'Erotic Screen and Sound: Culture, Media and Desire' Conference
15-18 February 2011, South Bank, Brisbane, Australia

Few subjects are as simultaneously commonplace and controversial as the erotic. While sex, gender, identity and desire have been traditional mainstays of artistic, academic and public discourses, the erotic often continues to provoke fears, anxieties and resistances. 'Erotic Screen and Sound: Culture, Media and Desire' is a four day interdisciplinary conference presented by the Griffith Centre for Cultural Research, Griffith University and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane.

Confirmed keynote speakers include Professor Judith Halberstam, Professor Alan McKee and Associate Professor Kelly Dennis. The conference will draw together contemporary research and historical thinking on the erotic and associated discourses across the fields of the visual and sonic arts, film, television and media studies, literature, cultural sociology, cultural history, communications and journalism. We invite scholars and graduates from a range of disciplines to examine, explore, theorise, and historicise erotic moving images, sounds, visual arts, performances, texts, taboos and practices.

The deadline for abstracts and panel proposals is 3rd September 2010.

More details can be found on our website at http://www.griffith.edu.au/arts-languages-criminology/centre-cultural-research/news-events/erotic-screen

New Play Project Seven Continues Thursday, June 3rd at 7 PM

New Play Project Seven continues this Thursday, June 3rd at 7 PM in the Zack York Arena Theatre in the Gilmore Complex with four more script-in-hand staged readings of new WMU student written, acted, and directed plays. This Thursday's playwrights are Shana Wolstein, Mickey Moses, Angela Santili, and Elle Ridge. It's free. And unlike previous years, as we have more performances dates, you'll be out by nine.

So far we're having a really productive and joyful summer of developing new plays, please attend and share it with us. For more information please contact Steve Feffer at steve.feffer@wmich.edu.

English faculty recognized

Yesterday, WMU honored all recently tenured and/or promoted faculty during a luncheon at the Bernhard Center. In the English department, Beth Bradburn, Tony Ellis, Cynthia Klekar, Todd Kuchta, and Scott Slawinski were tenured and promoted to the rank of associate professor, and Eve Salisbury was promoted to the rank of full professor. English faculty received personal congrats from President John Dunn.

Herb Scott to be remembered on June 10

The life work of the late Herbert S. Scott, an award-winning poet and longtime English professor at Western Michigan University, will be celebrated Thursday, June 10, during a reading from a new selected collection of his poems. The free, public event is set for 5:30 p.m. in the Meader Rare Book Room of WMU's Waldo Library. READ MORE

Adam Schuitema Interview

This article from the Grand Rapids Press features an interview with WMU English Department alum, Dr. Adam Schuitema, who mentions the work of Bonnie Jo Campbell, as well as the experience of teaching undergraduate creative writing workshops. Adam's upcoming local appearances include:

• Treehouse Books — 37 E. Eighth St., Holland, 7 p.m., June 4

• The Book Nook & Java Shop — 8726 Ferry St., Montague, 4 p.m. June 27

• Grand Valley State University — 7 p.m., Sept. 28