Apart from the recent exhibition and attending catalogue for the 2018 Cooper-Hewitt exhibition, Senses: Design Beyond Vision, which focused on countless objects, and Diana Fuss’ compelling The Sense of an Interior(2004) which explores the specific rooms of four giant literary figures from the nineteenth century, a sustained investigation of the complex relationships between the senses and interior design remains elusive. Yet, despite this absence countless are the examples and vantage points from which to explore a constellation of interior design practices, theories and uses that have taken the five senses (sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing) into consideration.

The MLA Convention (virtual, Jan 7-10, 2021) has opened up last-minute slots for proposed sessions discussing the events of summer 2020. The session organizer invites contributions for 15-minute papers that engage one or more intersections of Black studies, sexuality studies, Black feminist criticism, visual cultural studies, and surveillance studies. Full session description here:

Critical Thinking and Writing in the Age of Pandemics

Double Helix invites Reports from the Field and scholarly Notes related to the effects of coronavirus—campus closures, social distancing, courses moved online, etc.—on pedagogy related to critical thinking and writing.

*Reports from the Field (2,500 to 5,000 words) focus more exclusively on specific pedagogical practices and are less invested in theory than Research Articles. They address institutional programs and initiatives, course and assignment design, assessment, instructor response, and readings of student work. Their modest length provides readers with an opportunity to learn quickly about a new practice and its implementation.

Call for Book Chapters: Digital Innovations, Business and Society in Africa

The book seeks to showcase how consumers/citizens, entrepreneurs, organisations, institutions and governments are leveraging new and emerging digital innovations to disrupt and transform value creation and service delivery in Africa. The contributions in this book will help create a shared strategic understanding of what works in Africa and how Africa and other interested stakeholders can take advantage of its success stories.

In his Defence of Poetry, composed in 1821, Percy Shelley asserts the central importance of the poet—a  general term he uses to include creative artists of all types—to the continuing development of civilization, even in the midst of the Industrial Revolution and the associated celebration of the sciences and technology. In praising the poet as the “unacknowledged legislator of the world,” Shelley sounded a call that still resonates two hundred years later, as the importance of the humanities relative to STEM programs continually becomes debated.  Of course, Shelley’s views on poetry were by no means representative of the period.

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a new frontier of innovation and experimentation within what is known as “immersive entertainment” — gaming, art, museum exhibitions, TV and cinema. The proliferation on the market of new headsets (from the expensive HTC VIVE and Oculus to the popular Google Cardbox), the spread of platforms, apps and also VR cinemas around the world, and the inclusion of VR productions in international film festivals (e.g. Sundance, Tribeca, Venice) are trends demonstrating that VR is no longer just a fascinating 1980s-inspired literary or cinematic subject (from Tron to the Matrix trilogy, to the recent Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One).

The arcade.

Maybe it makes you think of neon flashing lights and cacophonies of strange sounds, or maybe your mind immediately jumps to visions of Pac-Man and Space Invaders. Maybe the word conjures nostalgia for childhood friendships and fun, as seen in Stranger Things. Perhaps your imagination wanders to the pachinko parlors of Tokyo. Or maybe you go to the traditional origins of the word, seeing the covered walkways of seventeenth-century French architecture or the contemporary covered markets of Santiago. Maybe the arcade, for you, remains linked to the theories of Walter Benjamin, prompting reflection on consumption and capitalism.

The Hemlow Prize in Burney Studies 

The Burney Society invites submissions for the Hemlow Prize in Burney Studies, named in honour of the late Joyce Hemlow, Greenshields Professor of English at McGill University, whose biography of Frances Burney and edition of her journals and letters are among the foundational works of eighteenth-century literary scholarship.

              Conceptualizing Disability through Interdisciplinary Critical Approaches 

                       Department of English and Modern European Languages
                                            University of Lucknow
                                                 Call for Papers

Call for Submissions, Handbook on Games and Sex/Sexuality

#AltAc. It stands for Alternate Academia and is more than just a trending hashtag nowadays, it's  also a pursuit for many trained academics. With dire  statistics for how many Ph.D. graduates will be offered a life-sustaining position within the institution of academia, many academics are creating media offshoots of their research and translating their work into social media venues for a variety of reasons: to leverage for a paid position, for the creativity of increased perspectives, for the opportunities that new medias present, and for the very same reason that colleges exist - to educate the public and make research and intellectualism affordable and accessible.

Climate change is an important issue that has become a frequent topic in twentieth as well as twenty-first century literature and film. From science fiction of the past to the present-day speculative fiction, this roundtable presents an opportunity to provide and study examples both past and present regarding climate change issues in literature and film. Dystopias written by international writers reflect the world-wide concern regarding climate change. For example, novelists such as British-born Maggie Gee’s The Flood or French-born Pierre Boulle’s La Planète des singes[The Planet of the Apes] speculate on the possibility of climate changes causing devastating destruction.

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