For far too long the story of British history and culture (of Western history generally) has presented the presence of Africans within Britain as a product of the Atlantic slave trade. Not only is this figuring of Africans as first arriving in the British Isles as enslaved people simply inaccurate as a matter of historical fact, it carries deeply troubling and problematic categorical and ontological implications through casting the very identity of Africans and their descendants first and foremost as enslaved people in the historical imagination. 

The 7th International Academic Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences is a must-attend event for the academic community. Join us on the 19-21 of August in the dynamic city of Paris. IACHSS continues to recruit top speakers in the field, showcase findings from the latest research, and provide premier networking opportunities.

Seeking abstract proposals for new chapters

Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives

Revised and Expanded 10-Year Anniversary Edition (2024 Publication with Routledge)

Since Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives was published in 2014, we have seen exponential growth in scholarship on asexuality as well as more widespread recognition of asexuality in socio-political life, including increased asexual representation in art and media, a surge in people identifying as asexual and aromantic, and a greater presence of asexuality in the public lexicon. 

We seek paper abstracts for a panel on the short story (and other forms of short narrative broadly conceived). This panel will be conducted at SCMLA’s 79th Annual Hybrid Conference, to be held in Memphis, Tennessee from October 13-15, 2022. The conference offers options for both In Person and Virtual attendance to suit presenters’ needs.

Papers might cover any variety of topics, including studies of the traditional 'short story' literary genre as well as other types of short narrative — like short-program multimedia, short films, music videos, short-episode video games, social media micro-literature, and anything else that pushes at the boundaries of literature studies.

This special session of the 94th South Atlantic MLA conference welcomes submissions on any aspect of Power, Society, and Adaptation in and of Charles Dickens. Abstracts addressing the conference theme, Change, are especially welcome. By May 7th, 2022, please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Meghan Hodges at mberg35@lsu.edu. 

The Midwest Modern Language Association’s 2022 conference theme is “Post-Now.” The conference will take place November 16-21 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (https://www.luc.edu/mmla/convention/callforpapers/)

The Writing Across the Curriculum permanent session will explore this theme by exploring our ethical responsibilities as instructors of writing, our pedagogy, and our work with students as they seek to find their voice in composition classrooms. 

Topics might include, but are not limited to:

The SAMLA 94 conference theme of “change” encourages us to look at texts in different ways, which might include looking at texts that reflect real change or that perhaps illustrate the appearance of change coupled with a sense, ultimately, of stasis. This theme of “change” gives us a chance to examine Conrad’s authorial engagement with the potential complexities of change in society or politics and in our personal lives.

We are currently accepting submissions for the longstanding Bibliography and Textual Criticism panel at the South Central Modern Language Association conference to be held in Memphis, TN on October 13-15, 2022.

This panel will examine bibliography as a field ripe for intersections and collaborations with other methodologies, including digital humanities, publishing studies, textual criticism, critical theory, and literary history.

Interdisciplinary approaches to bibliography and technical studies are welcome.

Literature Compass Special Issue:

"Global Visions from Oceania"

The Creative Writing II: Poetry permanent section of the Midwest Modern Language Association seeks creative, critical, and hybrid proposals that connect to this year’s convention theme of “Post-Now.” We are particularly interested in presentations from poets and poet-scholars who engage with future-oriented poetics and praxis. Questions to consider include: How is (your) poetry and poetic practice positioned within the (ecological, technological, political, intersectional) contemporary momentum of the twenty-first century? How does poetry engage with and/or towards the future while also negotiating past and present? What poetic possibilities lie ahead, and what cannot be left behind?  

Under the auspices of the project ‘Orientation’: A Dynamic Perspective of Contemporary Fiction and Culture (1990-onwards) (Ref. FFI2017-86417-P), this Conference explores how the concept of ‘orientation’ can offer a renewed perspective on literary texts and cultural products alike. By positioning ‘orientation’ in close relation to (multiple) temporalities (or “polytemporality”, following Victoria Browne), space, and recognition of the ‘other’, this Conference (and the project) addresses the dynamic and fluid nature of today’s fiction and culture in English. As Sara Ahmed points out, “[o]rientations are about the direction we take that puts some things and not others in our reach” (56).

Silence (tacere or Schweigen) has been considered by Franz Rosenzweig among others as a subversive act or defiant stance of the tragic hero against overwhelming power mechanisms of necessity, i.e., totalization and universality. It has also, however, been regarded as an epiphenomenon (or a result) of marginalization and oppression by postcolonial theorists. The latters’ understanding marks silence as an end, a potential violent effect of the logics of exclusion and marginalization by “signifying machines”. The former understanding marks silence as a means of rendering mechanisms of powers inoperative.

119th PAMLA Conference

Los Angeles, CA | November 11-13, 2022 (entirely in-person)
PAMLA 2022: UCLA Luskin Conference Center and Hotel

Sponsored by UCLA Department of English

Special Session: Gazing Through a Pandemic Lens: Absurdist Literature, Theatre & Film

Presiding Officer:  Dr. Kimberly Jew, University of Utah

This panel seeks papers that explore the connections between our experiences of the recent (and ongoing) global pandemic and Absurdist literature, theatre & film. 

A burgeoning professional literature attests to the rewards and challenges of teaching comics and teaching with comics (for recent examples, see Wallner, Framing Education, 2019; Parker, Teaching Artfully, 2021; the forthcoming Smyth, Teaching with Comics and Graphic Novels, 2022; and the authoritative anthology With Great Power Comes Great Pedagogy, eds. Kirtley, Garcia, and Carlson, 2020).

In response to that literature, as well as the challenges of remote learning under COVID, this panel invites succinct 15-minute presentations that address the questions, What is it like to relearn the teaching of comics? and How can comics teachers reframe crisis as opportunity?