History of the Carolina Graduate Literature Society

 

Although the name is new, the organization's roots are not. Formerly known as the American Literature Colloquium (ALC), the Carolina Graduate Literature Society was founded in 1997 to foster intellectual exchange among graduate students and faculty in the field of American Literature. Since then, the ALC has maintained an active presence within the English Department at USC, hosting research presentations by faculty and guest lecturers. Additionally, the ALC has sponsored faculty panels on diverse topics such as book collecting and the job search process, as well as graduate student panels on both colonial and 19th- and 20th-century American literature.

 

In 2015 the organization changed its name from the ALC to the Carolina Graduate Literature Society to better reflect its mission of incorporating and welcoming scholarship across traditional literary periods and disciplines. This mission has been realized in the organizations's big event, the Graduate Conference, at which scholars across the Humanities--from Literature and Creative Writing to Rhetoric and Linguistics--have all played a role. Membership in the CGLS is open to all graduate students and faculty members.