We at ACCUTE are delighted to announce the second ACCUTE Pandemic Webinar: “The End/Future of the English Department,” coordinated by Dr. Ronald Cummings (Brock, ACCUTE VP), to take place on February 22, 4-5 p.m. EST. Admission is free, registration required.

The last few decades have seen both transformations and moments of crisis in the structuring of the discipline of English studies. In 1969, there was the call emerging from the University of Nairobi to abolish the English Department, advocating a kind of dismantling that would unsettle colonial formations and decentre England and its literary traditions in order to facilitate “ a dialogue among all the literatures.” Subsequent decades have seen the rise of literary and critical theory as well as the cultural studies turn, which have provoked the restructuring of various departments. In our current moment of Black and Indigenous political insurgency, with calls to decolonize the curriculum and diversity initiatives within the university, what does it mean to continue to do work under the sign of English Studies? What new formations and possibilities might our current moment of institutional precarity and change, including the panic of the pandemic, also allow us to imagine? Whither the future of the English Department?

Panelists

Phanuel Antwi, University of British Columbia,

Nadine Attewell, Simon Fraser University

Aubrey Hanson, University of Calgary

Sonnet L’Abbé, Vancouver Island University

Share widely! All are welcome. This event is free; registration is required: https://bit.ly/3r06T5x