The Journal of Transnational American Studies (JTAS) invites proposals for Special Forums in upcoming issues. Each Special Forum will be a cluster of articles that speaks to a critical issue in transnational American Studies; we are particularly interested in innovative scholarship that is presented by coalitions of scholars from around the globe and which interrogates the geographical, topical, and ideological parameters of American Studies.

The Editorial Board will consider Special Forum proposals on a rolling basis. Proposals should be submitted in a Word document to Yanoula Athanassakis, the Associate Managing Editor for Special Forums, at: jtas.special.forum@gmail.com.

Reading great philosophical texts too hastily might induce one to consider moderation to be an ideal of life—while Protagoras maintains that "man is the measure of all things," Epictetus stresses that "once beyond the measure there is no limit," and in his Thoughts Pascal asserts that "to leave the mean is to abandon humanity." Yet, as early as Kant, the excess inherent in immoderation became the necessary condition of beauty—"That is sublime which even to be able to think of demonstrates a faculty of the mind that surpasses every measure of the senses." The imagination thus overtakes the sense, which might partly explain why literature is drawn to immoderation.

The 2009 Conference in Denver will continue the tradition established in 2004 of offering seminars designed to increase participation of the membership in the conference and giving them another excellent reason to attend. Modeled on what has worked successfully for such organizations as the Shakespeare Association of America and the Modernist Studies Association, these four seminars will each be led by a distinguished member of the Association.

The 2009 Conference in Denver will continue the tradition established in 2004 of offering seminars designed to increase participation of the membership in the conference and giving them another excellent reason to attend. Modeled on what has worked successfully for such organizations as the Shakespeare Association of America and the Modernist Studies Association, these four seminars will each be led by a distinguished member of the Association.

Convener: Susan McReynolds (Northwestern University)

Convener: David Mikics (University of Houston)
Rumors of the death of the sonnet continue to be exaggerated. Indeed, the sonnet seems to be enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Many journals are publishing more sonnets than they used to, and there are even a number of new periodicals devoted entirely to the form, such as the online publications 14 by 14 and Contemporary Sonnet. This panel will examine the resilience of the sonnet and prospects for its future, paying close attention to the history of the form and discussing some of it preeminent current practitioners. Please send proposals to David Mikics at dmikics@gmail.com, with a CC to alsc@bu.edu.

UPDATE: Abstracts (300 words): deadline August 31, 2009
Conference Papers (20 minutes, 2500 words): deadline November 20, 2009
Essays for publication (6.000 words): deadline 30 March, 2010

There will be about 50 Euro fees for coffee/drinks/lunches (dinners and hotels not included) - Please check updates at http://www.hum.leiden.edu/research/africanliteratures/africaloralliterat...

CALL FOR PAPERS. Multimedia Research and Documentation of Oral Genres in Africa: the step forward.

Convener: Michael Poliakoff (University of Colorado)
Each generation creates new versions and adaptations of the classics. This panel will examine recent translations, performances and adaptations of the classic drama of Greece and Rome, examining a wide range of forms (theater, film, dance, opera, forms of translation, etc.) the underlying question to be addressed is that of what classical antiquity means to contemporary artists and audiences. Please send proposals to Michael Poliakoff at Michael.Poliakoff@Colorado.edu, with a CC to alsc@bu.edu.

Women and freemasonry since the Enlightenment.

Conference organized at Bordeaux University and Musée d'Aquitaine,

June 17-18- 19, 2010
By
LNS (Lumières Nature Société), Université de Bordeaux 3 sponsored by the Conseil Régional d'Aquitaine
CELFF, CNRS, Université de Paris IV Sorbonne
Laboratoire CIRTAI-IDEES, équipe de l'UMR 6228 (CNRS) Université du Havre
Sheffield Centre for Research into Freemasonry, Université de Sheffield
Centre de recherche sur la franc-maçonnerie, FREE, Université de Bruxelles
Center for the Study of Women , UCLA
Unviersité Sapienza, Rome

Scientific committee:

BRITISH SOCIETY FOR EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY STUDIES
39th ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Tuesday 5 January-Thursday 7 January 2010
ST. HUGH'S COLLEGE, OXFORD, U.K.

CFP Deadline: Friday 25 September 2009

For its 39th annual conference, to be held in Oxford from 6-8 January 2010, the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies invites proposals in either English or French for papers and sessions dealing with any aspect of the long eighteenth century, not only in Britain, but also throughout Europe and the wider world. Proposals are invited for individual papers, for fully comprised panels of three papers, and for roundtable sessions of five speakers.

1st call for papers: The 16th Annual Postgraduate Symposium of the School of English, Media and Performing Arts will be held at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Thursday 15 October and Friday 16 October 2009.

Submissions of proposals are now open.
Please submit proposals of 250-300 words by 17 July 2009 to EMPASymposium@gmail.com

URL to download CFP:
http://empa.arts.unsw.edu.au/news/details.php?RowID=R1498

In Derrida's Wake
9 October 2009
La Trobe University

8 October 2009 marks the fifth anniversary of the death of French deconstructionist Jacques Derrida. Given Derrida's concern with dates and contexts, but also with notions of trying to mourn for lost friends and the responsibilities of the living towards the dead and their legacies, it seems a more than appropriate time--perhaps a day late, because we hesitate, trying to postpone the inevitable--to bring together some friends and scholars of Derrida, not to mourn a man so concerned with the impossibility of mourning, but to begin to celebrate the enduring influence of deconstruction, to survey the state of play across the disciplines, in Derrida's wake.        

LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS STUDENT CONFERENCE
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2009
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA
EDMOND, OKLAHOMA
________________________________________

Submission Deadline: Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Acceptance Notification: Early October

Eighteenth-Century Fiction
JOURNAL

Graduate Essay Prize 2009 / Le Prix Eighteenth-Century Fiction 2009