Association for the Study of

Biennial conference: participants come together to hear a range of plenary speakers, on topics such as animal studies, photography and climate change, and the newest forms of environmental writing. the conference provides members with opportunities to present their own work, discuss their teaching and other professional topics, and to participate in seminars, workshops, and field experiences. This past year it was held may 28- june 1, 2013 at the university of Kansas with 700 participating members. Travel grants of various amounts were given to students, international participants, and independent scholars to assist with their attendance at the conference.

Membership: asle activities serve the professional and scholarly needs and interest of members and provide them with opportunities to serve the field. the 1450 asle members receive the edited scholarly journal, isle, and the Association newsletter, asle news, four times yearly. They are eligible to run for office, serve in appointed coordinator roles, and serve on Association committees. Members can attend the biennial conference to share their work and research with others, and are eligible to submit their work for consideration for an asle writing award. Student members can participate in the graduate student mentoring program. Members often join our social media and discussion lists to discuss pedagogy, publishing, conferences, etc. In the environmental humanities.

Publications isle journal: interdisciplinary studies in literature and environment is a quarterly publication of asle, and is distributed to asle members (approximately 1450) and institutional subscribers (approximately 1000 sites). It consist of high quality juried content, both scholarly articles in ecocriticism and creative works of nonfiction and poetry. Asle news: the Association produces a quarterly e-newsletter for the beenfit of members and others interested in the activities of asle. the newsletter is primarily an online publication that members get by e-mail, or they can download it in pdf form from the website.

Asle writing awards: asle gives out awards at the biennial conference to honor outstanding work in environmental writing. Two awards are given for books, scholarly and creative, and two for graduate student papers, scholarly and creative. Stickers for author use are also produced for book winners. These awards were established to encourage excellence in the field. Web activities: members and the general public can access the organization's information & web resources, such as a syllabi database, bibliographies on environmental topics, calls for papers for conferences and manuscripts, graduate student handbook, and mentoring program information. Two blogs cover topics related to diversity and graduate student issues. Three discussion lists are now active: general, graduate student, and science fiction. Asle also has twitter (751) and facebook followers (1,712) and posts regularly.