ACETA Conference

In an 1817 letter to Benjamin Bailey, Keats writes, “The Setting Sun will always set me to rights, or if a Sparrow come before my Window, I take part in its existence and pick about the gravel.” What he describes is the sympathetic imagination, how we acquire knowledge of the inner lives of others by extending the imagination. The term “sympathetic imagination” comes to us from Adam Smith: “As we have no immediate experience of what other men feel, we can form no idea of the manner in which they are affected, but by conceiving what we ourselves should feel in the like situation. Though our brother is upon the rack, as long as we ourselves are at our ease, our senses will never inform us of what he suffers. They never did and never can carry beyond our persons, and it is by the imagination we place ourselves in his situation.” Sponsored by ACETA (The Association of College English Teachers of Alabama) and a partnering two-year or four-year collegiate institution, this conference broadly considers literature, film, and writing on the importance of sympathy and empathy. More broadly, papers might address phenomenology, the intersection of philosophies and literature, transhumanism, performativity, trauma theory, literary sensation and sensationalism, the nonhuman experience in literature, and other topics related to the conference theme. Sessions in pedagogy and composition and rhetoric are also among conference discussion.

• The 2025 ACETA Conference will be held at the campus of the University of Alabama Huntsville on February 21-22, 2025.
• More information will be forthcoming.

Please select the appropriate option for your submission to the 2025 ACETA Conference. All submissions are due by November 15, 2024.

The 2025 William J. Calvert Award & The 2025 James Woodall Award
The 2025 William J. Calvert Award is awarded to a paper on any scholarly or theoretical topic in English studies, and the 2025 James Woodall Award is awarded to a paper on any pedagogical topic in English studies. College English teachers and graduate students may submit papers for one or both competitions.  The writer’s name, along with the title of the essay and the writer’s institutional affiliation, should appear on a cover sheet but not on the paper itself.  Papers may not have been previously read or published.

Submissions for the 2025 William J. Calvert Award & The 2025 James Woodall Award

The 2025 Mary Evelyn McMillan Undergraduate Writing Award
The McMillan Award is presented annually to the undergraduate student at an Alabama college or university whose informal essay is judged most outstanding by a panel of judges chosen by ACETA.
 
Requirements

• The essay must have been written for a class taken during the current or previous academic year.
• It may be descriptive, reflective, or analytical, but it may not be a formal research paper.
• It must not exceed 2000 words.
• It must not have been published previously except possibly in campus publications such as college newspapers or literary magazines.
• The English instructor for whose class the essay was written should submit the essay.  An instructor may submit only one essay in each year’s competition.
• A cover sheet should be attached to the entry stating the title of the essay, the author’s name, the name of the college or university, and the name and title of the nominator, with address, telephone number, and email address.  No name should appear on the essay.

Submissions for the 2025 Mary Evelyn McMillan Undergraduate Writing Award

Eugene Current-Garcia Distinguished Scholar Award
The Association of College English Teachers of Alabama solicits nominations for the 2025 Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinction in Literary Scholarship. This award is made annually to a living, outstanding literary scholar who is from Alabama or has worked primarily in Alabama or has focused mainly on Alabama writers. A nomination must include a curriculum vita reflecting the course of the nominee’s scholarly career, a detailed bibliography of the nominee’s scholarly productions, and a cover letter clarifying and supporting the nominee’s qualifications for the award. Nominations may contain other letters of support from recognized scholars in the nominee’s field; they should not contain copies of actual publications.

Submissions for the Eugene Current-Garcia Distinguished Scholar Award

Call for Presentation Proposals for the 2025 ACETA Conference
Sponsored by ACETA and the University of Alabama at Huntsville, this conference broadly considers literature, film, and writing on the importance of sympathy and empathy. More broadly, papers or panels might address phenomenology, the intersection of philosophies and literature, transhumanism, performativity, trauma theory, literary sensation and sensationalism, the nonhuman experience in literature, and other topics related to the conference theme. Submissions in pedagogy and composition and rhetoric are also welcome.

Submissions for Presentation Proposals