CALL FOR PAPERS

Recuperating Joy: Symbiotic Connections, Optimisms, and Unproblematic Faves

Department of English Graduate Virtual Conference

Carleton University

8-9 May 2021

“Take joy in your digressions. Because that is where the unexpected arises.”

-        Brian Massumi

From the moment the clock struck midnight (or so it seems) on January 1, a climate of uncertainty has loomed over the year 2020: a contentious presidential campaign, the mismanagement of a global pandemic, and widespread civil unrest over egregious acts of racial injustice have thrown the United States into a state of disarray. These incidents, the result of the outgoing administration’s efforts to disrupt and upend traditional governing institutions, have instilled unparalleled levels of uncertainty and distrust in the American public. Nowhere is this more obvious in contemporary American life than recently conducted surveys suggesting public confidence in a COVID-19 vaccine is well under the 70% threshold needed to achieve herd immunity.