Though often represented as a marginalized or isolated region of the Francophone world, on the one hand, as well as distinct from the rest of the United States, on the other, Louisiana has been situated for more than three centuries at the crossroads of countless cultural, linguistic, and institutional exchanges. Alongside these realities highlighted in recent historiography, contemporary efforts to promote French and Francophones cultures of Louisiana have benefited from numerous international partnerships. In order to explore the international relations and transnational dynamics that have shaped Louisiana from the colonial period until now, we are pleased to accept abstracts for presentations relevant to Francophone Louisiana.

Call for Abstracts

The Cultural Politics of Religious Conversion: Narratives, Representations, Negotiations

Verge Issue 5.2 - Forgetting Wars

Edited by Tina Chen (Penn State), Josephine Park (UPenn), and We Jung Yi (Penn State)

In 2016, a viral The New York Times op-ed by political scientist Mark Lilla called for “The End of Identity Liberalism,” the political formation putatively at the root of Donald Trump’s election. The author claimed the U.S. must enter a “post-identity liberalism” in order to avoid the rampant fascism of modernity. He emphasizes majoritarian logics in order for progressives to center “the issues that affect a vast majority of them” as focusing on identity “can drive potential allies away,” providing the example of bathrooms being tiresome for (cisgender) voters to hear about.

CALL FOR PAPERS / APPEL DE COMMUNICATIONS

Reformatting the World: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Technology and the Humanities

Feb 23-24, 2018

The Velvet Light Trap Issue 83 - Politics of Space and Place

At the outset of Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, Yi-Fu Tuan observes, "Space and place are basic components of the lived world; we take them for granted. When we think about them, however, they may assume unexpected meanings and raise questions we have not thought to ask." Power relations are often negotiated through space and embedded in place, and these dynamics resonate through and within media. As such, media studies stands to offer an important contribution to the critical study of space and place, just as this important area of study may help us to reorient and reimagine foundational premises and concerns within our field.

Call for Papers

“Ethnicity and Immigration in the Midwest”

Sponsored by the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature

American Literature Association Annual Conference

San Francisco, California

May 24-27, 2018