The English Graduate Student Association is presenting its 15th annual research conference Significations, which will be held on Saturday, April 24th, 2010 from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM in the University Student Union. As a showcase for graduate research and writing, this conference has witnessed an increase in state-wide participation over the years. In addition to presentations from our own CSULA students, we will be hosting a number of students from throughout the CSU system. 

We are very excited to welcome this year's keynote speaker, UCLA professor Eric Avila who will be sharing some of his latest work in a talk entitled "The End Was Near: Los Angeles and National Decline between Watts and Watergate."

We invite all students as well as family members and friends to attend panels throughout the day. All panels and the keynote address are free and open to the public.

For those who wish to register as participants in the conference, the conference fee is $20. Participants are welcome to join us for continental breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon reception, and will be provided with a digital copy of the conference proceedings. Additional copies of the conference proceedings may be purchased for $5.

CSULA students who register before April 16, 2010 will receive full reimbursement of their conference fee on the day of the event. In order to register, please pick up a registration form in the English Department mail room or use one of the links in the box at the top of this page.

For more information, please contact Jazmin Delgado and Christian Monte at significations.10@gmail.com, or call the Cal State L.A. English Department at (323) 343-4140.

About the Speaker

Eric Avila received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of California at Berkeley. Since 1997, he has taught Chicano Studies and History at UCLA where  he is an Associate Professor in History and in Chicana/o Studies. He is the author of Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles, published by the University of California Press in 2004. His research has won various awards and prizes, including the recent inclusion of his article, "Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Film Noir Disneyland, and the Cold War (Sub)Urban Imaginary" published in the Journal of Urban History, within a new publication by the Organization of American Historians featuring the ten best articles in American history written between the summers of 2004 and 2005. He recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, in the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, where he began research for a second book project, entitled, The Folklore of the Freeway: A Cultural History of Highway Construction.