ethnicity and national identity

This panel is dedicated to discussing Eastern/Russian Orthodox traditions, morality, culture, hagiography, iconography, mysticism, practices, monasticism, and beliefs as they pertain to (or appear within) Russian and Slavic literature. Discussions of religious influence are critical to the study of many of the greatest Russian authors and poets--Dostoevsky and Tolstoy amongst many others. Still, little scholarship has explored how both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy had extraordinarily different views of the Orthodox faith and of Christianity in general, and how this might have influenced their existential perspectives of life and death, meaning and purpose, as well as their works.

Humans navigate personal and social relationships in the world through self-definition. Human nature is a capacious concept; one that has been challenged by diverse cultural revolutions in history. Today, as we stand at the crossroads of the human and the digital, technologies force us to reflect on how we view, create, and alter our selves through multiple media. As we enter the age of new media, and algorithms, the interpretations, perceptions, and representations of the self are continuously altered, while our identities become more fragile multiple and fluid.

As a result of the delays and disruptions of the spring, the deadline for all MMLA submissions has been extended anew to May 31. 

The Comparative Literature section of the MMLA invites proposals for papers that engage with this year's conference theme, "Cultures of Collectivity." Papers addressing the following suggested MMLA topics from a transnational, cross-cultural, and/or interdisciplinary perspective would be particularly relevant:

The political narrative of immigration trends is that people are fleeing their countries to exploit American resources. Immigrants are generally depicted as violent, the cause of crime and job loss, not only in America but around the world. The undercover criminal narrative overshadows that of the risk-taker, willing to leave what is familiar to improve the life of his or her family. The stereotype of violent behavior overshadows the violence enacted upon them by their host countries which have put many immigrants in the situations they are in today. It is well documented that immigrants, and especially undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes.

As the MOSF Journal of Science Fiction continues in our endeavor to highlight and generate discourse around diverse science fiction narratives, we’ve begun to look for ways of expanding our global readership. With that in mind, the Editorial Board has suggested a special issue on Middle Eastern Science Fiction for our winter issue, due for publication around November 2020. To do such an endeavor justice, we would like to release the project as our first dual-language issue, published in both English and in Arabic.