MELUS 2011 Call for Papers

full name / name of organization: 
Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States
contact email: 

25th Annual MELUS Conference:
Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States
April 7 โ€“ 10, 2011
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, FL

THEME: Ethnic Canons in Global Contexts

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Karla Holloway, Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, and Gary Shteyngart

As an ongoing and vital process through which societies and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of communications, economics, and politics, globalization addresses the transnational circulation of ideas and languages. Its impact on literature is manifold, with both positive and negative associations, wherein cultures receiving outside influences ignore some, adopt others as they are, and then immediately start to transform others. Certain aspects of globalization โ€“ such as hybridity and multi-rootedness โ€“ are increasingly present in literary texts as we witness ways in which they shape new literary forms, interrogate existing canons, and explore the emergence of ethnic canons.

We invite paper abstracts and complete panels, workshops, and roundtable proposals on all aspects of the multi-ethnic literatures of the United States. We are particularly interested in proposals that explore globalization in terms of its influence on ethnic canons, and vice versa, and encourage presentations on all global frameworks of analysis, such as Atlantic studies, global feminisms, pan-Africanism, postcolonialism, transnationalism, global indigenous studies, etc. Submissions should detail requests for specific audiovisual equipment, if needed. We also ask that a proposal for a complete panel, roundtable, or workshop include a short description of the central topic, supplemented by brief abstracts of individual speakers' contributions.

Deadline for abstracts and proposals (250 words in Word or rtf format):
NOVEMBER 15, 2010
Please e-mail abstracts to: Prof. Nora Erro Peralta and Prof. Taylor Hagood at melus2011@gmail.com

Hotel rooms have been set aside at the
Renaissance Boca Raton Hotel ($99/night)
2000 NW 19th Street, Boca Raton, FL 33431
(561) 368-5252

All presenters, chairs, and respondents must be members of MELUS. Membership information can be found on the MELUS website: (www.melus.org).
All payments of membership dues must be mailed directly to MELUS, not to the conference organizers.