twentieth century and beyond

From state-sponsored propaganda to cartoons, photography, and cinema newsreels, the cultural and political work done in service of modern warfare is significantly visual. At the same time (and despite considerable efforts to also subdue this aspect of war), much of the material reality depicted is inescapably explicit and brutal: broken bodies, destroyed cities, devastated natural environments.

Discourses of Instability, Inclusion, and Exclusion in the Trump Era

Papers are welcome that address the destabilizing of language and discourse practices, particularly in the inclusion and exclusion of various constituencies, in the Trump Era. These practices may range from micro-level ones, such as inclusive/exclusive pronoun strategies, to macro-level ones, such as the explosion of fake news and the semiotic challenges posed by it to the representation of politics and policies.

SCMLA Meetings

October 11-14, 2018

San Antonio, Texas

Questions? Please contact Mary Lynne Gasaway Hill, Ph.D., Chair of General Linguistics Session, SCMLA at mhill@stmarytx.edu. Thank you.

2018 Midwest Modern Language Association Conference

“Consuming Cultures”

November 15-18

Kansas City, MO

Permanent Section Call for Papers: Irish Studies

Since the emergence of Capitalism in Western society, humanity’s role as consumers of culture has become internalized as an inalienable component of modernity. From Marx’s metaphor of vampire labor in Capital to George Romero’s metaphorical representation of zombies as consumers in Dawn of the Dead to the ravenous hunger of online fandoms eagerly seeking for new content, the relationship between popular culture and its human consumers draws upon a rich, expansive history that recontextualizes interpolated human relationships by emphasizing (and sometimes questioning) the cultural narratives that dominate modern societies.

The Midwest Conference on British Studies is proud to announce that its 65th Annual Meeting will be hosted by the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY, September 14-16, 2018. The keynote speaker will be Carolyn Malone of Ball State University, and the plenary address will be given by Matthew Giancarlo of the University of Kentucky.