interdisciplinary

What happens when diasporas come 'home'?

Invitation and call for papers to seminar hosted by Kultrans, University of Oslo 3-4 June 2010

What happens when diasporas come 'home'?

While cinema, television, and literature have regularly imagined fictional presidents, the act of fictionalizing the lives of American presidents—that is, giving fictional account of nonfictional presidents—is an imaginative endeavor with greater entailments: it configures the actual and the virtual, the real and the fictional, as a function of our contemporary incapacity to think historically about our present. Real U.S. presidents appear in a number of recent films—Dick (1999) and Frost/Nixon (2008) tell Nixon's tale, while both Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) and W. (2008) feature a sitting president.

PAMLA (Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association) is the western regional affiliate of MLA. The 2010 conference will take place November 13-14 at Chaminade University, Honolulu, Hawaii. This special session invites papers addressing the role of social media (Twitter, Facebook, wikis, blogs, tags) in researching, analyzing, and writing about literature. Presenters may discuss specific applications, case-studies, or general theories about online collaboration and research.

The Ethics of Racial Identity: PAMLA 2010 Special Session

The shape of nationalist fervor is drawn against a background of coherent visuals. But what if the mother tongue speaks in pluralities at the very origin of the nation? This panel seeks to examine the roles of accents, dialects, inflections, and multilingualisms within and upon the national project, as well as the effects of gendered experience on nationalist constructs.

Over 30 years ago, the essay, "Haunted by Lack of Ghosts: Some Patterns in the Imagery of Canadian Poetry," by Northrope Frye appeared. The purpose of this panel is to address the ghosts that do in fact terrorize the Canadian imagination, the Canadian psyche and Canadian culture. We are looking to discover and discuss that which lurks in the shadows of the author's imagination and experience to understand what they represent. These ghosts, real or imagined, can come from any and all forms of Canadian Literature: French, Native, Neo-Canadian, traditional and non-traditional. Please submit a 300-word abstract to lee.bessette@gmail.com by May 14th, 2010.

Conference Announcement for Next Weekend in Atlanta!

The International Koltès Symposium and world premiere of the English translation of Koltès' The Day of Murders in the History of Hamlet, directed by Thierry de Peretti, will take place on April 3-4, 2010.

A few highlights from the weekend:

April 3 International Koltès Symposium 10am - 3pm (12-1, break for lunch)

Alliance Francaise d'Atlanta
Alliance Française
Colony Square Plaza Level
1197 Peachtree St. Northeast
Atlanta, GA 30361
(404)-875-1211
For directions and parking info please go to http://www.afatl.com/ContactUs.htm

10th – 12th September 2010
Department of English and Drama, Loughborough University, UK

Keynote speakers: Adam Phillips (UK), Leo Bersani (USA), Lauren Berlant (tbc) (USA).

A special performance of intimate poetry and prose is also scheduled, including readings from poets Andrea Brady and Jonty Tiplady and novelist Tom Boncza-Tomaszewski.

Jean-Francois Lyotard writes, "We have paid a high enough price for the nostalgia of the whole [...] let us be witnesses to the unpresentable; let us activate the differences and save the honor of the name." How are "nostalgia" and the "whole" linked to terror and to the cinematic form? And how does film--if at all--confront the "unpresentable?" What is the "ethical" nature of this confrontation? Do death, birth, and God remain unpresentable today or have they also fallen prey to a nostalgic closure? Papers on the Coens, Christopher Nolan, Tarantino, Peter Weir, and less mainstream directors are of particular interest.

CLOSING DATE: 1 MAY 2010

Final call for submissions to the Katherine Mansfield Society prize essay competition, which for 2010 is open to all and will be on the subject of: KATHERINE MANSFIELD AND D. H. LAWRENCE.

Comparative studies in English, of approximately 5,000 words, should address any aspect of the literary relationship between Mansfield and Lawrence and consist of original, previously unpublished research.

The winner will receive a cash prize of £300 and the winning essay will be considered for publication in Katherine Mansfield Studies (the peer-reviewed journal of the Katherine Mansfield Society).

PAROLES GELÉES
Journal of French and Francophone Studies

UCLA
CALL FOR ARTICLES
The Branded City / La Ville marquée
Throughout history, cities have been contact zones where the past, present and future coexist, where urban and suburban meet and where (im)migrants, ex-patriots, urban explorers, and local inhabitants mix anonymously.

American Literature (Duke University Press)
Special Issue on SF, Fantasy, and Myth
http://www.duke.edu/~gc24/americanliterature.html
DEADLINE: 31 May 2010

More than one commentator has mentioned that science fiction as a form is where theological narrative went after Paradise Lost, and this is undoubtedly true…The form is often used as a way of acting out the consequences of a theological doctrine….Extraterrestrials have taken the place of angels, demons, fairies and saints, though it must be said that this last group is now making a comeback.
—Margaret Atwood, "Why We Need Science Fiction"

This panel accepts a broad range of disciplinary and theoretical concerns related to the study of Asian and Euro-American literatures. We welcome the study and cross-disciplinary use of visual texts and/or media, as well as traditional author-centered research.

The University of Virginia's College at Wise Medieval-Renaissance Conference is pleased to announce a call for undergraduate papers for the upcoming Medieval-Renaissance Conference, September 16-18, 2010.

Papers by undergraduates covering any area of Medieval and Renaissance studies—including literature, language, history, philosophy, science, pedagogy, and the arts—are welcome. Abstracts for papers should be 250-300 words in length and should be accompanied by a brief letter of recommendation from a faculty sponsor.

Abstracts (and letters) should be submitted electronically or by regular mail by June 18, 2010 to:

*Deadline for proposals this Friday, March 26!*

Keynote Speaker: Professor Naomi Morgenstern, University of Toronto.
"The University in Crisis: Teaching, Transference and Tenure in David Mamet's Oleanna."

Presented by the Studies in Psychoanalysis and Literature Reading Group
and GRIT: The Group for the Reading of Incredible Theory
May 21, 2010
Department of English
University of Toronto

Call for Papers