cfp.english.upenn.edu

The British Association for American Studies (BAAS) welcomes papers for its annual Postgraduate Conference, to be held in the Centre for American Studies at the University of Leicester on 24 November 2012. The keynote speaker will be Professor Brian Ward from the University of Manchester.

The conference will be organised around the broad theme of ‘Memory: America Past, Present and Future’. Memory (and the lack of memory) is an important part of what creates the concept of America as a cultural, social and political object. With new apocalyptic stories on the horizon, such as erratic environmental patterns, fragile financial markets and the Mayan Calendar ending on 21 December 2012, we cannot avoid the recurring yet important topic in American Studies, of how memory (both individual and collective) shapes our views on the trajectory of the United States, from its colonial and national origins, through its ascendance on the global stage in the twentieth century and, arguably, its contemporary decline as a world power.

The conference invites proposals for 20-minute presentations and welcomes proposals from a variety of areas within American Studies to give fresh perspectives on America’s past, present and future through the broad lens of memory. The topics include, but are not limited to:

• memory and the shaping of American narratives
• representations of memory and forgetting
• memory and transatlanticism
• memory and postcolonialism
• memory and gender
• memory, citizenship and American identity
• memory and American geography/landscape
• memory and American exceptionalism
• memory and the environment
• music and memory
• absence of memory
• the body and memory
• ancestral memories
• memory, oblivion and re-memory
• false and misinterpreted memories

Please e-mail abstracts of no more than 300 words, to the attention of the conference committee at baaspg2012@gmail.com.

Conference Web Address: http://go.le.ac.uk/baas-pg2012

Abstracts should include your name, institution, e-mail address, and the title of your proposed paper. The deadline for submissions is 1 September 2012.