Flannery O'Connor in the Age of Terrorism: An Academic Conference on
Violence and Grace will be held October 5-7, 2006, at Grand Valley State
University's downtown Grand Rapids (MI) campus. We solicit readings of
O'Connor's works that take into account her own strangely benign view of
violence. She sees it as "capable of returning [her] characters to reality
and preparing them to accept their moment of grace." Regarding "A Good Man
Is Hard to Find" she cautioned, "You should be on the lookout for such
things as the action of grace in the Grandmother's soul, and not for the
dead bodies." Lately, however, critics have begun to disallow O'Connor's

Call for papers for proposed special session for MLA '06 in Philadelphia
that will explore representations of the New Woman in American culture
in the period from 1890 to 1915.
To what extent, how, and to what end did venues such as early silent
films or the stage represent the New Woman and to what extent did such
representations "echo" the familiar periodical and newspaper
illustrations of the figure? Other questions that might be addressed:
How are such representations like or unlike those in the literature of
the period? Is there a transatlantic dimension to such images?
Please send 500-word abstracts by March 15 to Joan Dagle
(jdagle_at_ric.edu).
Panelists must be MLA members by April 7.

Affect and Sympathy in Romanticism

Special session to be proposed for the MLA Annual Convention 2006 in
Philadelphia, PA

The idea of the autonomous individual in the Romantic period emerged
together with a notion of autonomous affects—of affects that are
created by the individual, rather than being caused by sensual
stimuli. How is it possible for an individual to create its own
affects (feelings or moods)? How could such autonomous affects be
conveyed to others? Would they have to be recreated by the others?
If yes, would such creative affective transfer threaten the notion of
sympathy, of feeling together? What is the relationship between
affect and sympathy in Romanticism?

International Conference on Caribbean Studies, November 2-5, 2006. South
Padre Island Beach Resort, Texas Gulf Coast. USA. As postcolonial theory is
rivaled by transnationalism and globalization, the relevance of the
Caribbean persists. Panels and papers are invited from all disciplines.
The following topics will be of interest, although no one should be
restricted by them: Diasporas, migration, indigenous peoples, race and
national identity, literature and history, critical theory, hegemony and
emancipation, etc. Papers in English, French and Spanish will be
considered. Please send and abstract of about 200 words (Word or
WordPerfect) to Dr. Hector R. Romero, hrromero_at_panam.edu by May 15. Visit

International Conference on Caribbean Studies, November 2-5, 2006. South
Padre Island Beach Resort, Texas Gulf Coast. USA. As postcolonial theory is
rivaled by transnationalism and globalization, the relevance of the
Caribbean persists. Panels and papers are invited from all disciplines.
The following topics will be of interest, although no one should be
restricted by them: Diasporas, migration, indigenous peoples, race and
national identity, literature and history, critical theory, hegemony and
emancipation, etc. Papers in English, French and Spanish will be
considered. Please send and abstract of about 200 words (Word or
WordPerfect) to Dr. Hector R. Romero, hrromero_at_panam.edu by May 15. Visit

UPDATED: Screening Terror Australis: Manifestations of Terror and Horror in Australian Film

Editors: Daniel Mudie Cunningham and Marise Williams

The revised deadline for abstracts for this proposed collection is 5/15/2006.

All abstracts received to date are still under consideration. At this stage of the process we are specifically interested in abstracts addressing:

Teaching "America" Outside the US

Teaching "America" Outside the US

Soliciting proposals for a panel on the critical legacy of Wayne Booth
and/or ethical criticism at the 2006 Rocky Mountain MLA convention in
Tucson, October 12-14.

Please send a title and 100-300 word abstract to alanb_at_ext.usu.edu by
March 1. =20

=20

Dr. Alan Blackstock

Assistant Professor of English

Utah State University-Uintah Basin

987 E. Lagoon Street

Roosevelt, Utah

84066

(435) 722-3931

Irish Literature Panel=20
English Literature Conference - Singapore:
IRRESPONSIBILITY
28-30 September 2006 NTU Singapore
Jorge Luis Borges once claimed that "the Irish have always been the =
iconoclasts of the British Isles." Bearing Borges' suggestion in mind, =
it is hoped that this panel will address the perception of Irish =
literature as a category of writing that has frequently been provocative =
to formal and social norms. As Irish writers have been pivotal in the =
dominant, frame-breaking, literary categories of this century, like =
Modernism (Yeats, Joyce, Beckett) and Postmodernism (Joyce, Beckett, =
Flann O'Brien, Banville), a discussion on irresponsibility has =

Irish Literature Panel=20
English Literature Conference - Singapore:
IRRESPONSIBILITY
28-30 September 2006 NTU Singapore
Jorge Luis Borges once claimed that "the Irish have always been the =
iconoclasts of the British Isles." Bearing Borges' suggestion in mind, =
it is hoped that this panel will address the perception of Irish =
literature as a category of writing that has frequently been provocative =
to formal and social norms. As Irish writers have been pivotal in the =
dominant, frame-breaking, literary categories of this century, like =
Modernism (Yeats, Joyce, Beckett) and Postmodernism (Joyce, Beckett, =
Flann O'Brien, Banville), a discussion on irresponsibility has =

Calls for Papers: Caribbean Literature: Racialized Voices, Hybridized
Identities (Anthology 2/21/2006)

We invite essays on the diasporic implications of multiracial and
multicultural characters and their hybrid cultural consciousness in
Afro-Caribbean and Indo-Caribbean texts. The site of the diasporic cultures
may be in the Caribbean itself or in transnational locationsin the
Metropole or in the various sites of migration common to Caribbean nationals.

Calls for Papers: Caribbean Literature: Racialized Voices, Hybridized
Identities (Anthology 2/21/2006)

We invite essays on the diasporic implications of multiracial and
multicultural characters and their hybrid cultural consciousness in
Afro-Caribbean and Indo-Caribbean texts. The site of the diasporic cultures
may be in the Caribbean itself or in transnational locationsin the
Metropole or in the various sites of migration common to Caribbean nationals.

Plenary speaker and conference web site announced:

Update: Representation in Art and Science (London; June 22-3,
2006)

Beyond Mimesis and Nominalism: Representation in Art and Science

Two-day conference in London, 22-23 June 2006

Deadline for Submissions: 1 March 2006

Keynote speakers: Catherine Elgin (Harvard University), James
Elkins (School of the Art Institute of Chicago/University
College Cork, Ireland) and John Hyman (University of Oxford)

Organisers: Roman Frigg (LSE) and Matthew Hunter (Courtauld
Institute of Art/University of Chicago)