ADE Summer Seminars
2009 ADE-ADFL Summer Seminar East
11–14 June
Renaissance Providence Hotel
Host: Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island
22–25 June
The Flamingo Las Vegas
Host: University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
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 West, which will include a preseminar workshop for DGSs.
You may view programs for past ADE seminars by following the links below:
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.
Attendance at the ADE seminars is limited to representatives from member departments. If you would like information about having your department join ADE, click here.
Endorsements from Attendees
"The seminar was without question the most beneficial meeting I have attended in a long, long time."—Warren J. Carson, U of South Carolina
"The articulation workshop was first-rate. It included basic information about transferring courses, as well as for encouraging connections between two- and four-year institutions through innovative course offerings."—Susan Frye, U of Wyoming
"The presentations and discussions are thought-provoking and informative. The informal conversations with colleagues are invaluable."—Stacy Burton, U of Nevada, Reno
"The workshop for new chairs was informative and community-building."—Susan Hunter, Clayton SU
"An exemplary gathering."—Michelle Massé, Louisiana SU
"The collaborative wealth of experience shared and generated, the collegiality of participants, the validation and affirmation one receives from hearing problems one shares addressed—all these strike me as valuable aspects of the seminar, including the real benefit of coming away with problems not necessarily solved but with innovative ideas on how to resolve them. … The different participation formats sustain engagement with the various topics and foster plenty of stimulating, interactive discussion. The two seminars I’ve attended strike me as exceptionally well organized and well run. I leave feeling deeply proud of my profession."—Marion Hollings, Middle Tennessee SU