african-american

The Australasian Journal of American Studies or AJAS (ISSN 0705-7113) is the official journal of the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association. It aims to publish the best submissions from around the world on all themes and all periods relating to United States history, culture, politics, film, literature, and society. We are currently seeking book and film, documentary and television reviews for our 2023 issues, scheduled for July and December. We also invite EoIs from prospective contributors to our peer-reviewed section of articles, though these would be scheduled for our late 2023 or 2024 issues.

FINAL Call for Contributors: Oxford Handbook of African American Women’s Writing

As editor of the Oxford Handbook of African American Women’s Writing, I invite 300-400 word abstracts for 6,000-8,000 word articles (excluding bibliography). 

Community is at the heart of solidarity. To build community is to be willing to both critique its very essence and collaborate with others to strengthen the bonds. This conference seeks to explore and highlight interactions and connections by examining solidarities, tensions, and community building among the Black diaspora throughout the Americas and beyond.

Presentations that highlight the successes and joy of Black/Afro-descendant communities, resistance, activism, and cultural production as well as interdisciplinary approaches are especially welcome. ALARA is a multidisciplinary organization and welcomes presentations from all fields (humanities, social sciences, health sciences, etc.).

Global Authoritarianisms and the Arts
12th Annual Shifting Tides Anxious Borders Conference
Hosted by the English Department, Binghamton University–SUNY

Date of Conference: April 29, 2023
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Jini Kim Watson, NYU

How can we harness of the power of Black joy? How have Black thinkers, scholars, and artists turned their attention to forms of Black happiness as a critical and necessary affectual response to the logics of Black death? How can we describe—and make meaningful—the radical potential of Black happiness and joy as antidotes to the overwhelming logics of Black death and destruction? While keeping in view the manifold ways Black life is denigrated, devalued, and destroyed, this panel seeks to explore representations of Black bliss, tenderness, pleasure, jubilation, mirth, and exhilaration.

Performing to Reimagine:
Enactment & Activism in 21st century MuseumsSpecial Issue Editors: Aileen Robinson and Gwyneth ShanksEssay Submission Deadline: May 1, 2023

Going against tenacious perceptions of the south as firmly rooted to the past, we argue for a vision of multicultural, diverse souths oriented towards the future. At times, southern futurism has been a force of oppression, including the technological innovations of the plantation; the rebranding of Atlanta as a place where commerce could ignore racism or complicate it as a model of true global exchange; or the militaristic and privatized response to Hurricane Katrina that foreshadows a disaster-capitalist approach to climate change. However, the south’s overlapping histories of decolonial and anti-racist activism have always imagined progressive futures.

Conference: Digital Humanities Against Dark Times

Dates:  April 14 – 15, 2023

Location: Vanderbilt University Center for the Digital Humanities, Nashville, TN

Abstract Deadline: March 5, 2023

We are pleased to share that the Center for Digital Humanities is hosting a two-day conference titled “Digital Humanities Against Dark Times” this upcoming April 14 – 15, 2023. This conference provides a venue for early-career scholars to discuss digital humanities work that engages with emerging and ongoing crises of our moment, such as:

I am proposing an MLA 2024 special session on "Political Oratory and African American Literature."  Papers will examine speeches by elected officials as contributions to African American literary discourse.  Please email 300-word abstracts to matthewcalihman@missouristate.edu by March 13.

The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line, the question as to how far differences of race-which show themselves chiefly in the color of the skin and the texture of the hair-will hereafter be made the basis of denying to over half the world the right of sharing to utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern civilization.

—W.E.B. Du Bois (1900)

Are there multiple forms or species of racism or simply variations of a fundamental structure?

—Jared Sexton (2012)

I have only one solution: to rise above this absurd drama that others have staged around me

—Fanon (1952)

EJAS (European Journal of American Studies): Call for book reviews

EJAS (European Journal of American Studies) invites reviews of current books on topics relevant to American studies for publication in EJAS’ upcoming issues (vol. 18-19) due in 2023 and 2024. 

Please send a review proposal (author, title, publisher, publishing date and place, number of pages), and CV (including the list of publications) to the Book Reviews Editor, Dr. Kornelia Boczkowska (kornelia@amu.edu.pl). We accept proposals on a rolling basis.

Authors of accepted proposals will be expected to write a book review (1000 words) and follow the MLA 8th edition style manual when preparing the manuscript.

This panel explores Black geographies (both real and imagined) of joy/sorrow in African American literature, examining how geographic thought, speculation, and practice produce joys/sorrows for Black subjects and communities. Send a 200-word abstract and CV.

Dorottya Mozes, University of Debrecen

Bob Dylan's Blues: Blues Poetics and American Memory I am seeking  abstracts between 200-400 words for a panel on Dylan's incorporation, use, and revision of blues music especially in the context of theorists of blues poetics such as Houston Baker, Angela Davis, and Fred Moten. Most existing scholarship on Dylan's use of blues music remains informed by the work of writers and critics such as Sam Charters, Michael Gray, Greil Marcus, and Alan Lomax. This work often favors a conceptualization of the blues as a distant,  pre-modern source of "authentic" soundings.

Samuel R. Delany and the City Samuel Delany has strong ties to New York City and Philadelphia. Not surprisingly, many of his major works investigate cities. We seek papers on the city throughout Delany's work. 200 word abstracts; brief bio

Deadline for submissions: Friday, 10 March 2023

Daniel Shank Cruz, Hunter College, CUNY (danielshankcruz@gmail.com)  https://mla.confex.com/mla/2024/webprogrampreliminary/Paper22607.html