Strategies of Speculation in Post-Apocalyptic Fiction (panel)

NeMLA Annual Convention (Niagara Falls, NY; 23-26 March 2023)

Medical sociologist Arthur Frank argues in his foundational The Wounded Storyteller that an ideal illness narrative accepts contingency and acknowledges that “the human body, for all its resilience, is fragile” (49). About her own illness experience, Audre Lorde famously argues that our greatest strength stems - paradoxically, perhaps - from our greatest vulnerability (Cancer Journals 14). Both of these perspectives suggest that resilience is finite, and that recognizing as much can be itself empowering. This panel therefore wonders: what potential does fragility have in a world rife with environmental disasters, personal and structural traumas and other catastrophes that all seem to demand resilience?

While the phenomenon of warming may be global, the effects of it are not. Evidence is clear that many populations in the Global South are more vulnerable to the harm of rising seas, increasing droughts, and more frequent super storms. We are also increasingly aware that in areas of the Global North, political, economic, and social inequities contribute in significant ways to unequal climate vulnerability and resilience. As a result, calls for climate justice are becoming more urgent. But what does such justice look like from different social and geo-historical locations? Whose voices carry in these urgent conversations about what climate justice means, and whose do not?

The seminar is interested in looking at papers that deal with the life of Dalits from a phenomenological perspective. The Dalit identity is not frigid. The politics of othering, the notion of subjectivity, the internationalization of caste, caste and cinema, music, art, and other mediums are areas that researchers can explore. Papers that are rooted in the local understanding of caste as a Global/ Indian problem are welcome. Responses that deal with ways to adapt the young generation to the thought of Ambedkar and propose ethical ways to deal with the question of caste are expected. Scholars from literature, political science, media studies, cultural studies, and aesthetics are welcome to make submissions.

I am in need of ONE essay for a collection called Outlander as Crime Fiction, pre-approved to be published by McFarland. A Ph.D. is preferred but please feel free to send your proposal even if you are a doctoral student. Email me if you would like to discuss an idea before submitting a proposal. At this point, I only need one paragraph describing your general topic/idea. The completed essay due date is flexible but I'm looking at probably Sept/Oct. 2022 at the latest. Most of the collection has already been written. 

Topic: Crimes of the British Empire in Diana Gabaldon's Lord John (and Outlander) Series

Archives of Indian Cinema: Methodologies, Creativities and Urgencies

De Montfort University (UK), Savitribai Phule Pune University (India), Loughborough University (UK),

21st and 22nd October 2022

Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
Fictional persons and characters

International Online Workshop
October 12, 2022

It is tempting to think of fictional characters as if they were fictional persons. The inhabitants of a fictional world, where they live and engage in meaningful interactions as we do in the real world. However, this conception is problematic. First, because the concept of “person” is far from being clear. Are persons to be defined in physical or mental terms? And even if we restrict ourselves to a Lockean framework where persons are defined in mental terms, regardless of their physical features, could other entities besides human beings achieve full personhood?

Call for Papers

Queering Camelot: LGBTQQA+ Readings, Representations, and Retellings of Arthuriana 

Fantastika Special Issue

Guest Editors: Rebecca Jones and Sebastian F.K. Svegaard

This is an open call for papers for a special issue of Fantastika continuing on from its Queering Fantastika issue, which will explore the queer side of Arthurian tales, adaptations, and fanworks. It seeks to include any and all media, whether directly adapting or only alluding to Camelot and Grail narratives. This issue will present a multivalent approach and is seeking both critical and critical practice-based research on this subject. 

The Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association is accepting proposals until June 30 for their 2022 conference, Nov 10 - 12, in Princeton, NJ. General guidelines can be found at mapaca.net.

Third Cinema films successfully manages to depict the socio-political issues of the world. These issues include the effects of colonization, oppression, and conflict between classes or nations. These films are especially pivotal for the political issues of the Third World. In this sense, films play a fundamental role in the struggle for justice for marginalized communities. Third Cinema is a tool through which debate, activism, and discussion are evoked in society. These films expose the realities of the world and have gained recognition in terms of art, politics, and humanity. Indeed, the Third Cinema is revolutionary for society in every convincible way. 

The Thirteenth International Milton Symposium will be held at the University of Toronto, Canada, 10-14 July 2023. The Symposium welcomes scholars from across the world for five days of lively discussion and convivial exchanges.

Plenary speakers include: Lorna Hutson, Achsah Guibbory, Su Fang Ng, Feisal Mohamed, and David Quint

The IMS Program Committee invites proposals for 20-minute papers on all aspects of Milton and seventeenth-century studies, from established approaches to new and emerging ones. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Atlantic, Pacific, and Global Milton

Milton in the Americas, Milton in Canada

Comparative epic, classical reception, humanism

The John Gower Society invites proposals for presentations at the V International Congress of the Society, July 7- 10, with an optional excursion 11 July, 2023, on the campus of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. The Congress theme, “Gower in Contexts: His Words, His Books, His Heritage,” is broadly understood, to encompass: 

We welcome and encourage poetry submissions from African-American writers. 

With that, send atleast '5' poems per submission.

Contact info is; MyPoems@Ctadams.com

Note: Established in 2001, we have had the pleasure of showcasing thousands of poets. Nearly 22 years later, our mission still is the same, as we continue to uplift another generation of poets and poetry lovers. 

Have a question or need more info, do feel free to drop us a note, before sending in your work.

ICR Santa Barbara, October 20-22 2022 

Persuasions: The Rhetoric of Romanticism