There is hardly any subject in contemporary literary, cultural, and media studies that is discussed and researched with as much controversy as "the fantastic". Since theoretical debate on the subject was initiated in the second half of the 20th century, largely by Tzvetan Todorov and Roger Callois, research on the fantastic has become a globally relevant, interdisciplinary, and rapidly developing field of scholarship. The field's significance is reflected in numerous scholarly journals, associations, organizations, research projects and institutions which have focused on the fantastic.

Our issue 13 aims to shed light on the political function of art in diverse contexts in Southeast Asia. Among other things, the issue will discuss the formation of Southeast Asian contemporary art scenes, and of a regional conscience in contemporary art: In particular, the implications and consequences for artists' ability to reflect and influence their local political situation, and for the possibility of meaningful cooperation between artists and art scenes. As a part of this investigation, the issue will also discuss topics such as the (potential) function of art in public spaces, and how the contemporary art economy influences the political agency of art and the freedom of expression in Southeast Asian societies.

The theme of the 24th annual meeting of the British Women Writers Conference is "Making a Scene," and we're excited to welcome papers that play with the elasticity of this phrase vis-à-vis eighteenth- and nineteenth-century writings by women. From the sublime panoramas of "Beachy Head' and the scandalous rehearsals of Lover's Vows in Mansfield Park to the landscapes of Helen Huntingdon and the ekphrastic poems of Michael Field, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature by British women writers frequently makes a scene as it considers landscape, theatrical performance and the creation or representation of visual art.

College English Association - Middle Atlantic Group
ANNUAL SPRING CONFERENCE 2016
Call for Papers
"Cultivation"
5 March 2016
Keynote Panel:
"Cultivating the English Major in the Digital Age"
Panelists: Chris Cain (Towson); Horacio Sierra (Bowie State);
Shirley Wilson Logan (UMD); Laura Yoo (Howard CC)

Location: Montgomery College, Rockville Campus

Surviving the Destruction of Humanity:
The Apocalypse and its Consequences in Society

The Apocalypse Project: 5th Global Meeting
Call for Participation 2016

Thursday 5th May – Saturday 7th May 2016
Prague, Czech Republic

CICAS, the Center for Interdisciplinary Collaboration in the Arts and Sciences, invites proposals for its inaugural conference on the theme of The Future of Humanity. In a world where, on the one hand, we are informed that the planet cannot support a human life worth living a century from now and, on the other, that the first human to live to be 1000 years old may have already been born, no topic is more urgent for humans to debate through the lenses of their different disciplines. What is the future of the human species? What does it mean to be "human"? Or, as Richard Grusin (2015) suggests in The Nonhuman Turn, are we experiencing a different kind of "humanity" in the twenty-first century?

Our theme invites exploration of the habitats and/or hazards of any aspect of humanities studies. Papers may explore the conference theme as applied to the texts of humanities studies (e.g. the hazardous spaces of "Jane Eyre"), or the various crises that threaten the material world now or in the past (e.g. popular culture depictions of pollution). Presenters are invited to (re)frame the terms of the theme in ways relevant to their projects.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
•Close readings of texts (written, physical, and/or visual), from any period
•Domesticity, urbanity, public/private, setting in literature, history, art, and popular culture
•Pollution, scarcity, competition over resources