PAMLA 2018 Special Session, Acting Out: The Role of Environmental Humanities in the Anthropocene

deadline for submissions: 
May 30, 2018
full name / name of organization: 
Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA)
contact email: 

PAMLA 2018 Special Session

Acting Out: The Role of Environmental Humanities in the Anthropocene

Proposals are invited for a Special Session of PAMLA (Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association) 2018, which will meet November 9-11, 2018, in Bellingham, Washington. The conference theme is “Acting, Roles, Stages.

This panel invites speakers to consider the role of the humanities (and the “actors” within various academic disciplines) in anthropogenic contexts and possible climate futures. In what ways might we translate, mediate and act out environmental issues for our readers, colleagues, students, institutions and public audiences at large?

In his book Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (2011), Rob Nixon made an argument for the indispensability of writers and scholars who give imaginative definition to climate issues and instances of “slow violence.” Last year, in 2017, Tobias Manley and Jesse Oak Taylor released the volume Anthropocene Reading,a compendium of essays and conversations on the Anthropocene (the first of its kind) which aims to showcase how literary analysis might help readers conceptualize environmental and climate-related issues. This panel seeks to extend the conversation into 2018, inviting speakers to consider the role of the humanities (and the “actors” within our respective academic disciplines) in anthropogenic contexts and possible climate futures. In what ways might we translate, mediate and act out environmental issues for our readers, colleagues, students, institutions and public audiences at large? To what effect(s)? Specific areas of interest might include (but are not limited to): public scholarship, environmental humanities, climate pedagogy, ecocriticism, narration, anthropocene studies.

Panel participants must join PAMLA BY July 1, 2018, and must register and pay for the conference by October 1, 2018.

PLEASE SUBMIT PROPOSALS THROUGH THE CONFERENCE WEBSITE:

http://www.pamla.org/2018/topics/acting-out-role-environmental-humanities-anthropocene

Contact Jessica Holmes at holmes07@uw.edu with any questions.