We are seeking participants for this seminar at the ACLA meeting in Montreal, March 14-17. Please submit proposals at https://www.acla.org/node/42839

Cary Nelson’s stance on archival work in his 1989 book Repression and Recovery applies to the intimate, frustrating, and rewarding practice of archival research’s potential to offer literary scholars the chance to rehabilitate both author and text. He states, “For texts previously ignored or belittled, our greatest appreciative act may be to give them fresh opportunities for an influential life. That discourse can include new constructions of the cultural work those texts may have done in their own time” (14). When archival research uncovers voices that showcase underrepresented voices, the outcome is tremendous in how it results in new ways of reading the past in contemporary culture. But what about historically problematic constructions?

TRANSFORMATIONS 

JOIN CEA IN ATLANTA!

The Big Peach. The ATL. The Dogwood City. Atlanta is a city always reimagining itself. The city’s history parallels America's own complicated and continuing story. This spirit of TRANSFORMATION—the theme of CEA 2024—is captured in the city's seal featuring a phoenix rising from the ashes. The image captures Atlanta's resilience as a city in how it emerged from the devastation of the Civil War to become a modern industrial metropolis, the center of the movement for Civil Rights, and what the New York Times describes as “hip-hop’s center of gravity.”