cfp.english.upenn.edu

Papers are invited for the inaugural Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP) affiliate session at the 2012 SAMLA Convention. In keeping with this year's theme of "Text as Memoir: Tales of Travel, Immigration, and Exile," this session seeks topics dealing with the relationship between print culture and colonies. Papers which examine print culture from a variety of historical periods, geographic regions, and colonial/imperialist perspectives are welcomed.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Printed impressions of empire/imperialism
Print culture’s role in national, racial, and gender concerns
The relationship between empire and print culture
Material aspects of colonial literature (book design, illustration, publication, and advertising)
Colonial newspapers, periodicals, and ephemera
Printed artifacts of empire
Colonial editions
Colonial libraries/imperial club libraries
Technologies of print in colonies
Long-distance correspondence between authors, editors, agents, and publishers
Post-colonialism and book history

The Convention will be held November 9-11, 2012, at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center, Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC. By June 1, 2012, please submit paper proposals of no more than 500 words and a short c.v. (including complete contact information) to Melissa Makala, University of South Carolina, at edmundrm@mailbox.sc.edu.

Proposers need not be members of SHARP to submit, but panelists must be members of both SAMLA and SHARP in order to present. For questions about SHARP membership, please direct inquiries to Eleanor F. Shevlin, Membership Secretary, at eshevlin@wcupa.edu.