2002 Conference on Word and Act Sponsored by the Department of English in cooperation with the Armstrong Browning Library and the American Studies Program Baylor University Waco, Texas

February 15-16, 2002

Keynote Address to be given by Dr. Thomas S. Hibbs, Boston College

Central to our pursuit of the humanities is the conviction that what we say to and about others directly affects what we do to them. Recent interdisciplinary work has highlighted a number of ways the stories we tell, the games we play, and the very words we use both reflect and create the world we experience as "given" to us in any of several senses.

"Beyond the Covers" is an interdisciplinary forum for conversation about the ways in which we populate the "real" world with words in speech, writing, reading, and teaching. Papers relating divergent fields through specific texts are particularly desired, but relevant papers from any literary, rhetorical, or pedagogical angle will be given full consideration. Papers should generally focus on the relationships of words to acts, or ways in which words are acts.

>>> Sample Panel Topics <<< (by no means comprehensive!)