*Announcing Call for Papers for 38th Annual New Jersey College English Association * *OUT OF SYNC: TEACHING LITERATURE in the DIGITAL ERA* This year’s conference seeks papers as well as electronic media projects focusing on the future of literature and writing studies in the early 21st century. Featuring panel discussions and professional demos, “Out of Sync: Teaching Literature in the Digital Era” proposes to examine how digital education technologies have recently transformed both the practice and instruction of the literary arts in today’s academy. Possible topics to be explored may include: the influence of big data, rapid innovation, and startup culture on the teaching and study of literature; how literary theory has responded politically, materially and aesthetically to the digital era; the shrinking size and intellectual role of humanities departments in postsecondary institutions. We are looking for both scholarship and apps or tech demonstrations that explore the intersection between literature and educational technology. *PRESENTATION PROPOSALS FOR THE FOLLOWING TWO CONFERENCE PANELS ARE NOW BEING ACCEPTED* * 1. After the Book: Critical Reflections on Digital Storytelling and its Challenges to Traditional Narrative Models in Electronic Literature.* As the literary arts continue to expand in scope to include multimodal formats and new production and distribution tools, the very concept of what a text is and how it functions is undergoing its most significant transformation in half a millennium. This panel welcomes papers on how traditional print-based modes of narration and storytelling will continue to develop as digital media. Possible topics include: § Educational uses of digital storytelling § The Move from narrative structures to databases as a mode of organizing, chronicling and communicating storylines. § Coding as a literary form § Immersion and interactive narratives within digital media § Narratology and multimodal media format *2. Precariat Labor and University Teaching in the Humanities* By now we’re all familiar with the same oft-quoted statistics: the ratio of available tenure-track positions in American universities to the amount of Ph.Ds awarded each year is roughly 1:7. In Humanities related fields that ratio is even more unbalanced. Undergraduates in most English programs across the country have less than a 50 per cent chance of having a tenured or tenure-track faculty member as their professor. This panel welcomes papers on how the increasingly precarious state of employment for university professors is likely affecting scholarship, pedagogy and course and program design in the literary arts and beyond. Possible topics include: § Digital labor in the university: how digital technologies are transforming teaching and service in higher education § Role of literature in an information-based economy and its relationship to the so-called “creative industries.” § Ethnographies of digital work: the race and gender politics of online courses § Digital labor and gaming/gamification in relation to online teaching and course design § The Networked Student: the use and effect of crowdsourcing on student assignments and curriculum design § The use of automated essay scoring in online teaching *Presentation Proposals *of 250-500 words can be submitted here: http://goo.gl/forms/fFzGwTCWHU *DEADLINE:* *January 16, 2015* *WORKING RECIPES - THE TECH TEST KITCHEN: DEMOS and ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION on TEACHING with NEW EDUCATION TECHNOLOGIES* In addition to the panel presentations, the conference will also feature a special, ongoing demo session able to highlight new digital education technologies now development or ready for use. Participants in the “Tech Test Kitchen” will be given the opportunity to introduce their tools and answer questions in a later round table discussion on how these technologies and methods may be transforming our pedagogies and teaching practices. *Individual proposals to demo tools and new teaching methods in the Tech Test Kitchen are now being accepted. Please provide a cover sheet including your name, the title or name of the tool you will be featuring and a brief 100 to 250 word description of its various features and capabilities to Dr. Andrew Klobucar, NJCEA Conference Organizer via **klobucar@njit.edu* <klobucar@njit.edu>*. Please note that wire frame renderings and concept art are also acceptable. These demos do not have to feature fully finished projects and technologies. A chief aim of this session and discussion is to introduce new ideas and arguments concerning teaching with education technologies.* *DEADLINE: January 16, 2015* Andrew Klobucar Associate Professor Department of Humanities 428 Cullimore Hall 973.596.5724 klobucar@njit.edu