A Thank You to All

Hello! The PISA officers wanted to thank everyone who came together to make the 2006 Conference a success. Please give yourself a round of applause! Our next PISA meeting will be at the end of March and we will be discussing the final agenda for the year including next year’s officers, a dissertation workshop, getting an official FAU PISA website, next year’s conference theme and dates, and possibly changing the name of our club. Also, during this month, Rebecca Kuhn will be presenting and defending the budget for next year with the Student Government so keep your fingers crossed.

Thank you again for everyone who participated, help and presented at the conference. Have a great spring break!

Arts, Culture and Society: Intersections of Class, Race and Gender

Hi there fellow students! We have worked to advertise several upcoming conferences but now I would like to remind you to register for our conference which is on February 24-25! Please go to the conference website: Arts, Culture and Society: Intersections of Class, Race and Gender!

“Defying the Facts: Lying in Politics and Counterfactuals in Narrative”

Conference Title: conference “Defying the Facts: Lying in Politics and Counterfactuals in Narrative”

When: February 17, 2006 at the Live Oak Pavilion on the FAU’s Boca Raton Campus – 2-5 PM—reception follows.

Sponsored by: the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities, Dr. Richard Shusterman, and the Ph.D. Program in Comparative Studies."

Cost: Free! So there is no excuse for not attending!

Description:
Politics today is profoundly torn by contradictions concerning the
truth. Though constantly appealing to facts, political life seems more
powerfully driven by falsehoods and fabrications that are neatly
packaged and guilelessly consumed through the seductive power of
narrative spin. We are led to wonder whether any facts can be found
beyond the gloss of interpretational narrative and how we might
identify and deploy them for political progress. But true progressive
politics cannot stick to the facts. It requires vision of a better
world contrary to the dismal realities and regimes that govern us; it
demands a counterfactual discourse.

The conference “Defying the Facts: Lying in Politics and Counterfactuals in Narrative” explores these crucial issues through interdisciplinary perspectives, with lectures by two of America’s leading scholars: Catherine Gallagher, Eggers
Professor of English Literature at the University of California,
Berkeley; and Martin Jay, Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley.

Professor Gallagher will give a lecture entitled “War, Counterfactual
History, and Alternate History Novels,” and Professor Jay will lecture
on “The Ambivalent Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics.”

GIMELSTOB SYMPOSIUM IN JUDAIC STUDIES presents: New Scholarship on Women and Judaism

When: FEBRUARY 19 - 20, 2006

Where: Live Oak Pavilion, University Center • Florida Atlantic University • 777 Glades Road • Boca Raton, Florida

Cost: $5.00 for FAU Graduate Students (includes lunch), $25.00 for non-students

Registration: Registration for this event is required. You can register here

Schedule:
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19
11:30 a.m. Registration
12 p.m. Welcome

JEWISH WOMEN IN ANTIQUITY
Chair: Carol Gould, Florida Atlantic University
“In Search of Jewish Women Outside the Rabbinic
Orbit: Representations and Realities”
Ross S. Kraemer, Brown University
“The Unbearable Otherness of Being Women:
Women and Torah in Aggadah”
Dvora Weisberg, Hebrew Union College

2 p.m. THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE SHTETL
Chair: Yolanda Gamboa, Florida Atlantic University
“Women in Medieval Jewish Societies”
Renée Levine Melammed,
Schechter Institute for Jewish Studies
“The Spirituality of Eastern European
Jewish Women”
Chava Weissler, Lehigh University

4 p.m. LITERATURE: AUTHORS AND CHARACTERS
Chair: Andrew Furman, Florida Atlantic University
“Beyond Nation and Gender? The ‘New Woman’
of Contemporary Israeli Fiction”
Yael Feldman, New York University
“A Triple Minefi eld:
North American Jewish Women’s Writing”
Sara R. Horowitz, York University

5:30 p.m. Dinner Break

7 p.m. CONTEMPORARY LIFE
Chair: Myriam Ruthenberg, Florida Atlantic University
“The Power to Transform:
Women and American Judaism”
Pamela Nadell, American University

PANEL DISCUSSION:
Moderator: Ellen Frankel,
Jewish Publication Society of America
Jessica Spitalnic Brockman,
Temple Beth El of Boca Raton
Avigail Rock,
Community Kollel of Boca Raton
Marsha Shapiro Rose,
Florida Atlantic University

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20
9:30 a.m. RELIGIOUS ISSUES
Chair: Marianne Sanua, Florida Atlantic University
“Feminist Approaches to Halakhah”
Judith Hauptman,
Jewish Theological Seminary of America
“Movers and Shakers: Jewish Women’s
Transformative Infl uences in Contemporary
Jewish Religious Life”
Sylvia Barack Fishman, Brandeis University

11:30 a.m. CLOSING LUNCHEON
Chair: Alan L. Berger, Florida Atlantic University
“Half the Kingdom: Accounting for Women in
Judaism and in Jewish History”
Judith R. Baskin, University of Oregon
* * *
This program is made possible
through the generosity of
Herbert and Elaine Gimelstob

PISA Meeting

Come one; come all to the first meeting of PISA for 2006. To be held Friday January 27 at 12 pm in SO 105. Find out about the Conference, speakers and how you can help! Catch up with friends and events!

Friday, January 27th, 12PM.

FACS Literary Journal: Call for Papers

FACS Literary Journal
Florida Atlantic University
Call for Papers
Catastrophe and Representation

Images of catastrophe increasingly assault us through the media. The world is reeling from the effects of war, natural disasters, famine, and disease. Violence – natural and unnatural – has become a standard motif in contemporary storytelling, cultural documentation and sociopolitical reportage. How, then, is such representation captured and characterized? What is being said and unsaid, and why? Is catastrophe a comparative experience?

The editors of the Florida Atlantic Comparative Studies literary journal invite submissions on any aspect of this topic for its Fall 2006 edition. Deadline is March 1, 2005. FACS is an interdisciplinary journal providing a forum for comparative study in the arts, humanities, language, culture and social sciences.

Possible topics include but are not limited to exploring representations of catastrophe as:
• natural and unnatural
• public and private
• iconic/symbolic
• identity (gender, race, class)
• performance
• literary critique
• media art
• rhetoric and communications
• discovery
• socio-political commentary
• synchronic / diachronic interpretation


Papers should be no more than 25 pages or approximately 7,000 words, and should follow the most recent MLA guidelines. A separate title page should include the author’s name and address. The author’s name should not appear on the manuscript pages to allow for blind review.

Send two hard copies and a CD of the manuscript to:
FACS Editor
Department of Languages and Linguistics
Florida Atlantic University
777 Glades Road
P.O. Box 3091
Boca Raton, FL 33341-0991
E-mail submissions should be sent to facs_at_fau.edu. All electronic versions should be submitted in Microsoft Word.

Graduate Student Career Workshops: January/February 2006

Navigating the Academic Job Search
Wednesday, January 18th, 3 pm – 4 pm

Learn about a career in academia including: various types of higher education institutions, faculty employment & salaries, career requirements & expectations, and how to begin your search.

Navigating the Non-Academic Job Search
Thursday, January 19th, 3 pm – 4 pm

Learn how to find employment opportunities outside of higher education and how to market your Masters or Ph.D. degree and your transferable skills to employers.

Designing a Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Thursday, February 9th, 3 pm – 4 pm

If you’re applying for a faculty, teaching, research, or postdoctoral position, most likely you will be asked to submit a CV. Learn how to design & tailor your CV for particular positions and institutions.

Components of the Academic Application
Wednesday, February 15th, 3 pm – 4 pm

The workshop provides an overview of the common components of higher education applications: cover letters, teaching portfolios, statements of research interests, and dissertation abstracts.


Academic Interviewing & Salary Negotiation
Thursday, February 16th, 3 pm – 4:30 pm

The workshop describes screening and on-campus interviews, provides a handout on sample academic interview questions, and offers insight into negotiating multiple salary components.

You MUST register to attend the workshops.
All workshops will be held in the Career Development Center, Boca Campus, SU 220. To register, visit www.cdc.fau.edu and click on the “Calendar of Events.” You can register on-line 24/7 by clicking on the title of the workshop of interest. If you have questions regarding these workshops and/or graduate student career services, contact Jennifer Blythe (jblythe@fau.edu & (561) 297-3533).