The Scottish Writing Exhibition
STAR continues to share its publications at exhibitions organised by The Scottish Writing Exhibition. Publications by Edinburgh University Press were presented at the MLA Conference, 2007, and information was distributed at the ESSE Conference in Aarhus, 2008.
For the MLS 2008 Exhibition in San Francisco, click here.
Previous Exhibitions
Bulletin:
Washington DC, 27-30 December 2005
STAR, along with 21 publishers, participated in an exhibition of Scottish writing at the Modern Language Association convention in Washington DC in 2005. Most of the publishers attending were Scottish, and all publish Scottish writing.
The Scottish Writing Exhibition aims to showcase Scottish writing from a variety of periods and genres, and in English, Scots and Gaelic, with a view to encouraging (the primarily) North American lecturers to include Scottish texts in university-level courses. The MLA convention attracts over 9,000 academics and the exhibition was as big a success as its debut in Philadelphia in 2004. The main aim of the exhibiton is to raise awareness of the wealth and variety of Scottish writing and publishing. The organisers hope to see an increase in Scottish Studies courses as a result of the material support the exhibition provides, and also encourage the inclusion of Scottish literature in survey courses of European literature, British literature, World poetry, etc.
The exhibition is sponsored by the Association for Scottish Literary Studies' International Committee, and is funded by the participating publishers and the Scottish Arts Council.
For more information on the publishers attending the exhibition and the books that were on display, please visit the website: www.scottishwriting.org.uk or contact the exhibition manager, Dr Gwen Enstam gwen@scottishwriting.org.uk or phone 0131 650 4149.
The Modern Language Association convention is an annual international convention held in North America, in a different city each year. In 2005 it will be held in Washington DC, from 27-30 December. It is an academic convention primarily aimed at literature and language scholars and researchers, attracting upwards of 9,000 delegates each year. Delegates can choose from hundreds of papers to attend, and can visit an exhibition hall dislaying publications from dozens of
university and non-academic publishers. Visit the MLA website for more information: http://www.mla.org/ While Irish Studies are well-represented in North American universities, there is a mysterious lack of Scottish Studies courses, perhaps due to a lack of awareness of the difference between the two cultures, as is also seen in the confusion inherent in the term "Celtic" in
North America. The Association for Scottish Literary Studies' International Committee (ASLS IC) is working to remedy that situation by organising Scottish Studies papers and panel discussions at the MLA convention and sponsoring the Scottish Writing Exhibition. The ASLS IC is also working, in
conjunction with colleagues in American universities, to produce an MLA Teacher's Note on a Scottish author (there are none at present) which we are confident will encourage the teaching of Scottish authors by providing resources for courses. This is also the aim of the Scottish Writing
Exhibition: to provide the lecturers with the resources they need to enable them to create a Scottish Literature course, or at least, to add Scottish authors to survey courses such as British Literature, World Poetry, etc.
Please login to post a comment.