As the first decade of a new century comes to a close, the rhetoric of
social equality for so-called minorities continues to permeate U.S.
politics. The print, broadcast, and Internet news media have played a
particularly important role in creating the illusion of such equality
through visual representation of monolithic identity-groups such as
the “Native American” category. In what ways have the multi-faceted
indigenous peoples of North American suffered because of this visual
representation, not only in the news media, but in film and television
entertainment as well? In what ways have they benefitted? And finally,
how does Native American literature negotiate the identities assigned to

As the first decade of a new century comes to a close, the rhetoric of
social equality for so-called minorities continues to permeate U.S.
politics. The print, broadcast, and Internet news media have played a
particularly important role in creating the illusion of such equality
through visual representation of monolithic identity-groups such as
the “Native American” category. In what ways have the multi-faceted
indigenous peoples of North American suffered because of this visual
representation, not only in the news media, but in film and television
entertainment as well? In what ways have they benefitted? And finally,
how does Native American literature negotiate the identities assigned to

As the first decade of a new century comes to a close, the rhetoric of
social equality for so-called minorities continues to permeate U.S.
politics. The print, broadcast, and Internet news media have played a
particularly important role in creating the illusion of such equality
through visual representation of monolithic identity-groups such as
the “Native American” category. In what ways have the multi-faceted
indigenous peoples of North American suffered because of this visual
representation, not only in the news media, but in film and television
entertainment as well? In what ways have they benefitted? And finally,
how does Native American literature negotiate the identities assigned to

The print and television news media have always played an important role
in creating a “text” for understanding war. Sometimes literary memoirs
and war-time poetry support the media’s outlook on national and
international struggles. At other times, such literature provides a
counter-text, using elements such as irony and satire to undermine the
purported “objectivity” of journalistic attempts to explain the
phenomenon. How have the various media contributed to or undermined the
understanding of war, especially in the post-September 11th world? How
have contemporary writers and poets “written” the war, and do these two
forms of war writing interact at all? Possible topics include:

The print and television news media have always played an important role
in creating a “text” for understanding war. Sometimes literary memoirs
and war-time poetry support the media’s outlook on national and
international struggles. At other times, such literature provides a
counter-text, using elements such as irony and satire to undermine the
purported “objectivity” of journalistic attempts to explain the
phenomenon. How have the various media contributed to or undermined the
understanding of war, especially in the post-September 11th world? How
have contemporary writers and poets “written” the war, and do these two
forms of war writing interact at all? Possible topics include:

An increasing number of writers and visual artists are appropriating
computer animation to enhance their various texts, as well as staking out
a cyber-“space” for these works on the Internet. As this virtual world
grows and intersects with the “real” world, anxiety about reality and its
alleged relationship to the visible may become more and more prevalent in
the literature of the twenty-first century. How does electronic
literature negotiate and de-stabilize vision-based identity categories,
specifically those of race and gender? How do other literary and
artistic genres interact with electronic literature to weaken these
categories? Possible topics include:

An increasing number of writers and visual artists are appropriating
computer animation to enhance their various texts, as well as staking out
a cyber-“space” for these works on the Internet. As this virtual world
grows and intersects with the “real” world, anxiety about reality and its
alleged relationship to the visible may become more and more prevalent in
the literature of the twenty-first century. How does electronic
literature negotiate and de-stabilize vision-based identity categories,
specifically those of race and gender? How do other literary and
artistic genres interact with electronic literature to weaken these
categories? Possible topics include: