The focus of this panel is to assess and illustrate the potential or possibility regarding the influence of mental disorders on various notable writers. Whether related to bipolar disorder, post-partum depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD], or some other form of clinical depression, melancholia has appeared throughout literature. For example, how is bipolarism reflected in some of Anne Sexton’s award winning poetry? What effects of Sylvia Plath’s clinical depression are evident in her writing? How does the father’s suicide of eight-year-old Ernest Hemingway possibly influence the dangerous, life-threatening choices Ernest made in his adult life?

Viral Memes : Research and Reflections on the Coronapocalypse

Following the 1st international Virtual  Colloqium  "Re-thinking Marginalized Identities in Pandemics” on July 27, 2020, the second session will be scheduled for either the e

You are cordially invited to join us at the Shakespeare Association of America's 2021 conference in Austin, Texas, 31 March - 3 April 2021  Seminar: Embodying Differences in Global Shakespearean Performance The ethics of embodied difference intersect with global frames for filming and performing Shakespeare in the twenty-first century. How do categories of race, gender, sexuality, and disability put pressure on artists’ and audiences’ claims about ethical and political gains of global Shakespeare? This seminar invites contributions that examine identity politics in the production and global reception of adaptations. 
Alexa Alice Joubin (George Washington University)
Elizabeth Pentland (York University)

Hamlet and the North: Origins, Exchanges and Appropriations The story of Shakespeare’s Nordic play is also, inevitably, one of cultural exchanges before, during and after the early modern period. From its origins in Nordic tradition to its re-introduction in the Nordic countries through Shakespeare’s play, the story of Hamlet from the middle ages to present time is inextricably bound up with Nordic history and culture. This conference, co-hosted by the Nordic Shakespeare Society and the Early Modern Seminar at the University of Gothenburg, is the first to explore the specific Nordic dimensions of Hamlet.

British ‘Fictions of Class’ since 1945 – Revitalising Class in the Twenty-First Century

Workshop – University of Siegen, Germany – 18-19 June 2021

From arborescence to the rhizome, plants have long served as models for thinking in philosophy, biology, and the arts. In recent years, scholars including Michael Marder, Catriona Sandilands, and Jeffrey Nealon have brought renewed attention to the agency and dynamism of the vegetal, at the same time that the future of plant life has come to be at risk in the wake of climate change and the impending collapse of ecosystems. This panel invites papers that explore ways of thinking about and with plants in the shadow of the Anthropocene. How do writers and visual artists, past and present, help us renegotiate our relationship to the vegetal today?

While it is considered dubious to anthropomorphize animals to learn about them, learning with animals asks scholars to consider both animal and human ways of being and knowing, as well as where those epistemologies might overlap or diverge. Attempting to learn with animals requires consideration of the value of anthropomorphization. Drawing on the burgeoning field of animal studies, we invite literary scholars to consider how literature imagines animals and their ways of being and knowing—whether alternate or familiar.

Whether we consider the high fantasy of Lewis and Tolkien or the contemporary rise in historical fiction set during the Middle Ages, it must be acknowledged that medievalists (and scholars more generally) have long been linked with creative writing. In an era of academia where the traditional university job is far from assured and where representations of the Middle Ages are co-opted by white nationalists, we must acknowledge the wider benefits and contributions of the humanities, while promoting a diverse picture of the Middle Ages. It is more important than ever that the scholastic community embrace its creative side.

 The 64th annual American Studies Association of Texas (ASAT) Conference will be held February 12th through 13th at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. This year’s conference is delayed until the spring because of COVID-19. The following is a list of suggested areas of scholarship you may consider when exploring our conference theme:

The Arab notion of identity, defined by traditional gender roles, categorizes the binary subsets of the patriarchal understanding of performative “male” and “female” facades. Gender remains vaguely defined in the Arab world due to layers of taboo and stigma; untraditional gender roles and practices result in a halt of the fragile cyclical reality within the Arab realm. In recent years, the academic world began to decode expressions of gender within the Arab world; however, the gendered Arab identity has been fundamentally stereotyped. In this edited volume, we venture into various subsets of the 21st century Arab identity that pertain to deciphering the gendered Arab.

Pride/Sacrifices: Soldier Wives’ Memoirs (1947-2020)

(Call for Entries for an Anthology)

She cleans the house and pays those bills
And has her moments when all time stands still
With the love in her heart for just one man
She can't help but cry as she looks at her band

She prays someday he'll come home safe from harm
And once again she'll snuggle up in his arms
She speaks to God about her plans and wishes
As she stands and cries while doing dishes

She's trying to hold it together the best that she can
Doing all she can do for the love of just one man

“Desexualization”—a special issue of Women's Studies: an interdisciplinary journal

Guest Editor: Helena Feder (ECU), federh@ecu.edu

This special issue of Women's Studies: an interdisciplinary journal invites submissions to address the global phenomenon I am calling “desexualization.” Long before the pandemic and social distancing, scientists had been reporting that people are having far less sex than ever before, in the United States, Japan, Britain, Europe, and elsewhere.

The Department of Theatre Studies and the Department of English and American Studies, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic are pleased to announce a series of international symposia on English Theatre Culture 1660–1737. The overarching theme of the first symposium is Forms, Genres and Conventions.