The Association of Departments of English, in addition to producing the Job Information List and providing Summer Seminars for chairs and directors, facilitates conversations on the national, regional, and local levels regarding best practices, the state of the profession, and issues that concern faculty, administrators, and students.
Cartwright began his term as president on January 11, 2015; he has served on the executive committee since 2013. At the MLA Convention in January, Cartwright joined colleagues for a roundtable, "Strengthening the Undergraduate Major in English Studies." Its goals included outlining some of the processes that allow departments to articulate and implement shared visions. That crowded and energizing session served as the catalyst for an article in the Inside Higher Education, "Where have all the English Majors Gone," which uses as a case study the University of Maryland's Department of English.
In the coming year, Cartwright and the ADE hope to increase the ADE's efforts at engagement and advocacy, in part via increased collaboration with such organizations as the National Council of Teachers of English.