diversity-l

The members of the Caucus for Diversity would like to invite members of ASLE to join them in conversation by subscribing to the Caucus's listserv, diversity-l. This list was created to facilitate discussion among members of the Caucus for Diversity which was formed at the recent ASLE Conference in Kalamazoo, MI. At the conference, Greta Gaard initiated an ad-hoc Caucus for Diversity meeting, which met on Friday after the last afternoon session ended and before the evening plenary began. At least fifty people gathered in a lobby area, where Greta Gaard, Rachel Stein, Annie Ingram, and Joni Adamson opened with remarks about the need for more attention to issues of diversity at ASLE's conferences and within the organization itself. The energy in the room was wonderful and many people contributed to a lively, thoughtful, and inspiring discussion about how ASLE can continue to grow and be a vanguard in ecocriticism and the study of literature and the environment.

At the close of the meeting, Elizabeth Englehardt, Greta Gaard, and Rachel Stein generously offered to transcribe the recommendations of the group and include them in an open letter to ASLE. Written in a the same spirit of inclusiveness that ASLE has fostered since its inception, the letter makes several proposals for working towards greater inclusion of diverse perspectives in ASLE's organizational structure, conferences, and publications. This letter was presented the next day during the morning plenary session (a roundtable on Directions in Ecocriticism). The letter was posted to the ASLE listserv on Wednesday, July 16, 1999 by Glynnis Carr.

The meeting and discussion in Kalamazoo illustrates that there is genuine interest, concern, and commitment within the ASLE membership with issues of diversity. The Caucus's listserv, which Annie Ingram very generously volunteered to set up, provides us with a place to explore how we might help to expand the focus of ASLE to include issues of diversity and gives us a place to come together, make suggestions for concrete change, and work to implement them. We encourage members of ASLE to jump into the discussion with their thoughts, concerns, suggestions, and proposals by subscribing to diversity-l.

If you would like to subscribe, please send a message to Annie Ingram at aningram@davidson.edu, and she will add you to the list.

Joni Adamson
jadamson@U.Arizona.EDU