SHEL-13, Studies in the History of the English Language

Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey, October 17-20, 2024 co-hosted by The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ

Conference Theme: The History of English as a (G)local Language

South Asian Crime Fiction since the 1950s 

Editors: Shweta Sachdeva Jha (Associate Professor, Department of English, Miranda House, University of Delhi), Garima Yadav (Assistant Professor, Department of English, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi)

     “Paper or plastic?” Sustainably sourced or affordably manufactured? Organic or GMO? Every day, consumers are faced with small decisions marketed to make a big impact. ​​Choosing either paper or plastic puts the onus onto the shoulders of the customer rather than acknowledging that regardless of whether or not you leave the store with a paper bag, it’s the planned obsolescence of what’s inside the bag that’s left unaddressed. Opting out of paper billing feels great, until you realize that the WiFi bill’s gone up and an electric bill leaves you contemplating if your LED bulbs are a sustainability placebo. 

Book Title: Pathographical Ecopoetics 

Editors: Jayjit Sarkar & Anik Sarkar

The proposed book looks for chapters exploring the contemporary Pulitzer Prize winning American women-authored plays and their engagement with post-millennial cultural dynamics. This volume / book wants to showcase women playwrights’ responses to and shaping the cultural landscape of American society of the 21st century. By examining themes, characters, narratives, and dramatic techniques, the chapters want to address a nuanced understanding of how American women drama reflects and challenges the complexities of changing times of the society.

Chapters proposals invited on the following plays and themes:

SCMLA – Fall 2024 

Hotel Monteleone

New Orleans

September 19-21, 2024

Proposal submissions for the Interdisciplinary Studies panel at South Central Modern Language Associations 81st Anniversary conference are currently being accepted. We encourage graduate students at the MA and PhD level to submit as well. A variety of approaches and topics may be submitted for this panel. 

The conference will be held in New Orleans, Lousisiana, at the Hotel Monteleone. Details can be found at https://www.southcentralmla.org/conference/

History is frequently at the heart of how people view themselves and others in modern culture. The construction of the self in political, social, religious, and other spheres often exhibits an “instrumental” use of history in Nietzsche’s terms (a category also taken up by others, notably Foucault, Trouillot, and, more recently, implicitly in Priya Satia in Time’s Monster). The past is not simply a narrative of meaning connecting causality, leading from former times to the present, but it is also a means of crafting and molding a particular moment. In other words, the present is in the past. Perceptions of history are finding footing in modern causes and are proving to be instrumental for predetermined ends. 

Call for Book Reviews

Submit abstracts here: https://tinyurl.com/3muvywvt.

We are pleased to announce a call for book reviews.

We invite book reviews (700 - 1,200 words) on work on the following topics but not limited to:

In November 2022, the University of California participated in the largest strike in higher education when 48,000 graduate workers, post-docs, and academic researchers went on strike to advocate for their collective labor needs. Following this collaborative framework, we seek presentations focused on coalition building to address labor issues impacting graduate students in literature and languages across institutions. 

Potential paper might address, but are not limited to, the following: 

• Unionization efforts and graduate labor strikes and resistance; 

• Collective bargaining success and struggles;

PUBLICATION: Edited Collection of Essays

An international biannual print and online publication of the American Studies Association of Turkey, the Journal of American Studies of Turkey operates with a double-blind peer review system and publishes work (in English) on American literature, history, art, music, film, popular culture, institutions, politics, economics, geography and related subjects.
The Editorial Board welcomes articles which cross conventional borders between academic disciplines, as well as comparative studies of the United States. 

Deadline for abstracts: Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Conference Date(s): Thursday-Sunday, November 6-10, 2024 

Conference Location: Palm Springs, California

Format: In Person (no virtual option available!!) 

Submit abstracts via: https://pamla.ballastacademic.com 

Contact for Inquiries: Noah Gallego @noahrgallego@gmail.com, cc: Rachel Birke @ rbirk001@g.ucla.edu 

The idea of “middle-ness” can suggest stability—the center of an object is less likely to break than its edges. It can also suggest the opposite: something in a state of change can be said to be in “the middle”—neither one thing nor another. Mythcon 53, located in the middle of the continental U.S., welcomes papers exploring the concept of “middle-ness” as it is worked out in fantasy, science fiction, and related genres. Paper topics can cover a wide range of possibilities, including but not limited to the following:

Dominant queer and trans studies frameworks still tend to see visibility as a ‘trap’. We invite 200-word abstracts for a special session to be proposed for the 2025 MLA convention that will offer a more complex picture, specifying and historicizing the changing meanings of visibility in queer and trans representation. Please send 200-word abstracts and short bio notes to Guy Davidson and Ben Nichols (guy@uow.edu.au, ben.nichols@manchester.ac.uk) by 18th March 2024.