For its 25th annual meeting, the British Women Writers Conference invites papers and panel proposals considering the theme of “Generations.” As we look back on a quarter-century of feminist scholarship and practice within British Studies, we want to celebrate those who have defined the British Women Writers Association’s past and nurture those who will shape its future. Of course, even within literary traditions or scholarly networks, generational transitions are rarely ever easy or smooth. Such transitions may be accompanied by paradigm shifts, struggles to be heard, or difficulty letting go. We therefore welcome investigations into the complexities of generational exchange and transition in women’s writing.

In honor of Walker Percy’s 100th Birthday Anniversary, proposals addressing any topic or area celebrating Walker Percy’s life, his fiction, or his non-fiction are welcome.  Send 300-word abstracts, brief bio, and A/V requirements to Dr. Karey Perkins, University of South Carolina - Beaufort, at both kareyp@uscb.edu and kareyperkins@gmail.com by June 7.

Anafora, an international journal published by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Osijek, invites contributions for the upcoming volume. 

               Alternately celebrated and pilloried, mother figures have been assigned contradictory roles throughout the histories of English-speaking societies. Reflecting the power structures and conflicts of their times, they have been portrayed as pillars of society, providing material and emotional security, and models of sacrifice, or vilified for failing to perpetuate the expected values of individual responsibility and self-control. Nearly a century after winning political emancipation and almost half a century after the historic struggles for sexual emancipation—which yielded unequal results from one country to another—, women in all segments of society in the USA, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth are still regard

October 29, 2016, 8:30am - 5:30pm

4th floor Information Commons, Lake Shore Campus, Loyola University Chicago

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Elaine Hadley, The University of Chicago Introductory Speakers: Anna Kornbluh and Benjamin Morgan, V21

In Past and Present (1843), Thomas Carlyle states, “The condition of England, on which many pamphlets are now in the course of publication, and many thoughts unpublished are going on in every reflective head, is justly regarded as one of the most ominous, and withal one of the strangest, ever seen in this world.”

SEMA 2016 Proposal

Call for Papers for SEMA 2016

The Medieval “Freak Show”: Putting the Monstrous on Display in the Middle Ages

People and creatures perceived as monstrous or wondrous are often put on display for profit or exploitation. At times, this exhibitionism presents itself as “education.” What has popularly been called the “freak show” achieved its height via the emergence of working class entertainments that transformed visual cultures in the nineteenth century, as exemplified in P.T. Barnum’s circus and its sideshows, but also including innovations such as the stereoscope and the panorama, which prepared the rise of cinema and, later, television.