 Theme and Description
Gumbo & Zydeco
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Keynote Address: Wednesday, February 22nd, 5pm
E. Patrick JohnsonE. Patrick Johnson has published widely in the areas of race, class, gender, sexuality, and performance. He is the founder and director of the Black Arts Initiative at Northwestern. He is also a Project& artist, a nonprofit arts organization engaged in art for social change and impact. Johnson is a prolific performer and scholar, and an inspiring teacher, whose research and artistry has greatly impacted African American studies, performance studies, and sexuality studies. He is currently at work on the companion text to Sweet Tea, entitled, Honeypot: Southern Black Women Who Love Women and an edited collection of new writings in black queer studies tentatively titled, No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies. The LSU English Graduate Student Association’s annual Mardi Gras Conference takes place every year on the week prior to Mardi Gras. Presenters have come not only from the United States but also from across the world, including Canada, Israel, England, Germany, and a host of other countries. Furthermore, the conference has attracted many top scholars as keynote speakers, such as Terry Eagleton, Ian Bogost, Brian McHale, Cathy Davidson, Timothy Brennan, and Meredith McGill. |
Special Round Table on Recruitment in English:
This year, we will also be holding a special round table session devoted to recruitment strategies in English departments. We welcome voices from various university contexts in hopes of collectively sharing ideas around recruitment within English departments. We highly encourage both faculty and graduate students to attend as this will an ample learning opportunity for both distinguished and emerging pedagogues and scholars.