category: interdisciplinary

[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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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 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.

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

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/

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

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)

Science and Fiction: Literary Darwinism

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:24:51 -0400

The 55th Annual Convention will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center from November 7-10, 2013.

Topic: Literary Darwinism

I am still seeking papers that explore Darwin and Literature. What are the links between evolutionary psychology/biology and fiction? In what ways might evolutionary theory assist in the understanding and analysis of fiction? This panel will focus on fiction through biology and evolutionary theory.

Please send 250-word abstracts by May 31st to Kevin Swafford, swafford@bradley.edu

Chair: Kevin Swafford, Bradley University

Translatio--Medieval and Renaissance Graduate Student Conference at The Ohio State University

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:18:45 -0400

October 4-5, 2013

The Medieval and Renaissance Graduate Student Association at The Ohio State University is currently accepting abstracts for the second year of its graduate student conference, Translatio. Prospective papers will be considered on any topic that would be of interest to an audience working in the fields of Medieval or Renaissance studies. We are planning to organize a panel of professors that will discuss issues of periodization in our fields, as has been explored recently by James Simpson in Cultural Reform and Revolution, who explains that the means by which we develop “periods” are as important as the periods themselves—and thus ultimately questions the periods. Abstracts that intersect with this theme are greatly encouraged, but our aim is to make this conference open to any graduate student in Medieval and Renaissance studies, so do not hesitate to submit an abstract on any topic or from any discipline. We also encourage papers that expand the discussion beyond western scholarship.To submit an abstract or request further information, contact MRGSA via email at mrgsaosu@gmail.com by August 15, 2013.

Representations of Gender and Sexuality in John Dos Passos’s Writing

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:43:39 -0400

Like his modernist contemporaries, John Dos Passos engages themes of gender and sexuality. But unlike many of his contemporaries, his works may allow for relatively progressive readings of gender relations, understandings and representations of homosexuality, media-centered representations of the sexualized body, etc. Such progressivism may be due to his inherently activist stance during his writing career. However, merely writing during the first half of the 20th century may dictate a certain amount of problematic representation. Whether his works are read as progressive or problematic, studies that center on gender and sexuality in Dos Passos’s writing may help to complicate the general consensus that important male modernists’ relations to these subjects were inherently troubled.

We invite applications for fifteen- to twenty-minute papers that explore representations of gender and/or sexuality in any of Dos Passos’s works. Presentations may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

- social policy, government legislation, and matters of the law in the modernist and late-modernist period
- media, representation, and social images of gender/sexuality as demonstrated in Dos Passos’s fiction or nonfiction writing
- sex, eroticism, otherness
- the body as subject or object
- sexual or gender identity
- feminism and post-feminism: representation and invisibility
- changing images of femininity and masculinity
- queer readings of specific characters, moments, narratives, novels, etc.

Please submit your 250-word abstract, with your name and affiliation, as a Word document to JDPSociety@gmail.com or Victoria.M.Bryan@gmail.com no later than June 15, 2013.

Call for Creative Writing Articles

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:34:04 -0400

Award-winning Writing Commons (http://writingcommons.org/), a global, peer-reviewed, open-education resource for college students invites the submission of creative writing articles intending to help college students to understand the concepts of creative writing and to improve their writing practice.

Audience
The readership for your article/submission includes undergraduate students in creative writing courses. To address such an audience, avoid difficult theories or complex discussions of research and issues or detailed discussions of pedagogy; rather, consider the interests and perspectives of students, with various levels of expertise, working through college-level creative writing projects.

Length
The typical Writing Commons submission will be approximately 750 to 1,000 words long, although longer webtexts may be submitted. For longer pieces, the use of headings within the piece is highly encouraged.

Submissions
Please email submissions to Dianne Donnelly at dianne@writingcommons.org as a doc or docx by September 15, 2013. Authors should include a brief byline and email. Any included citations should follow the current edition of The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. The incorporation of multimedia components is also encouraged (e.g., images, hyperlinks). For more details, see our guide for authors at http://writingcommons.org/writers-wanted/guide-for-authors.

Review
Because webtexts are more concise than traditional academic essays, we intend to have a quick turn-around time; from initial submission to notification of the submission’s status, please allow approximately four weeks.

Submission Topics

Fiction
• Writing Fiction – an overview
• Point of view
• Concrete vivid details/images
• A story’s arc
• Voice
• Conflict
• Setting
• Tone and style
• Characterization
• What your character wants
• Dialogue
• Tension
• Scenes and summary
• Flashbacks (and flashforwards)
• Metaphor and analogy
• Beginning and endings
• Flash fiction
• The long story

Nonfiction
• Writing creative nonfiction – an overview – by Ira
Sukrungruang
• Creative nonfiction forms
o Memoir
o Personal essay
o Travel narrative
o Nature essay
o Scientific writing
o Literary journalism

• The tenets of narrative
o Voice
o Setting
o What your character wants
o What your narrator wants
o Dialogue
o Writing exposition and the retrospective voice
o Considering the double “I”

Poetry
• Writing poetry – an overview
• Where do poems originate?
• The major forms of poetry
o Acrostic
o Ballad
o Cinquain
o Clerihue
o Diamante
o Didactic
o Free verse
o Ghazal
o Haiku
o Limerick
o Sestina
o Sonnet
o Villanelle
• Creating images
• Lines and stanzas
• Meter and rhythm
• Sounds of language
• Metaphor

Playwriting
• Writing Plays – an overview – by Mark E. Leib
• Action and plot
• Characterization
• Dialogue
• Concept
• Stage directions

Screenwriting
• Writing films – an overview – by Mark E. Leib
• Action and plot
• Characterizations
• Dialogue
• Format
• Description

Digital Creative Writing
• Considering Digital Writing – an overview
• Other topics are open for consideration

"The Senses of Humour," submissions due 1 July 2013

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:08:52 -0400

This special issue of Eighteenth-Century Fiction journal will explore the relationships among various meanings of the term "humour" in the long eighteenth century, from humoral theories of the body to the cultivation and regulation of "senses of humour" in literature, culture, and social interaction. We invite submissions on eighteenth-century legacies of classical humoral theory; the philosophy of laughter; the emergence of modern forms of wit, satire, and other humorous genres in literature and illustration; cultural negotiations of body and mind as sites of "humour"; and the role of humour(s) in discourses of feeling, sentiment, sensibility, and sociality. *We welcome articles that treat the topic in areas inside or outside of imaginative prose fiction.* Please note that this issue is NOT limited to work on traditionally defined prose humour -- we are very interested in interdisciplinary and cultural studies work on laughter, feeling, and affect in a variety of 18th-century contexts. Manuscripts (5,000-8,000 words) should reach ECF by 1 July 2013. Further details about submitting articles can be found at http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~ecf/guidelines.html
To submit an article for a special issue, or a call for articles, or a regular issue of the journal, which publishes 4 issues per year, choose "Submit Article" at http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/ecf/
We encourage electronic submissions at Digital Commons (see above), but if you have any concerns about this online submissions system, you may contact the ECF editors at ecf@mcmaster.ca

Poetics of Resistance: Women between Aesthetics and Politics

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:49:50 -0400

Call for Papers

Poetics of Resistance: Women between Aesthetics and Politics

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

Increasing confrontations with totalitarian regimes in the Middle East and Africa have prompted women to find new ways to cope with political and national disenchantment. The dynamics in these movements are complex and sometimes paradoxical. While revolutionary rhetoric celebrates women’s agency, post-revolutionary discourses often instrumentalize them as the bearers of national identity. On the one hand, women find new ways of becoming the subjects of their own history, on the other hand they are summoned to fulfill specific roles in the nation, such as reproduction and the protection of traditional (national) values.
This panel proposes to reflect primarily on Arab and African women’s aesthetic and artistic forms of resistance, and to expand our understanding of the contemporary means of protest they deploy to subvert social constructions and barriers. The symposium also proposes to discuss the gender/feminist artistic and aesthetic strategies that advocate for new relational possibilities between genders, between citizens and the state, and across ethnic, classes, space and national divides.
We invite the submission of proposals that express the diverse and complex nature of women’s relationship to art and aesthetics in the midst of political and national turmoil.
Specific topics may include, but are not limited to:
Aesthetic Articulation of Protest
Art and Feminism
Politics and Gender
Women’s Rights: Universalism and Cultural Relativism
Western Ethnocentrism and Arab Women/ Third Worldism
Renegotiating Female ‘Public/Private’ Space
The Secular and the Religious Visual Protests: Photography & Documentaries
Transnational/transversal Feminist Networks

Please send a 150-word abstract in French or English to
Névine El Nossery : elnossery@ wisc.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)

UPDATE: Reinterpreting Carson McCullers (The 85th Annual SAMLA Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, November 8-10, 2013)

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:32:36 -0400

DEADLINE EXTENDED: JUNE 1, 2013

To inspire more work on Georgia writer Carson McCullers and her legacy, this panel invites papers discussing innovative ways of analyzing texts related to McCullers, whether biographies, literary works, or adaptations of either. These reinterpretations might include discussions of McCullers’ works in the context of her contemporaries (Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, Richard Wright, William Faulkner, James Baldwin, et al), film or dramatic adaptations of her work, or her contributions to today’s southern gothic, Grit Lit, and/or Queer Studies. We welcome essays that address the conference’s theme “Cultures, Contexts, Images, and Texts: Making Meaning in Print, Digital, and Networked Worlds” as related to studies of McCullers (however, the scope of the panel is not limited by this theme).
Please e-mail abstracts (250 to 500 words) to Courtney George, george_courtney2@columbusstate.edu, by 1 June 2013.

Power and Solidarity: Representing Immigrants’ Speech in Hispanic literature, April 4-6, 2014, NeMLA Harrisburg

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:25:52 -0400

The session seeks to bring together interdisciplinary research across various disciplines including, but not limited to, anthropological, sociological, and discourse approaches to the literary text. By focusing on the analysis of immigrants’ speech in Hispanic literature on different genres, time periods and spaces, the session will raise interesting theoretical and methodological questions on the interpretation of literature as sociolinguistic data. Of particular interest, the adequacy, reliability and representational basis of literary speech varieties as indices for language choice, solidarity, power and identity will be highlighted as a way to throw light on the literary vis-à-vis linguistic representation of immigrants’ speech in Hispanic literature. Papers on the intersections of power, solidarity and immigrants’ speech’s representation in Hispanic literature in the context of European immigration to Latin America during the 19th-to-early 20th century nation-formation period as well as the reversed globalization-driven migratory movement from Latin America to Spain will be considered. In addition, studies portraying literary immigrants’ speech encompassing other demographic trends from Africa and Asia to Spain and Latin America as well as people’s crossing of national borders in Latin America will be of interest as well. Thus, the word ‘immigration’ for the purpose of this session has a relatively lax historical and geographical interpretation in order to foster competitive submissions and attract a wider audience whose interests cross discipline and language boundaries.

Submission requirements: 300-word abstract
Deadline for submission: September 30, 2013

Gender, Identity and Sexuality for NEPCA conference; deadline June 10, 2013; conference 10/25-26

Mon, 13 May 2013 08:59:35 -0400

Currently soliciting paper proposals for the upcoming NEPCA conference at St. Michael's College in Colchester, Vermont, October 25/26, 2013.

Papers may deal with any aspect of gender and identity, sex and sexuality in popular culture. Papers focusing on recent public and media discourse regarding marriage equality are especially welcome, though papers on all topics within the areas listed above are encouraged.

Please submit a 250-word abstract,as an attachment in MSWord, to Dr. Donald P. Gagnon at the email address listed. Please include your university or college affiliation and preferred email and telephone contact information. Deadline for submissions is June 10.

GagnonD@wcsu.edu

The Monstrous

Mon, 13 May 2013 03:06:24 -0400

ARENA ROMANISTICA. JOURNAL OF ROMANCE STUDIES - a print academic journal published by the Department of Foreign Languages at the University of Bergen - announces a call for paper on the topic of the “monstrous”, a term that could be applied in a range of contexts and fields.

As we know, the word monster --and its versions in French (monstre), Italian (mostro), Spanish (monstruo), and Portuguese (monstro)-- comes from the Latin word monstrare, which means to show. On the other hand the word monstrum, from monere (to warn), makes of the monster a sign of caution, a reminder of the dangers and threats that lurk around us.

In times of crisis our imagination turns to the monstrous in order to make the conflicts of the world around us tangible, more concrete, and, therefore, maybe even beatable. Traditionally, the aesthetic representations of the monstrous have been a way to safely explore and question the horrors experienced in society. The 21st century seems to be no exception, and today’s culture can be said to mark a new era of the monstrous. Neo-gothic novels and films flourish in our pop culture, and these can often be interpreted as allegories for contemporary dystopian scenarios.
On the other hand, our conception of the monster and the monstrous is closely related to our understanding of what is human and what is not. Therefore, vampires, cyborgs, zombies, superheroes, hermaphrodites, and all kinds of imaginable monsters contest the limits of the human and its representation through time.

With this in mind, we welcome contributions to our journal in both Romance languages and English; theoretical reflections as well as empirical studies and readings of individual works.

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Monsters in film and literature
• The history of monstrosity
• Dreams and nightmares
• Transgression, exclusion and marginality
• Bodily excesses or lacks
• Gender norms and deviance
• Monster as a sociocultural component
• The monstrous in linguistics
• Linguistic politics and/or the restriction of linguistic liberty
• The monstrous as allegory for social crisis
• The cartography of monsters
• The rhetoric of the monstrous

We welcome manuscripts from the field of linguistics, literature, film, and cultural studies. All contributions should have a connection to Romance studies.

Deadline for submission of papers: September 1, 2013.

Stylesheet and submission procedures are available at our website:
http://arenaromanistica.uib.no/

For further information: arenaromanistica@uib.no

‘Is the Biographer an Artist?’: Tracing Authority within Collected Remembrance--NeMLA 2014 April 3-6

Sun, 12 May 2013 23:40:59 -0400

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

In 2000, critic Tom Paulin attacked biographer Richard Holmes’ Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer, asking: ‘Is the biographer an artist who can and should exist on equal terms with the dramatist, fiction writer and poet? The short and robust answer is ‘certainly not.’’ Even today, many biographies are treated as permanent (if frequently flawed) vessels conveying important knowledge about their subjects rather than dynamic texts worthy of aesthetic study. Jean Marc Blanchard speaks to this problem by assuming in his criticism that "autobiography is a literary genre, whereas biography is not." Laura Marcus, in her text Auto/Biography, comments on biography’s strange position between history and literature, noting that while autobiography is approached as a literary genre, biography "remains very largely untheorized."

This panel seeks papers discussing authority, performativity, or the relation between subjectivity and objectivity within autobiography and/or biography. While this panel welcomes papers centering on auto/biographies of specific subjects, it also aims to query the extent to which auto/biographies can be considered as subjective artistic works of aesthetic value, theoretically objective works of reference, or somewhere in between. Please submit 250-500 word abstracts and brief biographical statements to Amanda Weldy Boyd at weldy@usc.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 year's conference will be held in Harrisberg, Pennsylvania. 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.

Jazz and Cinema

Sun, 12 May 2013 08:45:12 -0400

The conference will gather academic scholars and others with an interest in the relationship between jazz and cinema from across a range of disciplines.

Possible themes could include:

Analysis of the use of pre-existing jazz recordings to soundtrack films
Analysis of purpose-made jazz soundtracks
The social implications of the use of jazz in cinema
The historical development of jazz in cinema
Jazz musicians on the screen, an exploration of jazz musicians’ appearances in filmOther topics around the broader theme of Jazz & Cinema are also invited for submission.
We are delighted to confirm our keynote speaker will be Dr Nicolas Pillai from Warwick University. Dr Pillai is currently researching jazz in British film and television, as well as teaching more widely on music and visual culture. He has given papers on European jazz culture as an invited speaker at the National Jazz Archive and at Rollins College, Florida.

Selected papers from the conference will be published in The Soundtrack special issue on jazz and cinema in 2014.

Please send an abstract of 300 words and a short bio to jazzandcinema@gmail.com.

Deadline for abstract submission: 1st June 2013

Successful submissions will be notified no later than 1st July 2013

http://jazzandcinema.wordpress.com/

CFP: Travel and Tourism Area of MAP/ACA Conference, Nov. 7-9, 2013

Sat, 11 May 2013 23:02:34 -0400

Call for papers for the Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association Conference

November 7-9 2013

The Travel and Tourism area of MAPACA seeks papers that discuss and explore any aspect of travel and/or tourism. Topics for this area include, but are not limited to, the following:

- travel and gender/race/class
- personal travel narratives
- heritage tourism
- material culture and tourism
- and, of course, Atlantic City!

Please feel free to consider a wide range of materials, texts and experiences. Applicants are encouraged to consider multi-media (or other alternative format) presentations if those formats would better suit their topics, and may also propose 3- or 4-person panels and roundtables.

To submit a proposal, please fill out a form at
http://mapaca.net
(make sure to select Travel and Tourism from the drop down menu) by June 15th.

Students (both undergraduate and graduate) and independent scholars are encouraged to apply. Please feel free to send questions via email to mapaca@mapaca.net

For more information about the conference, please see mapaca.net.

Jennifer Erica Sweda
Travel and Tourism Area Chair