[UPDATE] 3rd International Conference on Doris Lessing - May 14, 2011-May 16, 2011

full name / name of organization: 
Tonya Krouse / Doris Lessing Society

Conference Theme: Doris Lessing: Freedom
Dates: May 14, 2011 – May 16, 2011
Location: Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY
Deadline for Proposals: Dec. 1, 2010
Submit proposals to: lessingconference@nku.edu
Conference website: http://english.nku.edu/outreach/lessing/index.php

Since the publication of her first novel in 1950, Nobel Prize winning author Doris Lessing has demonstrated an intense concern with what it means to be a free subject in the world. Over the course of her career, in 28 novels as well as in short stories, non-fiction, and interviews, she has considered the characteristics of freedom, who has freedom, and what jeopardizes freedom. Please consider proposing a paper, panel, workshop, or roundtable that examines Lessing's exploration of freedom in her writing. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Feminism and "free women"
• Terrorism and threats to freedom
• The politics of freedom/liberation
• Freedom in the context of colonialism/postcolonialism
• Madness as freedom
• Freedom and race/ethnity
• Freedom and aging
• Freedom and authorship/writing
• Teaching Freedom in Lessing's works
• Nature, ecology and the possibilities for freedom
• Lessing and other authors: comparing approaches to/representations of freedom
Proposals are due Dec. 1, 2010. For paper proposals, please send a 250-word abstract as a Word attachment. For panel, workshop, or roundtable proposals, please submit a title and 250-word description of the session as well as a brief description of what each participant will contribute, including individual paper titles if applicable. As this is a blind submission process, please do not include your name on your abstract. In your email, please include your name(s), institutional affiliation (if any), paper title(s), and contact information. Submit proposals to lessingconference@nku.edu.
The Doris Lessing Society is an Allied Organization of the Modern Language Association, and it sponsors the journal Doris Lessing Studies. For more information about the Doris Lessing Society, please visit the website, http://cstl-cla.semo.edu/raschke/doris_lessing_society/about-us.htm.