ASLE News

VOL. 20, NO. 1 D SPRING 2008

A Biannual Publication of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment

PRESIDENT'S COLUMN

Making it Count: A Report on the 2008 Officers Retreat

During these spring days in southwest Idaho, I am occasionally startled by the calls of cranes far overhead as they work their way northward. The birds' sounds reach me only as faint cries from far above my walking grounds, yet they halt me in my tracks. Hearing the cranes is good for me. I stop at the sound, turn my face upward, and search for thin bodies in the sky. These moments provide me with a clarity that I, like many people, often struggle to experience. They remind me to make each moment count.

The knowledge that I should make each moment count has been with me for a long time, but the idea took a different form at the exciting ASLE biennial conference in Spartanburg last summer. Bill McKibben suggested that we had better be able to justify our detrimental carbon emissions by working toward something that, in some universal calculus, we would all deem more beneficial than our harmful ecological footprints. "Make it count," he said. Notwithstanding all the gray areas surrounding carbon offsetting, ethics, and environmental damage, I found the idea helpful to my own struggle to reconcile my habits of living with my modest desire to do some good in the world.

Apparently, McKibben's words stayed with many of us, because at our recent ASLE Officers Retreat in February 2008, which I hosted here in Caldwell, Idaho, ASLE Vice President Dan Philippon stopped us in our tracks early in the meeting with similar thoughts. He said that we had better well make this meeting count, given the carbon emissions involved in bringing us together. After all, thirteen representatives of ASLE were gathered here, and all but two of us had flown inone, Richard Kerridge, all the way from England (for which we were most grateful!). Dan's admonition became the driving force of our meeting. In addition to spending our time productively, we wanted to devote it to thinking about ways in which ASLE as an organization can "make it count," with "it" referring to our conferences, our work as an organization, and our meaning as

2008 ASLE President Rochelle Johnson

a community of writers, scholars, and scientists studying cultural expressions and the physical environment.

Our agenda was full at the two-day Officers Retreat, and one new development was a change to our by-laws concerning the roles of Graduate Student Liaisons in the leadership of the organization. (See page 6 of this issue.) We focused on several additional items that are particularly relevant to making ASLE count in the world. Perhaps most exciting was our consideration of the results of the membership survey. I want to offer a hearty thanks to so many of you for taking the time to complete that survey. Through it, we learned much from you about your hopes forand concerns aboutthe organization. To share all of the results of the survey with you would require more space than I have here, but one thing that we learned is that you would like to hear from ASLE more often and that you would, from time to time, appreciate getting "real" letters about ASLE's goings-on. Accordingly, watch your snail-mailboxes later this spring for a real paper letter. We want to

see PRESIDENT on page 2

PRESIDENT continued from page 1

diversity; outlets for scholarly and creative work; graduate student work; innovative pedagogy; and forums for the sharing and building of ideas, creativity, and community, both in the U.S. and internationally. We look forward to sharing the Strategic Plan with you in Victoria, Canada in 2009.

And that was our final order of business in Caldwell: beginning plans for the biennial conference, which will be held at the University of Victoria from June 3-6, 2009. Richard Pickard, the on-site host for the conference, whetted our appetites with descriptions of his campus, its commitments to sustainable conferences, and its glorious physical setting. Led by Dan Philippon, we discussed how we might offer innovative session formats to help conference attendees make their participation count in new ways. While plans are still underway, ASLE's 2009 conference promises to make our travel count by engaging us in deep and meaningful dialogue about our work and its place in our damaged world.

For over a decade, ASLE has provided a community to the many individuals dedicated to the pursuit of the relationships between the environment and a range of cultural expressions. It is my hope that, as we continue to define the good that we might do in the world, we can find additional ways to make our individual effortsand our time togethercount. I truly feel fortunate to have been a part of the Executive Council's recent meeting. I left it believing that the good that can come from our work together may be the best way to "offset" our carbon footprints. Together, we can make much count.

Happy spring! Listen for the cranes.

Rochelle Johnson

communicate to you the work that we are doing, and this spring we especially want to share with you the many issues raised by ASLE's members in the membership survey.

One item of business that grew out of the membership survey was a discussion of the ASLE web site and ISLE, which together serve as our primary means of sharing our work with the world. Our web site has been managed single-handedly and with admirable devotion for many years by Dan Philippon. This spring, and with Dan's blessings and encouragement, we will launch an entirely new web siteone that is professionally designed, easy to navigate, packed with more information than our current site can accommodate, and updated frequently by our tireless Managing Director, Amy McIntyre, who is spearheading this project. Our two Graduate Student Liaisons, Paul Bogard and Angela Waldie, are working to revise two important features on the site: the Graduate Student Handbook and the Syllabi Collection. (See their article on page 6 of this issue.)

We also discussed the challenges now faced in ISLE's editorial offices at the University of Nevada, Reno. Editor Scott Slovic and his staff have done an admirable job of managing the journal during a time when the field of literature and environment has grown rapidly, and, as several of you noted in the survey, their small staff has experienced challenges recently in meeting their goals of rapid turnaround on manuscript submissions and timely publication of the journal. In consultation with Scott and his staff, we have decided to pursue a relationship with a major university press who would manage the journal's publication schedule, leaving the work of editorial decisions to the current ISLE staff. This change would relieve much of the pressure that

the ISLE offices now face. The EC supports with enthusiasm this change for the journal and organization, and I look forward to sharing the details with the membership shortlyonce all of the nuts and bolts are tightened.

To my mind, our most challenging task at the Officers Retreat was also the most rewarding: we drafted a twelve-point Strategic Plan for ASLE. In the months ahead, we will flesh out and finalize the plan, which we will present to the membership at our 2009 conference meeting. This initiative emerges from our belief that ASLE is at a turning point in its life as a professional community. Members' enthusiastic support and the work of our early leaders has established the organization as a leader in the field of the environmental humanities, and this seems a good time to establish our priorities for the future. ASLE will benefit from an articulated vision. As a group, the EC

worked to craft language that will demonstrate formally and build on the organization's commitments to, among other things: environmental sustainability; public engagement;

ASLE Officers and Coordinators who attended the 2008 retreat pause for a photo on the campus of The College of Idaho.

ASLE News 2 Spring 2008

"Island Time" in 2009: An Update on the ASLE Conference

Planning is proceeding apace for ASLE's eighth biennial conference in Victoria, British Columbia, and a firm date and theme have now been chosen. Due to scheduling conflicts at the University of Victoria, ASLE had to move the date two weeks earlier than previously announced. The conference will now be held Wednesday-Saturday, June 3-6, 2009, with pre-conference activities taking place on Tuesday, June 2. This was ASLE's best available option for a number of reasons. Our 1999 and 2003 conferences in Kalamazoo and Boston were held the first week in June, and almost 75 percent of the more than 500 respondents to the recent ASLE survey indicated that early to mid-June was a "very good" or "pretty good" time for them. This date also allows the conference to end on a weekend, an ASLE tradition, given that many members like to explore nearby attractions after the conference.

In making this selection, we also consulted with a number of members who teach on the quarter system, because this date coincides with the last week of classes for many of them. Although we know this timing is not ideal, we hope that this advance notice will enable members on the quarter system to fit the conference into their schedules, because we greatly value their participation!

The theme of the conference will be "Island Time: The Fate of Place in a Wired, Warming World," which uses our temporal and spatial location on Vancouver Island as a metaphor for the past and future of place generally. In particular, ASLE's first conference outside the U.S. is an especially fitting location to consider how the Internet and globalization now connect us all (linking our different identities, nations, and communities), as well as how the threat of climate change is affecting our interpretation of texts and cultures, not to mention the material world itself. A call for papers will be issued in early summer, with a submission deadline in late fall. It will also be posted to the conference website, http://asle.uvic.ca. Be sure to add the new date to your calendar, and see you in Victoria!

Dan Philippon

An aerial view of the University of Victoria campus

In Memoriam

Henry ("Hank") Harrington

ASLE mourns the loss of member Henry ("Hank") Harrington. Harrington, who organized ASLE's second biennial conference in 1997, died on 6 January 2008 with his wife of 39 years, Ann "Nancy" Harrington. Hank and Nancy were in a canoeing accident on Flathead Lake, where they had a cabin on Wildhorse Island. A former chair of the English Department at the University of Montana, Hank also contributed to the university's Environmental Studies Program, helped found its Environmental Writing Institute, and co-edited Reading Under the Sign of Nature: New Essays in Ecocriticism. We will miss him. An upcoming issue of ISLE will feature tributes to his work. A memorial fund has been established in Hank and Nancy's names at Sussex School, 1800 S. Second St. W., Missoula, MT 59801.

Val Plumwood

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that noted environmental philosopher Val Plumwood was found dead at her home near Canberra, the victim of a stroke. Plumwood was the author of numerous books and articles, including Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, and An Invitation to Environmental Philosophy, which she co-authored with David Abram, Jim Cheney, and Holmes Rolston. She received international attention in 1985, when she survived a brutal crocodile attack while birdwatching near Kakadu. She dragged herself to safety and was found hours later by a search party. Upon arriving at a nearby hospital, she insisted that a plan to raise a hunting party to kill the offending crocodile be aborted. "I was the intruder," she later explained to reporters, "no good purpose could be served by random revenge." Plumwood also said that this near-death experience sparked an epiphany concerning the role of humans in the natural ecosystem. Plumwood was given an ecological burial on March 30^th. For more information on her life and work, visit her website: http://valplumwood.com.

ASLE News 3 Spring 2008

Notes from the Managing Director

This has been a busy season at ASLE HQ! There is usually a slight lull in activity after a conference is completed and things settle down to a more measured pace, but that has not been the case this year. With the blessings and assistance of the Executive Council, I have been working on a number of initiatives that promise to make substantial improvements to the workings of the organization for our members. It started last fall, when we conducted the first-ever survey of our full membership, and has continued this winter and spring as work began and continues on the building of a brand new website. More detail on some of these projects follows:

Member Directory Goes Online

As you may have noticed, the 2008 print version of the member directory has not arrived in your mailboxes this spring, as it has for many a year. This is because our EC has determined that for compelling financial, organizational, and environmental reasons ASLE should move to an online membership directory. It also seems to be the perfect timing for such a move, as we are curently building a new website with added functionality and features. We'd like to explain the change to members in more detail, though, as there are bound to be questions and concerns about such a change:

First, we examined the results of the membership survey. The statistics we gathered on usage (58% of members only consult it 2 times per year or less, a full 12% say they never open it) along with the majority opinion in favor of a move online (58% yes, 12% no, 30% unsure) gave us the confidence that members would support such a conversion to an online directory. For those of you concerned about security, rest assured that it will be housed in a members-only password protected area of the site.

Based on the usage statistics, the cost of the directory did not justify its footprint in the world. Coming in at approximately $4,300 per year, or nearly 9% of our projected budget for 2008, it seemed to us that money would be much better spent and provide much more for members if it was used to upgrade the features on our website, including the addition of the directory.

The online option also allows us to improve your ability to effectively use the membership directory. The directory will be searchable by name, interests, institutional affiliation, geographic location, etc. and give all matching results, something that is impossible to do in print. A printable version will still be available at the website as well, giving members the option to download and print if that is their preference. One of the things that has frustrated me every year that I have assembled the printed directory is the fact that by the time it comes off the

presses and is sent to members, it is already out of date! An online version will provide members with more current information than a printed version it will be constantly updated with the latest information. In fact, members will be able to log on and edit their own information online as well.

The online directory is also probably a more environmentally sound option. The paper and toner (a toxic substance) we don't use won't create pollution in manufacturing and later enter the waste stream. While it cannot be definitively stated that computers in general have a smaller environmental footprint than print, it is probably safe to say that computer networks are an integral part of most members' work day, so adding the directory to that system is akin to a "drop in the bucket" and offsets about 60,000 pages of printed matter.

In short, the online directory increases options, features, and ease of use for members, reduces environmental impact, and allows ASLE to divert funds to website improvements and maintenance and to develop other programs in the future. And that is good for everyone.

New Website Coming this Spring

ASLE's officers and members alike have noted the outdated nature of our website, and that is why ASLE's financial and human resources are being devoted to an overhaul of the site. I have been working all winter with members of the EC, a site designer, and a web technician to create an improved and professional website better equipped to serve our members and represent the work that ASLE does. Besides a new look and improved navigation, the site will include substantial content upgrades, such as online membership payments, a members-only area providing access to the member directory, online voting, etc., and enhanced teaching and research resources. The Graduate Student Working Group is working on an updated version of the Graduate Student Handbook to be completed by the fall, and our syllabi collection will be converted to a database format, searchable by keywords, discipline, assigned readings, etc. There will also be an online submission form so that members can easily add their own syllabi online. We are exploring ways to incorporate the Online Biblography into the site instead of hosting it elsewhere, in the process making it more visible, easier to navigate and simpler for member to submit entries. This is in the hopes of increasing submissions, thereby increasing the value of this resource. Look for an announcement of the launch of the new ASLE Website (which will also have a new address: www.asle.org, and likely a new contact email) later this spring.

see MANAGING DIRECTOR on page 5

ASLE News 4 Spring 2008

MANAGING DIRECTOR, continued from page 4

We learned many things from your responses to questions about ASLE conferences as well. You indicated that June remains a reasonable time for the majority of members. You would like us to tweak the schedule or length of the conference, including the Saturday sessions, and explore more innovative formats for the concurrent sessions that allow more time for discussion and interaction. In addition, we received many helpful suggestions for plenary speakers. All this input is being considered closely by the 2009 conference organizers in the hopes of bringing you the best conference we can create in Victoria.

Related to the conference, most people were amenable to the idea of offsets for conference travel. The majority are willing to pay $25 or more (47%) or $10-25 (21%) in additional registration costs to fund offsets, and most prefer a voluntary contribution structure. Some comments expressed doubt or disbelief about the entire concept of carbon offsets. We are aware that it is a less than perfect system; therefore, ASLE's officers are also working on other ways to reduce the carbon footprint of the conference and the organization as a whole.

General suggestions for future directions or projects for the organization included: collaborating with other academic/environmental organizations, working on sustainability, becoming more activist, reaching out more internationally, conducting more local/regional events, trips or conferences, and bringing more focus to teaching and pedagogy. Some comments also indicated that we need to think more carefully about what we provide for non-academics as an organization that wants to welcome all members and build a diverse community.

This survey has already been pored over in great detail, and will be a touchstone for discussions about ASLE's future. We are already in the process of implementing many of your excellent suggestions (as noted above), and have hopes and plans for more!

Amy McIntyre

Member Survey Results

As many of you know, ASLE conducted its first ever comprehensive membership survey last fall. More than 50% of members (554 people) took the time to give us thoughtful feedback, and we thank you. I think such a great response rate speaks volumes about our dedicated membership. For those interested in seeing the results, a PDF of the complete quantitative responses to the survey is posted at our current website, www.asle.umn.edu. What follows is a brief discussion of some of the items of particular note. As president Rochelle Johnson mentions in her column (pages 1 -2 of this issue), she will also soon be sending you a letter discussing the survey results more thoroughly.

We are pleased to confirm that the majority of you participate in many aspects of ASLE, including conferences, publications and online resources. You definitely want us to offer more online services to members (such as renewals) through the website. We are working to make as many of your suggestions and desires as possible a reality on that front! In regards to the Online Bibliography, the survey reflected that while many of you use this resource, most members do not contribute entries to it. We are accordingly trying to figure out ways to boost contributions (see website section on page 4).

It came as a surprise that many members are unaware of ASLE's Diversity Caucus, or not sure what their charge/work is. Since the organization and its membership do view diversity as an important issue, our first goal must be defining diversity as an organization, and then educating members on that definition and what our diversity goals are. Members provided many helpful suggestions for outreach to other organizations who might be able to help us in this area.

Your feedback on ASLE News indicated that readership remains relatively steady since moving it online, though some of you commented about decreased time spent with the publication due to the increasing amount of screen time required in your daily life. I was personally concerned about how many people suggested we send an email with a link to the newsletter, as this is what we already do! If you haven't been receiving these twice-yearly emails, please contact me (asle.us@verizon.net) so we can explore possible technical problems. We are exploring a more user-friendly format for an online newsletter or member communications, and will keep you posted on this. ISLE remains one of the most visible and popular aspects of membership, and 95% of members read the journal regularly. Members want more issues of ISLE, even if it means more fees; and they want it to become more web-accessible. We are also working to address these issues (see President's Column, pages 1-2).

Maidenhair fern, Fall Creek Trail, Oregon. Photo by H. Lewis Ulman.

ASLE News 5 Spring 2008

The Graduate Page

OSLE-India is Growing

OSLE-India has grown, with umpteen number of activities and deliberations. We are pleased to say that the pan-Indian academy of ecocriticism has members from various parts of India. Apart from the annual conferences, we have a dynamic study circle, where students, academicians from various disciplines, social workers, activists and others gather to discuss topics relating to ecocriticism. Susan Deborah convenes this study circle.

In order to promote ecological studies among students, OSLE-India is organizing an eco-competition for the students in Kerala, thanks to Tom Thomas, the OSLE-India regional secretary of Kerala. The competition is held in different genres of literature, like poetry, short story, and essay. This will later be extended to all the other states. OSLE-India has added another feather to its cap by publishing a volume on ecocriticism, entitled, Essays in Ecocriticism.

The Third International conference of OSLE-India was held on 4 & 5 January, 2008,at St. Ann's College, Hyderabad. All those who are interested in the proceedings can find details in our latest newsletter (Issue VII) , found on our newly launched website at http://www.osle-india.org/news.html . A pat on the back to all those who are directly and indirectly associated with OSLE-India, for they have contributed to its growth.

Rayson K. Alex

Throughout its history, ASLE has acknowledged the significant contributions of graduate students to the continuing development of ecocriticism and of ASLE as an organization. Moreover, ASLE members have been extremely generous in terms of welcoming and mentoring graduate students. The two appointed Graduate Student Liaison (GSL) positions on the Executive Council demonstrate the importance of graduate students to ASLE.

At the recent Executive Council meeting in Boise, we decided to devote newsletter space to an update on graduate student initiatives within ASLE, both to keep the membership up to date on graduate student activities and to encourage input on current and future projects. We welcome your thoughts and your participation in the following ongoing initiatives.

Professionalization Panels: Given the success of the professionalization panels at the 2007 ASLE Conference in Spartanburg, we plan to organize two panels at the 2009 conference in Victoria. Please send us your suggestions on what topics or concerns you would most like these panels to address.

Working Group: We are seeking new members for the Graduate Student Working Group. The Working Group meets via email to discuss the concerns of ASLE graduate student members, help plan ASLE conference graduate events, and assist in ASLE projects. The Working Group is a great way to increase your involvement with ASLE (and a nice line on your CV). Please contact us if you're interested!

Handbook Update: We are currently initiating a revision of the Graduate Student Handbook for the ASLE website. We have just issued a call to the ASLE membership for their input, and we welcome immediate suggestions from graduate students for changes and/or additions to the handbook.

Graduate Advice Column: In future incarnations of "The Graduate Page," we hope to incorporate an advice column along the lines of "Ask the Graduate Student Liaisons." Send us your questions on selecting a graduate program, conference attendance, publishing opportunities, overcoming writer's block, or whatever else you're wondering about, and we will endeavor to answer them for you. Selected questions and responses will be published in future editions of ASLE News.

Please send us your thoughts on any of these projects, as well as suggestions for additional initiatives for graduate students within ASLE. Contact GSLs Paul Bogard (pbogard@northland.edu) and Angela Waldie (arwaldie@ucalgary.ca) with your comments, questions, or concerns. We wish you all the best in your studies and look forward to seeing you in Victoria in June 2009.

Paul Bogard and Angela Waldie

ASLE By-Law Change:

Graduate Student Liaisons

At its recent meeting, ASLE's Executive Council voted to add the senior Graduate Student Liaison (GSL) to the list of voting officers. ASLE has long had two graduate students serving in the capacity of GSL on the council, but they did not previously vote. This change will ensure that graduate students' concerns are represented fully in ASLE's business.

You can see the by-laws on the ASLE web site (http//www.asle.umn.edu/about/bylaws.html ). For those interested in becoming GSLs, please see the "Graduate Student Liaison Policy" on the ASLE web site (http//www.asle.umn.edu/about/policies.html ) for details and additional information on the role of GSLs.

ASLE News 6 Spring 2008

ASLE News Notes

ASLE in Your Own Backyard

Interested in hosting the ASLE biennial conference in 2011 or 2013? Want to propose an off-year symposium? ASLE wants to hear from you! Please consult the "Guidelines for Conference Proposals" on the ASLE website (http://www.asle.umn.edu/conf/asle_conf/asle_conf.html ) and submit your proposal. Applications should be sent to Rochelle Johnson (rjohnson@collegeofidaho.edu).

ASLE Emeritus

ASLE News honors those ASLE members retired or retiring from teaching. If you would like to acknowledge someone in this new featureor if you yourself will be retiring during the coming academic yearplease contact Kathryn Miles (kmiles@unity.edu). We will include a brief account of scholarly interests, the institutions of employment, and years taught in the next newsletter.

ASLE PhDs

ASLE News is pleased to include announcements commemorating those members who have recently completed their doctoral work. If you have recently defended a dissertation and would like to be included in this new feature, please contact Kathryn Miles (kmiles@unity.edu) with the dissertation title, degree-granting institution, and committee members.

New Affiliated Organization: IAEP

We have a new professional affiliate! IAEPInternational Association for Environmental Philosophy voted this fall to establish a formal relationship with ASLE for exchange of ideas and participation in each other's conferences. This means ASLE is looking for an interested person to serve as liaison with IAEP. Duties would include organizing a panel at the IAEP conferences. For more information on IAEP, please visit http://www.environmentalphilosophy.org . If you are interested in serving in this role, please contact Professional Liaison Coordinator Donelle Dreese at dreesed1@nku.edu.

ASLE Grand Canyon River Trip with Rebecca Solnit

June 24-July 7, 2009

Join members of ASLE and acclaimed environmental writer Rebecca Solnit for a wilderness rafting expedition on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. Solnit is author of Wanderlust: A History of Walking (2002), A Field Guide to Getting Lost (2005), Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities (2005), Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes

for Politics (2008), and many other widely acclaimed works of nature writing, history, and commentary. She is columnist for Orion and publishes regularly in Sierra and the Nation Institute's Tomdispatch. Solnit has received the Lannan Literary Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The full expedition will last 14 days and cost $3570. Two alternatives schedules are available. You can join the 6-day upper half of the trip and then hike out from Phantom Ranch at river mile 89 ($1820). Or you can hike in at Phantom Ranch for the 9-day lower half ($2690). Prices are all-inclusive (excepting gratuities and alcoholic beverages). The trip starts and ends in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Trip organizer Lance Newman is a longtime ASLE member, professor of environmental literature, and Grand Canyon river guide.Outfitter Moki Mac River Expeditions (www.mokimac.com) has been running river trips in Grand Canyon for more than 50 years. For more information or to reserve your spot, email

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ASLE News 7 Spring 2008

ASLE-Korea's Day at the Beach

set out for Taean. It is an area that I know intimately, having lived for four years 20 minutes away by car in Hongseong, South Chungcheong Province. It was heart-breaking to see the mess, and removal efforts felt futile. What could our puny hands do to fix this huge mess? But by the time we had arrived, over a million people had been at work. Every single rock on the beach we were working had been picked up and scrubbed. Every single rock! The positive effect of two million hands was very noticeable. To look at all of those rocks, all of those shovels, all of those boots, and all of those people working so hard to clean up this mess was inspiring (see photos on page 9).

While the surface cleanup has been incredible, the real damage goes deeper: into the mudflats, the oyster beds, the clam beds, and the approximately 450 registered fish farms in the area, half of which have been wiped out. A lot of people will have to pick up and start their lives over somewhere else. Suicides in the area have risen. One person set himself on fire to protest the government's slow responses.

Eventually, money will start oozing into the beaches, but unfortunately it will ooze more slowly than the original oil. In the meantime, Samsung has pledged 100 billion won ($106 million dollars) for the restoration of the Taean area and to help residents recover their livelihoods. This money, however, will not be distributed directly to the residents but will be used for decontamination and development projects in the region. Other money is expected from the owner of the oil tanker, from insurance companies, and from the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund.

We ASLE members spill a lot of words on pages, but I doubt that many of those words have had nearly the effect that our small band of ASLE people had at our day at the beach. Please go online and find out about ways to help. Websites in English have not been verifed against fraud. The Korean website (http://www.kfem.or.kr/campaign/200712_westsea/ ) is a government-sponsored environmental page and is undoubtedly more reliable (but you'll have to find someone who speaks Korean to help). Please act. We did.

Simon Estok, Sunkyunkwan University, Seoul

Members of ASLE-Korea help clean up an oil spill in the Yellow Sea.

December 7, 2007 is a day that will live in infamy for the residents of Taean County, Korea's central west coast area on the Yellow Sea. The day was marked by stormy weather, and a crane barge owned by Samsung Heavy Industries broke loose and rammed the side of the anchored Hong Kong owned Hebie Spirit, a single-hulled tanker. About 2.8 million gallons of crude spewed into the waters, and though this amount is one-third the size of the Exxon-Valdez spill of 1989, it is Korea's worst-ever oil spill. Expectations were that the spill wouldn't hit the coast and that it would be contained at sea; however, poor predictions regarding the wind speed and direction, combined with unseasonably warm temperatures, resulted in the worst-case-scenario actually happening.

Thirty beaches in the area have been affected. Natural Monument 431 or "Taean sinduri haeansagu" (the coastal sand dune in Sindu-ri, Taean) has been destroyed in many places. What was one of the largest areas of relatively unspoiled wetland areas in all of Asia has been blackened. Famous for its beaches, its fresh seafood restaurants, its national park, and for its seasonal influx of great numbers of migratory birds, this area was very unique in Korea (South Korea is among the most densely populated countries in the world). Although migrating birds hadn't yet arrived by December 20^th, several thousand birds were known to have been contaminated, according to a report prepared by Nial Moores, Ju-Yong-Ki and Andreas Kim (http://www.birdskorea.org/News/In_the_News/BK-IN -Oilspill-2007.shtml).

Long-term effects on the pelagic ecosystem, planktonic organisms, fish eggs, larval fish, and so on are likely to be much reduced by the speed at which surface level oils were removed. ASLE-Korea was a part of that removal effort. On a cold and windy fifth of January morning, a contingent of ASLE-Korea

ASLE News 8 Spring 2008

Every single rock scrubbed clean!

Boots provided to the many volunteers.

Weary volunteers head home at the end of the day.

ASLE Elections Bring New Voices To Executive Council

The recent election cycle brought with it an exciting slate of officer and executive council candidates. A total of eight candidates ran for the three open positions, and each nominee offered a wealth of experience and commitment to the organization. Newly-elected Vice President Dan Philippon and Executive Council members Tom Hillard and Gretchen Legler are eager to begin their new roles as officers of ASLE.

Philippon, who will serve one year as Vice President, followed by a year as president, sees the association in a state of upward growth as it builds new partnerships and considers initiatives that will move ASLE to the forefront in the world of sustainability. "I think ASLE is at a transformational moment, in which it is poised to become a more 'sustainable' organization in every sense of the wordenvironmentally, certainly, but also financially and intellectually," he said.

Philippon is already at work on the 2009 Conference at the University of Victoria. Working in concert with conference organizer Richard Pickard, Philippon says he will be making sure that the event lives up to this renewed commitment to holistic sustainability. He will also be working with Karla Armbruster, Immediate Past President, and current president Rochelle Johnson to ensure that the organization continues to grow and thrive.

"ASLE has always been a collaborative endeavor, and so I am looking forward to working closely with Rochelle Johnson to implement the strategic plan we have already begun crafting during her term as president," Philippon said. As he sees it, ASLE is set to become an extraordinary resource for both writers and scholars alike. As the environment becomes an ever more

pressing issue, ASLE is looking to become more sustainable. In terms of financial sustainability, he sees long term progress being made towards awards, fellowships, and grants. He also stated that "We are working to increase thedisciplinary and culturaldiversity of our membership, which will help us all deepen our understanding of both literature and environment."

Ensuring the healthy future of ASLE is also a goal of the current ASLE leadership. To that end, Angela Waldie, a doctoral student at the University of Calgary, was recently appointed Graduate Student Liaison to the Executive Council. She joins Paul Bogard, the senior GSL, in this role. This issue of ASLE News marks the launch of their new column, on page 6 of this issue. Waldie and Bogard say they look forward to finding new ways to engage graduate students and other future officers of the organization.

Amanda Dibiase and Kathryn Miles

ASLE News 9 Spring 2008

ASLE Seeks EC and VP Candidates

Nominations are currently being sought for the ASLE Executive Council and vice presidency. Executive Council members serve three-year terms. The ASLE Vice President also serves a three-year term: one year as Vice President, one as President, and one as Immediate Past President. If you would like to nominate yourself or another active ASLE member for these positions, please contact Rochelle Johnson (rjohnson@collegeofidaho.edu). All nominations are due by June 15, 2008.

The Joys of Jerryrigging: My Virtual Attendance at the "Nature Matters" Conference

If you attended last year's ASLE conference, then you probably made it to Bill McKibben's speech, and if you did, I'm sure you remember it. It was a global warming jeremiad to make even an unbeliever tremble, much less an ASLE type. During the Q&A McKibben addressed the thorny question of plane travel. It's such a high-impact activity, he said, that even with no other use of fossil fuels we can afford a global average of just one 10,000-mile plane flight per person, per year. 10,000 miles. No layovers. No other use of fossil fuels.

Call me crazy, but after that speech the thought of flying from L.A. to Toronto for an upcoming conference called "Nature Matters" made me a little queasy.

On the other hand, I hated to miss it. It was an intriguing, groundbreaking conference, my talk was already accepted, and what about the social time? I Heart Ecocriticism, after all. Couldn't I count this as "love miles"?

Well, no. McKibben's speech made it clear that it's time for everyone, not least those of us in the global warming choir, to work on making long-distance connections using technologies other than airplanes. (See Janisse Ray's recent article in Orion for more on airplane travel and a choir member's responsibilities.) And happily, Cate Mortimer-Sandilands, who headed up the conference, agreed to an experiment in virtual attendance. So I tried it, with just enough success to recommend the experiment to you. Here, therefore, are my notes on my virtual conference attendance, from presentation, to social time, to that question which always comes up with AV and conferences: the money.

Presenting via DVD

The most important challenge was to make sure that my presentation went smoothly. My first thought was to go with videoconferencing, using a previously recorded DVD of the talk as backup. When the price tag for videoconferencing turned out to be on the order of $3000 just on the conference hotel's end, I opted for a jerryrigged DVD + speakerphone option. That came in at about $20 and was my first encounter with the financial joys of jerryrigging. Then I borrowed the department video camera and quickly discovered that reading an academic talk into a video camera is possibly the worst plan ever. So, first tip: if you're presenting via DVD, no reading. I ad-libbed from very brief notes and tried to maintain friendly eye contact with the intimidating little camera. Second tip: this is a painful process, especially the first time, but you're making more sense than you think.

The courage required was increased by the fact that, for a while at least, it looked like there wasn't even going to be a projector available to play the DVD ($700 if I wanted one brought in by the hotel). So I bravely arranged with a fellow panelist that he'd bring his laptop and we'd play my full-screen face from the podium using just the room's sound system, which would be relatively cheap (nota bene: sound: cheap, about $20). and then I recorded the talk Max-Headroom style. Another jerryrigging triumph which entailed yet more embarrassment; but I survived, got UCLA tech help to transfer the second take to DVDs, and mailed those DVDs off to my enormously patient and supportive fellow panelists, Kirsten Crase and Randy Haluza-Delay. Third tip: this all takes time. Start early.

Fourth tip, which should probably go first: people will be helpful. They're probably interested too. Not just Randy, Kirsten, Adrian Ivakhiv (the panel chair), Cate, and the other conference organizers, but the conference hotel staff, various UCLA techies, and other people I worked with were all remarkably forthcoming and supportive. The process of organizing virtual attendance turns into a new way to make connections. Three of the hotel people who helped me out were so eco-enthusiastic and cool beyond the call of duty that I actually sent them Starbucks gift cards after the whole thing was over.

To get back to the story, after I mailed off the DVDs I found out that we actually did have a projector. Fifth tip: word from Randy, a sociologist, is that a very large virtual face actually commands attention. So the extra embarrassment may be worth it. Maybe.

The only problems came packaged with the speakerphone, which have I mentioned embarrassment?... got connected late and then stayed connected only long enough for me to listen to my own talk. I was chagrined to know that the speakerphone glitches must be disrupting the panel, but I think this was not a typical problem. It does, however, confirm the importance of pre-recording your talk. (Randy and Kirsten graciously e-mailed me theirs; more connections.)

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ASLE News 10 Spring 2008

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ASLE Heads to Frisco

Attending the Banquet

This brings us to the question of getting in social time at a conference despite staying 3,000 miles away. It's not too hard, at least in theory and with the joys of jerryrigging kept firmly in mind. Here's the recipe: 1) Find a conference-going colleague whose laptop is set up for Internet chat (or give a willing colleague directions and $75 for a webcam). 2) Practice chatting a few times from home. 3) Ask the hotel for a small, high table and an Internet connection in the room of choice. 4) On the day of, your colleague sets your virtual laptop self up on that high table with, if you want to be cute about it, a conference nametag.

As it turned out, my designated colleague ran into an emergency and couldn't attend the conference. So this is left for one of you brave people to try. I'll be at ASLE Victoria in person; I don't know the details of their AV equipment, but I'm happy to try being a virtual buddy! With wireless this should work for any part of a conference except the food.

The Money

I actually got monetary support for this from UCLA under my professional-development budget. UCLA paid the registration fee, which of course the conference organizers still needed, and the mailing fees for the DVDs. Borrowing the Department's AV equipment also helped. The conference itself did pay a high usage fee for various people's use of the projector that day, but for a small audience the Max Headroom plan as mentioned above should be adequate and amusing if not exactly glamorous. In other words, jerryrigging definitely has its financial as well as its entertainment benefits, and I strongly suggest that you keep it in mind as you embark on your own virtual-attendance adventures.

Last word: I'm at bonnief@ucla.edu. If you try this, please let me know if I can help you; and please let me know how it goes!

Bonnie Foote

Each year, ASLE sponsors two panels at the American Literature Association (ALA) conference. This year marks the 19^th annual ALA convention, held in San Francisco May 22-25, 2008. The two ASLE panels generated a good deal of interest, and we received numerous proposals. Program information for the two panels is as follows:

The Form(s) of Environmental Writing I: Ecopoetics

Chair: Megan Simpson, Penn State Altoona

1. "The Burning Nature of Poetic Form: Sappho's Skin and Harjo's Pottery," Ruth Salvaggio, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

2. "A Fairer House than Prose: Poetry, Science, and the Metaphors that Bind," Gioia Woods, Northern Arizona University

3. "'Bodied Forth in Words': Sylvia Plath's Ecopoetics," Scott Knickerbocker, The College of Idaho

The Form(s) of Environmental Writing II:

The Eco-Narrative

Chair: Ian Marshall, Penn State Altoona

1. "Writing the Eco-Narrative: Form and Engagement," Jeannette E. Riley, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth

2. "Hop, Skip, or Leap? Issues of Form and Accessibility in the Environmental Literature of Rachel Carson, Janisse Ray, and Terry Tempest Williams," Helen Bralesford, University of Nottingham, UK
3. "Walking in Cincinnati: Urban Place and its Discontents in John Tallmadge's The Cincinnati Arch," Kenny Walker, University of Nevada Reno

We invite those of you planning to attend ALA to come and participate in what we hope are lively discussions!

Ian Marshall

Lake Michigan from the dunes, Pentwater, MI. Photo by Bill Stroup.

ASLE News 11 Spring 2008

Calls for Papers, Manuscripts, and Conferences

If you would like to announce a call for papers or a conference of interest in an upcoming issue of ASLE News, please contact Donelle Dreese, Project and Professional Liaison Coordinator, at dreesed1@nku.edu or 859-572-6148.

ASLE-Affiliated Conferences

June 11-15, 2008. The Rural Heritage Institute at Sterling College (RHI) is a four-day series of interdisciplinary academic, experiential, and instructional field-based workshops scheduled for June 11-15th, 2008. The event will highlight and strengthen connections between scholarship on rural communities in the Northeast broadly ­ and in the Northeast Kingdom specifically ­ and field experience with/in the working communities in the region. The Institute capitalizes on the integrative model of community learning and experiential academics practiced by our host, Sterling College. Located only 30 miles from the Canadian border in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, it is an ideal place to explore interwoven threads of place, culture, and community in the fabric of the region's agricultural and land-use heritage. RHI ntegrates the Sterling College mission of environmental stewardship and sustainable community-based approaches to global issues with an innovative approach to experience-based education. RHI can serve as the base for a cross-disciplinary exploration of rural heritage in Vermont and across northern New England. For more information, contact Pavel Cenkl (pcenkl@sterlingcollege.edu).

June 15-19, 2008. Sharp Eyes V: John Burroughs, Nature Writing and 19th-Century Science. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY. Fifth in the John Burroughs Nature Writing Conference and Seminar Series. We will consider the effects on literature of some of the scientific revolutions of the nineteenth-century, such as biological evolution, the magnitude of geologic time and consequent interpretations about the history of the earth, and the emerging sense of the environmental limitations of the planet. Papers are delivered to plenary sessions of students, faculty, and visiting scholars. The conference will also include a special session in the Vassar College Special Collections to view their extensive Burroughs collection. For more information, please contact Jeff Walker, Department of Earth Science and Geography, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie. NY 12604. (jewalker@vassar.edu).

June 27-29, 2008. The Keyboard in the Garden: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Literature and Mediated Nature. An ASLE off-year symposium, hosted at Delaware Valley College, Doylestown PA. Panel and paper topics include: Nature and design; Parks, both city and national; Gardens, formal, informal, or vegetable; Landscape design and designers; The garden as repository for scientific study (e.g. Bartram's Gardens);

Botanical gardens; The garden as archetype; The garden as metaphor; The garden of earthly delights; Creative writing: fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. Due both to the general idea of the off-year symposium and to the relatively small size of the college, the conference is limited to roughly 100 participants. On-campus housing for all participants will be available for the full conference. Keynote speaker is Annie Merrill Ingram. For more information, please contact Richard Hunt (richard.hunt@delval.edu).

Calls for Papers

April 30, 2008. Beyond Thoreau: American and International Responses to Nature. Tsinghua University, October 10-12. The conference, which is jointly sponsored by the Fulbright Commission and Tsinghua University, welcomes papers on topics related to literature and the environment from diverse international theoretical, cultural, social, scientific, and interdisciplinary perspectives. Keynote speakers for the conference are Scott Slovic, Greta Gaard, and Serenella Iovino. A detailed description of the conference and of the call for papers can be found on the conference website, which also includes a registration form: http://web.ku.edu/~beyondthoreauchina/ .

April 30, 2008. Panel: Modernist Ecologies; Modernist Studies Association Annual Conference. Nashville, Nov 13-16, 2008). This proposed panel seeks to deepen our understanding of modernist "ecology" and its relationship to the forms of ecological thinking practiced by scientists, environmentalists, or environmental scholars (historians, philosophers, theorists, ecocritics) during the modernist period and/or in our current moment. How do modernist texts corroborate, complicate, or challenge scientific or popular ecological thinking, and vice versa? How can environmental history and green cultural theory enrich our understanding or sharpen our critique of modernist cultural production? Can one generalize about modernist ecology, or do different regional, national, or transnational modernisms offer different ecological perspectives? Given that technological modernism has contributed to what one recent book calls a "globalization of environmental crisis," what value do modernist ecologies have for environmentalism now? Please send a one-page abstract and brief (100-word) author bio to Anne Raine (araine@uottawa.ca).

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ASLE News 13 Spring 2008

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June 19-22, 2008. Thinking Through Nature: Philosophy for an Endangered World. University of Oregon, Eugene. Hosted by the International Association for Environmental Philosophy (IAEP). Kenote speakers include: Donna Haraway (Professor of History of Consciousness and Women's Studies, UC Santa Cruz), John Llewelyn (Emeritus Reader in Philosophy, University of Edinburgh), Gary Paul Nabhan (Director of the Center for Sustainable Environments, Northern Arizona University), Alberto Pérez-Gómez, Saidye Rosner Bronfman (Professor of the History of Architecture, McGill University). For information contact Ted Toadvine, toadvine@uoregon.edu.

October 16-19, 2008. Back Down to the Crossroads: Integrative American Studies in Theory and Practice. American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM. Encountering the Anasazi panel: The world of the Anasaziits remnant material culture, the story of its rise and fall, its status as a usable pasthas been a source of fascination for nomadic seekers, weekend tourists, independent scholars, writers, artists, and professional academics. The spaces, geographical as well as cultural, where the Anasazi can be encountered offer a unique opportunity to examine the meeting between two sets of others: the past and the present, the indigenous and the immigrant. Indeed, the very term "Anasazi," in all its denotations and connotations, reflects the construction of a culture and of a past through the history of such encounters. Contact: panel organizer Charles Mitchell (cmitchell@elmira.edu).

January 5-7, 2009. Fifth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic, and Social Sustainability. University of Technology, Mauritius. This conference aims to develop a holistic view of sustainability, in which environmental, cultural and economic issues are inseparably interlinked. We seek a multidisciplinary way to address the fundamentals of sustainability. As well as impressive line-up of international speakers, the conference will also include paper, workshop and colloquium presentations by practitioners, teachers and researchers. If you are unable to attend the conference in person, virtual registrations are also available, which allow you to submit a paper for possible publication in this fully refereed academic journal, as well as virtual access to the conference proceedings. See http://www.SustainabilityConference.com .

July 13-19, 2009. Minding Animals: 2009 International Academic and Community Conference on Animals and Society. University of Newcastle, Australia. The conference will be a benchmark event in the study and interpretation of human nonhuman animal interrelationships. It will bring together a broad range of academic disciplines and representatives from universities, non- government organisations and the community, industry and government around the world. Conference

May 1, 2008. Education in a Changing Climate. Unity, ME, July 27-August 2, 2008. This exciting week-long workshop, co-sponsored by Unity College and Orion Magazine, is focused on environmental education. The conference seeks to teach new ways to communicate the pressing changes in the environment through dynamic presentations, field-based learning experiences, and engaging interactions with an exciting core-and-resident faculty staff. The conference seeks to inspire, encourage exploration, and help develop new ways to think about old problems. It features canopy ecologist Nalini Nadkarni, writer/activist Janisse Ray, writer/educator Lowell Monke, and Carey E. Stanton of the National Wildlife Federation. Resident faculty include Mitch Thomashow, president of Unity College; H. Emerson Blake, Executive Director of Orion; and Kathryn Miles, director of Environmental Writing at Unity. Enrollment limited to 32 persons. . For information and application, please visit: http://www.unity.edu/Academic/Workshops/Orion/OrionWelcome.aspx

May 30, 2008. Literary Cultures: New Performances and Development. University of Aveiro, Portugal, October 2-3, 2008. APEF (Portuguese Association for French Studies) and the "Readings. Discourses. Contexts" research group of the University of Aveiro's Centre for Languages and Cultures (CLC) are the joint organisers of this international colloquium. This multidisciplinary forum aims to interrogate and debate the place, the specificity and the effectiveness of literary cultures in today's world. The issue of the boundaries between the various humanities and so-called "hard science" disciplines has been the target of intense probing and questioning, not just within the specialist university-level environment, but also by the media in general. Send proposals for contributions (in Portuguese, French, English or Spanish), including an abstract detailing the thematic area chosen, a brief description of the main content (350-500 words) and author identification (name, institutional address, email, research area), by email to: leituras@dlc.ua.pt or info-apef@dlc.ua.pt.

Conferences of Interest

April 22-23, 2008. 2008 Indigenous Earth Day Summit. Sponsored by The Center for Native American Studies and the Environmental Science Program at Northern Michigan University. The Summit will function as a call to action on Indigneous environmental issues in the Great Lakes area, on Turtle Island and around the world. An Aboriginal delegation from Australia will be featured as keynote presenters and will provide musical entertainment as part of the Earth Day celebration. For more information, email adunn@nmu.edu.

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ASLE News 14 Spring 2008

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delegates will examine the interrelationships between human and nonhuman animals from a cultural, historical, geographical, environmental, moral, legal and political perspectives. The conference will also bring together a number of leading scientists, philosophers and social theorists, academics and community leaders, all committed to animal protection and welfare. For further information, contact Rod Bennison (rod.bennison@newcastle.edu.au )

Calls for Manuscripts

April 15, 2008. A special issue of Discourse will present interdisciplinary scholarship that examines the intersection of the environment, race, and representational practices. It aims to redress the lack of conversation between critical race studies, ecocriticism, and media studies, by exploring some of the following questions: How are environment and race both, in the terms of Lawrence Buell, mutually constructed, shaped by the material world and the world of discourse? How does the concept of "environment" inform the work of ethnic authors who are often concerned with urban, industrial, and agricultural landscapes overlooked or shunned by conservation-oriented environmentalists? How have artists and critics responded to the emergence of a more socially oriented discourse and practice of environmental justice? What aesthetic forms and strategies can represent the burdens of pollution, health, and structural violence that are inflicted upon different groups, often with effects that seem invisible, temporally remote, or geographically removed? We invite essays from a broad a range of scholars and methodologies on topics such as ethnic studies, cultural geography, visual culture, urban history, philosophy, literary criticism, American studies, environmental history, and anthropology. In bringing together diverse approaches to the problems posed by race, environmental justice, and cultural mediation, the issue will explore how attending to the uneven distribution of environmental burdens might enable political coalitions and aesthetic practices that move beyond, without leaving behind, local struggles and the politics of identity that have characterized many aspects of both environmentalism and antiracist discourses. Articles should be a maximum of 7,500 words, and formatted in Chicago style. Please send an abstract (max. of 500 words) by 15 April 2008. The deadline for receipt of articles will be 15 July 2008. Please email all materials and queries to Discourse Guest Editors, Mark Feldman (markfeld@stanford.edu) and Hsuan L. Hsu (hsuan.hsu@yale.edu).

A Red Fox breakfasts on a squirrel in downtown Boise, Idaho. Photo by Kathryn Miles.

May 1, 2008. Facing the Change: Grassroots Encounters with Global Warming will be a completely new kind of book about global climate change. Instead of experts talking at you, this planned hard-copy anthology will feature personal responses to global warming - what everyday people are feeling and thinking as well as what they are doing. Stories, essays, and poetry are welcome, from concerned citizens from all walks of life and all ages. Please go to www.facingthechange.org for more information, writing suggestions, and submission instructions (including a printable version of the full Invitation to Submit).

June 1, 2008. BC and the Green Imagination: A Special Issue of the Malahat Review. The life of the mind provides us with infinite ways to relate to the planet. Understanding the complexity of our relationship to it is today's single most important issue. In 2008, to mark British Columbia's sesquicentennial, The Malahat Review will devote its Winter issue to the Green Imagination. Focusing on creative approaches rather than on polemics and manifestos, this special issue aspires to place British Columbia-and the idea of British Columbia-at the ecological centre of the debate and to showcase a variety of literary responses. Residents and non-residents alike may widely interpret the theme of "B.C. and the Green Imagination." No restrictions as to form or approach apply. An honorarium of $40 per page will be paid for all accepted work. Only queries (no submissions) will be accepted by email at malahat@uvic.ca. Send all submissions and mailed queries, accompanied by a SASE, to: B.C. and the Green Imagination; The Malahat Review; University of Victoria; P.O. Box 1700; Stn CSC; Victoria, BC, V8W 2Y2; Canada.

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ASLE News 15 Spring 2008

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annually. In keeping with the mission of the press to publish works of literature which are grounded in place and soar with imagination, we encourage writers and artists to think, feel, dream, and imagine place in complex and innovative ways. Submit no more than five poems, fiction and essays of no more than 7000 words, and images in JPG format to laciandppress@sunflower.com . Include a cover letter with a brief biography. If submitting hard copy manuscripts or images, mail to Imagination & Place Press, Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire, Lawrence, KS 66044; enclose a cover letter with a brief biography and a SASE for reply; no more than ten images if mailed. No manuscripts or images will be returned without proper postage and packaging materials. No previously published works are acceptable; we will take simultaneous submissions with the clear understanding that if the work is accepted elsewhere, we will be notified immediately. Visit www.imaginationandplace.org for more information.

Ongoing. The Journal of Ecocriticism is an electronic review that focuses on research which investigates the links between nature, society and literature. It invites manuscripts that address any issue of interest to ecocritics, and especially encourages new scholars in the field to submit work to the journal. Proposals for special issues are also encouraged. Please visit http://ojs.unbc.ca/index.php/joe for more details.

Ongoing. Green Theory & Praxis: The Journal of Ecopedagogy is proud to announce both a general Call for Papers for its upcoming June and December issues and its recent move from California State University, Fresno to a new home as the flagship journal of the Ecopedagogy Association International. Green Theory & Praxis represents a scholarly effort to present research papers and essays at the transformative nexus of ecological politics and culture, social structures, sustainability education and ecocriticism. The editorial board takes the position that many human societies and their attendant political economy and cultural norms depart strikingly from what is needed to maintain ecological harmony and planetary/species flourishing. We offer a forum for careful study of the theoretical and rhetorical positions, political and economic adjustments, behavioral and institutional alterations, pedagogical and cultural mobilizations, and spiritual emergences that will or should emerge in response to increasing ecological damage of both a physical and psychic nature. We seek critical analysis of the root causes of various ecological crises and to link theory to concrete prospects for social change through pedagogy broadly conceived. We anticipate transdisciplinary papers, and invite scholars and activists from throughout the world to submit manuscripts for peer review. Please visit http://greentheoryandpraxis.org, to submit your work online and receive more information.

June 1, 2008. Species of Thought: In the Approach of a More-Than-Human World. A Special Issue of the Journal of Environmental Philosophy. The essays in this Fall, 2008 volume will explore how philosophy might be initiated in the approach, gaze, or voice of another living speciesplant or animal. In doing so, what it means to think specifically, as well as radically, about the living world will come into focus. This could occur through reflecting upon one's own participation in the life-world of another entity, or in providing a case study of how yet another human individual or culture has done so. Papers analyzing texts or artistic works addressing the situation of being in the approach of another living species will also be considered. Poems or artworks taking up this theme can also be submitted for inclusion in the volume. Please send submissions electronically or by post to guest editor Dr. James Hatley (jdhatley@salisbury.edu) or Department of Philosophy, Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD 21801 USA. A printable flier is available online: http:/ephilosophy.uoregon.edu/CFP%20Species%20of%20Thought.pdf

August 1, 2008. Artifacts and Illuminations: Critical Essays on Loren Eiseley, a collection of scholarly essays to be edited by Tom Lynch (University of Nebraska, Lincoln) and Susan Maher (University of Nebraska, Omaha). We are soliciting abstracts of articles that apply critical approaches and interdisciplinary approaches to an examination of the prose and poetry of Loren Eiseley. In particular, we seek essays that: apply contemporary critical approaches, including ecocriticism and ecopoetics, to a close reading of Eiseley's texts; examine the interdisciplinary relationship between science and artistic expression in Eiseley's writing; contextualize Eiseley's work within mid-20th century American culture, including the relationship of his writing to the cold war, the space race, environmentalism, the 1960s counterculture, and cultural debates over evolution; position Eiseley within literary history, assessing influences on his work by such figures as Thoreau, Auden, Robinson Jeffers, and Howard Nemerov, as well as Eiseley's own influence on later writers such as Edward Hoagland and Annie Dillard; and assess Eiseley's international influence and significance. We have strong interest in this project from the University of Nebraska Press, but do not yet have a contract. Submit abstracts of not more than 500 words and a short vita to: Susan Maher (smaher@mail.unomaha.edu) and Tom Lynch (tlynch2@unl.edu). Please email your submission both as a Microsoft Word attachment and within the body of your email. (If using Windows Vista, convert from .docx to .doc format.)

August 1, 2008. Imagination & Place: An Anthology. The Imagination & Place Press seeks poetry, fiction, essays, and images for the first book in a new series to be published

ASLE News 16 Spring 2008

ASLE Bookshelf

The following works were recently published by ASLE members. If we've missed your publication, please send bibliographic information to Kathryn Miles at kmiles@unity.edu.

Bookshelf correction:

In the fall issue of ASLE News, we incorrectly listed the title of Mary Ellen Bellanca's book. The correct title is: Daybooks of Discovery: Nature Diaries in Britain, 1770-1870. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia P, 2007). We apologize for the error.

Book award announcement:

The Earth Knows My Name: Food,Culture and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans by Patricia Klindienst was a winner of the Before Columbus Foundation's 28th Annual American Book Awards for 2007.

Cauthen, Sudye. Southern Comforts: Rooted in a Florida Place. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2007.

Lamberton, Ken. Time of Grace: Thoughts on Nature, Family, and the Politics of Crime and Punishment. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press, October 2007.

Matson, Suzanne. The Tree-Sitter: a novel. NY: W. W. Norton, 2006 (paperback 2007).

Vlasopolos, Anca. Penguins in a Warming World. Princeton, NJ: Ragged Sky Press, 2007.

. The New Bedford Samurai and the Fool Birds of Japan. Twilight Times Books, 2007.

Sustaining Members

With your support, ASLE publishes a biannual journal (ISLE), a newsletter, and a membership directory, sponsors regular symposia, and hosts a conference every other year.

Much of this work is accomplished through your membership contributions and the members who volunteer their time to serve the organization.

Your contributions support ASLE's operating costs. If you consider the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment to be one of your primary intellectual and creative homes, please consider joining your friends and colleagues listed here by giving at the Sustaining ($100+) or Patron ($150+) level.

Anonymous

Michael P. Branch

Katherine R. Chandler

Laird Christensen

J. Gerard Dollar

John Felstiner

Ann Fisher-Wirth

Richard Hunt

John Knott

John Lane & Betsy Teter

Ian Marshall

Allen K. Mears

Mary DeJong Obuchowski

Carmen Pearson

Deidre Pike

Randall Roorda

Barton L. St. Armand

John Sitter

William Stott, III

Bill Stowe

William Stroup

Alison Swan

H. Lewis Ulman

Allison B. Wallace

Kathleen R. Wallace

Monica Weis, SSJ

Lisa West

Louise Westling

Penny Wilkes

Patron Members

Tom Bailey

Neil Browne

Terrell Dixon

Cheryll Glotfelty

Annie & Randy Ingram

Rochelle Johnson

Mark C. Long

Mark Lussier

Cate Mortimer-Sandilands

Priscilla Paton

Jeri Pollock

Jim & Julianne Warren

Richard Wiebe

ASLE News 17 Spring 2008

In the Windy City: MLA 2007

As an affiliate organization of the Modern Language Association, ASLE arranges two panels for each annual convention. The ASLE-sponsored panels at MLA 2007 included excellent presentations by both graduate students and faculty working in diverse fields of literature and the environment. The speakers on the first ASLE-sponsored panel in Chicago, "When Nature Strikes Back," explored how various texts depict a so-called natural response to human attempts to control, change, or harm the land. The members of the second panel, "Animals and Agency," discussed representations of animal subjectivity, exploring the construction of animality and humanity and the ways certain representations of animals can undermine or complicate the boundary that supposedly differentiates animals from humans.

On Wednesday afternoon of the conference, "When Nature Strikes Back" attracted an engaged audience despite the best efforts of the weather and the airline industry, which resulted in the absence of two panel members. Nicole Seymour, a doctoral candidate in English at Vanderbilt University, opened the panel with her paper, "'More Poison in Thy Nature': Ecocriticism, Abolitionism, and the Revenge of 'the Natural' in 'Rappaccini's Daughter.'" She argued that Hawthorne's critique of science in "Rappaccini's Daughter" depends on more than a collapse of the human-nature divide through the figure of the enslaved Other in the form of Beatrice. Instead, it requires a refusal to accept as unquestionable any hierarchical boundaries. In the next presentation, "Mutant Grasshoppers are Attacking Chicago! Mad Science, Nature Amok, and the B-Movie Tradition," Rocky Colavito discussed how films have used an adversarial "nature" (oftentimes represented by monstrous animal or insect figures) to expose the dangers of human arrogance in science. Colavito, a professor at Northwestern State University, argued that B-movies like Attack of the Crab Monsters and Humanoids from the Deep challenge traditional assumptions of human superiority as people become victims of scientific hubris. Lively discussion followed the presentations.

On Friday night, the "Animals and Agency" panel had four speakers presenting exciting new work about animals. Mary Sanders Pollock, a professor of English at Stetson University, presented "The Storytelling Ape: The Rhetoric of Autobiographical Field Narratives." Raising questions about what exactly animal or human agency is within complicated actor networks, Pollock analyzed works by Jane Goodall, Robert Sapolski, and Karen Strier to show a recent shift in scientific discourse enabling scientific involvement and not just objectivity. Next was "The Agency of Pit's Letter: On Sue Coe and Derrida," Alice Ann Kuzniar's presentation examining the illustrated books Pit's Letter and Dead Meat by Sue Coe, a graphic artist and animal

rights activist. Kuzniar, a professor of German at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, argued that Coe endows animals with dignity and self-effacement in the absence of agency and voice, allowing them to possess what we would call subjectivity in their acts of vulnerability.

Friday's third panel member, Ryan Hediger, presented an essay entitled "Crossing Over: Death, Genre, and Species." Hediger examined works by Temple Grandin and Jim Harrison and argued that their work reveals a different kind of subjectivity for both humans and animals. Hediger, who teaches in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Colorado at Boulder, concluded that the authors expose the slippage of human-centered agency, allowing the agency of animals to appear more concretely in their portrayals of what it means to engage with the world. Finally, Norma J. Tilden, assistant professor of English at Georgetown University, gave a paper entitled "Zoographia: A Poetics of Interanimal Exchange," which examined patterns of language in nature writing about animals. Tilden concluded that what she calls "wild writing" might allow for a poetics of exchange. The presentations were followed by a stimulating conversation between audience members and panelists.

ASLE will be sponsoring two panels at the MLA conference in San Francisco in December 2008: one that theorizes various methods of ecocritical practice and another that addresses the connections between environmentalism and religion. Hopefully, similarly provocative conversations will emerge.

Sarah E. McFarland

Fritillary Butterfly basking on a car hood. Photo by H. Lewis Ulman.

ASLE News 12 Spring 2008

ASLE News the biannual newsletter of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environmentreports ASLE business and publishes information of interest to its membership. Have any news or ideas? Contact newsletter editor Kathryn Miles at kmiles@unity.edu. Thanks to editorial assistant Amanda Dibiase for her work on this issue.

ASLE News

P.O. Box 502

Keene, NH 03431-0502

Phone & Fax: 603-357-7411

asle.us@verizon.net

www.asle.umn.edu

Project Coordinators

Awards Coordinator

Tom Lynch

University of Nebraska, Lincoln

Bibliography Editor/Coordinator

H. Lewis Ulman

The Ohio State University

Book Review Editor, ISLE

Michael Branch
University of Nevada, Reno
Diversity Caucus Coordinators

Levita Mondie-Sapp
The Maret School
Priscilla Solis Ybarra

Rice University
Graduate Mentoring Program Coordinator
Mark Long

Keene State College
Graduate Student Liaisons
Paul Bogard

University of Nevada, Reno
Angela Waldie

University of Calgary
Professional Liaison Coordinator
Donelle Dreese

Northern Kentucky University

International Organizations

ASLE-UK l ASLE-Japan l ASLE-ANZ ASLE-Korea l EASLCE l ALECC

ASLE-India l OSLE-India

Affiliated Professional
Organizations

American Literature Association

American Studies Association,

Environmental Studies Caucus
Conference on College Composition and Communication (4Cs)

International Association for

Environmental Philosophy (IAEP)
Modern Language Association (MLA)

Midwest MLA (M/MLA)

Northeast MLA (NEMLA)
Pacific MLA (PAMLA)

Rocky Mountain MLA (RMMLA)

Society for Early Americanists
Society for Science and Literature

Society for the Study of American Women Writers

Managing Director: Amy McIntyre

ASLE Officers

President

Rochelle Johnson

The College of Idaho

Vice President

Dan Philippon

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Immediate Past President

Karla Armbruster
Webster University
Executive Secretary

Kathleen Wallace
The Ohio State University
ISLE Editor

Scott Slovic
University of Nevada, Reno
ASLE News Editor

Kathryn Miles
Unity College

Executive Council

(date indicates year term expires)
Janine DeBaise

SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry, 2009
Tom Hillard
Boise State University, 2010

Richard Kerridge

Bath Spa University, 2008

Gretchen Legler

University of Maine, Farmington, 2010
Sheryl St. Germain

Chatham College, 2008
Jim Warren

Washington and Lee University, 2009