Symposium Keynote Speakers

Sidonie Smith

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Sidonie Smith is the Martha Guernsey Colby Collegiate Professor of English and Women's Studies and Chair of the English Department at the University of Michigan. She is also the current President of the Modern Language Association. Her research interests encompass human rights issues, autobiography studies, women's studies - including women's autobiography, women's travel narratives and memory, and feminist theory - and postcolonial literature.

Smith will be giving a talk entitled "An Agenda for the New Dissertation" on Friday, May 14th. Her presentation will be followed by a breakout session that will focus on the strengths and limits of the dissertation model and alternative possibilities for assessing and credentializing graduate students. 

Evan Watkins

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Evan Watkins is a professor of English at the University of California - Davis. His research interests include literary theory and composition theory, cultural studies, American literature, and gender studies. Watkins has published widely on topics related to academic labor and the state of higher education in the United States, including his most recent book, Class Degrees: Smart Work, Managed Choice and the Transformation of Higher Education. His current research is a book-length project entitled Who's Paying Attention? Literacy Work and the Attention Economy, which is under contract with Fordham University Press.

Watkins will be giving a talk entitled "Recruiting Prestige" on Saturday, May 15th. His presentation will be followed by a breakout session that will focus on the processes and challenges of recruitment in the current economic and academic climate.