Confernce Theme
Blooming: Metamorphoses and Seasons of Queerness

Nothing stays static in the natural world. The cold and dead of winter gives way to the green shoots of spring, which flower out in summer’s long, warm days, only to wither and fall as the end of the year comes again. In this age of cold-hearted and unenlightened legislators attacking trans rights, a false spring of marriage equality, and (somewhat) greater representation in popular culture, we wonder what season are we in today as queer and trans people? How can we bloom in an ever-changing world and shape those changes to promote better, more just, and warmer-hearted treatment for all?

This seminar investigates “pornography” and “propaganda” as two categories that attempt to set boundaries around acceptable language. They work as genre designations as often as they work as aesthetic judgements and denunciations. When an object, a picture, or a text is accused of being pornographic or propagandistic, it stands accused of using representational force in an unacceptable way – too direct, too explicit, too symbolic, too something to accord with the idealized sincerity and critical openness of acceptable, normal, or mainstream discourse, of speech that should be unquestionably “free.” 

This National Virtual Conference on Contemporary Readings in Literature, Arts and Aesthetics is an academic platform for meaningful dialogue and discussion on the aesthetic reflections in our socio-cultural, literary and political life. The conference is a joint venture and the following academic institutions areactively taking part in this event:

OUR COLLABORATING INSTITUTIONS:

The vast worlds of fantasy fiction often mirror our own. Through this mirror, readers may reflect on their values when they see real-world problems staged in speculative spaces. As a result, fantasy has the power to open the boundaries of pedagogy for today’s students, especially when learning through a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) lens. This ground-breaking, edited essay collection published by McFarland and Company will take two crucial paths: one that celebrates critical analyses educators and scholars can use to empower students and readers, and another that inspires fans and gamers to be more civically engaged with the texts they consume and communities they inhabit.

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. 

Following the success of its previous ACLA seminar “Stories of Memory in the 21st Century” in 2022, this seminar invites paper proposals to discuss how memory is represented and imagined diversely in the movies and TV series from different cultural contexts. Living in an age saturated with memory and forgetting, we see the protagonists unsettled by their lost memory in films such as Memento (2000), The Bourne Identity (2002), The Girl On the Train (2015), etc.. These amnesic protagonists, haunted by déjà vu they can never make sense of, often experience trauma and violence. Their attempts to repeat or re-enact the past complicate one’s understanding of temporalities as well as their identity.

Call for papers on any topic dealing with literature, politics, and society.

VLT #93: Reconsidering Mass Media

The editors of New Global Studies invite proposals for essays on the subject of ‘global futures’. Essays may cover any historical period. The central questions that this forum poses are:

How have globalization and globality affected historical periodization?

How do global re-conceptualizations of the past and present rely on assumptions and beliefs about the future?

How has the now-widespread use of the term ‘anthropocene’ affected a global consciousness?

How do the phenomena of de-globalization and re-globalization relate to global futures?

How do ‘unforeseen’ future events (particularly crises such as pandemics) employ global narratives?

What is the place of futurism in global studies?

Convenience stores and gas stations that serve food exist nationwide, yet the full meal options available to patrons in the US South appears to be something of an anomaly. The menus at these southern roadside establishments look like they could be found at any restaurant, offering items from fried chicken and potato logs to collard greens and cornbread to sausage biscuits and roast beef po-boys. But unlike traditional or fast food restaurants, gas stations and other roadside food providers are sustained by the traveler. For the traveler, roadside or gas station food allows a brief respite and the comfort of hot food while away from home.

ACLA Seminar: 

The Caribbean and The American South: Interrogating Contemporary Literary, Artistic and Cultural Relations

Roundtable proposed at the 2023 ASLE + AESS Conference: “Reclaiming the Commons”

July 9-12, 2023 in Portland, Oregon

On the topic of regional literature, authors Sherrie A. Inness and Diana Royer write, “[W]e find our subjectivities profoundly influenced by our locatedness” (6) – that our personal relationships with land and place are inherently connected to the discourses of socio-cultural conflicts and tensions which emerge from these defined regional spaces. Through the lens of ecohorror, we aim to examine literary and visual representations of regional identity-making as they intersect with (and are informed by) the uncertainties and fears specific to their locality.

Dear colleagues and friends,

On behalf of Butler University, which is sponsoring the MELUS 2023 conference in Indianapolis, April 20-23, 2023, we'd like to reach out and invite you to send a proposal for the upcoming conference and announce our extended deadline of November 30th. We encourage individual, panel, and/or roundtable proposals. Please share this CFP with any faculty, grad student, or postdoc colleagues that may have an interest.

The 2023 theme will be “Crossings and Crossroads,” and will also be a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the founding of MELUS.

Summary

This two-day interdisciplinary conference calls for a renewed exploration of Modernist discourses to reflect on the plural iterations of the machine – as a myth, cult, and mechanical product – within the context of Modernism and modernity.