Category Archives: 5th Biennial JUS Conference

2018 Schiff Travel Grant winners announced

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Thanks to the Robert and Adele Schiff Family Foundation, the John Updike Society was able to offer grants to scholars to help them travel to Serbia to present their work at the 5th Biennial John Updike Society Conference in Belgrade, June 1-5, 2018.

The society is pleased to announce the recipients of the $1500 Schiff Travel Grants for young scholars under 40 and also the recipients of the $1000 Schiff Travel Grants for members to help defray travel expenses so they can share their projects in Belgrade:

2018 Schiff Travel Grant Recipients ($1500)

Matthew Asprey Gear (“Mustered Opinions: John Updike’s Non-Fiction Collections”)

Natia Kvachakidze (“‘Words, words words’ Or Some Peculiarities of the Georgian Translation of John Updike’s ‘Tomorrow and Tomorrow and So Forth'”)

Lynn Leibowitz-Whitehead (“The Religion of Sex: An Evaluation of Its Effects on the Family Unit in Updike’s Couples“)

Gideon Nachtman (“Artificial in Essence”: Reevaluating the Critical and Academic Reception of John Updike’s Light Verse”)

2018 Schiff Travel Grant Recipients ($1000)

Louis Gordon (“Updike’s Middle East”)

Jon Houlon (“The Ballad of Henry Bech”)

Wei Lun Lu (“Translating, Rendering and Reconstructing Updike’s Stream of Consciousness: The Case of ‘A&P’s Translations into Mandarin”)

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Wanna get away to Serbia? Schiff Travel Grant deadline approaching

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The November 30 deadline is fast approaching for those Updike scholars and up-and-coming Updike scholars wanting to apply for a Schiff Travel Grant to help them attend the 5th Biennial John Updike Society Conference in Belgrade, Serbia. The conference, hosted by the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade, will take place the first week in June 2018. The conference is shaping up to be one of the most memorable.

First-time programs always get fewer applicants than one imagines. Don’t miss out on an opportunity of a lifetime. Propose a paper to present! Up to four $1500 grants will be awarded to scholars under 40 and up to three $1000 travel-to-conference grants will be awarded to society members needing assistance. And these days, who doesn’t?

The travel grants are the result of a generous donation from The Robert and Adele Schiff Family Foundation, whose support has enabled The John Updike Society to purchase and restore The John Updike Childhood Home in Shillington, Pa. Applicants need not be members at the time of application, but must join the society before grants can be paid.

Both types of grants are merit- and need-based.

TO APPLY:  Interested scholars should send to James Plath (jplath@iwu.edu):

—a one-page proposal for a 15- to 20-minute paper appropriate for the conference

—one additional paragraph about yourself, what grant you are applying for, and why the grant is important to you.

The selection committee will make their decisions and announce successful applicants by the end of the first week of December 2017.

Registration and conference information

Updike 1978 Serbian interview translated

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The John Updike Society will hold its 5th biennial conference in Belgrade, Serbia the first week of June 2018, and all are welcome to attend (registration information). The conference celebrates Updike abroad, Updike in translation, and the 50th anniversary of the publication of Couples. This interview on “Where the Couples Are Today” covers all three of those bases:  it was conducted in Belgrade, it’s newly translated, and it focuses on Couples.

Updike gave the interview to the daily Politika while he was in Belgrade in October 1978, and it was published on the 19th. The interview was translated recently by Jasna Todorovic, a doctoral student of John Updike Society board member Biljana Dojcinovic. Below are the pages as they were published. Here is the translation: WHERE THE COUPLES ARE TODAY

Schiff Travel Grants to help scholars get to Serbia

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After holding conferences in Reading, Pa. (2010, 2014), Boston, Mass. (2012), and Columbia, S.C. (2016), The John Updike Society will travel abroad for the first time in in its brief history during the first week of June 2018. The 5th Biennial John Updike Society Conference will be hosted by the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade, in Serbia.

That may pose an economic hardship for some scholars, but relief is available through Schiff Travel Grants.

Thanks to a generous donation from The Robert and Adele Schiff Family Foundation, the society will award up to four $1500 travel-to-conference grants for scholars under 40 to be able to attend the Serbia conference. Applicants need not be members at the time, but must join before grants can be paid.

In addition, up to three $1000 travel-to-conference grants will be awarded to society members needing assistance to be able to participate in the conference.

Both grants are merit- and need-based, and interested scholars should apply by November 30, 2017.

To apply, send a one-page proposal for a 15- to 20-minute paper appropriate for the conference, along with one paragraph about yourself, what grant you are applying for, and why the grant is important to you, to society president James Plath (jplath@iwu.edu). The selection committee will make their decisions and announce successful applicants by the end of the first week of December 2017.

Registration opens for Updike conference in Serbia

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Registration is now open for the 5th Biennial John Updike Society Conference, June 1-5 2018, hosted by the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philology. The conference celebrates the 50th anniversary of Couples and Updike abroad and in translation. All are welcome to participate. Society members include not just professors, but teachers, members of the clergy, college presidents, writers, editors, librarians, lawyers, entrepreneurs, Updike family and friends, and the just plain lovers of books that Updike so appreciated. Below is a PDF featuring the registration form and all the information you need regarding the preliminary schedule, featured speakers, call for papers, things to do, and lodging (Important: you MUST book a room by March 1, 2018). See you in Serbia!

Added 23 August 2017:  Information on Schiff Travel Grants for scholars needing financial assistance to be able to participate.

Updike in Serbia registration

Michael Updike to present in Belgrade

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Michael Updike, a slate sculptor by profession, will travel to Serbia next June for the Fifth Biennial John Updike Society Conference. He will present a special slideshow and talk about the year that his father, John Updike, spent in London with the family after Couples was published. Included will be slides of “side vacations to Morocco, Austria, etc.,” Michael said. The conference themes are Updike abroad and Updike in translation, and 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of Couples.

Also featured will be keynote speakers Ian McEwan and Alexander Shurbanov, Updike’s Bulgarian translator. The Fifth Biennial John Updike Society Conference, 1-5 June 2018, will be hosted by the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade. Updike visited Belgrade in 1978 when it was the capital of Yugoslavia. The city, a rising tourist destination, is now the capital of Serbia.

The John Updike Society has been fortunate to have the participation of the Updike family since the very beginning, when, at the First Biennial John Updike Society Conference at Alvernia University in Reading, Pa., Updike’s first wife Mary and three of their children (Elizabeth, Michael, and Miranda) took part in a panel discussion and Q/A. The second conference at Suffolk University in Boston featured an exhibit of objects mentioned in the fiction, presented by Michael and Elizabeth, along with a visit to the house that Updike lived in and a gracious tour provided by Mary, and a walking tour of Ipswich led by Michael. David Updike offered a presentation on “Family Archaeology: pictures, objects, words” at the third conference, held again at Alvernia University in Reading, while at the Fourth Biennial John Updike Society Conference at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C., David and Miranda shared slides and memories of their parents’ Ipswich years.

Conference registration will be posted on or shortly after July 8, 2018. A preliminary schedule and other conference-related articles have been previously posted.

Students research Updike in Belgrade, 1978

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Biljana Dojčinović, director of the upcoming June 2018 Fifth Biennial John Updike Society Conference in Belgrade, Serbia, assigned two of her graduate students the task of finding out more about Updike’s visit to the city back in 1978, when it was still a part of Yugoslavia.

Sanja Sudar researched newspaper and magazine articles describing Updike’s visit; Nemanja Glintić researched documents of the Writers Union, especially pertaining to how Updike came to be invited and what the itinerary was like for the visiting writers. Colleagues from the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade translated the students’ reports into English.

“I hope this will be interesting reading,” Dojčinović said. Complete conference registration information will be made available within the next several weeks, but with interest running high the society wanted to share the students’ research right away, with gratitude to both of them and their translators:

“Updike in Belgrade: (Until) 1978,” written by Sanja Sudar and translated by Milica Abramović, Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade.

“The Narrative Report: The Association of Serbian Writers Preparations for the 15th International Writers October Summit in Belgrade in 1978 — John Updike,” written by Nemanja Glintić and translated by Anja Radić, Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade.

The above photo is a screen capture from a media clip of the interview conducted at the Writers Union in 1978, reprinted here courtesy of RTS (Radio and TV Serbia). The full clip can be seen at the society’s Facebook page.

Fifth Biennial John Updike Society Conference Call for Papers

 

Preliminary schedule announced for Updike conference in Serbia

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The John Updike Society has held four successful conferences, and the upcoming Fifth Biennial John Updike Society Conference is already shaping up to be one of the best. Below is a preliminary schedule for the conference. Registration information will follow shortly. Note that “on own” means that for logistical reasons the cost is not included in the basic academic conference registration. Note too that the day trip will be an additional cost. Most people in Belgrade speak some English, but bilingual graduate students will be available to help as guides. Those wishing to share research should see the Call for Papers.

DAY 1—Friday, June 1

5:30-7:15pm—Registration open

6:00-7:15pm—Reception hosted by the Faculty of Philology

7:30-7:40pm—Welcome by the Dean of the Faculty of Philology and President of the Society

7:40-9pm—Opening Keynote: Ian McEwan (talk, questions, booksigning)

DAY 2—Saturday, June 2

8:30am-1pm—Registration open

8:30-9:20am—Plenary Session (Panel: Translating Updike)

9:45-11am—Academic Sessions (two concurrent, three papers each plus moderator)

11:15am-12:15pm—Keynote: Prof. Alexander Shurbanov (Updike’s Bulgarian translator)

12:30-2pm—Lunch at Writer’s Union Club (where Updike had lunch; includes a look at the press conference room where Updike was interviewed)

2:30-5:30pm—Tour of the Tesla Museum (pictured below)

6-8pm—Reception at the residence of U.S. Ambassador Kyle Randolph Scott

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Come to Belgrade: A Fifth Biennial John Updike Society Conference teaser

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Fifth Biennial John Updike Society Conference director Biljana Dojčinović, Professor in the Dept. of Comparative Literature and Theory of Literature, Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, Serbia, has put together a teaser for the upcoming conference in Serbia, formerly part of Yugoslavia. All are welcome to attend. Registration details will be announced soon on the John Updike Society website and Facebook page, but for now, mark June 1-5 2018 on your calendars.

Call for Papers

BBC Travel article on “Serbia: the place to be; A Rich History and Culture,” which includes “The Perfect Belgrade Itinerary,” subtitled, “Forget Berlin, Paris or Rome: for a city break rich in culture, history, scenery and gastronomy, yet unspoiled by the tourist masses, try Belgrade instead”

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Teaching Updike in Serbia

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Already in Serbia there is excitement and anticipation of the upcoming Fifth Biennial (International?) John Updike Society Conference in Belgrade, scheduled for June 1-June 5, 2018 and hosted by the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade. Conference director Biljana Dojčinović reports that a doctoral student of hers “who is also a very devoted member of the organizational committee of our future conference, Nemanja Gllintić, has made an interesting teaching experiment.

“As he is a primary school teacher of language and literature, he lectured at two of his final grade classes (15-year-old children) the story ‘Friends in Philadelphia.’ The reception of the story by the pupils has been fantastic. Everybody read it (it had been translated into Serbian in 1966), did their research, and understood everything about the narrative techniques as well as the documentary elements.

“The teaching staff colleagues that Nemanja invited to be at these lectures where stunned by the pupils’ performance and all the enthusiasm that permeated these lectures. Also amazed were some of the parents I spoke later to—their children made them read the story in order to discuss it with them!

“Nemanje is now writing the report, and there will be a written and video poll among the pupils, which will be translated into English. Right now, the pupils are busy with their homework, which is to write a sequel to the story.”

Call for Papers and Other Fifth International JUS Conference posts