category: american

UPDATE/MAY 23RD 2013

Thu, 23 May 2013 19:00:57 -0400

TYCA-NE 2013 CALL FOR PROPOSALS

October 3-5, 2013

Hyatt Morristown / Morristown, NJ

Program by Bergen Community College

TYCA-NE of the National Council of Teachers of English is currently seeking presentation proposals for its October 2013 Conference in Morristown, NJ. Presentations should focus on some aspect of the TYCA purpose: “the intellectual and pedagogical growth of English teachers and administrators in the two-year college throughout the northeast region.” Our theme for this year’s conference is:

R/evolutions: Addressing Pedagogical and Institutional Change in Higher Education

The TYCA-NE 2013 Conference asks us to define what changes are taking place, to anticipate future changes and to consider collaborative ways to implement changes, not only in our local institutions, but also in our communities.

Join us in New Jersey this year, at the center of our TYCA region. Morristown is known as the seat of the Revolutionary War, a tactical setting chosen by General George Washington as he led his Continental Army to encamp during the harsh winters. For two pivotal winters, the area served the Patriots who helped change America. Today, Washington Headquarters is maintained and preserved for its critical military history.

What kind of changes are you seeing at your institutions, can you see more changes evolving, and how are you addressing them? Proposals may address the following topics:

Pedagogical Changes:

Readiness, Remediation and Redesign
Developmental Acceleration, Supplementation and Contextualization
In Defense of Fiction
Future of Creative Writing
Using Whole Books with Thematic Content
Flipped Classroom
K-12 English Curriculum Changes
HS-College Collaborative Initiatives
Crafting Authentic Writing Experiences
Beyond First Year Writing
Online Teaching and Learning
Effective E-Materials and Resources
Virtual Innovations and Interactions
New Ways to Teach Writing
Transforming Assessment

Institutional Changes:

Serving more students with fewer resources
Changes in current policies and legislation regarding developmental education
Increasing use of adjunct labor
Changes as a result of administration overhaul
Political change and how it affects community colleges
Faculty bargaining and the future of tenure-track positions
Reaching out into the college community and implementing strategies for retention

We are interested in presentation topics that include revolutions in pedagogical thinking, planning and collaboration.

Format Options:

20 minute talk, discussion, or workshop followed by questions and answers;
60 minute full-panel discussion for groups of two or more followed by questions and answers;
Presentations may be combined with other proposals by the Program Planning Committee;
Computers, LCD projectors, wireless connections and on-site tech support will be provided.
Proposal Requirements:

200-250 word abstract elaborating on both the topic and format of the presentation;
50 word title and description for the conference program and schedule;
Type of session (i.e. 20 min workshop…) and specific audio-visual and technical requests;
A brief biography and contact information of each presenter.

TYCA Northeast hopes to foster creativity, collaboration and innovation. While traditional proposals will be accepted, non-traditional presentations are greatly encouraged and may receive priority consideration.

Proposals should be submitted by June 17, 2013. Presenters will be notified of proposal acceptance by June 30, 2013 and must register for the conference by August 31, 2013. Full submission instructions can be found on the conference website at www.tycanortheast.org/. The registration deadline for the conference is September 10, 2013.

Conference Registration Deadline: September 10, 2013

[UPDATE] VI International Gothic Congress ‘Gothic Convergences’, UNAM, Mexico City, April 1, 2 & 3, 2014

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:42:55 -0400

During the last years, Gothic Literature has just begun to be accepted as a literary field worth of study among Mexican scholars. The doors remain open to deepen into the study of a style whose manifestations go beyond the barriers represented by time, culture, genre, and art modes.

Objetive: After the great response received in the previous Gothic Congresses (2008 - 2012), the aim is to keep encouraging the interest in the Gothic among both students and scholars at the UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) and other Mexican institutions. To achieve this, we propose to start from the study of the plural presence of the Gothic in various modes of art, as well as time and space contexts.

Dates: April 1, 2 & 3, 2014 (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday).

Place: Salón de Actos I, Faculty of Philosophy and Literature (FFyL), UNAM (Nacional Autonomous University of Mexico), Mexico City.

Call for Papers: We are calling for papers centered upon the idea of the Gothic as a timeless and intertextual plural phenomenon in literature and other arts.

Other Possible topics:
. History and evolution of Gothic Literature
. Gothic elements in Mexican and Latin-American Literature
. National Gothic Literatures (British Gothic, Scottish Gothic, American Gothic,
etc.)
. Gothic Literature and Postmodernism
. The future of Gothic Literature
. Gothic in Film and Art

Those interested in taking part in the congress are asked to send an abstract of their paper in 200 words, including its title; as well as a short summary of their academic background (50 words) with full name of the participant.
The proposals will be received until December 31, 2013.

The participants will be given around 20 minutes to read their papers. The works can be presented in either English or Spanish.
Keynote speakers will be given 50 minutes to read, with 10 minutes to answer questions from the public.

Those whose papers get accepted to participate in the congress can send a version of the paper to be included in the congress yearbook between April 4 and April 30, 2014. Such version must include both reference footnotes and the corresponding bibliography.

All proposals, papers and questions are to be sent to:

coloquio_gotico@hotmail.com / antonio.alcala@itesm.mx

Blog: http://gothiccongress.blogspot.com/

UPDATE -- 2013 MMLA Convention: Is the Artist Present? (Confirmed Special Session)

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:06:40 -0400

In 2010, performance artist Marina Abramović presented a retrospective show at MOMA entitled Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present that included one new performance. From March 14 to May 31, Abramović performed a solo piece in the museum’s atrium; she invited visitors to sit silently across from her for as long as they chose. In this way, she was “present” in more ways than one; being present was her piece, she was present in her piece, and she presented her piece all simultaneously. This unique and profound performance, and the title of the show itself, raises questions about the role of the artist in contemporary art.

These questions are equally relevant to the discussion of contemporary fiction. In some postmodernist texts, the author (or some version of the author) has reinserted him or herself, complicating Roland Barthes declaration of the death of the author in 1967. What is this aberration and what has caused it? Is the author suddenly present, sitting in the room as it were, across the table from us as we read? Has the author been resuscitated, resurrected, or at least propped up in apparent lifelikeness? And if so, what are the implications of this presence?

This is now a confirmed special session for the 2013 M/MLA in Milwaukee. Please send abstracts and brief vita to Dr. Brett Wiley at bwiley1@mvnu.edu by June 15, 2013. The conference takes place in Milwaukee from Nov. 7-10, 2013.

[EXTENDED DEADLINE] The Marginalised Mainstream: Fading and Emerging NEW DEADLINE

Thu, 23 May 2013 05:06:55 -0400

Second Annual Marginalised Mainstream Conference: Fading and Emerging, 12-13 September 2013 NEW DEADLINE: 17 June 2013

‘Fading and Emerging: Tracing the Mainstream in Literature and Popular Culture’, the second annual Marginalised Mainstream conference, seeks to explore the issue of fading and emerging in popular literature, films, and other media that have been subject to critical marginalisation. How does the mainstream itself foster the process of fading and emerging? How are vanishing and appearance dealt with in popular narratives?

In literature, characters fade into the background or erupt onto the page with sudden violence to affect the plot. The deus ex machina is a staple of thrillers, but where else (and how) is it incorporated? Cinema and photography have offered a unique space to experiment with the concept of fading and vanishing, both literally and figuratively, but also traces and mirages - pressing half images against the psyche invites shadows in and encourages us to see what was never there (think Hitchcock's Psycho). Metaphors, such as dawn and twilight, shadows and pools of light, abound. Such devices have been used in storytelling since the popular myths of the ancient world. This conference seeks to understand their significance.

We invite submissions from postgraduate students, early career academics and established researchers working in the fields of literature, cultural studies and elsewhere in the humanities to answer these questions and beyond. The aims of this conference strive not only to consider fading and emerging as aspects of narrative but also outside of the fictive world: how and where are trends and fads begun? Why are icons so attractive? What sparks crazes, new styles and popular movements in storytelling, fashion or music? And what is the cause of the more recent trend of remaking and rebooting older films and franchises?

These issues are often the subject of academic marginalisation, which begs the question: what trends can we see in academia? What causes a subject to fall out of favour? And why do so many academics fall prey to the idea that something is only worth studying after it has fully emerged?

We invite proposals for papers on any aspect of the theme of fading and emerging that could include, but are not limited to:

• Fictional traces
• Revelations/concealment
• Dawn/twilight
• Wallflowers and supporting characters
• Vanishing and waning
• Deus ex machina
• Fade-in, fade-out
• Styles, trends and movements
• Generic inception/genesis
• Fads and crazes
• The icon – the ‘It’ girl, the ‘It’ film
• Popular re-emergence
• Disappearance
• Re-reading (or re-viewing)
• Remakes and reboots

It goes without saying that writers, texts or topics need not be canonical. In addition, we actively encourage papers discussing writers, texts and visual media that engage with mainstream cultures from around the world.

Keynote speakers: Dr Kate Macdonald (Ghent University), Dr Nicola Humble (University of Roehampton), and Professor Yvonne Tasker (University of East Anglia)

Panels will follow the format of three 20-minute papers followed by questions.

Abstracts of no more than 350 words are invited by Monday 17 June 2013. Acceptances will be sent out by no later than Monday 24 June 2013. Please email abstracts and a cover sheet including your name, university, contact information, plus a brief biographical paragraph about your academic interests or any enquiries to marginalisedmainstream@gmail.com.

Conference organisers: Brittain Bright, Emma Grundy Haigh and Sam Goodman

Conference email: marginalisedmainstream@gmail.com

Conference website: www.marginalisedmainstream.com

Short Story at MMLA 2013

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:53:38 -0400

This session welcomes critical papers on the short story for the annual MMLA convention. Proposals may be related to the conference theme of Art & Artifice, but it is not necessary.

Please send 250-word abstracts by May 31, 2013, to Katy L. Leedy, Marquette University, katy.leedy@marquette.edu.

The convention will be held November 7-10, 2013, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For more information, visit the conference website at http://www.luc.edu/mmla/annualconvention.html.

NEMLA 2014: Locating the Gothic: American Gothic and its Local Variations

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:28:25 -0400

Locating the Gothic: American Gothic and its Local Variations

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

This panel seeks to explore possible regional variations on the Gothic genre in America. Is there such a thing as “Pennsylvania Gothic”? “Mid-Atlantic Gothic”? Or are they subsumed under “New England Gothic” and “American Gothic”? While the tropes of the Gothic – castles, found documents, and aristocratic villains – are perhaps too unreal to be tied to merely mundane surroundings of real places, to what extent does the Gothic reflect the concerns, geographies, and cultures of the place where it’s written or set? Since several key American Gothic texts hail from Pennsylvania -- George Lippard’s Monks of Monk Hall and many of the works of Charles Brockden Brown and Edgar Allan Poe to suggest a few – it seems possible that the area has offered some Gothic inspirations. In light of NEMLA’s conference location this year, the panel organizer has a preference for papers that focus on texts that are connected to Pennsylvania specifically, but Northeastern U.S. or American Gothic more generally will also be considered. In what ways is the Gothic “local”? Are there resonances of Civil War Gothic? Revolutionary War Gothic? What other aspects of real places emerge within the Gothic? How does the Gothic transmit, transform, and transcend the realities of locality? Can there be “local color” in the Gothic?

Please send inquiries or 250-300 word abstracts (preferably MSWord or PDF attachments) to Bridget_Marshall@uml.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 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.” NeMLA’s Keynote Speaker will be David Staller, Producer and Director of Project Shaw. Mr. Staller presents monthly script-in-hand performances of Bernard Shaw’s plays at the Players Club in New York City.

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

Lingering Apparitions in Pennsylvania Fiction--Sept. 30 deadline

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:48:02 -0400

Lingering Apparitions in Pennsylvania Fiction

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

This panel seeks to explore the theme of lingering apparitions, of slavery, of the dead, of the past, etc., in fiction by and about Pennsylvanians. Possible works include, but are not limited to, David Bradely’s The Chaneysville Incident, Tawni O’Dell’s Backroads, any of John O’Hara’s work set in the anthracite coal region, or more contemporary work such as that of Stephen Raleigh Byler. Send 250 word abstracts to Jerry Wemple and Tina Entzminger at bentzmin@bloomu.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)

Assimilation & Vice in American Literature, NeMLA Convention, Harrisburg, PA (April 3-6, 2014)

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:45:55 -0400

We typically think and speak of assimilation not only as a process that results in cultural hybridity but as a process accomplished through hard work and sacrifice. But what role does vice play in this assimilation narrative? Moreover, what do forms of vice tell us about the time period from which the author writes? In speaking of 'vice,' we will not limit ourselves to criminal acts (although we will not exclude these, either); rather, we will also speak of the narrative functionality and potentiality of activities like dancing, gambling, alcohol consumption, and adultery in assimilation stories.
Please send 250-300 word abstracts to Francisco.Delgado@stonybrook.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)

NeMLA 2014: Post-9/11 Narratives of American Im/Emigration

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:49:29 -0400

POST-9/11 NARRATIVES OF AMERICAN IM/EMIGRATION

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

How is the reality of post-9/11 America being captured in contemporary immigrant stories? Are contemporary authors telling stories of American immigration, exile, or both simultaneously? This panel seeks to elucidate the ways in which 9/11 and its lingering aftermath is figured in recent immigrant fiction while examining themes and trends emerging in this growing body of literature. Please send inquiries or 250-500 word abstracts (preferably MSWord or PDF attachments) to Katie Daily-Bruckner, dailym@bc.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)

Groundbreaking Approaches in Television (November 8-9, 2013; Proposals due July 19, 2013)

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:07:59 -0400

We invite proposals pertaining to groundbreaking approaches in television, for presentation in a special series of panels at the Alternative Visions in Media Conference, to be held at Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, Texas) November 8-9, 2013.

The conference organizers are seeking historically and theoretically intriguing presentations that explore noteworthy bold, unique, boundary-pushing, and/or controversial television shows/series from any historical era, and from any area across the globe.

Participants are encouraged to interpret the conference theme quite broadly and innovatively, as we encourage submissions from scholars, educators, students, and filmmakers/videographers at all levels and from a wide range of disciplines. Individual paper presentations will be limited to 20 minutes in length.

Given adequate participant interest and high-quality submissions, we are hoping to publish selected papers (with author’s permission) in a special collection of essays pertaining to the conference theme.

Please e-mail presentation proposals containing (a) a one-page abstract with complete contact information (name, institutional affiliation, mail and e-mail addresses, contact telephone number) and (b) a one-paragraph author biography to Professor Kylo-Patrick Hart (k.hart@tcu.edu) on or before Friday, July 19, 2013.

Decisions regarding the status of submitted proposals will be made and communicated as quickly as possible following the submission deadline, and certainly no later than August 1, 2013. For specific inquiries prior to submitting a proposal, please contact Dr. Hart at your convenience by e-mail (k.hart@tcu.edu).

[UPDATE] Deadline Extended to June 10th--SAMLA Panel Commemorating 50th Ann. of DuBois' Death & 110th Ann. of _Souls_

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:05:52 -0400

Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of DuBois’ Death and the 110th Anniversary of The Souls of Black Folk

ATTENTION—EXTENDED DEADLINE

2013 is the 50th anniversary of W.E.B. DuBois' death and the 110th anniversary of the publication of The Souls of Black Folk. To commemorate these anniversaries, the African American Literature regular session at SAMLA seeks papers exploring DuBois' legacy and influence(s) within the African American literary tradition (including, perhaps, papers interrogating that very term through a DuBoisian lens). Topics might include, but are certainly not limited to, engagements with the following intentionally broad questions:

- How have African American literary texts written since The Souls of Black Folks qualified, challenged, or otherwise engaged with DuBois’ ideas?
-What are the stakes and implications of labeling a text "African American literature" (or not doing so), and how can DuBoisian theory inform these considerations?
- In keeping with this year's conference theme (“Cultures, Contexts, Images, and Texts: Making Meaning in Print, Digital, and Networked Worlds”), how might DuBois' ideas speak to the challenges and opportunities of studying and teaching African American literature in an increasingly digital and networked academe?

By June 10, 2013, please send abstracts of no more than 500 words, accompanied by a brief professional biography, to Sara Taylor Boissonneau, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, at srtaylo4@uncg.edu.

Intersections and Assemblages: Genders and Sexualities Across Cultures, April 4-5, 2014

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:59:26 -0400

Intersections and Assemblages: Genders and Sexualities Across Cultures
The 10th Biennial Associated Colleges of the South (ACS) Women’s and Gender Studies Conference, April 4-5, 2014
Location: Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, U.S.A.

The Associated Colleges of the South and Furman University invite papers, panels, and/or proposals for roundtable sessions for the tenth biennial Gender Studies Conference to be held at Furman University, Greenville, SC on April 4th and 5th, 2014.

The theme of the conference recognizes the multiplicity and diversity of scholarly approaches and activism to the long-standing aspiration for the abolition of all forms of inequality based on gender and/or sexuality. It also recognizes and welcomes transnational and cross-cultural or comparative perspectives on gender and sexuality in addition to those in/on the West.

While the intersectionality of categories of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other markers of location or positionality has long been established in scholarship, we would like to think that the concept metaphor of ‘assemblages’ can also be useful in looking back and thinking ahead of new, emergent, or utopian forms of solidarity in the many ongoing or past intersectional movements in different locations that may or may not be operating in tandem with one another. What do we see when we map what we do collectively as intellectuals? Are we now at a juncture where we may begin to re-assess and revitalize the much-expanded field or related cluster of fields that constitute Gender Studies? What can we learn about the exercise of and resistance to new, or not-so-new forms of power based in dominant or emerging cultural practices that impact our understanding of gender and sexuality?

Faculty, staff, and students of ACS institutions and beyond are invited to submit 250-300 word abstracts of paper proposals or entire panels in MS Word format along with a short biographical statement to this address: wgsconf2014@furman.edu. The deadline for submissions is October 31st, 2013. Proposals may interpret the theme and the following list of suggested topics broadly:

Diversity in/of Genders and Sexualities
Gender-Queer-Global Intersections
Sexual Inequalities in Neoliberal Times/University
New Normativities of the Future
Affect and Embodiment
Rhetorics of Materiality
Feminist, Queer, Trans Theories: Convergences and Divergences
Gender and Science/Neuroscience
Is Feminism Over? Is there a Fourth Wave?
Gender Pedagogies for Today
Gender and Sport
Genders, Sexualities and Minority Ethnicities
Feminisms and the Financial Crisis
Feminisms and the Environmental Crisis
Ecofeminism
Queer Economics
Gender and Trans(-)media
Postcolonial Feminisms
LGBTQ and the Postcolonial
Margins within Margins
Space and Gender
Bodies Under Religion and/or Law

Reconsidering Sigourney: Essays on Lydia Sigourney (edited collection)

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:32:12 -0400

The co-editors seek essays that showcase the breadth and vigor of the new scholarship on Lydia Sigourney. Though Sigourney was one of the most popular, productive and consequential authors of America’s nineteenth-century (poet, entrepreneur, educational reformer, and essayist), serious critical attention to her work languished until the latter decades of the twentieth-century when the field of American literature and culture underwent the significant revision and revitalization. Her works have been critical to many of these reconsiderations --- whether of romanticism, American identity, the history of the book, disability studies, and, most recently, of the new aesthetics --- but there has yet to be a volume of essays that collects and represents this work.
Interested contributors please send a 300-400 word abstract (as an attachment in Word) and full contact information, including affiliation, to mkete@uvm.edu or Epetrino@fairfield.edu. Abstracts are due by August 1st. Final full drafts will be due January 30, 2014.

CFP: Arrested Development edited collection

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:25:03 -0400

Over the course of its original three-year run on Fox, the television series Arrested Development quickly became a cult favorite and earned twenty-two Emmy nominations and six wins, including Outstanding Comedy Series in 2004. Unafraid to push boundaries, the series routinely satirized issues of race, sexuality, family, love, politics, and class, to name only a few. Combined with its sophisticated writing and its perfectly cast group of series regulars, the show became a layered and intricate look into modern society and one of the funniest sitcoms to emerge in the last decade. With this in mind, Dr. Kristin M. Barton is seeking proposals for an edited volume under consideration at McFarland which will explore Arrested Development from a scholarly perspective. Ideally, the book will include one chapter on each of the following topics as they pertain to the show:
- The use of narration
- Crime and punishment
- Family dynamics (maternal/paternal roles)
- Styles/types of humor
- Politics
- Love and marriage
- Financial issues (having/not having money)
- Class status
- The role of charity in the series
- Race
- Sexuality
- Alcohol/addiction
- Casting the series/Bringing roles to life
- The show’s revival on Netflix
- (Chapters on “religion” and “struggles to find an audience” have already been completed)

Chapters may also include material/references from the 4th season debuting on Netflix in May 2013.

Articles should be 6,000-8,000 words (MLA format, no footnotes or endnotes please) that respond to the focus of the volume. Article abstracts (300+ words) and a brief CV should be submitted by July 31, 2013 to Dr. Kristin Barton at kmbarton@daltonstate.edu. Submissions with detailed outlines or in draft form will be given stronger consideration. Completed essays must be submitted by January 31, 2014. Brief queries are welcome should there be questions about appropriate submission topics. Selected authors will be notified by the end of August 2013, and please note that invitation to submit a full essay does not guarantee inclusion in the volume.

[UPDATE] “Making Meaning at the End of the World: Apocalyptic Texts” SAMLA Nov. 8-10 Abstracts by 6/7

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:14:37 -0400

SAMLA Convention 2013
November 8-10, 2012
Marriott Atlanta Buckhead Hotel
Atlanta, Georgia 2013

“Making Meaning at the End of the World: Apocalyptic Texts”
Chair: Lynne Simpson, Presbyterian College
Affiliated Group: College English Association

As R.E.M., that great band from Athens, Georgia, famously sang, “It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.” What is driving our current American obsession with the apocalypse? Papers that explore imagined endings from environmental disasters to zombie invasions are welcome. What do apocalyptic literature, television, and film mean for us culturally, and what might we discern from these often cautionary tales? Please send abstracts of around 500 words to Lynne Simpson at lsimpson@presby.edu by June 7.

Divine Adaptations: New Perspectives on Dante’s Influence in Popular Culture

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:20:29 -0400

In Inferno V, 137 Francesca da Rimini explains to Dante how both book and author are responsible for her and Paolo’s ‘mal perverso’ that led to their ultimate death and eternal damnation. However, further investigation reveals that Francesca’s incrimination of the author, in addition to the text of the tale of Lancelot and Guinevere, is a misreading on the part of Francesca. According to Franco Masciandaro, the attempt to recreate the adulterous kiss, “brought about … sterility and death,” and in addition, “imitatio, with its potential creativity, was adulterated.” Masciandaro's critique of the lovers’ misinterpretation and Francesca’s distaste of the author both recall early criticism of adaptation theory. This dissatisfaction also includes late 19th century and early 20th century adaptations and performances of Dante’s works, specifically the Commedia and stories about the poets’ life. The objective of this panel is to analyze the relationship between Dante’s text and contemporary representations of the Commedia. This panel aims to reopen the conversation of Dante’s influence in popular culture by focusing on the medieval poet’s presence in cinema, theatre, and television. Papers addressing theoretical understanding of medievalism, adaptation, performance studies, and popular culture studies are particularly welcomed. Please send 300 word abstracts and brief bio to Carmelo Galati at carmgalati@gmail.com by September 30, 2013.

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

“Making Feminist Meanings Across Worlds: Print, Digital, and Networked Feminisms and Women’s Studies”

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:43:59 -0400

In keeping with the theme of this year’s conference, “Cultures, Contexts, Images, Texts: Making Meaning in Print, Digital, and Networked Worlds,” the Women’s Studies regular session invites paper proposals on making feminist meanings across worlds. How have our enhanced online capabilities shaped women’s studies and feminist discourse? How might women’s studies consider its meaning making in online form? Is there a digital women’s studies, and what might that scholarship look like? How do writers and artists use online media as part of their work? How does technology shape feminism and vice versa? Papers for this panel might examine particular writers who embody these issues in their works, or they might focus on broader issues in women’s studies. Possible topics for consideration:

• Feminisms and the blogosphere
• Women, gender, and social media
• Choice feminism, counter-cultural feminism, etc.
• Digital Humanities and women’s studies
• Posthumanism and feminism
• Haraway’s cyborg and feminism reconsidered
• Women writers and the digital or networked text
• Women and technologies of the book
• Body enhancement technology and its meanings
• Women’s bodies making meaning
• The network as feminist collective space – or not?
• Lean In, No Excuses, and other recent texts

Please send a 300-400 word abstract (in word doc or rich text format) by June 21, 2013 via email to magillde@longwood.edu and to aesquivl@memphis.edu. All proposals should include the title of the paper, author’s name, email address, and author’s institutional affiliation.

Dr. David Magill
Dept. of English
Longwood University
201 High Street
Farmville, VA 23901
magillde@longwood.edu

Anna M. Esquivel, Ph.D.
310 Patterson Hall
English Department
University of Memphis
Memphis, TN 38152
aesquivl@memphis.edu

CFP--2014 EAAS Conference Workshop: Food on the Home Front, Food on the Warfront: Conflict and the American Diet

Tue, 21 May 2013 03:36:43 -0400

Food has been an inextricable part of American warfare since the inception of the nation. From the traveling cooks of the Revolutionary War, to the advent of canned provisions during the Civil War, to the renaming of German dishes such as sauerkraut (liberty cabbage) and hamburgers (liberty steaks) during World War I, to the rise of Asian cuisine during World War II and the Vietnam War, to the surge of Middle Eastern cuisine and the French fries/freedom fries controversy of the post 9/11 era, military conflict has impacted the American diet both on the warfront and on the home front. While international politics and domestic propaganda ostensibly initiated and sustained many of these dietary changes, some outlasted the wars with which they were originally associated, becoming a permanent part of American culinary culture. The consumption of canned food, for example, was originally designed for soldiers and travelers who could not always access a fresh cooked meal. Canned food was then sold to middle class consumers as luxury items which would facilitate their busy lifestyles. After World War II, however, canned food was democratized through mass production, becoming a generic and inexpensive part of American life. Today, it is a significant part of the national palate, spawning entire industries (tuna) and foodways (spam cuisine).

War has also prompted Americans to rethink their consumption of food, ranging from the improvement of domestic beer brewing (when patriotic Americans refused to consume German beer); to the conservation and home gardening movements of World Wars I and II; to more recent efforts centering on organic and green consumption after Americans witnessed what chemicals could do to the human body during the Vietnam and Gulf Wars. Food has also served as points of contention between war-torn nations, with Hershey Bars and Coca Cola functioning first as soft power or cultural “envoys of peace,” and later as insidious portents of the American capitalism and imperialism that many associate with “hard power” US global interventions.

This workshop, which is part of the 2014 EAAS Conference at the Hague (Netherlands, April 3-6), seeks to explore the meaning of food in relation to the conference theme of American conflict and war. The workshop chairs encourage the submission of paper proposals dealing with the ways in which war has impacted American foodways and culinary culture since the eighteenth century. We are especially interested in submissions that consider material objects such as menus, posters, food packaging, recipes and cookbooks as well as media representations, including pamphlets, short films, and public service announcements produced by the US government, related agencies, and NGOs. Topics may include, but are not limited to: representations of food and war in American literature; war and the scarcity of food; food conservation movements and grassroots activism; home production and canning; gender, class, race and food; the evolution of the American diet; culinary creativity, food substitutions, and changes in cooking style; the American consumer and shopping habits; food, war, and children; propaganda and patriotism; cooking classes, textbooks and indoctrination; food rationing and hoarding; nutrition during wartime; and comparative/transnational approaches.

Paper proposals (abstracts of no more than 500 words) and one-paragraph bios should be emailed to both workshop chairs by October 1, 2013.

In order to present at the conference, membership in EAAS, or one of its affiliates, is required. Unfortunately, late submissions cannot be considered. Limited travel funds will be available for individuals with accepted abstracts.

Dr. Tanfer Emin Tunc (tanfer@hacettepe.edu.tr)
Dr. Annessa Ann Babic (annessababic@gmail.com)
www.eaas.eu

[UPDATE] Energy in Literature

Mon, 20 May 2013 23:18:19 -0400

June 15th, 2013, EDITED ANTHOLOGY
Energy in Literature: Essays on Energy and Its Social and Environmental Implications in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literary Texts (edited by Paula A. Farca)

Call for papers on energy and energy sources in twentieth-century and twenty-first century literary texts (any genre, any country). Scholars of all disciplines are encouraged to submit. TrueHeart academic, an independent academic publisher on people and environment, based in Oxford UK, is publishing a series entitled "Bridging Disciplines," and has expressed interest in this project.

Energy in Literature proposes to show connections in literary texts among energy, society, and environment and explore how authors of recent literature present energy sources ranging from coal and oil to solar, wind, nuclear, biofuels, hydropower.

Energy in Literature strives to address the following questions:
What are the most common energy sources in literary texts? What are the environmental, social, political, cultural, and economic ramifications of these energy sources?
How do authors present energy issues such as production, consumption, and conservation? Do new energy sources help or hurt communities? What problems do certain energy sources create or solve and for whom? For instance, how do constructions of dams or the effects of carbon emissions impact communities and families?
How do the authors of literary texts show the balance between people’s need for energy and their duty to preserve the environment? How do authors address pollution problems?
What ethical choices do protagonists of literary texts make about energy?
How do issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and class intersect with energy issues in literary texts?

Contact info:
Dr. Paula Farca (LAIS, Colorado School of Mines)
pfarca@mines.edu
Please submit your abstracts and short biographical notes to pfarca@mines.edu by June 15th 2013. Completed papers will be due in October 15th, 2013.

Trickster: (Re-)constructing the World from its Edges (NeMLA 2014, April 3-6)

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:07:29 -0400

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

The session topic coincides with recent renaissance of the interest in trickster, comprehended both as an agent of change and instrument of progress, but also a vehicle of instability, and a driving force of destruction. The growing awareness of this character, which embodies uncertainty at the moment of change, reflects upon the sensation of tumble of well-established categories and time-honored institution of the world as we know it.
The session lays its conceptual roots in the comprehensive monograph by Lewis Hyde, Trickster Makes this World, which was first available in 1998, and has recently been republished in 2008, and again in 2010. While recognizing mythological provenience of a trickster, Hyde puts this character in the comparative perspective, and promotes study of a trickster as an archetype, that has constantly reappeared in different forms in culture from antiquity to the modern times. The panel offers to build on the scholarship dedicated to a trickster by critically exploring one particular aspect of this character, i.e. his ability to create alternative worlds with the use of acquired or self-invented skill, and further confuse these constructs with reality.

This Panel will include papers that present modern incarnation of archetypal Trickster, as presented in literature from the 19th till 21st century. Successful articles should be concerned with the creational aspect of the trickster, his/her ability to “make the world,” and to confuse the notion of reality. We are particularly interested in the portrait of the trickster as an architect of alternative/virtual realities, visual illusions, and confusing imagery.

Please submit 300-500 word abstract and brief bio to Joanna Madloch at madlochj@mail.montclair.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 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.

Atwood's Apocalyptic Visions (8/1/13)

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:39:07 -0400

Cambridge Scholars Publishing has expressed interest in a collection on Margaret Atwood and the theme of the apocalypse (though the collection is not yet under contract).

Please send abstracts of 500-600 words (or completed essays) to Karma Waltonen (kjwaltonen@ucdavis.edu) by August 1, 2013.

(The last novel in the MaddAddam series will debut in September. This book focuses primarily on the story of Adam One and Zeb and resolves the problems of painballer and pigoon threats to the surviving humans and Crakers. Abstracts about what you assume will be the lens through which you read this novel/the trilogy will be considered.)

Arrested Development (7/15/13 for PCA/ACA, Chicago, April 2014)

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:59:51 -0400

I am seeking panelists for a proposed session on Arrested Development at the 2014 PCA/ACA Conference in Chicago (April 16-19). Final approval for the panel will come from the TV area chair. If I receive enough interest/proposals, I will also consider submitting a book proposal for the first edited collection on the show. Please indicate in your email if you're interested in the panel, the book, or both.

Topics for essays include, but are not limited to:
Class
Family Dynamics
Work Issues
The 1%/Occupy Wallstreet
The Cult Status of the Show
Sexuality
Gender
Narratology
Psychology
Economics
Criminal Justice
Illusions
Identity/Agency

Please submit an abstract of 300-500 words and a brief bio to Karma Waltonen (kjwaltonen@ucdavis.edu) by July 15th, 2013.

[UPDATE] VI International Gothic Congress ‘Gothic Convergences’, UNAM, Mexico City, April 1, 2 & 3, 2014

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:33:25 -0400

OBJECTIVE: After the great response received in the previous Gothic Congresses (2008 - 2012), the aim is to keep encouraging the interest in the Gothic among both students and scholars at the UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) and other Mexican institutions. To achieve this, we propose to start from the study of the plural presence of the Gothic in various modes of art, as well as time and space contexts.

DATES: March 1, 2 & 3, 2014 (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday).

PLACE: Salón de Actos I, Faculty of Philosophy and Literature (FFyL), UNAM (Nacional Autonomous University of Mexico), Mexico City.

CALL FOR PAPERS: We are calling for papers centered upon the idea of the Gothic as a timeless and intertextual plural phenomenon in literature and other arts.

Those interested in taking part in the congress are asked to send an abstract of their paper in 200 words, including its title; as well as a short summary of their academic background (50 words) with full name of the participant.
The PROPOSALS will be received until NOVEMBER 30, 2013.

All proposals, papers and questions are to be sent to:

coloquio_gotico@hotmail.com / antonio.alcala@itesm.mx

Blog: http://gothiccongress.blogspot.com/
cfp categories:
american
eighteenth_century
film_and_television
international_conferences
modernist studies
popular_culture
science_and_culture
theory
twentieth_century_and_beyond
victorian

Special Issue: Feminisms, Academia, Austerity

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:24:11 -0400

JOURNAL OF GENDER STUDIES
Special Issue 2014: Call for Papers

‘Feminisms, Academia, Austerity’
Guest Editors: Helen Davies and Claire O’Callaghan
(JGS Editor: Blu Tirohl)
The current age of austerity is posing significant challenges to feminist scholarship within academia. Recent government funding cuts to higher education are jeopardising the future of research in the arts and humanities more broadly, but the decline of centres, institutes and courses devoted to gender and women’s studies has the potential to threaten the future of feminism in the academy. Retirements and redundancies may signal the end of feminist teaching and research in certain higher education institutions. The dearth of employment opportunities for postgraduates and early career researchers has the potential to elide the next generation of feminist scholars. The increasingly competitive environment of employment in higher education is generating divisions and inequalities which put pressure upon the networks of support, co-operation and community which have been integral to feminist research, teaching and practice
This special issue of the Journal of Gender Studies, ‘Feminisms, Academia, Austerity’, provides a multi-disciplinary space to critically investigate such concerns from a range of perspectives. In what ways are these changes affecting our work and lives? What potential is there to resist these narratives of decline? How might feminist teaching, research, theory and activism engage with and combat such challenges? The guest editors invite articles of 5000-7000 words in length which might address, but are not limited to, the following themes:
• The impact of the age of austerity upon women’s and feminist writing, art, performance, scholarship, theory, teaching and activism;
• Resistance to narratives of decline in the age of austerity;
• The challenges posed to ‘sisterhood’ in the current academic environment;
• Bridging the gap between postgraduate/early career feminist researchers and established scholars;
• Postcolonial, queer, and/or differently abled responses to the age of austerity in feminist research;
• Historical, political and sociological responses to the age of austerity in feminist research;
• Exploring alternative futures for feminism in the academy;
• Strategies of resistance to the marginalisation of feminist research;
• Encouraging the next generation of feminist scholars.

The deadline for submissions is 30th June 2013. Please see the Journal of Gender Studies’ guidance for authors at http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjgs20/current
If you have any queries, please contact Helen Davies (Helen.Davies@tees.ac.uk) and Claire O’Callaghan (cfo3@le.ac.uk)

Doubting Faith and Believing Unbelievers

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:19:32 -0400

SAMLA Conference, Atlanta, Georgia
SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE ON CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE (SCCL)
Nov. 8-10, 2013
Doubting Faith and Believing Unbelievers (SCCL Special Session)
Issues of religion continue to dominate intellectual, academic, personal, and social environments in the West, particularly in the US. The “New Atheists” (Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris) have an aggressive agenda that calls for ongoing efforts to eradicate religious belief through debate and dissemination of information. Websites exist which provide venues through which ex-Christians (and former adherents of other religions as well) can find support, encouragement, and validation. Interestingly, some, though certainly not all, unbelievers demonstrate the same level of what some observers might term dogmatism as fundamentalist believers do. Writers of novels and poems continue to produce works in which the topic of religion plays a significant role. To what extent has “deconversion” surfaced in literatures of the past and present and to what techniques have debunkers of faith resorted in these literatures? How has the depiction of this phenomenon changed (if at all) since the flurry of Victorian instances of loss of faith? How have the reactions of believers evolved or remained static? To what degree has language reflected this issue? Participants may submit papers which identify and analyze current or past poetic and fictive responses to this ongoing struggle, hopefully in light of the contemporary climate. Papers analyzing the intellectual and emotional tension within both believers and unbelievers might be particularly interesting. Contributors may also explore the various roles television, web sites, social media, radio, newspapers, magazines, online news outlets, literary journals, or other media play in this debate. Papers focusing especially on Southern writers are welcome, since the American South still holds the designation of “Bible Belt.” Presenters must be dues-paying members of Conference on Christianity and Literature by the time of the SAMLA Conference. By June 20, 2013, please send an abstract of no more than 250 words to Lawton Brewer, Georgia Northwestern Technical College, at lbrewer@gntc.edu.

The Arts of Travel; MMLA, Milwaukee, Nov 7-10, 2013

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:55:28 -0400

One might consider traveling well to be an art in and of itself. While there is a lot of logistical planning, organizational skill, and practical preparation that must go into a trip, the art of traveling well--one might argue--is the ability to adapt, even to thrive, when the planning fails. This panel invites papers that consider traveling from perspectives that move beyond the merely practical. Does the art of traveling vary by location? By time period? By cultural perspective? What kinds of arts and artifacts are encountered by travelers, and what qualities are necessary to appreciate them? Is it possible to understand "foreign" arts as a traveler, or must one remain forever distanced from art objects that are produced by a culture that is not one's own? What might be the definition of an "artificial" traveler or an "artificial" destination or an "artificial" artwork? What are the implications of seeing a replica in a museum, for example, instead of the "real thing"? Why do so many people consider it an artificial or inauthentic experience to go on a packaged tour, but not so if they strike out on their own with a guidebook and itinerary? This panel welcomes papers on any time period and any travel destination, so long as they frame the process or product of travel through the lens of art and/or artifice.

MMLA Conference theme this year is Art and Artifice. Papers are welcome from scholars at all levels and focusing on any time period.

Inquiries and proposals should be directed to Professor Andrea Kaston Tange via email (akastont@emich.edu). Please indicate name, institutional affiliation, and rank on your proposal or in your email. Please send 500-word proposals by May 31, 2013.

New Beginnings: Empowering Teen Girls, Deadline for Submissions is July 10th

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:54:32 -0400

MissHeard Magazine is a online magazine geared towards empowering teen girls. This is a start-up submission based publication, so there is a great need for writing from both adults and young women.

The theme of the first issue is “New Beginnings” for Fall 2013. We are looking for articles, personal stories, art, book/film reviews, poetry, and fiction, related to the theme. This could include anything from personal narratives about girlhood to how teen girls can start preparing for college. What’s your new hobby as a teenage girl? How did you handle new relationships/friendships when you were a teen? Do you have a new project you’re excited about? Did you write a new piece a fan fiction you are proud of? This is an opportunity to share your ideas, passions, and experiences in our first issue.

To be considered for the “New Beginnings” issue of MissHeard Magazine, please turn in all submissions no later than July 10th 2013. I will attempt to respond to all submissions.

Please note that submission does not guarantee that your piece will be chosen. Pieces by teens and for teens will be given preference. To submit, please send your article with a short bio to submissions@missheardmagazine.com.

Jewish American and Holocaust Literature Symposium November 17-20 2013

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:28:06 -0400

Call for Papers
2013 American Literature Association's Jewish American & Holocaust Literature Symposium
Seeking papers on any aspect of Jewish American and Holocaust Literature for the 19th Annual JAHLIT Symposium at the landmark BETSY Hotel in South Beach,
Florida. The Conference will take place November 17-19, 2003. Send 250 word abstract, registration form, and $150 check for JAHLIT membership and conference fees to Holli Levitsky at hlevitsk@lmu.edu. Mailing address: Holli Levitsky, LMU Department of English, One LMU Drive, Suite 3800, Los Angeles, CA 90045-2659. The deadline for submitting an abstract is August 1, 2013. If you have any questions call Holli Levitsky at 310-338-7664 or Ezra Cappell at 915-747-5739. For more information, registration forms, and conference materials go to our website at: www.jahlit.com

Adoption: Crossing Boundaries, March 27-30 (due July 15); Florida State Univ.

Sun, 19 May 2013 17:28:39 -0400

Call for Proposals

ASAC's biennial conferences feature stories and histories of adoption as explored by writers, artists, and scholars across the disciplines, especially the humanities. Adoptions and the lives of adoptees always involve crossing boundaries, whether the boundaries of families, the boundaries of races, the boundaries of nations, the boundaries of aboriginal peoples and others, the boundaries of communities, the boundaries of law, or all of these borders. This conference takes up these themes and threads, and also encourages other kinds of boundary-crossing—boundaries between disciplines; between adoptees, birthparents, adoptive parents, and social workers; boundaries between creative writers, scholars, and activists. And we extend our topic across other boundaries by considering similar issues with regard to foster care and assisted reproduction.
The conference includes academic work from a wide range of scholarly disciplines and areas—literature, film and popular culture and performance studies, cultural studies, history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, religion, political science, law, women’s and gender studies— as well as film, creative writing, graphic art, music, drama, or productions in other media. We encourage interdisciplinary panels, presentations, and productions.
Keynote speakers:

Jackie Kay, Professor of Creative Writing, Newcastle University (UK), Scottish-Nigerian adoptee, author of the groundbreaking volume of poetry The Adoption Papers, the adoption memoir Red Dust Road, and many other works of poetry, prose, and drama.

Laura Briggs, Professor and Chair of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of Somebody’s Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption (Duke UP, 2012), the winner of the James A. Rawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians

Featured films will include: Somewhere Between (2012), a documentary which follows four teenage girls adopted from China; Resilience (2009), which shows a Korean birthmother who searches for and meets her son in the US; and Any Day Now, (2012) a fictionalized account of a gay couple’s attempt to adopt a special-needs child they have fostered (the script is based in part on events in Florida, and we hope to have some of the parties at the conference.)

We invite proposals for papers and panels that:
● Analyze literary, cinematic, dramatic, musical, visual, dance, popular culture, or performance art representations of boundary crossing in adoption, foster care, or other nonstandard means of family formation or child care, and boundary crossing in narratives of the lives of adoptees, adoptive parents, and/or birthparents
● Study boundary-crossing in adoption and other reproductive, family and caring structures in historical, anthropological, philosophical, sociological, legal, religious, political, gendered, LGBTQ, and/or psychological perspectives.
● Promote dialogue between people positioned differently with regard to adoption because of their life experience, profession, and/or discipline.
We expect that most papers will run about 20 minutes and that panel proposals should allow some time for discussion (assuming that panels will be about an hour and fifteen minutes ).
We also invite creative presentations (writing, film, drama, graphic arts, other media, etc.) on border crossing in relation to adoption. Writing samples should ordinarily be less than 10 pages.
Please send 200-word proposals for papers or samples of creative work, a cv or resume along with your proposal, and links if you are working in visual or multimedia, to asac2014@fsu.edu. Give your proposal, cv, and/or writing sample a title that includes your last name.

Proposal deadline July 15, 2013

Applications from graduate students interested in submitting papers are invited for a travel grant award of up to $500. Awards will be given based on quality of paper submitted by July 15 (not just 200-word proposal), cost of travel, contribution of papers to scope of conference, and amount we have available.

A conference website is under development and we will soon post information about registration, accommodation, and travel. For additional information, contact Eric Walker at ewalker@fsu.edu

Conference program planning committee includes:

Eric Walker, Department of English, Florida State University, co-chair
Marianne Novy, University of Pittsburgh, co-chair
Karen Balcom, McMaster University
Emily Hipchen, University of West Georgia
Margaret Homans, Yale University

Common Ground, Conference Date October 25,2013, Proposals due October 5, 2013

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:13:39 -0400

http://www.michcea.com
Call for Papers: MCEA Conference, Friday, October 25, 2013
Theme: Common Ground

Luncheon Speakers: Artist David Small & Writer Sarah Stewart
Collaborators on Award-Winning Books for Children

Location: Henry Ford Community College
Mazzara Building, 5101 Evergreen Road, Dearborn MI 48128

Our country and our world are fraught with tension and conflict between different groups, including conflict between generations; administrations, faculty, and students; different ethnicities and cultural traditions; sexual orientations; genders; and socio-economic classes. How do we find a common ground to bridge our differences? We welcome papers about the topics below.

fiction, poetry, drama, creative non-fiction professional expectations/evaluation
classroom management teaching composition, literature, linguistics
preparing students for the work world English departments
research the lives of our students
curriculum development the creative process
computer or on-line instruction union/administration differences
race, class, and gender studies film studies

The Michigan College English Association invites proposals for individual papers and for complete or open panels for our Fall 2013 conference. We welcome proposals from experienced academics as well as from young scholars and graduate students. We encourage a variety of papers, including pedagogical and scholarly essays as well as poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction from creative writers. Graduate students with the best scholarly paper and the best creative writing will receive awards. To qualify for graduate student awards, the completed papers must be submitted to Janet Heller and David Settle by October 5, 2013.

Although we are calling for papers and panels that reflect the conference theme, we also welcome proposals in the variety of areas that English and Writing departments encompass: composition and rhetoric; computers and writing; critical pedagogy; critical studies in the teaching of English; cultural studies; developmental education; English as a second language; literary studies; multicultural literature; on-line English courses and the virtual university; popular culture; progressive education; reading and writing across the curriculum; student demographics; student/instructor accountability and assessment; student placement; study skills; and technical writing.
Proposals are due by October 5, 2013. Early submissions are welcome. Please submit proposals to Janet Heller and David Settle, Program Chairs, via email at janetheller@charter.net and dsettle@grcc.edu Please specify your needs for audio-visual equipment and the best time of day for your presentation.

Update- M/MLA 2013 American Lit. Permanent Section- "The Education-Industrial Complex"

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:17:33 -0400

American Literature II: Literature After 1870

Topic: The Education-Industrial Complex

The American Literature II panel seeks papers examining novelistic/poetic/artistic depictions of the corporate influence on public education policy, the "Free Market" in the classroom, and/or the effect of new technologies/modes of efficiency on pedagogy.

Please send 250-word abstracts by May 31st to Mark Schiebe, mschiebe@qcc.cuny.edu

Chair: Mark Schiebe, Queensborough Community College

The Literary Legacy of Revelations

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:17:07 -0400

The Literary Legacy of Revelations

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

Always a prominent text in Western culture, the book of Revelations has been in the spotlight during the past year in particular due to the 2012 publication of Elaine Pagel’s Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation. Pagel, like many before her, recognizes the largely political nature of Revelations as she considers it from a historical and typological perspective.

This seminar will explore how Revelations has been either commented on or alluded to in works by prominent literary authors coming from a variety of historical and cultural contexts. I want to look at the book of Revelations and its wide-ranging literary legacy with a specific focus on the political or environmental significance of the texts that have made use of it. How have writers altered, adapted, challenged, or capitalized on Revelations?

The influence of Revelations is evident in countless literary works from the Middle Ages to the present day. Writers considered in this seminar might include, but certainly are not limited to, Dante Alighieri, Edmund Spencer, John Milton, the English Romantics, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Christina Rossetti, Gerard Manley Hopkins, W. B. Yeats, Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, D. H. Lawrence, James Baldwin, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, and Tim LaHaye. Ideally, this seminar will include papers representing a variety of writers from different countries, time-periods, ethnicities, and classes; and representing different religious and ideological perspectives.

For the seminar format, participants will submit 10-15 page papers early in 2014. Papers will be circulated and read by all participants. During the two-hour seminar, each presenter will give a five-minute or so presentation—please, no AV. The rest of the seminar will be focused on a structured discussion between all participants.

Please send a 200 word abstract and a one page CV to Todd Williams at williams@kutztown.edu by September 30, 2013.

Deadline: September 30, 2013
Please include with your abstract and CV:
Name and Affiliation
Email address
Postal address
Telephone number

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.

Tenth Native American Symposium

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:01:27 -0400

Tenth Native American Symposium
Native Ground: Protecting and Preserving History, Culture, and Customs

Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, Oklahoma
November 14-15, 2013

Keynote Speaker Dr. Brad Lieb

The Tenth Native American Symposium to be held November 14-15, 2013 at Southeastern Oklahoma State University will focus on the protection and preservation of Native American history, culture, and customs. Papers, presentations, panels, creative projects, and films addressing all aspects of Native American life and studies are welcome, including but not limited to archaeology, history, literature, law, medicine, education, religion, politics, social science, and the fine arts. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Brad Lieb from the Chickasaw Nation’s Division of History and Culture, and currently president of the Mississippi Association of Professional Archaeologists. All papers presented at the symposium will be eligible for inclusion in a peer-reviewed volume of published proceedings, which will also be posted on our new website at http://homepages.se.edu/nas/.

Send abstracts of no more than 250 words by July 15, 2013 in either electronic (preferred) or hard-copy form to Dr. Mark B. Spencer, Department of English, Humanities, and Languages, Box 4121, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, 1405 N 4th Ave, Durant, OK 74701-0609, mspencer@se.edu.

Literature and Medicine in the Eighteenth Century: NEMLA 2014, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; April 3-6

Sat, 18 May 2013 06:13:57 -0400

Literature and Medicine in the Eighteenth Century
The eighteenth century has been described as an era of increasing medicalization. Bodies became the subject of extensive political intervention, from mass inoculations to centralized responses to epidemics. For Michel Foucault, medicalization promoted disciplinary control and surveillance into the fabric of the body. With the expansion of print, lay people took responsibility for managing their health through their own knowledge of physiology and medicine. Self-regimen or preventative medicine, based on Hippocratic and Galenic principles, was contingent on the patient’s knowledge of their own lifestyle and constitution. E.C. Spary writes, “the body is central to the transformations of eighteenth-century medical historiography. Once the unproblematic subject of medical interventions, it has become the site of lived experience, a palimpsest on which medical, political, and personal authority are inscribed, and a key locus for the fashioning of identity, subjectivity, and selfhood.” Therefore, the imbrication of medical language and literary composition provide a useful frame for understanding the articulation of the body as a sign. This panel explores the complex intersections between literature and eighteenth century medical discourse, and considers their relation to our understanding of gender studies, gender politics, science, medicine, and literature.

This panel seeks papers that explore the complex intersections between eighteenth-century literature and medical discourse. How does the imbrication of medical language and literary composition provide a frame for understanding the articulation of the body as a sign? How has medical discourse influenced the fashioning of identity, subjectivity, and selfhood? Please submit 300-400 word abstracts and brief biographical statements to Kathleen Alves at kalves@qcc.cuny.edu by September 30.

Call for Essays for Saul Bellow Journal, due Sept. 1, 2013 (for special issue)

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:56:27 -0400

The guest editors of this special issue of The Saul Bellow Journal, Allan Chavkin and Nancy Feyl Chavkin, invite submissions using any psychological approach to Saul Bellow’s work.

We ask that all submissions be sent by September 1, 2013.

Original work that has not been submitted to another publication will be considered. The work should be double-spaced, using current MLA documentation style, and emailed as word attachment to chavkin@txstate.edu.

We would appreciate your sharing this “Call for Essays” with others and encouraging their submissions.