CFP for Edited Collection on Service Learning and Literature

[Announcement from he-sl listserv]

Hello,

Please circulate widely! Thank you.

Dr. Laurie Grobman
Professor of English and Women's Studies
Penn State Berks
Tulpehocken, Rd. P.O. Box 7009
Reading, PA 19610-6009
610-396-6141

CFP:  New Edited Collection on Service Learning in the Literature Curriculum


We invite proposals for an edited collection entitled Service Learning and Literary Studies. Our use of the term service learning captures all curriculum-based community engagement. The proposed text will demonstrate that service learning can accomplish multiple learning outcomes as it enriches the study of literature in the college curriculum and meets community needs.

In addition to an introduction, two overview essays and a bibliography of service learning resources, the book will be arranged in two main sections:

Part I, Case Studies in Service Learning in Literary Studies, will include chapters that will demonstrate the ways in which service learning can enhance the literature course in a variety of contexts within upper level and general education literature courses.

We will look for essays that involve a variety of literatures in university literature departments:

• American, British, and World literatures in English and other languages;
• A variety of genres, and chronological periods;
• Creative writing and literary study;
• Diverse critical methods and a broad range of course outcomes and learning goals, from enhanced aesthetic appreciation, to ethics, politics, and close reading;

Each essay should combine theory and practice and include syllabi, research/writing assignments, logistics of planning service learning, and hurdles faced (and sometimes, but not always, overcome).

Part II, Case Studies in Service Learning in Literary Studies in Other Contexts, will include essays that demonstrate the ways in which service learning can enhance courses involving literature in diverse contexts outside of traditional literature departments:  

• Literature in professional and/or graduate schools of Medicine, Law, and Business;
• Literary studies within interdisciplinary studies departments (for instance, African-American studies, Women’s Studies, Ethnic Studies, American Studies, etc.);
• Children’s literature in teacher education;
• Literature in the first-year writing/composition or the senior capstone;
• Literature in the writing major; study abroad programs; internships involving literary studies;
• Literature and language classes in the two-year community college; literature and capstone course;

Each essay should combine theory and practice and include syllabi, writing assignments, logistics of planning service learning, and hurdles faced (and sometimes, but not always, overcome).

Proposals of approximately 500 words should be submitted by August 30, 2011 to
Editors Roberta Rosenberg, rrosenb@cnu.edu or Laurie Grobman, leg8@psu.edu.

Please direct questions about content, format or scope of essay to editors at above address.
Final essays will be in the range of 15-25 manuscript pages, including works-cited lists (and end notes, if there are any), though we are open to shorter or possibly slightly longer projects.

About the editors:

Roberta Rosenberg is professor of English at Christopher Newport University where she directs the Minor in Civic Engagement and Social Entrepreneurship.  In addition to publishing books and articles in the field of Women’s Studies, Rosenberg has written on American culture and literature in MELUS, Pedagogy, College Literature and other journals.  In 2011, Rosenberg co-sponsored with Alice Villasenor, the first special session on service learning and literature at the MLA National Convention in Los Angeles.  She is an Associate Editor of Va Engage Journal and has presented on service learning at the AAC&U Conference on High Impact Faculty Roles.

Laurie Grobman is professor of English and Women’s Studies at Penn State University, Berks.
She has published three articles on service learning and literature, including “Is There a Place for Service-Learning in Literary Studies?” in Profession 2005. Grobman is also involved in community-based undergraduate research and the writing of local histories, and her article in Reflections, “‘Speaking With One Another’: Writing African American History in Berks County, Pennsylvania,” addresses some of the challenging and complex issues of race and ethnicity in these and related public scholarship projects. Grobman coordinates the Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy at Penn State Berks. Her most recent edited collection is Undergraduate Research in English Studies (NCTE, 2010), co-edited with Joyce Kinkead.