CFP: The Geography of a Troubled Land (12/15/04; collection)

The Geography of a Troubled Land: Camps, Reservations, and Sanctuary in
U.S. Ethnic Literature of the Southwest

In Palestinian American Naomi Shihab Nye's book of essays, Never in a
Hurry, she includes a section titled "Troubled Land," in which she writes
primarily about San Antonio and her home in the U.S. Southwest. A troubled
land of environmental beauty and exploitation, of ethnic diversity and
enmity, of cultural memory and amnesia, the U.S. Southwest figures
prominently in much writing by U.S. ethnic writers. Far from the site of
Robert Frost's musings on good fences and good neighbors, the Southwest and
its inhabitants have been fenced, wired, interned, reserved, enclosed,
bordered, and otherwise divided since the arrival of the Spaniards in the
sixteenth century.

Invited are contributions that address the various divisions in the
Southwest and the ways that they are represented in U.S. ethnic literature.
How are these experiences explored or negotiated in U.S. ethnic literature?
How are they remembered? Commemorated? Mapped? Possible topics include but
are not limited to

--Native American reservations
--internment camps for the Japanese and Japanese Americans during WW II
--refugee camps
--churches and/or other sites of sanctuary
--ecocide and environment [on reservations, in nature sanctuaries]
--sovereignty
--water and land disputes
--rebel camps in civil wars and revolutions
--prison camps
--communities or camps of migrant workers
--U.S. expansionism/colonialism/imperialism

While the collection will concentrate on new writing, some re-worked or
previously published submissions may be considered if they significantly
advance the project's intellectual investigation.

Abstracts by 9/15/04, completed essay (5,000-8,000 words; MLA format) by
12/15/04.
[In the present climate of viruses and worms, e-mail submissions are
discouraged.]

Kelli Lyon Johnson
Miami University
1601 University Blvd.
Hamilton, Ohio 45011
johnso58_at_muohio.edu
www.users.muohio.edu/johnso58

Kelli Lyon Johnson
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Miami University Hamilton
1601 University Blvd.
Hamilton, Ohio 45011
513-785-3036
johnso58_at_muohio.edu
www.users.muohio.edu/johnso58

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Received on Tue May 25 2004 - 00:18:26 EDT