What to Expect at NUCL

The Shape of the Day

All conference participants will convene on the morning of the conference at the University of Portland's campus to sign in and attend a welcoming address.

Following this brief opening session, participants will proceed to the first of three sessions.

If you are not giving a paper during Session I, you will be able to sit in on any of the panels occurring at that time: we hope and expect that you'll attend a panel that intrigues you, listen to the presentations, and enter into conversation with the speakers during the Q&A. If you are presenting your paper during Session I, you'll be seated at the head table in the room, where you'll present your work as well as listen to others present theirs. You, too, can ask questions afterward during the Q&A. The same pattern holds for each Session.

We expect that each panel will draw an audience of 10-20 people.

Session II will take place before lunch. Afterwards, we will all proceed to lunch and the NUCL Awards presentation.

Following lunch and the presentation of awards, we will reconvene for the keynote address.

The panels for Session III will begin after the keynote address. After session III there will be a closing reception.

What to Expect in Panel Sessions

We have tried to create panels in which all of the papers share a link — related texts, historical era, shared theoretical approach, etc. This commonality will allow for connections and conversations between the panelists.

Each panel has three or four members, plus one University of Portland student to serve as respondent. The panelists will sit at the front of the room, and the respondent will introduce each panelist before he or she presents. The respondent will remind you to take no more than 18 minutes, and then give you a gentle warning as you approach that time limit. In order to allow time for the rest of the panel and for discussion, respondents will ensure that you don't exceed 20 minutes (regardless of whether you've finished presenting or not).

Once the three or four papers have been read, the respondent will invite questions and comments from the audience. Ideally, presenters and audience members will then have a fun, free-wheeling conversation!   

Questions? Please contact us at nucl@up.edu.

NUCL is sponsored by University of Portland's Department of English, Office of the Provost, College of Arts & Sciences, and Dean of Admissions.

"To talk in public, to think in solitude, to read and to hear, to inquire, and to answer inquiries, is the business of a scholar." Samuel Johnson, Chapter VIII, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia