Eighteenth-century satire was, as contemporary observers knew, thoroughly implicated in the circumstances of secular history. Yet many of these contemporaries defended satire by explaining its acrimonious intervention in current affairs as incidental to its articulation of sacred moral truths. Samuel Johnson's definition captures this felt tension: "A poem in which wickedness or folly is censured. Proper satire is distinguished, by the generality of the reflections, from a lampoon which is aimed against a particular person; but they are too frequently confounded." And even today explanations of satire still tend towards a kind of "generality" that explains away many historical details as incidental or secondary.

Cinematic Representation of Immigration, Spaces and Identities: The representation of immigration and immigrants through films is very often linked to the space in which they choose to live. How could we define the dynamic between the notions of immigration, spaces and identities through movies in today's cinema from different countries? How do immigration spaces foster the immigrants that live in them? How do these spaces affect their identity? Do immigrants also reshape the place where they have found asylum? This is the main frame of analysis that this panel will explore. Send abstracts to Carole Salmon Carole_Salmon@uml.edu and Maria Matz Maria_Matz@uml.edu

New World Histories: Contemporary Literature and the Early Americas

We are seeking a third presenter for a panel proposal examining aspects of publics, publicity and politics in the work of Pietro Aretino for the RSA conference in Venice, Italy, 8-10 April 2010. The main interest for this panel would be in close readings of selected letters of Aretino and his correspondents, and we welcome proposals from scholars from all disciplines engaged with Aretino scholarship.

Please send an abstract of 150 words (RSA limit, exclusive of proposed title) with current contact information and institutional affiliation to Marlene Eberhart, [marlene.eberhart(at)mcgill.ca] and Wes Folkerth [wes.folkerth(at)mcgill.ca] no later than Thursday, 21 May 2009. Please attach your proposal as a Word document or in .rtf format.

Deadline extended to June 15, 2009.

We are accepting submissions for a collection of stories, essays, and poems for a proposed book on comparative American spatial concepts, partially titled "Stories the Land Holds." The editors are looking for texts variously addressing "stories in the land." What are the stories the land tells? Vine Deloria has warned us of problems that result from a perspective that is not fundamentally spatial, and such has been the case for current problems that range from ecological disaster to fanatical environmentalism and bundled mortgages. We believe that these complex and problematic American events can be understood more fully from a Native American perspective.

Call For Papers: Shifting Foundations (Summer 2009)

Culture Frame's inaugural call-for-papers would like to address what it regards as a historical shift in the foundations of knowledge. The 20th century was marked by scientific development and implementation, especially in physics, chemistry, biology, as well as technological expansion. This remarkable century transformed human cultures' engagements with the scientific method. The result of scientific and technological impact on human culture and identity, from the automobile to antibiotics, from the double helix to the atomic bomb, is now evident in almost every moment of every day.