In Jean-Luc Nancy's The Inoperative Community representations are not just works of art (oeuvre); they also, in fact, work. Representations present "community" and thereby give a disparate group of beings an identity, borders, and a body. If representations work, what happens when a work founders, when it falls apart, and opens onto something else? Would this opening then be the place or space of play, even serious play? What does this "absence of work" look like formally? What are the ethical consequences of such playful interruptions? Papers on non-mainstream directors are of particular interest.

21st Annual Mardi Gras Conference at Louisiana State University
March 3 – 4, 2011

Keynote Address by Dr. Shoshana Felman, Emory University

"Echoes of Trauma: Exploring the Intersections of Trauma and Culture"

This panel, proposed for the 2011 American Literature Association convention in Boston, will investigate the intersections of time, memory, and region in American Literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. What are the consequences of considering time as Bergsonian duration, or from the perspective of Heidegger, Sartre, or Deleuze? How is time as space related to the idea of time as geographical location? Considerations might include older views, such as Sartre on Faulkner, or newer work, such as Wai Chee Dimock's ideas of "deep time" and nation-states in American literature.

The Sincerest Form: Literary Imitation, Adaptation, and Parody
Notre Dame English Graduate Student Conference
University of Notre Dame
South Bend, Indiana
March 3-4, 2011
Keynote Speaker: Professor Julie Sanders, University of Nottingham

Proposal deadline closing December 15th for 20-minute presentations on contemporary and classical film, ranging from critical essays to analyses employing recognized research methodologies.

The 2011 SWTX PCA/ACA conference will be held jointly with the National PCA/ACA from April 20 - 23 in San Antonio, Texas.

Submit a proposal with:
100-250 word abstract, including paper/presentation title;
current curriculum vitae;
working bibliography for your paper;
contact information: name, address, and email.

Proposals for panels of 3-4 presenters are also welcome.

Submit to:
Richard Crew
Film (General) Area Chair
Dick.crew@gmail.com

(In)Visible Subjects: Bodies, Spaces, Disciplines.

An interdisciplinary conference sponsored by the Graduate Program in Visual and Studies at the University of California, Irvine

March 31-April 1, 2011, Irvine, California

The Visual Studies Graduate Conference at UC Irvine is seeking submissions on (In)Visible Subjects. We welcome work that addresses invisibility, visibility and hyper-visibility, in terms of current social and political discourses surrounding immigration, borderlands and cultures, marginalized communities, subject production, gender issues, queer identities and urban art.

CALL FOR PAPERS & Workshop Submissions

15th annual Comparative Literature Intra-Student Faculty Forum (CLIFF)
March 24-26 2011
University of Michigan- Ann Arbor

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Fun & Games

Keynote speaker:

Glenda Carpio
Professor of English & African and African American Studies
Harvard University
author of Laughing Fit to Kill: Black Humor in the Fictions of Slavery
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