Call for Papers
6th Annual Louisiana Graduate Conference on Language and Literature
April 20-21, 2007
Hilton Garden Inn
Lafayette, Louisiana
Keynote Speaker: Andrei Codrescu, Renowned Poet, Essayist, and NPR Commentator
Closing Speaker: Emily Toth, The Chronicle's Ms. Mentor and Author of _Inside
Peyton Place: The Life of Grace Metalious_
Conference includes a professional development workshop and a night of
authentic Louisiana music

English.louisiana.edu/gradconf/index.shtml

Conference Theme:
"The Borders of Memory: The Created Past in Literature and Culture"

The past year has been one of tremendous change for the Gulf Coast region.
The landfalls of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August and September,
respectively, decimated large sections of South Louisiana as well as the Texas
and Mississippi coasts. In the months since, the people of the region have
seen the dispersal of their neighbors and families, the leveling of their
communities, and the threatened destruction of their cultures. The response
of so many, from journalists to poets, from essayists to the people who called
the inundated communities home, has been to seek solace in memory. Memory has
always played a powerful role in the aftermath of change. In the wake of such
catastrophe, however, perhaps memory and our concepts of the past need to be
reexamined.
In many ways, literature and other forms of cultural communication serve as
repositories of memory. At once individual and communal, literature,
traditions, and language function as carriers of memory between generations
and across cultural boundaries. Through them, we not only revisit the past
but we also find common ground on which to imagine a future. The role of
memory is at the very center of so much of what we say and how we say it. In
memoir, the author invites the reader into her own lived experience. In
folklore, traditions serve as links between a cultural group and its
understanding of its past. In language, words and word meanings are colored
by the memories of its speakers.
In the face of change, memory takes perhaps its most potent forms. The force
of memory shapes the way we see and respond to conflict and change, from the
way we make meaning out of immigration and large population shifts, increasing
globalization, and the transformation of communities through industrial change
to how we understand cultural conflict in the "wars" on terror and on drugs,
and even in the changing definitions of terms such as "citizen" and "alien,"
"east" and "west." The Sixth Annual Louisiana Conference on Language and
Literature will provide a forum in which the force of memory may be interrogated.
        

Submission of Abstracts
        
The Louisiana Graduate Conference on Language and Literature is a national
event bringing together graduate students from across the Humanities and
Social Sciences. It provides a healthy and welcoming environment for graduate
student research as well as an enjoyable weekend of networking and cultural
experience.

We welcome submissions of 300-500-word abstracts on topics in language and
literature. Abstracts which deal in some way with the concept of memory are
particularly welcome and will be given priority consideration, but papers on
any topic will be considered. We welcome submissions in the following areas:

Literary Studies
Rhetoric and composition
Creative writing (fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and drama)
Folklore
Linguistics
Modern Languages
History
Cultural and American Studies
Gender Studies

Send abstracts to gradcon07_at_louisiana.edu. Deadline for submissions is
October 31, 2006. Please include in your email your name, title (if
applicable), school affiliation, A/V requirements, email address, and phone
number. For academic papers, please include "Academic Conference Submission"
in the subject line of your email. For creative works, please include
"Creative Conference Submission" in the subject line.

Panel submissions are also welcome. Panels should include four presenters.
Please submit panel abstracts together along with a panel proposal explaining
the panel theme and the way in which each abstract addresses this theme.

Notice of acceptance will be sent by November 15, 2006.

Darrell Bourque Award

Presenters may choose to have their papers considered for the Darrell Bourque
Award, a cash award given to the most outstanding conference paper. For
information on submission deadlines for the Darrell Bourque Award, please
visit our website.

Visit us online at English.louisiana.edu/gradconf/index.shtml.

-- ========================================================== From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List CFP_at_english.upenn.edu Full Information at http://cfp.english.upenn.edu or write Jennifer Higginbotham: higginbj_at_english.upenn.edu ==========================================================Received on Thu Oct 05 2006 - 01:17:58 EDT