Biff! Bam!! Crikey!!! Comics as Art, Entertainment and Design

Comics are an important and vital part of popular culture, shaping the early reading experiences of many children, as well as commanding an increasing body of adult readers. They can offer slapstick fun or serious literary themes and have spread into every imaginable genre (comedy, horror, war, adventure, autobiography, documentary and so on). Comics therefore have the potential to be both popular entertainment and provocative art, and have a profound influence on various other media and art-forms, including film, animation, computer games, and television.

Biff! Bam!! Crikey!!! Comics as Art, Entertainment and Design

Comics are an important and vital part of popular culture, shaping the early reading experiences of many children, as well as commanding an increasing body of adult readers. They can offer slapstick fun or serious literary themes and have spread into every imaginable genre (comedy, horror, war, adventure, autobiography, documentary and so on). Comics therefore have the potential to be both popular entertainment and provocative art, and have a profound influence on various other media and art-forms, including film, animation, computer games, and television.

The North Texas World Literatures Review of the Department of Foreign
Languages and Literatures at the University of North Texas is
soliciting proposals for its 2007 conference on World Languages,
Literatures and Conferences to be held on May 26, 2007.

This year's theme will be the representation and construction of social
norms, identities and relationships in film, literature and language.
The Conference aims to provide young scholars and graduate students an
opportunity to share their research with others in the field, while
promoting interdisciplinarity.

We are pleased to announce that the keynote speaker for the 2007 Stony
Brook Manhattan Graduate Student Conference is Ralph Bauer, the visiting
associate professor at the New York University in the departments of
English and Portuguese and Spanish and an associate professor in the
department of English at the University of Maryland who will present a
selection from his forthcoming work entitled, "A New World of Secrets:
Occult Philosophy and Local Knowledge in the Colonial Encounters."

Call for Papers for the 19th Annual Stony Brook Manhattan Graduate
Student Conference

"Transgressing Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Dialogues"
Stony Brook Manhattan, New York
February 16th and 17th of 2007

Papers are being sought for a new volume in Rodopi Press's Dialogue series
dealing with John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. The goal is publication
in 2009, the seventieth anniversary of the novel's appearance. The
"Dialogue" series offers new and experienced scholars the opportunity to
present alternative readings and approaches to classic texts that have
received canonical acceptance in either American or Continental Literature.
The Grapes volume will be edited by Michael J. Meyer, the series editor and
the Steinbeck bibliographer. Seeking essays from both emerging and
experienced scholars. *Emerging scholars* will be defined by the following

* Apologies for Cross-posting * Please Forward to Interested Parties *
=20
The Feminist and Women's Studies Association (UK & Ireland) 20th Annual Con=
ference=20
Feminism and Popular Culture=20
University of Newcastle (June 29th-July 1st, 2007)=20
=20
UPDATE: This conference is open to everyone; however, there will be a reduc=
ed registration rate for members of the FWSA - see http://www.fwsa.org.uk/ =
for more details.=20
=20
UPDATE: Please note that we will not be accepting performance pieces.=20
=20
UPDATE: The conference website - with information about registration, accom=

* Apologies for Cross-posting * Please Forward to Interested Parties *
=20
The Feminist and Women's Studies Association (UK & Ireland) 20th Annual Con=
ference=20
Feminism and Popular Culture=20
University of Newcastle (June 29th-July 1st, 2007)=20
=20
UPDATE: This conference is open to everyone; however, there will be a reduc=
ed registration rate for members of the FWSA - see http://www.fwsa.org.uk/ =
for more details.=20
=20
UPDATE: Please note that we will not be accepting performance pieces.=20
=20
UPDATE: The conference website - with information about registration, accom=

Call for Papers

New Poetry Notes, a journal dedicated to establishing a dialogue about contemporary
verse, seeks submissions of explications, explorations, criticisms, and reviews of poetry
that are less than a decade old. Reviews should focus on books no more than five years old, while essays may focus on any poem not more than ten years old.

All essays should be under 2,000 words.

New Literatures and (Multi)Cultural Studies

The Association for Canadian and Qu=E9bec Literatures invites proposals =20=

for its 2007 conference exploring new literary forms and the politics =20=

of location. What new genres have arisen out of changing social and =20
literary contexts? How do authors=92 cultural identities inflect their =20=

writing? How has the emergence of new expressive forms altered our =20
definition of literature? What new readerships have emerged alongside =20=

new forms?

CALL FOR WORKSHOPS AND INDIVIDUAL PAPERS

The 20th Biennial Nordic Association for American Studies (NAAS)
Conference 2007
The 11th Biennial Tampere North American Studies Conference

"American Bodies, American Violence"

University of Tampere, Finland
May 24-26, 2007

We are looking for contributions on the theme of violence in/and North America
in various different contexts and fields of study (literature, history, film
studies, gender studies, queer studies, sociology, political studies, media
studies, environmental studies, and so on).

The Department of English at Howard University invites abstracts of papers
to be
presented at its annual Heart's Day celebration to be held on the
University's
main campus Friday, February 16, 2007. The Heart's Day Conference
commemorates the work
of African American and Diasporic writers and supports the endowment of the
Sterling A. Brown Professorship.

This year, the Department celebrates the achievement of African American
Poetry
through the works of Lucille Clifton, Mari Evans and Nikki Giovanni. We
invite abstracts
for papers which consider the works of these poets and the development of
African American
Poetry from 1746 to the present.

LSU EGSA Mardi Gras Conference on Language and Literature.
Feb. 16-17, 2007
Lod Cook Alumni Center
Baton Rouge, LA

Members Only: Gatekeepers and the Future of Literary Studies

Keynote Speaker: Timothy Brennan, Professor of Comparative Literature,
Cultural Studies, and English, The University of Minnesota.
Selected Publications: Wars of Position: Cultural Politics of Left and
Right (2005), Ed. Music in Cuba (2001), At Home in the World:
Cosmopolitanism Now (1997).

(Mis)appropriations: Shakespeare and the Politics of Literary Fashion

UPDATED CALL FOR PAPERS: INTEGRAL STUDIES

ABSTRACTS NOW DUE 15 NOVEMBER 2006

2007 Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association
Conference

17th Annual LSU EGSA Mardi Gras Conference on Language and Literature
Feb. 16-17, 2007
Lod Cook Alumni Center
Baton Rouge, LA

Members Only: Gatekeepers and the Future of Literary Studies

Keynote Speaker: Timothy Brennan, Professor of Comparative Literature,
Cultural Studies, and English, The University of Minnesota.
Selected Publications: Wars of Position: Cultural Politics of Left and
Right (2005), Ed. Music in Cuba (2001), At Home in the World:
Cosmopolitanism Now (1997).

"Tomorrow's English Department: Blurring the Divide Between Literary
and Composition Studies."