We live in a golden age of conspiracies. From relatively innocuous conspiracies such as Area 51 or the Denver International Airport to more dangerous conspiracies such as QAnon or vaccines with microchips, conspiracy theories are pervasive in our culture. We have seen conspiracy theories lead to domestic terrorism in the past several years, including the January 6th Insurrection. As instructors who teach critical thinking and critical literacy, it is necessary for us to engage with conspiracy theories—since our students are encountering them on social media, on the internet, and, often, in their homes.

Contagions and Non-Human Animals: (Re)Viewing Disregarded Species in Real and Imagined Pandemics

Due to the pandemic and a personal issue that delayed publication, this CFP from late 2020 is being reopened. I am looking for 3 to 4 essays to add to what I have. Below is the premise for the volume.

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The impact of the pandemic and the threat that it poses to future human experiences has been well-documented. However, now that non-human animals are possible carriers and becoming infected, their experiences, while often overlooked, are nevertheless integrated into the worldwide pandemic.

The Black Performing Arts Area provides a scholarly forum to share and disseminate research pertaining to the Black performing arts across expressive forms.  Broadly defined, the area focuses on all forms of performing and visual arts, including jazz, blues, gospel, hip-hop, rhythm and blues, Caribbean music, dance, poetry, drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, and acting.  In all of these contexts we are interested in investigating the merger of aesthetic technique and embodiment across Black diasporic expressivity.

This conference is hybrid in nature and welcomes participants who can present in person at Georgia State in Atlanta or virtually, from their home institution or their own home. This structure is intended to create a diverse conference group, with attendees from multiple locations around the world. Virtual attendees are encouraged to consider putting together a panel or a round table of presenters from their own institution; in that way, that institution can function as an international hub for the conference. Sindiwe Magona 2023: Literary Reflections on Contemporary Issues in South Africa and Beyond

Southeast Asian Media Studies Journal (SEAMSJ) is the international, bi-annual, double blind peer-reviewed, and open-access scholarly journal of the Southeast Asian Media Studies Association (SEAMSA). Special issues are a significant component for SEAMSJ to cover emerging topics with high current interest within the theme of media studies in the ASEAN region. The journal published six issues between 2019 and 2021. Two new issues will be published in December 2022. ProposalsA proposal for a Special Issue must include:- A suggested title for the Special Issue (12 words max.).

The College English Association, a gathering of scholar-teachers in English studies, welcomes proposals for presentations on Travel and Literature for our 52nd annual conference, March 30-April 1, 2023, in San Antonio, Texas. Submit your 250-500 word abstract at https://www.conftool.pro/cea2023.  

For Don Ihde, as long as humans find themselves living in and breathing through air, sound becomes, for them, an existential singularity. In fact, this air itself, Ihde continues, is ‘not neutral or lifeless’ but finds animation in and with ‘sound and voice’. It is, finally, this vibrant tract of air (for what else is sound?) which relates and marks the human in its existential prospects by not only producing an ambience of the world but also, simultaneously, being subjected to reciprocal manipulation by humans who invariably seek constructive teleologies.

These edited collections are part of the upcoming series Equine Creations: Imagining Horses in Literature and Film.

The scope of the present call is broad. All topics regarding the themes and impact of horses in film will be considered. 

1) Horses in Film Through the 1950s

2) Horses in Film in the 1960s and 1970s

3) Horses in Film in the 1980s and 1990s

4) Horses in Film since 2000

Deadline for proposals: February 14, 2023

First Draft deadline: August 15, 2023

How to submit your proposal

Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason has been a vibrant part of the cultural conversation for nearly 90 years. The titular trial lawyer with a penchant for detective work first debuted in the novel The Case of the Velvet Claws (1933), setting in motion a publishing streak that would eventually become the third best selling series of all time. Successful radio, film, and television adaptations soon followed, solidifying the character’s presence within the cultural lexicon. Indeed, Perry Mason’s crossover appeal demonstrates a cultural importance that transcends medium and generational divide.

Organised by Poetry Festival Singapore, the Singapore Literature Conference is slated to take place on 29 July 2023 (Saturday). The conference, currently in its fourth year, is now calling for abstracts of papers that are in any way related to the theme of "Sojourners." The deadline for submissions is 31 October 2022 (Monday).

“Silence is constituted by the absence of words but is therefore and simultaneously the presence of their absence” (The language of Silence. Schlant, Ernestine).  

There will always come that specific moment, – and then there is silence. Many great thinkers and artists reached a point, after their most productive phase where they had become silent, and silence exists as a decision and punishment.

Wittgenstein concluded, “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”

Contributions are sought for a volume that seeks to rethink and recover the history and future of English-speaking female authors who wrote about animals (as scientists, popularizers, storytellers, novelists and poets) from the late eighteenth to the early twenty-first century. We seek to explore the question of how female writers conceive nature and represent animals from a feminist perspective by examining their role in the reconstruction of nature and looking at how they represent non-human animals and their/our relationship with them. The collection aims to pay tribute to what Anglophone female writers did in the name of nature and local wildlife by recovering their contributions and reviewing history.

This panel invites discussions on the contemporary politics of the “safe animal” in literature and media—in all the registers and valences of “safe.” An overworked but underexplored cultural trope, safe animals are constantly in demand across various forms of popular media: animal memes and pet-related small talk are the safest conversation starters, “cute” cat pictures always promise to comfort, and ample cultural scaffolding is in place to help us stick to animals that are safe. For example, the website Does the Dog Die, a crowdsourced platform for “emotional spoilers” about movies and other popular media, promises to protect viewers from “upsetting” material including the death of animals.

***CALL FOR PAPERS***

The Short Story’s Global Dimensions

A Seminar at the American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, March 16-19 2023. Organizers: Gavin Jones (grjones@stanford.edu) and Mike Collins (michael.collins@kcl.ac.uk).