category: all

[UPDATE - deadline extended] 5th Annual Louisiana Studies Conference, September 20-21, 2013

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:27:39 -0400

The 5th Annual Louisiana Studies Conference will be held September 20-21, 2013 at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. The Conference Committee is now accepting presentation proposals for the upcoming conference. The theme of this year’s conference is “Preserving Louisiana.”

This interdisciplinary conference will be accepting proposals from the following disciplines: American studies, anthropology, architecture, archival studies, communications, craft, creative writing, criminal justice, cultural studies, cultural tourism, dance, design, English and literary studies, environmental studies, ethnic studies, fashion design, film studies, fine arts, folklore, gender studies, geography, heritage resources, history, interior design, journalism, linguistics, museum studies, musicology, music performance, philosophy, photography, political science, preservation studies, psychology, queer studies, religious studies, Romance languages, social work, sociology, theatre, and vernacular architecture.

Although we are especially interested in proposals that deal with Preserving Louisiana, all papers, creative writing, and short performances (dance, music, or theatric) that address ANY aspect of Louisiana studies are welcome. Proposals are being solicited for fifteen minute presentations from scholars at all career stages as well as graduate students. Creative work (creative non-fiction, short fiction, and poetry) is welcome. Undergraduates are invited to submit, provided they are working with the guidance of a trained scholar. Proposals for panels and roundtable discussions are welcome. Registration for Conference attendees will be $40.

Abstracts (300 words max.) for scholarly proposals, creative writing, films, and short performances (dance, music, or theatric) should be sent as e-mail attachments to Dr. Shane Rasmussen, rasmussens@nsula.edu. Presentations should run no longer than 15 minutes. Briefly detail the audio / visual tools (laptop, projection screen, data projector, DVD or VCR player, etc.) or space (the stage in the Magale Recital Hall will be provided for short performances) your presentation will require, if any. Please include a separate cover page with your name, affiliation, mailing and e-mail address, and the title of your presentation. E-mails should be entitled: Louisiana Studies Conference Submission. We will send an e-mail acknowledgement of having received each abstract within one week of having received it. If you do not receive an acknowledgment please resend your submission as we may not have received it. The deadline for submissions is July 15. Accepted presenters will be notified via e-mail by July 31, 2013.

Read broadly, consider the following possibilities for presentation topics relating to Preserving Louisiana. (Note: The following list of suggestions is not meant to be comprehensive.)

Archaeology
Architecture (including Vernacular Architecture)
Archives
Art
Bridges and Structures
Built Environments
Cemeteries and Gravestones
Churches
Conservation
Crafts
Cultural Heritage
Cultural Landscapes
Curation
Dancehalls
Disaster Preparedness and Recovery
Farming and Agricultural Practices
Film
Folk Industries
Folk Traditions
Folklife Apprenticeships
Gardens and Arboretums
Historical Landmarks and Sites
Historical Significance
History
Industrial Sites (cotton gins, fisheries, sugar houses)
Language Preservation
Libraries
Main Streets
Material Culture
Monuments
Murals
Museums
Native American Sacred Spaces
Oral History
Photography
Plantations
Preservation and Heritage Advocacy
Preservation and Heritage Education
Public Art
Public Spaces
Roadside Attractions
Rural Life
Sculptures
Sense of Place
Signs
State and National Parks
Theaters
Threats to Preservation

A selection of scholarly and creative work presented at the conference will be solicited for publication in Louisiana Folklife, a peer reviewed academic journal produced by the Louisiana Folklife Center, Northwestern State University, General Editor, Dr. Shane Rasmussen.

Additional information is available on the website for the Louisiana Folklife Center at Northwestern State University: http://louisianafolklife.nsula.edu/.

Dr. Lisa Abney, Provost, Vice President for Student and Academic Affairs, and Professor of English, Northwestern State University (Conference Co-chair)

Dr. Shane Rasmussen, Director of the Louisiana Folklife Center and Assistant Professor of English, Northwestern State University (Conference Co-chair)

The Conference is co-sponsored by the Folklife Society of Louisiana, the Louisiana Folklife Center, and the NSU College of Arts, Letters, Graduate Studies and Research.

Ekphrasis in American Poetry, MMLA Convention, Milwaukee, WI, Nov 7-10, 2013

Thu, 16 May 2013 04:26:35 -0400

Ekphrasis in American Poetry
American poets have always been fascinated with art, and sometimes artists have been inspired by poems as the germ for their works. In this session we invite papers examining the mutual influence between poetry and other art forms and we encourage panelists to adopt a broad interpretation of the term "ekphrasis."

Please send 200-word abstracts for 15-20 minute talks by June 14th to Sandra Lee Kleppe, sandra.kleppe AT hihm.no

For more details on the Midwest Modern Language Association Convention, see their website:
http://www.luc.edu/mmla/annualconvention.html

Popular and Current Art Submissions and Criticism Wanted: Open Deadline

Thu, 16 May 2013 01:37:42 -0400

While great works of literature were written in the 19th century and prior, we live today in an age with major problems and solutions in the realm of art and communication that should be addressed by current artists and critics. The tri-annual Pennsylvania Literary Journal is in its 5th volume and 5th year in operation. It is available on EBSCO, ProQuest and in print from various distribution channels. It has published interviews with best-selling young adult authors like Cinda Williams Chima and Carrie Ryan, as well as with winners of the Brooklyn Film Festival, and top academic editors across the country. PLJ’s special issues have focused on film, fiction, British literature, formalism, new historicism, and various other fields. In the future years, PLJ would like to see primarily criticism of current research, fiction, poetry, film, and works of art. For example, the most recent issue of PLJ “Reviews of Popular Fiction” includes reviews of Twilight, A Kurt Wallander Novel, and The Last Boyfriend. Most of these reviews are very negative, as the editor-in-chief, Anna Faktorovich, Ph.D., is pretty pessimistic about the current state of literature. Thus, negative, sarcastic, and highly critical and detailed book reviews and essays are especially wanted. Reviews of films, TV series, as well as of photography and art are also of interest. Please remember to support your negative criticism with facts and details from the works, but don’t include quotes over 5 lines in length. In addition, if you can access a celebrity (living) author at a convention, a reading, or through their agent and they agree to do an interview with you – PLJ would be delighted to publish interviews with any recognizable or award-winning author. Interviews with filmmakers, poets, editors, and even businessmen are also of interest. Please review prior issues of PLJ for the interview style that PLJ prefers. Scholarly essays on popular, award-winning, or merited literature published since 1980 is also of special interest. Essays on methods for teaching literature, composition and other fields are also a good fit. Also send fiction, poetry, art, photography and other forms of art you’ve created. If you’ve published with a major academic publisher or with one of the best popular presses, and would like to be interviewed or reviewed, send a query. There is no payment for publication, but also no reading fees or publication fees for you. Only famous authors receive a free contributor copy. PLJ is a for-profit venture and subscriptions are what feeds its future success; so feel free to ask your school’s library to subscribe. If you have an idea for an essay, work of fiction, review, interview, work of art, or anything else that was not mentioned above (including criticism of 19th century and prior works), send a query to determine if it’s a good fit for PLJ. While PLJ is moving into popular art, it’s not yet fully there and a wide variety of other projects is still very welcomed. When submitting a project email a Word document with the full text of the work (with an abstract for scholarly articles), and a biography paragraph in the third-person for the author to director@anaphoraliterary.com, to the attention of Dr. Anna Faktorovich, Editor-in-Chief. PLJ is a part of the Anaphora Literary Press (www.anaphoraliterary.com), which has published over 50 book titles and is actively soliciting academic and creative book manuscripts. We are especially interested in books that will be taught as part of the writer’s class(es). To submit a book-length project email the full manuscript, bio, book summary paragraph, and a marketing paragraph (with specifics) to director@anaphoraliterary.com.

World Congress on Education (WCE-2013)

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:39:51 -0400

The WCE is an international refereed conference dedicated to the
advancement of the theory and practices in education. The WCE
promotes collaborative excellence between academicians and
professionals from Education. The aim of WCE is to provide
an opportunity for academicians and professionals from various
educational fields with cross-disciplinary interests to bridge the
knowledge gap, promote research esteem and the evolution of
pedagogy. The WCE-2013 invites research papers that encompass
conceptual analysis, design implementation and performance
evaluation.

The topics in WCE-2013 include but are not confined to the
following areas:

*Accessible World
- Aging and Disability
- Augmentative and Alternative Communications (AAC)
- Assessment and Early intervention
- Baby Boomers
- Building and Sustaining an Inclusive Community
- Cognitive Disabilities
- Curriculum Adaptation and Modification
- Deaf and Hard of Hearing Developmental
- Disabilities Disability and Diversity
- E-Accessibility
- Human Rights/Disability Rights
- Legal Issues (Legislative and Policy)
- Learning Disabilities
- Living In(ter)dependently
- Support Services
- Postsecondary Education
- Public Health, Diversity and Disability
- Resiliency Across the Lifespan
- Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
- Study Skills Development
- Sustainable Environment
- Climate Change

*Adult Education
- Competitive Skills
- Continuing Education
- Higher Education
- Adult education
- Vocational Education
- Transferring Disciplines

*Art Education
- Music Education
- Writing Education
- Imaginative Education
- Language Education
- History

*Business Education
- Educational Administration
- Human Resource Development
- Academic Advising and Counselling
- Education Policy and Leadership
- Industrial Cooperation
- Life-long Learning Experiences
- Workplace Learning and Collaborative Learning
- Work Employability
- Educational Institution Government Partnership
- Patent Registration and Technology Transfer
- University Spin-Off Companies

*Course Management
- Accreditation and Quality Assurance
- Academic Experiences and Best Practice Contributions
- Copyright
- Digital Libraries and Repositories
- Digital Rights Management
- Evaluation and Assessment
- E-content Management and Development
- E-content Management and Development. Open Content
- e-Portfolios
- Grading Methods
- Knowledge Management
- Quality processes at National and International level
- Security and Data Protection
- Student Selection Criteria in Interdisciplinary Studies
- User-Generated Content

*Curriculum, Research and Development
- Acoustics in Education Environment
- APD/Listening
- Counsellor Education
- Courses, Tutorials and Labs
- Curriculum Design
- ESL/TESL
- Bullying
- Social Networking
- Study Abroad Programmes
- Faculty Development
- Distance Learning: Assessment, Methods and Technologies
Teaching and Learning Experiences in Engineering Education

*Educational Foundations
- Early Childhood Education
- Elementary Education
- Geographical Education
- Health Education
- Home Education
- Rural Education
- Science Education
- Secondary Education
- Second life Educators
- Social Studies Education
- Special Education

*Interaction and Cultural Models of Disability
- Adaptive Transportation
- Augmented and Alternative Communication
- Gerontechnology
- Healthcare Specialists
- Hospitality and Tourism
- Labor Market Integration
- Medical Experts
- Sport, Fitness and Leisure
- Special Educational Centres
- Social Innovation and E-Service Delivery
- Social Workers
- Student and Adults with Disabilities
- Usability and Ergonomics

*Learning / Teaching Methodologies and Assessment
- Simulated Communities and Online Mentoring
- e-Testing and new Test Theories
- Supervising and Managing Student Projects
- Pedagogy Enhancement with e-Learning
- Educating the Educators
- Immersive Learning
- Blended Learning
- Computer-Aided Assessment
- Metrics and Performance Measurement
- Assessment Software Tools
- Assessment Methods in Blended Learning Environments

*Global Issues In Education and Research
- Education, Research and Globalization
- Barriers to Learning (ethnicity, age, psychosocial factors, ...)
- Women and Minorities in Science and Technology
- Indigenous and Diversity Issues
- Government Policy issues
- Organizational, Legal and Financial Aspects
- Digital Divide
- Increasing Affordability and Access to the Internet
- Ethical issues in Education
- Intellectual Property Rights and Plagiarism

Important dates:

Research Paper, Extended Abstract, Case Study, Work in Progress and Report Submission Deadline: June 20, 2013
Notification of Paper, Extended Abstract, Case Study, Work in Progress and Report Acceptance Date: July 01, 2013
Final Paper Submission Deadline for Conference Proceedings Publication: July 20, 2013
Workshop Proposal Submission Deadline: June 01, 2013
Notification of Workshop Proposal Acceptance/Rejection: June 20, 2013
Poster/Demo Proposal Submission: June 01, 2013
Notification of Poster/Demo Acceptance: June 20, 2013
Participant(s) Registration (Open): April 01, 2013
Early Bird Registration: May 20 to July 01, 2013
Late Bird Registration (Authors only): July 02 to August 09, 2013
Late Bird Registration (Participants only): July 02 to September 08, 2013
Conference Dates: September 2-4, 2013

For further information please visit WCE-2013 at www.worldconedu.org

International Conference on Romanticism, September 26-29, 2013

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:33:24 -0400

2013 International Conference on Romanticism
"Romantic Relations"
September 26-29, 2013
Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan

The International Conference on Romanticism would love to increase the presence of Americanists at its annual conference-- all the more so given our globalist, transnational, transatlantic critical moment. We are extending the deadline for submissions until June 1st. We hope Americanists working across areas of 18th and 19th century studies will consider joining us.

This year's conference returns to metro Detroit and Oakland University (site of the 2008 meeting). In keeping with the spirit of this organization, the conference organizers wish to focus on the cross-disciplinary and international aspects of Romanticism. The conference theme is Romantic Relations, which should be interpreted in its broadest contexst. Possible topics could include but should not be limited to:

Cross-national and Transatlantic relations
Romantic race relations
Colonial relations
Relationships in the arts and music
Relations of Romantic Science
Romantic relations/relationships
Familial relationships
Romantic Others
Animal relationships
Class relations
Labor relations
Gender relationships
Intertextualities
War and Peace
Boundary and border crossings
Critical relations
Romantic Collaborations
Philosophical relationships
Interdisciplinary Romanticism
Romantic travel

Abstracts for complete panels and individual papers are welcome. Please send 300 word abstracts to Rob Anderson (r2anders@oakland.edu) or Chris Clason (clason@oakland.edu). Deadline in June 1.

Conference organizers: Chris Clason, Rob Anderson, Jennifer Law-Sullivan, Jeffrey Insko

ICR 2013: http://www.oakland.edu/ICR2013

ICR Homepage: http://icr.byu.edu

QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking (SAMLA: 11/8-10/13)

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:41:25 -0400

We live in a world of people who seemingly cannot stop talking! Oft times it presents a competition of who is able to attract the most attention. This session will explore the premise of Susan Cain’s book,Quiet. People who prefer reading to partying or listening to speaking are considered introverts. They are innovative and make significant contributions, but dislike self
-promotion. They are often labeled “quiet” and sometimes this description alludes to negative connotations. Perhaps their being
quiet is a personality characteristic or a product of their environment; perhaps their reserved nature is due to the hesitation of self-expression. However, from Van Gogh’s
Sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer, the “quiet ones” have made immeasurable and invaluable contributions to
our society and life as we know it. This panel will discuss the effect of introverts and quiet people on and in our world,
and the philosophies associated with this type of labeling. Analyzed literary works, as well as personal experience papers (i.e., creative non-fiction pieces or personal narratives) are
welcome. By June 25, 2013, please submit a 250-word abstract to
Smyrna@nova.edu or ESLCARE@aol.com. Conference website: https://samla.memberclicks.net/conference

The Films of Robert Rodriguez

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:27:02 -0400

Call For Papers: The Films of Robert Rodriguez

POST SCRIPT: Essays in Film and the Humanities invites submissions for a special issue on the Films of Robert Rodriguez.

The issue will be guest edited by Professor Christopher González (Texas A&M University-Commerce).

Texas-based director Robert Rodriguez is arguably one of the most important Latino filmmaker of his time; his enterprising approach has now taken him into other forms of visual media, such as his El Ray television network and his latest “Project Green Screen” venture with the cell phone giant, BlackBerry. This special issue seeks to continue the exploration of this significant filmmaker first begun by Charles Ramírez Berg in his Latino Images in Film, and continued most recently by Frederick Luis Aldama’s Robert Rodriguez and the Cinema of Possibilities, to be published later this year. Submissions are open to a variety of theoretical approaches.

Post Script encourages original manuscripts of no more than 7,000 words in this area from scholars and academics as well as filmmakers. Essays will be subject to peer review. The guest editor invites submissions on the following topics or related topics:

• The impact of Rodriguez’s first feature film, El Mariachi, made for only $7,000
• Films such as The Faculty, where Rodriguez served as director only
• Directorial collaborations, such as Sin City, where he worked alongside Frank Miller
• Larger filmic canvases like the Spy Kids and Machete franchises, and the Mexico Trilogy
• Shorter films such as “Bedhead,” “The Black Mamba,” and “The Misbehavers”
• The “Ten Minute Film School” tutorials Rodriguez regularly features on his films’ DVDs
• Rodriguez’s filmmaking partnership with Quentin Tarantino, from cameos in Desperado, and Planet Terror, to more substantive collaborations in From Dusk Till Dawn and Grindhouse
• An exploration of Rodriguez’s filmmaking philosophy and technique, the speed at which he shoots; the economy of his productions; etc.
• The formal elements of Rodriguez’s films, including visual, sound, dialogue, and so on
• The politics of films like Machete, Planet Terror, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico
• Rodriguez’s penchant for using many of the same actors across his films; or example, Danny Trejo’s rise as voiceless villain in Desperado to brown superhero in Machete
• Rodriguez’s oft-criticized representation of women.
• An exploration of how Rodriguez’s films often engage in a Chuck Jones- or Tex Avery-style cartoon sensibility
• The adaptation of Frank Miller’s Sin City
• Rodriguez’s subversive use of stereotypes and cultural clichés
• Substantive interviews
• Book reviews (up to 1,000 words)

Please note that Post Script does not reprint previously published material.

Submit manuscripts via a virus-free attachment, with author identification on a separate page and not in the headers, by e-mail to guest editor Christopher González at the address below by November 1, 2013. Manuscripts must be in English and must conform to the MLA Style Manual, 3rd edition.

Professor Christopher González
Department of Literature and Languages
Texas A&M University-Commerce
Email: Chris.Gonzalez@tamuc.edu

For questions about Post Script not related to this special issue, contact the general editor:
Professor Gerald Duchovnay Gerald.Duchovnay@tamuc.edu

[UPDATE] SAMLA 2013: (Con)Textual Networks and the Globalized Caribbean (due June 10)

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:39:01 -0400

2013 SAMLA CONFERENCE, NOV 8-10, ATLANTA

SPECIAL SESSION: "(Con)Textual Networks and the Globalized Caribbean"

We often think of globalization as a contemporary phenomenon, characterized by the way high-speed technologies have changed everything from market dynamics to social relations. Many scholars, however, see the current phase of globalization as part of an historical process beginning as early as the sixteenth century. The Caribbean has, indeed, been a transnational site from the time of its original European colonization, soon followed by the importation of coerced labor from Africa, South Asia, and China. Today, the region remains populated by a wide variety of ethnic groups, highly trafficked by tourists from around the world, and economically tied to foreign currencies and markets. Additionally, high rates of migration from the Caribbean to North America and Europe have created an immense Caribbean diaspora that retains cultural and economic ties to the region, facilitated in part by new technologies and alliances.

Images of the Caribbean have thus been documented, constructed, and circulated globally from the rise of print culture to the dawn of the digital age. This panel seeks proposals engaging any aspect of the conference theme, “Cultures, Contexts, Images, Texts: Making Meaning in Print, Digital, and Networked Worlds,” in relation to literature and/or other media from any part of the Anglophone Caribbean.

Some possible topics include:

The “digital humanities” and Caribbean studies
Visual images of the Caribbean
Cartographic representations of the Caribbean
Caribbean service economies—tourism, textiles and “free trade” zones, data mining, banking, etc.
Regionalism, Nationalism, Transnationalism
Marketing the Caribbean/the Caribbean market
Intra-Caribbean exchange and migration
Local and regional grassroots activist networks in the Caribbean
Caribbean diasporas—cultural, economic, and/or social networks

Please submit an abstract of 200-300 words and a brief bio (not CV) of <100 words, in Word or PDF, to Kristine A. Wilson (wilson67@purdue.edu). DEADLINE EXTENDED TO JUNE 10, 2013.

Women Writing War Trauma (NeMLA 2014)

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:24:08 -0400

“To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric,” Theodor Adorno famously pronounced in 1949, indicating, among other things, that the Holocaust presents a radical problem of representation. Indeed, the paradox at the heart of Trauma Theory is that traumatic experience both demands a story and defies communicability; it is the unspeakable that nevertheless has to be told. And in the past decade or so, scholars have begun to investigate how gender factors into this problem, a problem that extends to trauma literature in general. Thus the testimonials by female survivors of the Holocaust are gaining considerable attention, while memoirs by female soldiers of Iraq and Afghanistan bear witness to the trauma of a combat experience made all the more catastrophic by institutionalized sexual persecution.

This panel seeks to investigate how gender affects not only the traumatic experience itself, but also the narration of traumatic experience, by women writing about war. The “writing” may take the form of memoir, fiction, poetry, film, or other, more experimental modes of narration, such as blogging. The goal of this panel is to bring together a diverse range of material and perspectives that will move the discussion of gender and trauma beyond a simple comparison of men’s and women’s trauma, and into the gendered politics of writing itself.

Please send 300-500 word abstracts and brief biographical statements to Jenny Kijowski, profkijowski@gmail.com

Deadline: September 30, 2013

Please include with your abstract:
Name and Affiliation
Email address
Postal address
Telephone number
A/V requirements (if any; $10 handling fee with registration)

Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA session; however, panelists can only present one paper (panel or seminar). Convention participants may present a paper at a panel and also present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable. http://www.nemla.org/convention/2014/cfp.html

“Embodiments of Horror: William Blake’s Gothic Sensibility.”

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:47:42 -0400

CALL FOR PAPERS

Special Issue of Gothic Studies: “Embodiments of Horror: William Blake’s Gothic Sensibility.”

Guest Editors: Dr. Christopher Bundock (Huron College) and Elizabeth Effinger (Western).

Within the frame of the late eighteenth-century Gothic revival, this special issue of Gothic Studies explores the relationship between English poet and engraver William Blake and particularly disruptive affective intensities expressed at the level of image, text, and critical reception as well as their extension into contemporary adaptations. While a critical body of work exists on the relationship between Blake and the Gothic broadly—and in spite of an obvious fascination with a nexus of aesthetic categories such as the grotesque, perverse, and macabre—Blake's focus on affects like physical disgust and horror, specifically, have garnered little sustained critical attention. This special issue seeks to redress this gap by opening up a dialogue between Blake and his gothic sensibility that centers on the affective, aesthetic, and philosophical implications of a physical body and sensorium that turns against itself.

Registering the contestation between introjection and expulsion, the abject – Kristeva’s term for a “massive and sudden emergence of uncanniness, which […] now harries me as radically separate, loathsome” (2) – is frequently figured in Blake as a monstrous Polypus, organic life in its merely vegetative, abhorrent state. Other examples of Blake’s “body horror” appear in the body turned inside out, revealing organs “Dim & glutinous as the white Polypus,” an uncanny “Fibrous Vegetation” that seems less like animating flesh than the binding vines that tie spirit with “living fibres down into the Sea of Time & Space growing / A self-devouring monstrous Human Death” (Los 4.66; Milton 24.37, 34.25-6). Rending apart the coherence of representation to expose “what I permanently thrust aside in order to live” (Kristeva 3), Blake's revulsion stems –perversely enough—from a willingness to peer into the abyss of origination and expose art's always fragile constitution as an invitation for revision, transformation, and rebirth. But how precisely does this affirmative attitude toward subjective and artistic regeneration square with Blake's tortured affect, especially when this follows from a desire to transcend the physical body, the very matrix of sensibility? If Blake embodies horror, he is also horrified by the body's limitations. How, then, does art—particularly Blake's own art—respond to this problem? How does he make new kinds of bodies to embody desires differently?
We are particularly interested in papers that consider the impact this “thrust[ing] aside” by and of the body has for Blake’s thought and art. What is the work of horror in Blake? What, if any, generative potential is there in the restlessness of Blake’s tortured, gothic bodies? What is the cost of Blake’s investment in horror as a privileged affect? Does Blake’s appeal to horror and the Gothic challenge or render counterfeit his humanism? How does Blake’s revisioning of the body as an intensive site of horror invite new modes of thinking about the human? How do the horrors of Blake’s material bodies (dis)figure or embody the horrors of larger discursive bodies?

While this collection follows in the spirit of recent critical projects such as Blake 2.0 (Palgrave 2012) and Blake, Modernity and Popular Culture (Palgrave 2007) – important studies that foreground the continuing relevance of Blake in contemporary culture – it also distinguishes itself by interrogating the particular affinities between Blake and the embodied experiences of revulsion, abjection, and horror. Given this topic especially, Blake's illustrations may well play a central role in some contributions. And we do hope to be able to reproduce a certain number of his visual artworks. Nevertheless, we ask that contributors use their best judgement and include images only if they come in for substantial, sustained analysis and are necessary for advancing the paper's argument.

This collection is interested in papers that explore any aspects Blake's embodied affects and affects of embodiment, and especially those dimensions wherein the body and affect clash.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

Deleuze and the Affect of Terror or Horror
Execrable Topi: Vacuum, Or-Ulro, Satan's Mills
Horrors of abstraction
Embodiment, disembodiment, reembodiment
Birth, re-birth, and the labour of creation
Printing in the Infernal Method
The Pleasures of Pain: masochism, perversion
Transgression and anti-economy
Horror and Function
The Instruments of Terror
Revulsion's limits, borders, or ends
Blake's images as “dark visions of torment”
The image and Evil
Specters, ghosts, and darkness visible
Empiricism and the Body
Subject, Object, Abject

We invite contributions from academics, professionals, artists, and those with a scholarly interest in Blake. All relevant material will be considered. We welcome papers from multidisciplinary perspectives.

Including notes, articles should be between 4000 and 9000 words in length. Potential contributors should send *abstracts (500-750 words)* to both Dr. Christopher Bundock (cbundock@gmail.com) and Elizabeth Effinger (eeffinge@uwo.ca) by *1 October, 2013*. All submissions should be in English and adhere to the “Guidelines on Preparing and Submitting an Article for Gothic Studies”

Apollon eJournal - Undergraduate Submissions deadline 6/15/2013

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:43:39 -0400

Check the website, apollonejournal.org, for submission details on publication, or for an application to work with us

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Apollon invites undergraduate students to get published in, review submissions for, or help edit a the third issue of our peer-reviewed eJournal, Apollon. By publishing superior examples of undergraduate academic work, Apollon highlights the importance of undergraduate research in the humanities. Apollon welcomes submissions that feature image, text, sound, and a variety of presentation platforms in the process of showcasing the many species of undergraduate research.

ABOUT THE PROJECT
Apollon, an undergraduate humanities eJournal, is a peer-reviewed publication for undergraduate humanities majors. Apollon features undergraduate research developed in humanities courses, and thus emphasizes faculty-student collaborations beyond the classroom. We invite interested students to join us by contributing leadership or original work to Apollon. Our student team participates at all levels of this ongoing project (design, review, and publication) to offer their peers a real outlet for intellectual work in the humanities. For more information you can go to the program website, www.apollonejournal.org, talk to your professors, or contact the Faculty Director, Jason Cohen, at (859) 985-3765 or cohenj@berea.edu.

[UPDATE] Irish Gothic Conference 5-6 December, 2013

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:35:56 -0400

Confirmed Speakers:

• Professor W. J. McCormack (Former Professor of Literary History at Goldsmiths College, University of London)
• Dr Laura Pelaschiar (Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Università di Trieste)
• Dr Derek Hand (Senior Lecturer in English, Saint' Patrick's College, Dublin City University)

Gothic studies have recently been expanding previous limits of what was once thought to be an historically well defined genre. The extent of continual change in Gothic denotation is such that it is now approaching the status of an inter-genre inter-semiotic category. This is even more the case with Irish literature. Not only because a remarkable number of Gothic writers are Irish, but also, and more significantly, because Ireland has provided an extremely fruitful cultural background for the particular narrative forms and devices that are usually associated with the Gothic. Moreover, Irish literature presents a “gothicness” of its own, whereby it seems to simultaneously adhere to and reject the ideological and aesthetic models implied by the very notion of Gothic.

At this conference we will explore the ways in which Irish Gothic can/cannot be considered part of the mainstream Gothic tradition, as well as investigating the origins and evolution of the genre in an Irish context.

We welcome submissions addressing any topic relevant to Irish studies, and encourage papers, which explore any aspect of the Irish Gothic in literature, film, and other media.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Irish Gothic vs English Gothic
• The Birth of Irish Gothic
• Theorising Irish Gothic
• Irish Gothic Modernisms
• The Uncanny in Irish Fiction
• Victorian Irish Gothic
• Irish Gothic Geography
• Irish Gothic in the Media
• Irish Gothic Art
• Irish Gothic and Psychology
• Irish Gothic and Imperialism
• Irish Gothic and Science
• Irish Gothic and Technology
• Irish Gothic and Popular “Goth” Culture
• Irish Gothic and History

Abstracts (250 words max) for 20 minute papers and a short bio-sketch may be submitted to Enrico Terrinoni (Università per Stranieri di Perugia) and Annalisa Volpone (Università degli Studi di Perugia): perugiairishgothic@gmail.com.
Deadline for submissions: September 1, 2013.
Accepted speakers will be notified by September 20.
Conference fee: Euro 25; Euro 15 for students and the unwaged

CFP: Aloha at Risk: Education in Hawaii (Edited Collection)

Wed, 15 May 2013 08:51:27 -0400

Since the release of “A Nation At Risk” in 1983, public education has been subjected to increased scrutiny from political officials, parents, and concerned citizens. In recent years, such scrutiny has given way to calls for comprehensive education reform. Both the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and Race to the Top program, respectively inaugurated under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, focus on increasing standards for public schools throughout the United States, while more local initiatives like private school voucher systems and parent “trigger” laws attempt to increase learning opportunities for children by maximizing parental choice and administrative participation.

Yet, these reforms—or 'deforms' as they're called by opponents—have been condemned for being undemocratic, corporatist, and overly punitive. NCLB, for example, has been said to subsume diverse groups of children under reductionist statistical metrics, failing to account for demographic and developmental variances. RTTT continued this trend, according to critics, and added pressure for local school districts to implement costly teacher evaluation protocols based largely on standardized achievement tests, rather than holistic measures of learning growth and professional practice. In an ironic display of political harmony, small-government 'conservatives' and labor-minded 'liberals' alike have attacked national education reforms, the former for impugning states' rights and the latter for undermining collective bargaining.

Hawaii, considered by some political pundits to be the most labor-friendly state in the nation, has been on the frontlines of the battle over public education. One year after receiving an RTTT grant award in 2010, the state was placed on “high risk” status by the U.S. Department of Education for failing to implement reforms quickly enough and prolonging a regressive contract dispute with the Hawaii State Teachers Association. Education reforms are further complicated by events from Hawaii's historical trajectory, including settler colonialism, imperial overthrow of native governance, suppression of indigenous culture, and plantation economics, each of which inform the state's current sociopolitical structure and discursive condition.

This interdisciplinary essay collection seeks to engage the theme of “education in Hawaii” from a critical vantage point. Submissions will be accepted for each of the book's four sections: “Pedagogy of Aloha” (critical pedagogical studies); “Decolonizing Aloha” (colonialism in/and the classroom); “Re/Deforming Aloha” (general education theory, including social, political, and philosophical analysis); and “Teaching Aloha” (classroom stories). Potential topics might include:

- How do socioeconomic and ethnic inequality affect Hawaii's classrooms and education politics?

- To what extent does money drive education reform in Hawaii? Do reforms (re)produce corporate infrastructure and economic division, rather than quality learning experiences?

- How does Hawaii's history, including settler colonialism and plantation development, impact the present state and future direction of the state's education system?

- In what ways are native or marginalized knowledge(s) suppressed by standards-based education reforms? What pedagogical techniques might be used to advance such knowledge(s)?

- What progressive teaching modalities (i.e. feminist composition, queer- and eco-pedagogy, or ethnomathematics) might be employed to address Hawaii's diverse student populations?

Educator and author Doug Robertson will serve as editor for this collection. Essays should be approximately 4,000 to 8,000 words in length and employ Chicago Manual of Style formatting (using endnotes). Submissions should be sent to editors@interstitialjournal.com. Initial inquiries are welcome. Deadline for submissions is December 31, 2013.

Genre Films & Money; 2013 Film & History Conference; Nov. 20-24, 2013 (Madison)

Wed, 15 May 2013 04:57:29 -0400

Money & the Genre Film

An area of multiple panels for the 2013 Film & History Conference on Making Movie$: The Figure of Money On and Off the Screen

November 20-24, 2013
Madison Concourse Hotel (Madison, WI)
www.filmandhistory.org/The2013FilmHistoryConference.php

DEADLINE for abstracts: July 1, 2013

AREA: Money & the Genre Film

Genre films—romance, comedy, horror, science fiction, melodrama, noir, and others—are categorized by their use of readily identifiable narrative elements. That use, however, evolves over time, reflecting the cultural, economic, and technological evolution of Hollywood as an institution. What, then, is the impact of money, from budget to box office, on the various forms of genre film? Science fiction – transformed multiple times, since the 1930s, by revolutions in special effects – is the most obvious example. Computer generated imagery allows science-fiction filmmakers to tell stories that would have been impossible in the era of stuntmen dressed in rubber suits and spaceship models hung from fishing line. But what of genres other than science fiction, and the impact of money on genre outside of special effects?

This area, comprising multiple panels, will examine the diverse ways in which money has shaped, and continues to shape, genre. It welcomes papers on genres created or transformed by money – or the things money can buy – but also on genres (or sub-genres) that have remained impervious to money’s effects. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Being there: Globe-trotting and location-driven films (To Catch a Thief, Around the World in 80 Days, Topkapi, The Italian Job)
• The rise and fall of the big-budget musical
• The star-driven “action film” from Stallone to Schwarzenegger to Statham
• The short, strange life of the mega-comedy (It’s a Mad, Mad World, The Great Race, 1941, etc.)
• Don’t show the monster: Low-budget horror from Cat People (1942) to The Blair Witch Project (1999)
• Using what’s already there: B Movies and the reification of genre tropes
• The genre that money forgot: domestic melodrama from the “weepies” to the Women’s Entertainment Network
• Money & the Science Fiction, Western, War Film, or Gangster genres, or any other genre/sub-genre.

Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting, see the Film & History website (www.filmandhistory.org).

Please send your 200-word proposal by e-mail to the Area Chair by July 1, 2013:

Andrew Howe
ahowe@lasierra.edu

(Re)thinking Global Connectedness: Critical Perspectives on Globalization

Wed, 15 May 2013 02:24:26 -0400

Proposals Due: 15 September 2013
Conference Dates: 26-28 January 2014
Location: Doha, Qatar

The Liberal Arts Program at Texas A&M University at Qatar is pleased to announce the Call for Proposals for its Second Annual Liberal Arts International Conference. Following the success of last year’s Ethical Engagement with Globalization, Citizenship, and Multiculturalism: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, this second annual conference will explore the impacts of globalization from a variety of disciplinary lenses.

How has globalization transformed us individually and collectively? How is globalization shaping notions of ethics? Is globalization merely a shrinking of the world or is it transforming human experience? What challenges does globalization pose to understandings of the self and the other? How do we sustain a globalized world in terms of food, energy, and education? Are we already living in a post-globalized world?

We welcome submissions from across the spectrum of academic fields, including composition and rhetoric, linguistic, politics, history, technology, language studies, sociology, anthropology, geography, economics, philosophy, ethics, law, religion, and cultural studies. We especially encourage contributions from PhD students and scholars working in non-western and/or underrepresented regions.

Possible Conference Panels and Discussions:
Conceptualizing Globalization
Connections: Globalization and Technology
(Re)Thinking Ethics in a Globalized World
Linguistic Perspectives on Globalization
Education in a Globalized World
Historical Perspectives on Globalization
Globalization: Comparative East-West Perspectives
Global Movements: Environment, Peace, Violence
Legal Concerns of a Bordered/Borderless World
Gendering Globalization

The conference can provide substantial travel bursaries for international participants who need funding.Submission of individual papers and complete panel proposals on these or other related themes are welcome. Select papers will be considered for publication in a peer-reviewed volume or a special issue of an international journal.

In order to be considered, please submit a panel proposal or individual paper proposal to include author(s) names, institution affiliation, email address, and an abstract of 250 words with 5 keywords by September 15, 2013 to LAIC2014@qatar.tamu.edu

Organizing Committee:
Dr. Leslie Seawright
Dr. Hassan Bashir
Dr. Phillip W. Gray
Dr. Troy Bickham
Liberal Arts Program ,Texas A&M University at Qatar
LAIC2014@qatar.tamu.edu
liberalarts.qatar.tamu.edu

Special Issue on Contemporary Drama [July 15, 2013]

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:41:09 -0400

Special Issue on Contemporary Drama

In the past twenty years Irish society has experienced a range of cultural, political and, centrally, financial upheaval. To what extent has Irish theatre responded to these tumultuous events? How far have traditional forms and subjects maintained their position? Or have experiment and innovation become the new distinguishing features? The guest editors of this special issue of Breac, Lindsay Haney and Shaun Richards, invite submissions addressing any aspect of recent Irish drama. In keeping with Breac’s interdisciplinary goals and digital form, we encourage submissions informed by any approach to drama and theatre and rendered as conventional essays or works in any audio or visual medium.

The issue will include essays from Brian Singleton on ANU productions, Emilie Pine on theatre’s response to abuse revelations, Niamh Malone on theatre and urban regeneration, and Susan Cannon Harris on Conor McPherson’s supernaturalism; an interview with Colm Tóibín, conducted by Paige Reynolds; and a video feature from Róise Goan, director of the Dublin Fringe Festival, on incubators and space in New Theatrical Dublin.

Breac is a peer-reviewed, open-access, paperless journal that publishes critical and creative work relating to Ireland and Irish Studies. Among its many features is a forum section that seeks to cultivate a global conversation around the published articles among its readers, students, and scholars. It also periodically streams live events through the website’s BreaCam. Subscribing to the journal is entirely free, and we encourage you to visit the website at breac.nd.edu.

We suggest a length of 4000-5000 words, but will happily consider longer articles. Deadline is July 15, 2013.

Full submission instructions are available at http://breac.nd.edu/submissions/. Questions to breac.djis@gmail.com.

Memsahibs as Imagined and Imaged by Male Writers (Deadline: September 30, 2013)

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:09:22 -0400

Session Title: MEMSAHIBS AS IMAGINED AND IMAGED BY MALE WRITERS

45th Annual Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
April 3-6, 2014
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Host: Susquehanna University

Session Description:
The memsahib is perhaps the most maligned figure among the Raj women. This panel invites scholarly articles on how male writers represent the memsahib in their writings, and how they depict her impact on and/or relationship with British India.

Topics for papers may include, but are not limited to:
• Critical analysis of literature on memsahibs
• Letters, memoirs, fiction and non-fiction about memsahibs (not by memsahibs)
• Memsahib’s relationship with and contribution to British India
• The Raj machinery and the role of the memsahib
• Home-building and Empire-building
• Memsahib’s role in the success and/or failure of colonization
• Memsahib and the trauma of the Indian Mutiny
• Memsahib and racism
• Memsahib and the ‘myth of the destructive female’
• Colonized and colonizer women
• Memsahibs as ‘maternal imperialists’
• Unconventional memsahibs; what makes them unconventional?
• Study of gender and imperialism
• Intra-racial tensions, if any, in the gaze of memsahibs
• Life at Home and out in the Colony
• Sense of exile and pain of alienation
• Femininity and/or feminism in memsahib’s female gaze

Please feel free to share your ideas for papers even if they are about literary depiction of white women in other British colonies.

Email: Dr Susmita Roye (sroye@desu.edu) with a 300-word abstract.

Deadline: September 30, 2013

Please include with your abstract:
• Name and Affiliation
• Email address
• Postal address
• Telephone number
• A/V requirements (if any; $10 handling fee with registration)

The 2014 NeMLA convention continues the Association's tradition of sharing innovative scholarship in an engaging and generative location. This capitol city set on the Susquehanna River is known for its vibrant restaurant scene, historical sites, the National Civil War museum, and nearby Amish Country, antique shops and Hershey Park. NeMLA has arranged low hotel rates of $104-$124.

The 2014 event will include guest speakers, literary readings, professional events, and workshops. A reading by George Saunders will open the Convention. His 2013 collection of short fiction, The Tenth of December, has been acclaimed by the New York Times as “the best book you’ll read this year.” The Keynote speaker will be David Staller of Project Shaw.

SAMLA Special Session on Creating or Expanding a BA Program in English During Uncertain Times (June 20th- Abstract Deadline)

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:05:03 -0400

This panel invites participants from any college or university where there is an interest in building a B.A. in English or establishing a new programmatic track within the discipline. Participants need not be at any particular point in the process, and we hope to incorporate a diverse array of experiences and viewpoints. In other words, participants may only be thinking about the possibility of creating a program or they might be on the other side of the process. This panel will also consider what types of programs should/need to be created to meet the changing needs of students in the 21st century. We hope that this session will produce a vibrant dialogue that will serve as a bridge to future cooperation.

Because of the collaborative nature of this panel, we would like to create a roundtable atmosphere in which the audience plays an active role. Participants will each provide an informal 5-10 minute talk about their experiences and the advice they have about the process and then the rest of the session will be dedicated to having an open dialogue.

Instead of traditional proposals, those interested should send a brief 250 word description of their experiences and what they would like to gain from participating in the panel. Accepted descriptions will be shared with all participants to help generate a productive discussion. In order to be considered, these descriptions should be sent to SOrtolano@Edison.edu by June 20th.

Featured Speaker: Dr. Kristie Fleckenstein, Professor of English at Florida State University; co-collaborator in the creation and administration of FSU's undergraduate program in Editing, Writing, and Media

New Panel Added: GLBTQ Creative Writing at MAPACA - Atlantic City (Nov. 7th to 9th)

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:09:42 -0400

John Preston’s print collection "Hot Living: Erotic Stories about Safer Sex," which was published in 1985, marks a significant use of narrative to explore the intersection of creative writing and the GLBTQ perspective in contemporary culture. This productive intersection makes an even more popular appearance with the 1997 publication of Annie Proulx’s short story "Brokeback Mountain" in "The New Yorker." The GLBTQ Studies Area is seeking proposals for a newly created panel that features GLBTQ creative writing, especially as such is written to function within popular culture.

The goal of the panel will be to share recently published work or works-in-progress to explore the production of GLBTQ creative writing and to create community by sharing information to support GLBTQ inclusion in publishing endeavors. An additional goal might be the consideration of creative writing within contemporary popular culture venues to support well-rounded GLBTQ representation.

Please log into the MAPACA website to submit a proposal, which for creative writing proposals might include the title of the work, a synopsis, and perhaps a sample of the work.

You can find submission directions at http://mapaca.net/help/conference/submitting-abstracts-conference. You may also contact Mark John Isola via markjohn—at—alumni.tufts.edu with any questions.

Please note: Conference participants may only present 1 paper at MAPACA; please do not submit multiple papers to multiple areas. Also, please note a sliding scale fee applies for conference registration.

Conference: Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association (MAPACA)
Dates: Thursday, 11/7 thru Saturday, 11/9
Location: Atlantic City, New Jersey
Venue: Tropicana Casino and Resort
Deadline: Proposals must be received by June 14, 2013
Web Site: www.mapaca.net

Call for Papers - Patents for Humanity Special Issue - August 23 2013

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:08:55 -0400

In recognition of the USPTO’s Patents for Humanity program, Technology and Innovation - Proceedings of the National Academy of Inventors, will be publishing a special issue highlighting influential humanitarian technologies, including the innovation and imagination seen in the Patents for Humanity contest submissions.

To this end, T&I is soliciting abstracts for articles or commentaries on humanitarian patents. We hope that all finalists of the Patents for Humanity contest will consider contributing to the issue.

Abstracts should be submitted by June 8, 2013. The abstract submission should contain: title, author affiliation, abstract of no more than 250 words, key words, and corresponding author’s contact information. Upon approval, full manuscripts will be due by August 23, 2013.

All submissions should meet Technology and Innovation’s author instructions and should be submitted through T&I’s website, http://submissions.academyofinventors.org/index.php/journal/about/.

Articles should concern patented technologies or innovations that have made/have the potential for making significant contributions to humanity. Articles may include commentaries by field experts concerning patents, original articles describing the development and research towards a technology or patent, and/or narrative-like stories that emphasize the societal benefits of select innovations.

Submissions may include (but are not limited to) the following topics:
• Economics of a technology, governmental and policy action, and innovation
• Environmental impact of various technologies/patent types
• Health impacts of technologies and innovations
• Analyses of the distribution and access to technology

If you have any questions, please contact Editorial Assistant Diana Vergara at TIJournal@research.usf.edu.

Technology and Innovation is published by Cognizant Communication Corporation.

Creative Writing Programs in the University

Tue, 14 May 2013 14:09:03 -0400

In The Program Era, Mark McGurl has argued the rise of creative writing programs in the university “stands as the the most important event in postwar American literary history” (ix): they have provided writers steady employment, training in their craft, and a buffer from the vagaries of the commercial marketplace. This panel explores the practices and influence of creative writing programs from an institutional perspective. Papers might address questions such as: Do creative writing workshops promote artfulness or artifice in their participants writing? How do creative writing programs discipline students into a body of knowledge or set of practices? Do literary works emerging from creative writing programs bear an imprint of their institutional creation? How have creative writing programs engaged the literary market?

Please send 250-word abstracts by June 14th to Robert Wells Addington, rwa7@case.edu

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Teaching: General Studies Learning Communities in a Post Humanities World; April 3-6, NeMLA

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:08:59 -0400

While the rising cost of college education, spiraling student debt, and a changing global job market have impelled university administrators to redefine and/or remodel the core curriculum in the interest of better addressing the challenges/opportunities of a 21st century world, these changes have fallen most directly on the humanities. Quite plainly, as universities have placed increasing value on the common languages of globalization--math, science, and technology--a liberal arts core has become an almost anachronistic element of higher education.
Yet, when we look at the continued need for critical thinking, creativity, and communication in our global economy, it is clear that writing and communication still needs to play a vital role in higher education. But, what exactly will that role be, or should be? Considering that "knowledge" based disciplines such as English, History, etc. have traditionally been elevated over "skills" programs or instruction, how might previously marginalized programs like General Studies ironically find their identity in this changing landscape?
The following roundtable, therefore, invites scholars or faculty in General Studies or non-degree interdisciplinary programs to discuss what they see as continued and/or changing role of the humanities and writing and research in the core curriculum. Particularly, as enrollment in upper division English, History, etc. classes dwindle--with less students seeing the economic value in these majors--how can these disciplines of learning be strengthened at the university level in General Studies' through a focus on the global skills these fields provide? Considering the diminishing level of tenure-track positions available in the aforementioned disciplines, and the increasing amount of tenured faculty teaching introductory level humanities courses, how can tenured and contingent faculty-- spanning a variety of disciplines--work together to create or agree on a common set of skills and/or instruction for a 21st century college education?

Please submit abstract of no more than 500 words to Dotterman@Adelphi.edu by 9/15/13

The Family Dynamic as Cultural Zeitgeist: Comparing the Novels of Jonathan Franzen and Jeffery Eugenides; Nov 8-10, SAMLA

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:04:13 -0400

While Jonathan Franzen has "persistently claimed natural descent from Don Delillo," readers have continually compared Franzen to Jeffery Eugenides on the basis of their mutual exploration of Midwestern and generational heritage. Indeed, as Evan Hughes points out, Franzen and his contemporaries have been engaged "in a kind of generational struggle to make sense of the post modern literary legacy . . . especially as a guide to writing about the new, weird America of the eighties and nineties."
Keeping this idea in mind, the following panel welcomes submissions of original essays that examine the use of family and place in the novels of Jonathan Franzen and Jeffery Eugenides. Particularly, how do these writers intertwine their descriptions of families living in a particular time and place with the story of larger American society and institutions? Or, how do the vices and failings of these families and their value systems mirror the larger failings of American corporations, social movements, government, etc? What do these approaches say about the challenges and/or possibilities facing contemporary writers wishing to engage in social commentary through their work?
Please submit abstract of no more than 500 words to Dotterman@adelphi.edu by June 10, 2013.

Beyond Mad Men: Personal and Collective Nostalgia in British and American Period Dramas; SAMLA, Nov 8-10

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:01:47 -0400

In his article “The Forty Year Itch,” Adam Gopnik argues that the past “is not simply a good setting for a good story, but a good setting for you.” While Gopnik’s article focuses on nostalgia as a cyclical product that imagines “whatever happened or [we] thought to have happened” in American culture in the context of the popularity of AMC’s Mad Men, the popularity of the BBC’s period drama Downton Abbey complicates Gopnik’s hypothesis. Particularly, Downton Abbey’s WWI era time period directly contradicts Gopnik’s argument that nostalgia only focuses on a “decade roughly forty or fifty years past;” in addition, the show’s popularity among an American audience call into question the sense that nostalgia is a product of society’s real or imagined sense of a shared cultural history. In short, contemporary period dramas on television transcend the notion that audience are nostalgic for a familiar, national past.

Keeping Gopnik’s argument, and Rita Felski’s extended discussion of nostalgia in mind, the following panel looks to solicit original essays that examine British and American period dramas from the perspective of transatlantic and/or “trans-generational” nostalgia. What can these works, and their popularity in Britain and/or America, tell us about our collective interest in an “idealized pre-modern” yet anachronistic past? How can we reconcile the treatment of the past, in these dramas, as a source of pre-modern authenticity with the paradoxical tendency to introduce contemporary notions of class, gender, nationalism, etc. in their narratives?

Essay topics are welcome on, but not limited to, the following shows: Copper, Downton Abbey, Mad Men, Midwife, etc.

Please email paper abstracts of 500 words or less to Dotterman@adelphi.edu by June 10, 2013.

International Journal of Welsh Writing in English (deadline September 2013)

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:39:20 -0400

International Journal for Welsh Writing in English

Call for Papers

The International Journal of Welsh Writing in English invites submissions for a special issue on the theme ‘Literary Topographies: Place, spatiality, cartography and Welsh Writing in English.

Guest Editors: Kirsti Bohata & Matthew Jarvis.

Welsh writing in English has a long tradition of writing ‘place’. The recent spatial turn in literary criticism has led to a productive exchange of ideas with new geography, cultural history and digital technologies. The complex ways in which literature engages with place have begun to challenge and expand methodologies in other fields at the same time as they have presented literary scholars with dynamic new avenues of critical enquiry. Innovative approaches exploring the intersections between literary texts and cartographic representations of place are being enabled by digital Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Alongside such scholarly developments, there has been a clearly identifiable resurgence in new writing from Wales that addresses the topographical, geo-political, personal and historical dimensions of our ongoing relationship with place and space.

The editors would welcome essays based on papers delivered at the recent conference on the theme of literary topographies, but new submissions on this topic are encouraged.

We also invite contributions on the other main areas of interest of the journal, particularly Dylan Thomas’s centenary (2014).

International Journal of Welsh Writing in English

The remit of the journal is to publish new research within the field of Welsh writing in English. We explicitly encourage comparative approaches, drawing not only on cognate disciplines (such as cultural studies, history, drama/performance, creative writing, film/media studies) but also making entirely new connections with disciplines such as medicine (medical humanities), computer science (digital humanities), (applied) mathematics (statistical methodologies within the humanities), and environmental science (environment, culture, place). The journal seeks to promote work, which brings English-language material into the richest of dialogues with Welsh-language literary culture. It also seeks to make connections between Welsh writing in English and applied/non-academic areas of literary life, such as the creative industries, heritage, publishing and policy-making.

The next issue of the journal is going to be published in September/October 2014.
The deadline for submissions is 1 September 2013.
For submission guidelines please see http://ijwwe.wordpress.com.
Please send any queries to the editor Dr Alyce von Rothkirch at ijwwe.editor@gmail.com.

Re-Examining Opacity in the Caribbean Context

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:30:47 -0400

Call for Papers

Re-Examining Opacity in the Caribbean Context

45th Annual Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
April 3-6, 2014
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Host: Susquehanna University

The late Martiniquan writer, poet, and critic Édouard Glissant (1928–2011) remains an extremely influential figure in Caribbean thought and cultural commentary. His Caribbean Discourse (1990) and Poetics of Relation (1997), which argued for new understandings of the Caribbean with respect to the wider world, have become part of a new canon of cultural criticism. Central to Glissant’s theoretical approach is the notion of opacité, or “opacity.” He consistently defended the right of Caribbean people to be “opaque” with respect to the West, refusing both the transparency and the imposition of Western thought.

This panel will explore the resonance of Glissant’s notion of “opacity” within cultural production in the contemporary Caribbean context. How do texts by Caribbean and diasporic writers confirm or resist Western notions of “otherness”? Is “opacity” liberating or limiting? In what ways does Caribbean literature translate, or obfuscate, local realities for a global market? Submissions are invited which specifically address this question in French, Spanish, English, or Creole texts, including (but not limited to) novels; dramatic works; poetry; theories and criticism. Please send 250-300-word abstracts to Mariana Past, pastm@dickinson.edu.

Deadline: September 30, 2013
Please include with your abstract:
Name and Affiliation
Email address
Postal address
Telephone number
A/V requirements (if any; $10 handling fee with registration)

The Samuel Beckett Summer School: 11- 16 August 2013

Tue, 14 May 2013 09:33:15 -0400

Founded in 2011, the Samuel Beckett Summer School provides a unique experience for students, scholars and lovers of Beckett’s works. Each year we invite the world’s foremost Beckett scholars to present new lectures and seminars on all aspects of Beckett’s works. The School appeals to a wide range of Beckett enthusiasts by providing the opportunity to experience, savour and study Beckett’s works in the university where he began his intellectual life- Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

The Samuel Beckett Summer School offers a full week of learning and is complemented by social and cultural events each evening.

Each morning will feature one or two lectures by leading Beckett scholars. In the afternoons we run our week-long seminars. Each student chooses one of four seminars and stays with that seminar for the full week. Seminars include: Beckett’s Manuscripts; a Reading Group (the specific texts change each year); Performance Workshop; and a seminar whose topic will change each year (past examples include ‘Beckett and Deleuze’ and ‘Beckett and Irish Culture, 1929–1949’). The range of seminar topics is meant to reflect the diverse ways in which Beckett’s works can be approached.

Confirmed faculty for 2013 include:

H.Porter Abbott, Mary Bryden, Daniela Caselli, Peter Fifield, Nicholas Grene, Jonathan Heron, Nicholas Johnson, Ben Keatinge, Jim Mays, Barry McGovern, Mark Nixon, Sam Slote and Dirk Van Hulle.

The registration deadline for applicants is June 10th 2013. Visit our website www.beckettsummerschool.com for more information on how to register, and on requesting an application form. You can also email info@beckettsummerschool.com or sbss@usit.ie for further information.

Registration includes:

All Lectures, Seminars, and Workshops
Cultural Events
Film Screenings
Theatre Performance
Special exhibit of Beckett manuscripts
Field trip
Walking tour of Trinity College
Entrance to Old Library and the Book of Kells
Opening Welcome event
Summer School receptions
Lunches
Farewell Banquet

Country Lyricists: Media Consciousness in Country Music

Tue, 14 May 2013 09:20:33 -0400

COUNTRY LYRICISTS

Media Consciousness in Country Music

In keeping with the SAMLA 85 special focus, this year’s Country Lyricists panel will focus on means of communication in country lyrics. Proposals may follow either themes (such as radio as the subject of country songs) or how the works of one or two writers consistently present forms of communication in their lyrics (such as letters in lyrics by Bob Wills). Proposals should focus on the works of lyricists and not on performance of the songs. As is customary, “country” will carry a broad definition to include Americana, folk, and singer-songwriters. By June 15, 2013, please send proposals to Thomas Alan Holmes, East Tennessee State University, at holmest@mail.etsu.edu

The SAMLA conference takes place November 8-10 at the Marriott Atlanta Buckhead Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. For more details, go to http://samla.memberclicks.net/

Invitation for Submission of Manuscripts - JMBT

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:14:13 -0400

Dear Dr. Researchers,

Greetings from Journal of Microbial & Biochemical Technology

We are glad to get associated with eminent researchers.

We are pleased to inform you that the JMBT has been a peer-reviewed Bimonthly journal; the mission of this journal is to provide a forum to researchers for publishing new findings on Microbial & Biochemical Technology and the journal also publishes Special Issues on foremost areas, hot topics, and most recent advanced fields in any area.

We invite you to submit your research/review/commentary/case report or any other form of articles that are within the scope of our journal for the upcoming issue June 2013.
For details PS: http://www.omicsonline.org/jmbthome.php

Kindly let us know your interest in this regard before May 2013.

Awaiting for your positive response.

With regards,
Sherlyn R Ruth
Journal of Microbial & Biochemical Technology
editor.jmbt@omicsonline.net
OMICS Group Incorporation
2360 Corporate Circle
Suite 400, Henderson
NV 89074-7722, USA
Phone: +1- 888-843-8169
Fax: +1-650-618-1417
Toll Free: +1-800-216-6499

REMINDER 'in:flux 1845-1945: A Century in Motion' Postgraduate Conference (27th June 2013) DEADLINE 17.05.13

Tue, 14 May 2013 06:51:37 -0400

'in:flux 1845-1945: A Century in Motion'

University of Birmingham, 27th June 2013

Keynote speaker – Dr Matthew Rubery, Queen Mary University of London

Interdisciplinary postgraduate conference – call for papers

How did the rapid period of industrialisation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries help to shape societies and lifestyles in the West? What types of social changes, movements and developments characterise this time period? This interdisciplinary postgraduate conference, in affiliation with the Centre for the Study of Cultural Modernity and hosted by the College of Arts and Law, seeks to explore the various ways in which this century was one of ‘motion’, in every sense of the word. The conference title seeks to encapsulate both the uncertainty and upheaval of this period as well as the physical and cultural movements that occurred at this time. We invite papers addressing these themes from postgraduate researchers and early-career academics working on this period from a variety of backgrounds.
Topics could include, but are not limited to:

Cultural or social movements
• political movements
• the Women’s Movement
• arts movements (musical, artistic, literary)
• religious and philosophical
• popular cultural trends (food, fashion, advertising)

Physical movements
• mass movement of people (mobilisation of soldiers, migration from towns to cities)
• transatlantic and inter-continental travel (including emigration and immigration)
• leisure and tourism
• transport
• changing landscapes

Development and progress
• media (cinema, audio technology and radio, print media)
• scientific and medical advances
• technology
• economic growth and/or recession
• development of nationhood

These headings are suggestions only; we welcome proposals exploring crossovers between these topics, or addressing them from interdisciplinary perspectives. Abstracts of 250-300 words for 20 minute papers along with a short biographical note of no more than 50 words should be sent to pgculturalmodernity@contacts.bham.ac.uk by the 17th May 2013. We welcome any questions that you may have; please do not hesitate to contact us at the above address.

For more information about the Centre for the Study of Cultural Modernity please visit their website:
http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/culturalmodernity/index.as...

@pgculturalmod
www.facebook.com/pgculturalmod http://pgculturalmodernity.wordpress.com

Instrumental Reason/Constellational Form: The Frankfurt School Now

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:19:18 -0400

In “The Essay as Form,” Theodor Adorno writes that the essay (in Montaigne’s sense of an ‘attempt’) presupposes a reader who “does not think, but rather transforms himself into an arena of intellectual experience.”

Frankfurt School critical theory is often regarded as incompatible with contemporary literary and cultural studies, with the latter’s emphasis on sensation, remediation, politicized identities and social networks. We are seeking panels that reimagine Adorno and Benjamin’s work in light of recent scholarly and pedagogical trends. For instance, what can Frankfurt theory contribute to the return of experience as a critical keyword? How does “constellation” compare to other terms for complex compositions (network, assemblage, field, etc.)? Can we still justify reading and teaching literature as a challenge to instrumental reason and the “unconditional priority of ‘method,’” or should new theories and technologies make us rethink the instrumental?

Please send an abstract of about 250 words, along with a 1-3 sentence bio, to Claire Laville (clavill@emory.edu) and Elizabeth Bishop (ebbisho@emory.edu) by June 21, 2013.

For more information about SAMLA, visit http://samla.memberclicks.net/conference

Ode to Joy: The Career of Camden Joy (MMLA 11/7-11/10/13)

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:27:54 -0400

This approved special session will be devoted to the work of the conference’s keynote speaker, Tom Adelman, who under the name Camden Joy attained notoriety in the mid-nineties for his New York City postering projects and street manifestos and went on to write rock criticism and fiction that blurred the lines between music criticism, memoir, and fiction. Proposals to discuss any and/or all aspects of Joy’s work welcome. Possible topics include considerations of his work in the context of genre, the history of rock criticism, literary history, social history, and the conference theme, Art & Artifice.

Please send 250-word abstracts by June 14th. Depending on response, may morph into a roundtable.

Chair: Samuel Cohen, University of Missouri (& President, MMLA)

NeMLA 2014 Monstrous Maternity: Mothering Monsters, and Monsters as Mothers, Deadline 9/30/13

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:33:17 -0400

Monstrous Maternity: Mothering Monsters, and Monsters as Mothers

45th Annual Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
April 3-6, 2014
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Host: Susquehanna University

Historically, the flaws of offspring have been placed as a burden on the mother, marking the maternal figure as responsible for all aspects of her progeny's development; if a child is born with a deformity then a shock experienced during gestation is to be blamed, and if a child suffers from a caustic disposition it is the mother's care that comes under scrutiny. These questions continue to be reflected in literature and film, as texts seek to place blame for monstrous acts, and texts seek to find a space for maternity in the monstrous or supernatural. So what can be said of the mothers of monsters? Or of the offspring of monstrous women? This panel proposes an examination of the subject of monstrosity and maternity as presented in literature and film, from *Beowulf* to *Wuthering Heights*, ‘Psycho’ to 'Mommy Dearest' to ‘Twilight’, examining the development of monsters as both mothers and progeny, and how the maternal role contributes to the defining of what is monstrous.

Areas of interest include:
• Mothers in Gothic novels
• The absent mother in monster literature
• Monstrous mothers
• Mothering monsters
• Depictions of monstrous mothers in film
• The question of blame and the true crime genre
• Supernatural motherhood
• Alternative maternity in literature and film

This panel will examine the correlation between motherhood and monstrosity, as represented and defined in both literature and film. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to: mothers in gothic literature, the absent mother in monster texts, monstrous mothers, mothering monsters, depictions of monstrous mothers in film, the question of blame and true crime, supernatural motherhood, and alternative maternity in literature and film. Please send proposals and brief biographical notes to A.L. Mishou, USNA, almishou@gmail.com.

Deadline: September 30, 2013
Please include with your abstract:
Name and Affiliation
Email address
Postal address
Telephone number
A/V requirements (if any; $10 handling fee with registration)

[REMINDER] Levinas and Early Modern Literature (collection, proposals by 6/15)

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:14:46 -0400

Proposals sought for an edited collection exploring the relationship between the writings of Emmanuel Levinas and the writings of early modern authors. For consideration, please submit a chapter proposal (500-1000 words), a brief bio (<250 words), and an abbreviated cv (<3 pages). All submissions will be acknowledged.

Deadline for proposals is 6/15/2013
Completed chapters will be expected by 1/15/2014

Kent Lehnhof, Chapman University
lehnhof@chapman.edu

GLBTQ Studies at MAPACA - Atlantic City (Nov. 7th to 9th)

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:11:10 -0400

The GLBTQ Studies Area of MAPACA welcomes proposals of relevance to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities. Proposals are encouraged on any medium of popular or American culture. Proposals of interest for the Atlantic City 2013 conference might include:

*Queering the Internet: The GLBTQ Web
*GLBT Publishing Today
*Sports and Gay/Lesbian Visibility
*The Female Eye: Agency or Appropriation?
*The Gay Bar: Patron or Patronizing?
*GLBTQ Representation in Contemporary Popular Culture
*Where are we Now: Gay vs. Queer Sensibilities
*GLBTQ Media Coverage: From Suicides to It Gets Better
*The GLBTQ Superhero/ine?
*HIV/AIDS and Erotic Writing
*The Violet Quill writers
*Popular GLBTQ romance novels/novelists
*GLBTQ comics/graphic novels/Yaoi

However, proposals addressing any topic of GLBTQ significance in popular or American culture are welcome. Please log into the MAPACA website to submit a proposal. You can find directions at this URL: http://mapaca.net/help/conference/submitting-abstracts-conference.

You may also contact Dr. Mark John Isola via markjohn—at—alumni.tufts.edu with any questions.

Please note: Presenters may only present 1 paper at MAP/ACA; please do not submit multiple papers to multiple areas. Also, please note a sliding scale fee applies for conference registration.

Conference: Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association
Dates: Thursday, 11/7 thru Saturday, 11/9
Location: Atlantic City, New Jersey
Venue: Tropicana Casino and Resort
Deadline: Proposals must be received by June 14, 2013
Web Site: www.mapaca.net