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Call for Papers

41st Anniversary Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
April 7-11, 2010
Montreal, Quebec - Hilton Bonaventure

Traveling Alone: Women Migrating across Cultures

The reality of border crossings has become a prevalent metaphor in contemporary literary, artistic, and cultural expressions. While many works on migration have already explored the worldwide phenomenon of displacement, it is still necessary to examine the ways in which gender inflects the experience of migrancy. Migrant women have undertaken their journey for a variety of reasons––adventure, political instability, economic opportunity, and discrimination that stems from systems of patriarchal oppression such as female genital mutilation, or the repression around the choice of sexual or life partners. This panel will examine texts that focus on the position of women who–on their own–leave their countries of origin for unknown new lives. We seek papers that explore representations of women’s migrancy throughout the world from a variety of perspectives. Whether their decision to leave comes from a desire to explore different places or whether their departure is imposed by oppressive cultures, these women have inspired artists, writers and filmmakers who have represented their pioneer spirit in works of art and fiction. This panel will analyze different narratives about migrant women. Possible topics may include women who travel from former colonies to the European centers; women who travel as mail-order brides; women who become involved in sex trade networks; as well as women adventurers and explorers of all kinds.
Papers will be accepted both in English and in French. Send 300 word abstracts to jehannemarie_gavarini@uml.edu

Deadline: September 15, 2009

Please include with your abstract:

Name and Affiliation
Email address
Postal address
Telephone number
A/V requirements (if any; $10 handling fee)

The 41st Annual Convention will feature approximately 350 sessions, as well as dynamic speakers and cultural events. Details and the complete Call for Papers for the 2010 Convention will be posted in June: www.nemla.org.

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.

Travel to Canada now requires a passport for U.S. citizens. Please get your passport application in early.