american

When we call something a cliché, we’re typically calling it tired, banal, repetitive, or boring. Whether it’s an art object, a turn of speech, or a pattern of behavior, we’re identifying what it lacks: distinctiveness, originality, creativity, thrill. But in pointing to a cliché, we’re also pointing to a response. Noticing cliché creates a fissure. It elicits a reflexive movement, by which we’re forced to reckon with the repetitiousness of language; the ideological and economic structures that shape the creation of art; the social patterns that guide how we relate and self-present. Pointing to cliché, in other words, opens up the possibility for subversion.

The U.S. South is often a forgotten space within ecocritical discussions, yet it provides fruitful ground for thinking about environmental issues. In 2019, in the first edited collection of essays on the topic, Zachary Vernon notes that focusing attention on this bioregion might help “provide a way out of the limitations of thinking too locally or too globally,” and it might inspire a group of stakeholders to come to the table as well (7). One problem with ecocritical approaches is the long history of representing the U.S. South as an “internal other in the national imagination: colonized, subordinate, primitive, developmentally arrested, or even regressive” (Watson 254).

The Leon Edel Prize is awarded annually for the best essay on Henry James by a beginning scholar.  The prize carries with it an award of $300, and the prize-winning essay will be published in HJR.

The competition is open to applicants who have not held a full-time academic appointment for more than four years. Independent scholars and graduate students are encouraged to apply.

Essays should be 20-30 pages (including notes), original, and not under submission elsewhere or previously published.  Please send electronic submssions in Microsoft Word format to hjamesr@creighton.edu.

Conference on Race, Racialization, and Resistance: Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Humanities ● Call for Abstracts  
Seattle University, April 25 – April 27, 2025 (Friday through Sunday)
  
Full Name/Name of Organization:   
Seattle University

There will be no registration fee for this conference.

The funding for this conference is provided by the Mellon Foundation, for the “Race, Racialization and Resistance in the US” curricular project at Seattle University.
    

African American Review CFP
Black Literature+: African American Literature in Dialogue with the Other Arts
Guest Editors: Brittney Michelle Edmonds (University of Wisconsin) and Hayley O’Malley (Rice University)

In 2004, in a speech about the painter Romare Bearden, Toni Morrison argued that critics must appreciate the “liquidity” between Black art forms, the “resonances, alignments, the connections, the inter-genre sources of African American art... the resounding aesthetic dialogue among artists.” “Locating instances of this liquidity,” Morrison explained, “is vital if African American art is to be understood for the complex work that it is and for the deep meaning it contains.”1

Call for book chapters for the edited volume: Cyberpunk and digital rebellion of AI

The FX Reader

Extended and revised call for chapters on select FX Channel original TV series are sought for an edited book collection.  In a similar vein as The Essential HBO Reader (2008), this scholarly collection will serve as a valuable resource for TV scholars and educators on FX’s history and its most critically acclaimed, noteworthy series.

Each chapter is expected to focus on each series’ creation and production history, its overall aesthetics and key performances, core themes, its association with genre conventions, and relevance to the FX Channel.  We still need chapter proposals on the following series:

This year’s South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) conference theme, Seen and Unseen, considers how the perceptual lens influences our vision of the world around us. All national narratives are iterative projects that never quite arrive at the truth, but the (re)mainstreaming of far-right ideologies across American society has engendered a collection of false histories and mythopoetic frameworks shaped in their image, often aggressively vying for space in the public imagination. This session invites papers and multimedia presentations examining the development, dissemination, or impact of alternate visions/versions of any component of the American story and the principles that have animated it.

Are you a queer person who attends or attended a Christian college, university, or seminary? Did you experience homophobia and/or transphobia while in attendance? Do you want to share your story in order to ensure what happened to you doesn’t happen to students in the future? Then I want to hear from you!

The editors of the Oxford University Handbook of American Street Literature seek papers that explore the history and themes of this unique genre. Street literature, also known as urban literature, refers to a genre of writing that primarily focuses on the experiences and narratives of individuals from marginalized communities, particularly in urban areas. Street Lit often explores the struggles, triumphs, and complexities of life in poor neighborhoods, shedding light on themes such as crime, violence, poverty, and the pursuit of success. Street literature encompasses various forms of written expression, including novels, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction accounts.

Conference Dates - November 7th to 10th 2024

Location - Palm Springs, California U.S.A.

Topic - Food Studies Research on Culture, Literature, and Media

Conference organizers - Pacific Ancient & Modern Language Association

Overview - This Food Studies session aims to bring together a range of perspectives for the sake of examining the roles of food in literary and media texts. We seek abstracts that speak to the following questions: What roles do food and food studies play in our analyses of culture, literature, and media? How does food experience shape our creative expression and daily lives?

CFP: MEDIA REVIEWERS and SCHOLARLY ARTICLES – MIDDLE WEST REVIEW

Middle West Review (MWR) is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal that examines the American Midwest. The journal is published biannually by the University of Nebraska Press.

MWR is seeking scholars to review media texts that engage with midwestern identity, history, and/or culture. From popular films and television series to online exhibitions and digital archives, MWR spotlights Midwest-oriented media texts in each issue.

Announcing: “Notes On…” for the Edith Wharton Review (the official refereed journal of the Edith Wharton Society)

On November 22-24, 2024, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and the University of Dayton will host an academic symposium to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of Fr. Clarence Rivers, the “father of Black Catholic liturgy,” and the 40th anniversary of the Black Bishops of the United States’ pastoral letter, “What We Have Seen and Heard.” In addition to keynote addresses and workshops inspired by Fr. Rivers and “What We Have Seen and Heard,” we will also have opportunities to gather for song and prayer in the traditions of soulful worship called for by Fr.