Over the last several years, the issue of “fake news” – misleading or outright deceptive reporting designed to advance a particular agenda – has become a prominent feature of our media ecology. The Oxford Dictionary chose “post-truth” as its Word of the Year for 2016, Time Magazine ran a full-cover headline in 2017 asking the question “Is Truth Dead?,” and the term “fake news” has been employed liberally by both spokespeople for the Trump administration and its critics. The debate has particular ramifications for higher education, and particularly for instructors of Composition and Humanities classes, which generally provide college students with their most explicit training in how to evaluate sources of information.

Special Issue: Transpacific Currents 

The editorial team of American Music is planning a special issue to appear in 2018 on the topic of transpacific intersections. We invite contributions addressing Asian-Pacific music and musicians within the Americas, as well as music and musicians of the Americas in the Asia-Pacific region.

For consideration, please send an abstract of not more than 300 words and a CV to am.special.issues@gmail.com by September 30, 2017. Invited articles should be approximately 6,000-8,000 words in length including references, and will be due by January 31, 2018.

“One can get to the figure by making clear that every discourse possesses its counterpart, the object of which it speaks, which is over there, like what it designates in a horizon: sight on the edge of discourse.” —Jean-François Lyotard, Discourse, Figure, 7.

“Perhaps it is no more than an accident that in our two oldest examples figura occurs in combination with nova; but even if accidental, it is significant, for the notion of the new manifestation, the changing aspect, of the permanent runs through the whole history of the word.” —Erich Auerbach, “Figura,” Scenes from the Drama of European Literature, 12.

The Human Body and World War II

Interdisciplinary conference

University of Oxford, 23-24 March 2018

Irish Media Culture in Transnational Contexts

Society for Cinema and Media Studies: Toronto, March 14–18, 2018

New Review of Film and Television Studies seeks contributions for a special issue on “Breath: Image and Sound.” Contributors are encouraged to consider, among other topics, the interplay between breath and particular media; phenomenologies or phenomenalities of breath and air; and breathing in different affective modes and genres. Possible research questions include, but are not limited to:

SHAPING THE FUTURE is an interdisciplinary conference hosted by the Languages Graduate Student Association of the University of Connecticut. The conference will take place at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, from October 27th to 28th, 2017.