ecocriticism and environmental studies

Shechem Ministries' Matter '09: A Creative Theology Event is now accepting submissions of papers and artwork for the conference September 17-19, 2009, at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas.

Selected papers and artwork will be presented at the conference and will be published in the anthology of the conference, Matter, published by Shechem Press.

All abstracts and digital image samples are due by noon CST on June 15, 2009, with completed artwork and papers due by August 31, 2009 at noon CST.

Self-described "student of science" Bruno Latour defines an actor as "any thing that leaves a trace." In keeping with this year's theme of footprints, this panel welcomes papers that consider the traces left by any thing on the world (whether of humans or non-humans). What buried narratives might we excavate by reading residue? What stories are told by echoes? All approaches are welcome, though eco-critical and material readings may be particularly appropriate. Relevant topics might include:

Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925) was a novelist, country gentleman, social commentator, onetime colonial administrator and failed ostrich farmer whose prodigious output comprises a significant but under-examined contribution to late nineteenth and early twentieth century literature. While his two most famous works, King Solomon's Mines (1886) and She (1887) have attracted a steady stream of articles in recent years, most notably from the fields of postcolonial and gender studies, a significant proportion of his oeuvre remains almost entirely unstudied, despite their considerable popular success in his lifetime. In order to extend and enhance Haggard scholarship we are soliciting proposals for chapters in a forthcoming edited collection of essays.

The English Graduate Organization (EGO) at Western Illinois University in Macomb is currently accepting CFPs for their 6th annual conference, Questioning Identity—Representations of Class. Possible paper topics might include but are not limited to the following:
Class Conflict
Marxism
Representations of Labor
Consumption
Capitalism
Globalization
Commodities
Working Class
Economics
Gender
Nationalism
We welcome your ideas! Please send a 250-300 word abstract to: SJ-Naslund@wiu.edu

We are now accepting submissions for a collection of stories, essays, and poems for a proposed book on comparative American spatial concepts, partially titled "Stories the Land Holds." The editors are looking for texts variously addressing "stories in the land." What are the stories the land tells? Vine Deloria has warned us of problems that result from a perspective that is not fundamentally spatial, and such has been the case for current problems that range from ecological disaster to fanatical environmentalism and bundled mortgages. We believe that these complex and problematic American events can be understood more fully from a Native American perspective.

This conference solicits contributions to our understanding of the perennial outlaw hero, and the traditions surrounding his stories, from as wide a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives as possible. The conference requests proposals that expand our knowledge of medieval and early modern historical studies, literary criticism, folklore, musicology and music practice, children's literature, cultural studies, anthropology, film and media studies, performance art and oral recitations, art history, literary history and theory, and philosophy. While our historical understanding of Robin Hood inevitably depends on literary and archival records, even these cultural memories have been shaped by the media that contain them.

The age of globalism that shapes the world today is both a cause and effect of postcolonial actualities: effect because of the cultural influences (imposed or transmitted) of colonial powers on colonized lands through the centuries; cause because the supposed end of the colonialist era started world events of migration, hybridity, multiculturalism and relocation in the urban centers of former colonial powers. Several critics have already shaped the postcolonial discourse—such as from Said to Bhabha, from Achebe to Rushdie, from the Subaltern Studies Group to Anzaldúa—and the reality of our world today continues to offer numerous possibilities for discussion on postcolonial issues.

Papers are invited for the Eighth Native American Symposium to be held November 4-6, 2009 at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, Oklahoma. The symposium theme is Images, Imaginations, and Beyond, but papers, presentations, panel sessions, and creative productions addressing all aspects of Native American studies are welcome, including but not limited to history, literature, law, medicine, education, religion, politics, social science, and the fine arts. The keynote speaker will be Heather Rae, the Cherokee film director and producer, whose film Frozen River received two Academy Award nominations this year.

LITERARY JOURNALISM STUDIES, a peer-reviewed journal sponsored by the International Association for Literary Journalism Studies (IALJS), invites submissions of scholarly articles on literary journalism, which is also known as narrative journalism, literary reportage, reportage literature, "new journalism" and the nonfiction novel, as well as literary nonfiction and creative nonfiction that emphasizes cultural revelation. The journal is international in scope and seeks submissions on the theory, history and pedagogy of literary journalism throughout the world. All disciplinary approaches are welcome.

CFP: El Paso in the Comics II: "The Southwest in the Comics"

Graduate students in all fields of study are invited to submit 200-word abstracts to the second-annual "El Paso in the Comics" conference and event, to be held on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso, February 23, 2010.

Papers on all aspects of comics scholarship, theory, and pedagogy will be given attention, but those that deal with issues related to artists, creators, characters and/or themes associated with the American Southwest and/or Hispanic/Chicano culture in comics will be given top priority.

Early Modern Dis/Locations: An Interdisciplinary Conference,
Northumbria University, 15-16 January 2010

On 15-16 January 2010, Northumbria University in Newcastle (UK) will host an interdisciplinary conference on Early Modern Dis/Locations.

Confirmed Plenary Speakers include:
Tim Cresswell (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Patricia Fumerton (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Lisa Hopkins (Sheffield Hallam University)
Bernhard Klein (University of Kent)
Greg Walker (University of Edinburgh)

Cultures of Recession
An Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference Hosted by The Program in Literature, Duke University
November 20 & 21, 2009

Keynote Speaker: Stanley Aronowitz (CUNY), author of How Class Works and Just Around The Corner: The Paradox of a Jobless Recovery

European Journal of English Studies, Vol. 15
Matter and Material Culture
Deadline for proposals: 13 November 2009

Guest Editors: Maurizio Calbi & Marilena Parlati.

Cultural materialism has been adding much to our knowledge and understanding of the ways in which culture is informed by and conformed to and with matter, and so have the numerous analyses and histories of material culture from fields as varied as sociology, anthropology, museum studies, consumer studies, and so forth.

We are now accepting submissions for a collection of stories, essays, and poems for a proposed book on comparative American spatial concepts, partially titled "Stories the Land Holds." The editors are looking for texts variously addressing "stories in the land." What are the stories the land tells? Vine Deloria has warned us of problems that result from a perspective that is not fundamentally spatial, and such has been the case for current problems that range from ecological disaster to fanatical environmentalism and bundled mortgages. We believe that these complex and problematic American events can be understood more fully from a Native American perspective.