Comparative Media Arts Journal: Issue Nine | Relations

Relations exist in both affinity and disparity. They soften and solidify; destruct and reconcile. They emerge from succession, or perhaps even isolation. They are catalysts of becoming – a process that defines the territory of our being, yet transcends it over time.

In the wake of the worldwide protests after the killing of George Floyd, and the toppling of statues implicated in the legacy of the slave trade, we propose a special issue of Foundation on the topic of ‘decolonising science fiction’. As John Rieder and others have argued, the emergence of sf as a genre is embedded in colonial discourses of the late nineteenth century. The pursuit of new frontiers in outer space, within the Earth or under the oceans not only mirrored ‘the scramble for Africa’ but was also informed by the racialist and pseudo-scientific ideologies of the period. In more recent years, authors such as N.K. Jemisin, Jeannette Ng and Tade Thompson have sought to confront sf with the racist legacy of its origins.

Dear Colleagues,
This year the PAMLA Conference is scheduled to take place at the Sahara Las Vegas Hotel from Thursday, November 12, 2020 to Sunday, November 15, 2020. We invite you to consider submitting a proposal to any of the following panels by the deadline of July 15. Proposals are received and reviewed entirely online; please click on the specific panel link and follow instructions.

Italian / Cultural, Historical, and Political Studies
Presiding Officer: Fabiana Cecchini (Texas A & M University - College Station) 
fcecchini@tamu.edu

This panel invites papers that explore new approaches to Gloria Naylor, by offering fresh evaluations on the relationship among Naylor’s novels; analyzing her works through more recent theoretical or critical frameworks; situating her novels in relation to U.S. and transnational literary and historical contexts; and/or engaging materials from the Gloria Naylor Archive to develop new critical perspectives on Naylor’s published and unpublished works.

For a fuller description or to submit an abstract, please visit: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18701

Sport and the Power to Inspire Change: A Global Virtual Symposium

with Danny Crates, Phil Davies, Derek Peaple and Karl Spracklen

Tuesday 21st July 2020 - Wednesday 22nd July 2020

‘Sport’, as Mandela famously observed, ‘has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.’

Graduate students know they will have, at minimum, a chairperson for their dissertation, but the extent to which that relationship is cultivated as a mentorship, or the availability of other formal and informal mentorships, if often unknown or at best variable. Even within formal, department-directed mentorships, “[w]hile mentorship relationships can be generative and supportive of excellence, they often reflect the hierarchical boundaries of a traditional academic culture” (Dorland et al).

The novels of Black women authors like Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Jamaica Kincaid, and Angie Thomas have been challenged and banned in a host of educational settings. While the “appropriateness” of the content is questioned, these Black women novelists and their characters combat censorship and the status quo to reveal the truths of Black girlhood.