“Global Festival Culture”International Conference18 July 2020 – London, UKorganised byLondon Centre for Interdisciplinary Research

and

Festival Culture, Research and Education Network

Global festival culture is a one-day inter-, multi-, trans-, and cross-disciplinary conference that aims to explore the creative practices, social benefits, economic development, tourism, multiculturalism, diversity, local community involvement, partnerships, religion and music entrepreneurial networks that festivals offer.

The Carson McCullers Society is pleased to invite submissions for its annual prize for Outstanding Conference Paper. This award recognizes the best entry for a scholarly essay on the life and work of Carson McCullers presented at a conference the previous year. Entrants should provide evidence that the paper was presented at a national, regional or international academic conference during the 2019 calendar year (January 1 to December 31) and that the winner is an active member of Society at the time of receipt of the award (information on membership can be found here on our website).

The Carson McCullers Society is pleased to announce an open call for papers on any topic related to the life and works of Carson McCullers for a guaranteed panel at the American Literature Association (ALA) conference in San Diego, California, on May 21-24, 2020. Papers that approach McCullers’ works from interdisciplinary, comparative, and disability or gender studies perspectives are especially sought; however, all topics will be considered. Interested parties should send a 250-300 word abstract and short bio to the Carson McCullers Society at carsonmccullerssociety@gmail.com no later than Wednesday, January 22nd, 2020. Please list “ALA 2020 abstract” as the subject of your email.

The 12th Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference 

June 19-23, 2020, Asafu Yard, Charles Town, Portland, Jamaica

This event welcomes papers and performances from scholars, artists, and activists interested in exploring issues surrounding "Sovereignty," including but not limited to:

In 1992, James Shapiro discussed ‘Shakespeare and the Jews’ in the James Parkes Lecture at the University of Southampton, a lecture that would form one of the cornerstones of his ground-breaking book of the same title. Thirty years later, in 2022, the journal Shakespeare pays homage to his research, both by looking back and reflecting on the issues Shapiro raised, and by looking around us in today’s world where the topic is as relevant as ever. Shakespeare and the accusation of anti-Semitism have long been intertwined, with The Merchant of Venice being central in this discourse. Today, the evidence of rising anti-Semitism has become almost impossible to ignore.

Destination – the word itself concerns both journey and journey’s end. For this issue of Oxford Research in English, we invite articles that delve into arrival and setting forth in literature, as well as the textual, intertextual and extratextual ways one can examine literary places and spaces. “Destination” derives from the Latin dēstināre—to resolve, to determine, to destine— before journeying into French and arriving in English.

For its thirty-second issue, InVisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture invites scholarly articles and creative works that address the aesthetics of idleness. This issue will also feature an introduction by and an interview with Jean Ma.

Idleness suggests slack and stasis. It evokes empty, wasted time, and thus the dangers of being useless. It even recalls the religious notion that there is something satanic about not being occupied with work. But what are the aesthetics of idleness? In what ways does being idle function as a cultural or artistic practice? How can we theorize idleness, and perhaps do so idly? Or does treating idleness as a site of cultural analysis and critical theory undo the danger of it?