ADE Summer Seminars

2010 ADE Summer Seminar East
3-6 June
Marriott Inn and Conference Center
Host: Kent Cartwright, English Department
University of Maryland, College Park
Adelphi, MD
Per-night room rate: $119 plus 6% tax (single or double occupancy)

Seminar registration fee: $450
Covers two dinners, three continental breakfasts, one lunch, coffee breaks and receptions
Workshop for New Chairs: $100 additional
Covers food and beverage costs associated with the workshop

2010 ADE Summer Seminar West
21–24 June
DoubleTree Hotel Claremont
Host: Kevin J. H. Dettmar, English Department
Pomona College
Claremont, CA
Per-night room rate: $109 plus 10% tax (single or double occupancy)

Seminar registration fee: $450
Covers two dinners, three continental breakfasts, one lunch, coffee breaks and receptions
Workshop for New Chairs: $100 additional
Covers food and beverage costs associated with the workshop

Each June, the chairs and directors of graduate study of ADE-member departments assemble at summer seminars in order to develop and sustain a community of shared interests and to articulate, in a collective voice, their professional judgment on matters of interest to English departments and humanities divisions.

Seminar participants develop administrative know-how; alert one another to emerging problems and opportunities in administration, curricula, and scholarship; pass on lore, tips, and lessons learned; consult with one another in confidence; collaborate on the best responses to today’s problems; gain wide perspective on their local situations; gather information to take back to their campuses; establish support networks of trusted colleagues; and lend their individual expertise in support of the ADE’s authority to issue statements of best practices, statistical analyses, policy recommendations, and reports from the field and to the field.

At each seminar, two practiced department chairs facilitate a workshop for new chairs, especially for chairs who are about to begin or just completing a first year. The workshops are a day-long crash-course in managing budgets, negotiating with administrators, and the many other specific issues that participants bring to the table.

Directors of graduate studies are encouraged to attend Seminar East, which will include a preseminar workshop for DGSs.

You may view programs for past ADE seminars by following the links below:
ADE Seminar West 2009
ADE-ADFL Seminar East 2009
ADE Seminar West 2008
ADE Seminar East 2008
ADE Seminar South 2007
ADE-ADFL Seminar North 2007
ADE Seminar East 2006
ADE Seminar West 2006
ADE Seminar East 2005
ADE Seminar West 2005
ADE Seminar Midwest 2004
ADE Seminar East 2004

If you are trying to secure funding from your dean to attend the ADE Seminar, we invite you to use a Letter from Deans on the value of attending the seminars and Endorsements from Seminar Attendees.

"I was very impressed to find such collegiality among everyone from huge universities to two-year colleges. The MLA is not out of touch with our needs."—Phillip A. Snyder, Brigham Young Univ.

"More than any other conference I have ever attended, the moderators and presenters were excellent at encouraging responses and ideas from the audience. There were genuine conversations and conferences. This was an extraordinarily well-run seminar."—Eric Hyman, Fayetteville SU

"I consider the seminars essential to my success and effectiveness in my position and a lifeline of best practices funneled through them back into my department."—Marion Hollings, Middle Tennessee State Univ.

"I take away from the seminar a huge amount of information, advice, and ideas. I feel more connected to the profession (and encouraged by that) and more able to make good things happen in my program. I also value greatly the people that I met and the relationships I found at the meeting. It is a great set-up. It was expertly organized and very efficient."—Laura Runge, Univ. of South Florida

"I learn a tremendous amount from the presentations and conversations with colleagues."—Irwin Weiser, Purdue Univ.