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Tentative Schedule of Events

Keynote Speakers: David Gold, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Nancy Welch, University of Vermont, John Duffy, University of Notre Dame, Elenore Long, Arizona State University, Jerrod Hirsch, Truman State University, David Jolliffe, University of Arkansas, Michelle Hall Kells, University of New Mexico

Wednesday, March 9, 2011
                   
    6:00--8:30--Featured Speaker, Reception

        Introduction: Deborah Mutnick, Long Island University-Brooklyn
        Featured Speaker: from above

Thursday, March 10, 2011
   
    8:30-9:45--Featured Speaker (coffee, light breakfast)
    10-11:15--Concurrent Sessions (selected from open CFP)
    11:30-1:30--Featured Speaker, Lunch
    1:45-3:00--Concurrent Sessions
    3:15-4:30--Concurrent Sessions
    5:00-7:30--Featured Speaker, dinner

Friday, March 11, 2011
   
    9:00-10:15--Featured Speaker (coffee, light breakfast)
    10:30-11:45--Concurrent Sessions
    12:30-1:30--Featured Speaker (wrap up, respondents), lunch   

    2-5:00--Workshop (informal), followed by reception for participants involved in  discussion for upcoming collaborations toward renewed Federal Writers Project


Ongoing:  Humanities Texas Exhibits (tentative)

Public Programming

Literary East Texas: An Exhibition of Photographs Honoring 25 East Texas Writers” features the “verbal horizons of East Texas and encourages viewers to take advantage of the diversity and richness of their literary heritage” (HumanitiesTexas). Among the writers featured are J. Mason Brewer, first African American faculty member in the English Department at Texas A&M-Commerce and first African American to serve as President of the Texas Folklore Society, and William Owens, an alum of the institution who would go on to write many award-winning books about life in this region and, as folklorist, record music throughout Texas and most of the 1930s.

Jasper, Texas: The Healing of a Community in Crisis” presents “images of the idyllic Huff Creek Road, its residents, and the church where [James] Byrd’s battered body was discovered the next day by six-year-old Marlon Forward and his stepfather [in 1998]. In directing viewers’ attention to Forward and other lives changed by the murder, the photographs suggest the extent to which James Byrd Jr.’s death was a communal tragedy for this town. . . . The project presents Jasper’s experience as a model for other communities while also facilitating the healing in the town itself.” Rather than condemning Jasper for the tragedy, this exhibit features the strength of the community in its response to “the gruesome crime” that was long the focus of Jasper’s international audience. Located in a rural remote area a few hours south of Commerce, near the Louisiana border, Jasper reminds participants of the complex ways racism functions in real places among real people.

Behold the People: R. C. Hickman’s Photographs of Black Dallas, 1949-1961” features the work of Dallas photographer RC Hickman, “whose thousands of images produced from 1949 to 1961 document aspects of life in an African American community in [Dallas], . . . a community largely invisible to white Americans--thoroughly a part of mainstream America by virtue of accomplishment and lifestyle but excluded from it because of race” (“Press Release,” HumanitiesTexas). Located in an urban center less than one hour from Texas A&M-Commerce, Dallas reminds participants of the complex effects of race in America’s recent history.

Images of Valor: US Latinos and Latinas in World War II” “provides a historical overview of US Latino participation in WWII. . . . The exhibition focuses on individual stories that reveal larger themes such as citizenship and civil rights and features excerpts from more than 500 oral history interviews that were part of the project” (Press Release, Humanities Texas).

Border Studies “ features images by eight gifted photographers and maps showing historical relocations of the border, highlighting the vitality of places, people, and patterns of culture along the Texas-Mexico Border.” “The Texas-Mexico border is more than a line between two countries. It is a realm unto itself with a culture of its own, shaped partly by forces from the interior on both sides, but more decisively by the millions who choose to live and work there. The border is a cradle of hope—and anxiety—for the well-being of both Mexico and the United States.” (Press Release, Humanities Texas)