The Pennsylvania College English Association

PCEA Mission Statement

The Pennsylvania College English Association (PCEA) provides a forum for the debate and discussion of ideas surrounding literature and literacy studies.  It strives, moreover, to promote and foster inquiry into our world as it is presented in literature of all genres.  Equally important with promoting literary inquiry, the PCEA actively strives to give voice to those who endeavor to create new kinds of literacies. The PCEA organization has been serving English professionals since before 1970.

PCEA/CEA 2009 Conference


 Conference Overview

This year PCEA is collaborating with our national organization, the College English Association (CEA) to put on a joint Annual Conference. This year's conference will take place on March 26-28, 2009, at the Omni William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, PA. This year's Conference Program Chair is Miles Kimball.

Conference Theme: Design

This year's conference theme is Design. We live in a world atomized into text messages and jump cuts, socially constructed snippets on networking sites, fragmented blogs and news bites, ones and zeroes. In such a context, is there still a role for conscious design – of literature, of art, of rhetoric, of learning? After the death of the author, who designs the texts we love to see, read, and study? Or do we make our own designations, sketching out the plot, shading in the design, creating meaning as we find it?

Conference Proposals

If you are interested in presenting at the 2009 PCEA/CEA Conference, please submit your abstract online as soon as possible. Please note that the deadline for PCEA proposals is Nov. 15th even though the CEA deadline is Nov. 1st. The PCEA Board has negotiated with CEA for an extension of the regular proposal deadline for PCEA members.

Submissions should be submitted online via the CEA website. Specific details on this year's call for papers are available through the link below:

Proposers Should Indicate PCEA Affiliation

During the submission process, be sure to specify "Pennsylvania CEA" as one of the topic areas for your proposal. It is vital that you note you are affiliated with Pennsylvania CEA when you submit your proposal because our local state organization is dependent on this type of registration for our funding this year. Please make sure CEA knows you are a dedicated PCEA member when you submit your proposal!

PCEA has been allotted 25 panels at the national CEA conference, which means up to 100 PCEA members, including faculty and student panelists, can be accommodated. Abstracts (200-500 words) submitted under "Pennsylvania CEA" may encompass the usual PCEA concerns in scholarship, pedagogy, composition, and creative writing, and should be submitted only in the form of abstracts; full submission of papers, articles, stories, or poems should not be done as only abstracts are needed. We especially welcome proposals that contribute to the CEA conference theme of “Design.”

Extended Proposal Deadline

The extended deadline for proposal submissions is November 15th, 2008. Successful proposal authors will be notified by December 5th, 2008.

Please note that the deadline for PCEA proposals is indeed Nov. 15th even though the CEA deadline is Nov. 1st. The PCEA Board has negotiated with CEA for an extension of the regular proposal deadline for PCEA members.

Joint PCEA/CEA Membership

This year you have the option to enroll in PCEA and CEA for a 1 year joint membership. PCEA members must join CEA by January 1 to be eligible to present at the 2009 conference. Your CEA dues will cover your PCEA membership for the current academic year. You can join CEA online using this link:

You may also join CEA by mail using this printable membership form:

CEA 2009 Program Chair

For questions about the program or the CEA online submission system, please contact Miles Kimball, CEA 2009 Program Chair:

Conference Hotel

To reserve a room for the conference, please contact the Omni William Penn Hotel. Ask for the CEA Conference Rate which is $132 if you book your room by Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009.

Conference Location: Pittsburgh, PA

The 2009 PCEA/CEA Conference is being held in one of the United State's premiere cities. Pittsburgh is a wonderful place to visit, with a wide variety of entertainment to offer. To read more about Pittsburgh, please click below: