The Midwest Modern Language Association Conference will take place in Detroit, MI, November 13-16, 2014. In fitting with the location, this year's theme is "The Lives of Cities," which is meant to gesture broadly towards the experiences of urban inhabitants in all aspects and phases of urban development—from the very beginnings of urbanization throughout the globe to the resuscitation of contemporary urban landscapes decimated by industrial flight.

Each year, the permanent section Illustrated Texts seeks to create an interdisciplinary, cross-genre discussion of the sometimes harmonious, sometimes dissonant pairing of text and illustration. For this year's conference, this panel welcomes papers that examine illustrated texts of any period or genre, especially in relation to the conference theme, "The Lives of Cities." Possible topics might include, but are not limited to: the industry of textual illustrations; the public-private relationship between author and illustrator; geographical or metropolitan illustrations; the disparity between textual editions; the architecture of illustrated texts; urban/suburban depictions; and illustration as spatialized site. Visual, multimedia presentations are especially encouraged.

Please send 250-word abstracts by May 30th to Joshua Murray, jmurra24@kent.edu.