Tim Orange, a theater student at Florida A&M University, was awarded the Margaret Walker Memorial Prize for Creative Writing by the College Language Association.
These two English majors from Hampton University were among a handful of undergraduates who got the chance to show off their academic prowess at the annual convention of the College Language Association — the largest gathering of literary and language scholars whose work focuses on African, Caribbean and African American themes.
Mack and Carter who wrote their senior capstone thesis paper on Invisible Man, participated in a panel discussion at CLA’s convention in New Orleans last week and was treated to rare feedback from some of the nation’s most visible and established literary scholars.
“As a young scholar, it’s been great to be here,” says Mack, who will graduate from Hampton in May and has plans to go on to earn a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition or African-American Studies. “I’ve been able to share my ideas with other faculty from across the country and have been able to soak in so much wisdom and knowledge.”
For Carter, who will begin a Masters program in English at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in the Fall, the opportunity to network, establish mentors and share his research with others was transformative.
“You can’t ignore the camaraderie that goes on around here,” says Carter. “There is a genuine love for the field and each other. It’s very encouraging to be in a place where people are sticking together and helping to take care of each other in the academy.”
Mentoring a new generation of younger scholars has always been a key component of the work of CLA, says Dr. Dr. Dana A. Williams, chair of the English department at Howard University and the incoming president of the 77 year-old organization that was founded after African-American academics felt excluded from the Modern Language Association.
