CFP: Nathaniel Hawthorne Society Conference

“Hawthorne and Friends, Enemies, Frenemies”

Crowne Plaza Hotel Downtown Union Station—Indianapolis, USA

The Nathaniel Hawthorne Society invites paper and session proposals for its triennial summer conference to be held in Indianapolis on June 18-20, 2021.

All topics related to Hawthorne and his friends, competitors, rivals, influences, collaborators, admirers, correspondents, promoters, etc., are welcome. Email 250-word paper proposals to Chuck Baraw, Program Committee Chair, at barawc1@southernct.edu by Oct 5, 2020. Please include “Hawthorne and Friends” in the subject line. Requests for A/V equipment should accompany the proposal.

1,000 word session proposals, also due by Oct 5, 2020, should include organizer and speaker names and affiliations, as well as paper titles, abstracts, and requests for A/V equipment. Slots for papers will be twenty minutes apiece. Individual author societies are especially welcome to propose sessions on Hawthorne’s contemporaries, etc.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

Coterie writing and publishing practices
Reception and reputation
Translation
Literary theory
The Anthropocene
The Non-Human
Twentieth & Twenty-First Century Heirs
Genre (short story, novel, sketch, romance, gothic, humor, children’s literature, allegory)
Adaptations (literary, cinematic, graphic novels, television, video games, etc.)
Transatlantic or global studies
Race, class, gender, sexuality
Literary, philosophical, scientific, or cultural influence
Pedagogy
Biographies
Politics
Contemporary “Afterlives”

All those whose proposals are accepted for the conference must become members of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society (or other sponsoring organization) to present. Participants may present one paper and also organize one session.

Conference Hotel: Situated in America’s first union station (1853), Crowne Plaza Hotel Downtown Union Station is the city’s most unique hotel. It boasts 273 guestrooms that include 26 early 1900’s authentic Pullman Train Car guestrooms and over 50,000 square feet of meeting space.

Convenience:
#1 airport in country
#1 convention city in US
10-15 minute shuttle from airport to hotel
Can walk everywhere in downtown

Things to do:
Conner Prairie: 1836 pioneer village; 1859 balloon ride; 1863 Civil War; Lenape camp
Eiteljorg (Native American Art Museum)
White River State Park
Indiana Historical Society
#2 city with most monuments in US