The Fourth International Conference on Ecological Discourse, held by Dept. of English, on May 23rd and 24th, in Chueh-sheng International Conference Hall, Chung-ling International Conference Hall (Q409) and step-classroom of College of Education (Q306). The paper presenters include more than 50 scholars coming from the United States, Germany, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, India, Malaysia, and Taiwan. The presentations are divided into two sessions and proceed at the same time.

The topic in this year, “Crisscrossing Word and World: Ecocriticism, Crisis, and Representation,” focuses on global environmental problems and local indigenous socio-ecological issues, and its representation in literature, film, music, and animation. Dr. Lin Yao-fu, the former dean of College of Foreign languages who has initiated the conference claims that ecological crisis is cultural crisis. The chair of Dept. of English, Dr. Huang I-min said “with this conference, we hope to devote our energies to ‘reverse the crisis’.”

In addition to four keynote speeches by four distinguished foreign scholars, Patrick Murphy, Catherine Rigby, Michael Zimmerman, Scott Slovic, there are over 50 academic papers. The local participants come from TKU, NTU, NAYSU, NTTU, CYCU, NUTN, PU, NCHU and NTNU and Taiwan indigenous writers and tribal leaders. The assistant professor of Dept. of English, Chen Chien-chih indicates that since the first Tamkang ecological conference held in 2000, the scope of this interdisciplinary symposium, which incorporates ecology with literatures of various fields, have been proactive. This earth-friendly conference, held once two-three years (2000, 2003, 2005, 2008), has won great reputation and attracted attention by the native and foreign scholars. ( ~Wu Shu-ting )