PLEASE NOTE EXTENDED DEADLINE

“The simultaneous awareness of past and present evident in historical crime fiction seems to offer a means of gaining a new perspective on the present through the past.” – John Scaggs (2005: 134)

Confirmed Keynote: Dr Heather Shore (Leeds Beckett University)

What are some new directions in the history of rhetoric? What avenues of rhetorical history remain unexplored or underexplored? What new methodologies or theories should historians of rhetoric make special use of? This panel solicits papers that address these and related questions, and particularly papers that address how new directions in the history of rhetoric speak to the relevance of rhetorical studies. This is a proposed ASHR session for NCA 2017, which will be held in Dallas on November 16-19, 2017. Please send a cv and a 250-word abstract to Brandon Katzir (brandon.katzir@gmail.com) by March 27. 

SAMLA 89 – High Art / Low Art: Borders and Boundaries in Popular Culture: November 3-5th, 2017/Atlanta, GA

This roundtable seeks presenters that engage with the theme of this year's convention, High Art / Low Art: Borders and Boundaries in Popular Culture, as it relates to the works of Miguel de Cervantes. Presentations may focus on one or several works. Please submit a 250-word abstract to Brian Phillips, Jackson State University (brian.m.phillips@jsums.edu), by May 30, 2017.

This panel explores the sense of place as part of the indigenous language of American artistic production of Modernism in the context of the European avant-garde. Though U.S. poets and artists were influenced by the formal techniques of Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, Dadaism and Surrealism, they were also determined to search for the essence of an expressive language that defined its authenticity as opposed to European foreignness. One of their avenues of research was the exploration of the distinctive features of the American soil as a means of contributing novel aspects to modern aesthetics. The genuine character of the environment is closely linked to the strong attachment to rural or urban spaces and the value they acquire for the observer.

MLA, January 2018, New York: Seeking proposals to a non-guaranteed session about kinship terminology or terms of endearment used for friends and foes. For example, in The Song of Roland, characters use sarcasm to describe enemies as friends, and interestingly, demeaning monikers are used to chastise friends. What do these epithets say about the cultural boundaries between friends and enemies in medieval and renaissance literature? Please send 500 word proposal and CV by 20 March 2017 to Pamela Kirkpatrick (kirkpatp@uark.edu ). Also, please email questions or comments. If proposal is accepted, attendant must be an MLA member by 7 April 2017, per MLA guidelines.

Memphis Public Library, 21 August 2017, start: 10.15am