cfp.english.upenn.edu

Call for Papers: 2010 Crossroads Conference
Amherst, Massachusetts
October 9th and 10th 2010

The Organization of Graduate Students in Comparative Literature (OGSCL) is welcoming papers for an interdisciplinary conference to be held at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on October 9th and 10th, 2010.

The 2010 Crossroads Conference envisions a dialogue on the extraordinary outcomes of cultural encounters arising through translations, collaborations, adaptations, and syntheses. Attuned to the continued construction of national and ideological borders and walls, we examine the movement of peoples and texts, the dispersion of bodies and societies, and the increasingly fluid and virtual nature of labor. We are encouraged by the possibility of generating new methods of study in this inter-discipline that spans Literary Studies, Art History, Film Studies, Ethnic Studies, Pedagogies, and Activism. We attempt to develop a new taxonomy for the overlapping of distinct historical periods: the expression of medieval philosophy in romantic literature; the classical in the neo-classical; and colonial, post-colonial, and neo-colonial literatures, movements, and theories. We seek to delve into the interweaving of literary genres, the symbiosis between academia and social change, and the relationships between rhetorics of war, freedom, hope, and memory.

The conference will include a welcoming dinner, panels with discussion, a key note presentation, a graduate student-faculty forum, and a number of events including a trip to see the color changes in the New England foliage. For continued updates and the program from our last Crossroads Conference see our website: www.umass.edu/crossroads

Please e-mail your 250 word abstract or any questions regarding the conference to crossroads@complit.umass.edu. Abstracts must be received by June 1, 2010 and should include the participant’s name, institutional affiliation, email, and phone number.

Send Paper Abstracts to:
OGSCL, Program in Comparative Literature
Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
University of Massachusetts
430 Herter Hall, 161 Presidents Dr
Amherst, MA 01003-9312

Contacts: Nahir Otaño-Gracia, Matthew Goodwin, Rhona Trauvitch