Panels & Presentations

C.W. Sullivan III was one of the guest speakers at  the NEH Summer Institute, "J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: The Real and Imagined Middle Ages," held at Texas A&M University, Commerce, TX.  Sullivan spoke on Tolkien's use of Scandinavian myth and legend in general and Icelandic saga in particular as sources not just for materials, the dwarf names and the dragon in The Hobbit, but also for structural patterns, such as the split Hero (Bilbo and Bard or Frodo and Aragorn) in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.  Sullivan concluded his talk by reacting to critic Brian Rosebury's comment that "there is something about Tolkien's art that eludes the strategies of contemporary criticism, even when these are deployed with sympathy and patience" by suggesting that the best way to understand Tolkien is for us "as critics...to adapt the critical methodologies used to discuss...ancient literatures [e.g., Beowulf] in our struggle to evaluate what I increasingly feel was Tolkien's eminently successful attempt to create a traditional oral narrative in the print medium."

Thomas Herron co-organized two international conferences in Ireland in May -- "’Eterne in Mutabilite’: Edmund Spenser in the Seventeenth Century" at Kilkenny and Ormonde Castle, Carrick-on-Suir, May 15-17 and "Dublin and the Pale in the Renaissance" at Trinity College Dublin, May 29.

Batya Weinbaum presented "Teaching Feminism in the Online Classroom" for the Live Locally, Learn Globally: Discover Change in Online Education Annual Regional Conference at the Center for Distance Learning, Albany, NY, on April 24.  Weinbaum also presented "Reading Tarot as Part of Indigenous Folk Culture" for the Popular Culture Association Meeting on April 10 in New Orleans. LA.  Also, she presented "Group Collaborate Work in a Grading System: Untying the Conundrum" at the Writing Institute of East Carolina University on March 17.

Kirk St.Amant presented "Internationalizing Online Education: A Rhetorical Approach" at the 5th Annual Conference on Intercultural Rhetoric and Discourse held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI on June 12.  In the presentation, St.Amant examined the various cultural, legal, and technological factors affecting the global diffusion of online education.  He also presented a method for assessing and addressing these factors in order to develop online classes for overseas students. In addition, St.Amant spoke on "The Power of Genres in an Age of Globalization" at the 7th Annual Conference on Power and Its Influences held at James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA in April.  In his presentation, St.Amant used the concept of declarative acts from speech act theory to examine how cultural rhetorical differences could affect perceptions of power and authority in cross-cultural interactions. Also, St.Amant gave the invited presentation "Online Education in an Age of Globalization: Trends and Considerations" at Michigan State University in June.  In this presentation, St.Amant discussed how university educators can revise and expand distance education classes in order to attract a wide range of students located in other nations.  He also presented strategies for enhancing existing online courses to allow students from different cultures and nations to interact and collaborate via different distance education technologies. In April, St.Amant also gave the invited presentation "Globalization, Cross-Cultural Rhetoric, and the Virtual Workplace: Perspectives on the New Nature of the Information Economy" at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA.  In this presentation, he discussed different strategies individuals could use to integrate Web 2.0 technologies effectively into current international business practices.  He also examined the role Web 2.0 technologies could play in international outsourcing/offshoring processes and presented strategies for how individuals could use such technologies to operate effectively in offshoring contexts.