Eighth Biennial Conference of the Swedish Association for American Studies
Örebro, 26-27 September 2014
Second Call for Papers: Call for Contributions to Panels

SAAS is an academic network that encourages scholarship in the multidisciplinary field of American Studies. SAAS seeks to develop a critical understanding of the role, place and meaning of the United States and North America. In Sweden, research about the US/America is conducted in many different disciplines; the biennial SAAS conference thus functions as an important forum for interdisciplinary exchange and provides American Studies scholars with an opportunity to meet and network.

This is a second call for papers for the 8th SAAS conference, which will be held in Örebro 26-27 September 2014. We invite abstracts for individual papers (200-250 words) that deal with topics covered by the panels presented below.

The panels that welcome contributors are:

Contemporary North American Poetry
This panel explores contemporary North American poetry, with a focus on spoken and written traditions and the relationships between these traditions. Papers can explore these traditions as they relate to, for example, genre, performance, identity, and political or social contexts.

Postmodern North American literature
This panel explores recent postmodern writers and texts in the North American context. It welcomes discussions of any issues related to such writers and text, as well as explorations of the label itself, but particularly encourages a focus on thematic and formal concerns related to a contemporary visually oriented society and/or on post-apocalyptic or dystopian narratives.

Understanding "American family" in the 21st century
This panel invites presentations that focus on contemporary (21st century) understandings of "family" as these are expressed or envisioned in various social and aesthetic arenas. We are particularly interested in papers that address the links between family relations, familial identities, and familial practices on the one hand, and nationhood on the other.

Nation-building and Imagination in 19th-Century American Culture
This panel explores the connections and struggles between nation-building and imagination in 19th-century American culture. Papers may focus on literature but also on other expressions of imagination that support or question nation-building efforts in this period.

Religion and American Culture
Religious and political thinking has always gone hand in hand in America. This panel welcomes papers in all fields that shed light on how this crucial conflation informs American culture, past and present.

We welcome contributions from junior and senior scholars in areas including, but not limited to, Anthropology, Art, Cultural Studies, Film and Media Studies, Gender Studies, Literature, Musicology, Popular Culture, Political Science, Religion, US or North American History.

Please note that this is not a general call for papers and that we only welcome contributions for the panels listed above.

Send your abstracts to Jenny Bonnevier (jenny.bonnevier@oru.se) and Chloé Avril (chloe.avril@eng.gu.se) by May 8 2014.

For more information about the conference, please contact Jenny Bonnevier or check the website for updates: www.saasinfo.se