SMU to host Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature

On April 8-9, Saint Mary’s will host the 19th annual Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature. The conference, funded this year by SMU’s School of Humanities and Sciences and coordinated by Dr. John Kerr of the English Department, will bring advanced scholars, graduate students, and select undergraduates from the upper Midwest (and farther) to discuss literary-critical, theoretical, and pedagogical issues concerning the early literatures of the British Isles.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Dolores Frese of the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Frese will offer a talk titled “The Trace of Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia in Some Canterbury Tales, and Why It Matters.” Niki Ciulla, an SMU Literature major and Medieval and Renaissance Studies minor, will present a paper on Marie de France’s “Guigemar.”

The conference program is available at www.smumn.edu/npcebl2011. For further information, contact Dr. Kerr at ext. 1673.