The writer Daniel Pink prophesizes widely on what he describes as a cultural transition from our era—an “Age of Information,” to an alleged “Age of Conception,” a transition which has induced educators in British and in many Southeast Asian countries to attempt to inculcate creativity in their students in order to better prepare them for competition in the global marketplace. One symptom of this new age, the development of a global cyber network, or what Thomas Friedman calls the “digital platform,” has given to each and every entrepreneur the potential to expand his or her trade and sale of services and products to consumers worldwide, making those marketplaces competitive on a global scale.
In response to this challenge, the Historically Black University (HBCU) Claflin University has set a goal known as the Claflin Imperative, which “[prepares] students for leadership and service in a multicultural, global, and technological society.” Furthermore, for each of the past ten years the university has hosted the Claflin University Conference on Contemporary English and Language Arts Pedagogy to give local and regional educators a chance to share and to keep abreast of the latest developments in language teaching. Former contributors to the conference are invited to submit proposals for (1) a section on the history of the conference; faculty (and former faculty) of any HCBU are invited to submit proposals for (2) a section of pedagogy practices used at HCBU’s; moreover, faculty at all other types of institutions are invited to submit proposals for (3) a section on mainstream pedagogies used to prepare students for the “Age of Conception.”

Editors: Donald Pardlow, Sharynn Etheridge, Susan Till, and Mary Alice Trent, Claflin University

Preliminary abstracts of 300 words or less should be sent by July 30, 2011. Possible subjects include but are not limited to the areas of classical rhetoric, language acquisition, computer literacy, creative-writing pedagogy, creativity, assessment, portfolios, service learning, literary studies, literary criticism, writing across the curriculum, writing program administration, writing center administration, and basic writing. Accepted manuscripts should be written between 2500 and 6250 words, should be written in the current MLA format, and should be sent electronically in Word or a Word-compatible format (.doc, .docx, or .rtf) to Donald Pardlow (dpardlow@claflin.edu).