The Keyboard in the Garden

This summer, the English Department at Delaware Valley College will host the 2008 ASLE Off-Year Symposium. Scholars and students are invited to submit paper and panel proposals related to the main conference theme, or any of the following related areas:

• Nature and Design
• Parks (City and National)
• Gardens (Formal, Informal, Vegetable)
• Landscape Design and Designers (e.g. Frederick Law Olmstead)
• Gardens as repository for scientific study (e.g., Bartram's Garden)
• Botanical Gardens
• Gardens as Archetypes
• Gardens as Metaphors
• Gardens of Earthly delights
• Creative writing: fiction, nonfiction, poetry

Please submit a one-page proposal (including any audio-visual requests) by February 29, 2008 to Richard Hunt at . For more information on this event, please download any of the PDF links below using Adobe Reader (please visit the Adobe homepage in order to download a free copy of Adobe Reader).

• Call For Papers
• Conference Registration Form
• Local Bed & Breakfasts
• Local Hotels & Motels
• Local Restaurants & Eateries
• Driving Directions to DelVal
• Conference Program (TBA)

We would also like to encourage existing panel and/or roundtables on any aspect of the conference theme. Due to both the general idea of the off-year symposium and the relatively small size of the college, we need to limit the conference to roughly 100 participants. On-campus housing will be available for the full conference.

Participants will be welcomed Friday evening with a reception featuring live music, courtesy of the Bucks County Folk Song Society, along with a buffet and cash bar. Saturday evening will feature a banquet and keynote speaker (TBA). On Sunday afternoon, we'll offer optional field trips, including one to Bartram's Garden in Philadelphia.

Delaware Valley College is located in a formerly rural region an hour north of Philadelphia, and is easily accessible via air, rail or highway. The college began life over a century ago as the National Farm School, and though both times and the region change, it proudly retains much of its original focus on science and agriculture.