Voice, Tone, and Affect in US Literature and (Popular) Culture

Special Issue in the European Journal of American Studies

Editors: Annika Schadewaldt, Stefan Schubert, Ulla Stackmann

With the changing social realities alongside rapid innovation in science and technology, there is a sharp paradigm shift in academia in terms of research, especially in humanities. This shift can be considered a radical change in the core concepts. It is imperative to absorb the very meaning of paradigm shift. The term paradigm shift was coined by Thomas Kuhn in his 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, in the context of revolutions in natural science. What is remarkable about Khun’s thought process is that in his book, Kuhn propounded the idea that theories have a social character and approaches them as social constructions that contain historical traces of the time and place in which they were generated.

Special issue of Extrapolation (https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journal/extr)

 Call for Proposals: “Science Fictional Ecologies in Contemporary Art”

Due November 1, 2024

Please send abstracts and inquiries to both guest editors:

Guest Editors:

Emiliano Guaraldo, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland: emiliano.guaraldo@unisg.ch

Alison Sperling, Florida State University, USA: asperling@fsu.edu

The covid-19 pandemic not only sparked conversations on the gendered division of household chores and care but also brought to light the paradox of the “essential-worker.” Despite being deemed “essential” to society, these workers-often women, immigrants, and people of color were paid low wages and treated as expendable. However, amidst these challenges, the pandemic also catalyzed the expansion of alternative labor forms and care networks, beyond capitalist economies and social relations.

"American Dreams, American Nightmares, American Fantasies"

University of Alicante (Spain)

8-10 April, 2025

It has been two years since AI was introduced into daily life, and it has been applied in academia, pedagogy, classrooms, and beyond. As we discover both the potential benefits and harms of AI, we are also recovering from the initial panic, uncertainty, or excitement. We are beginning to recognize that it will lead to an "inevitable" integrated fusion of human and machine intelligence (Kurzweil), and we are entering a phase of adaptation. We have seen a range of AI use guides, policies, and reflections. However, compared to the initial reaction, we cannot ignore where we will or want to go with AI in the composition classroom. As AI continues to evolve, how do we recreate our classrooms in light of this new technology?

Speculative fiction creators regularly interrogate the question of who/what is entitled to human rights. As the created, grown, augmented, and manufactured beings of imagination become more sentient, is it ethical to maintain them as labor-saving devices or will they start to become entitled to, or even demand, rights? Is there a Posthuman Rights Movement in our future or a post “human rights” movement? How will this movement accommodate already-existing arguments for the rights of non-human beings, such as the rights of animals, corporations, and even fetuses, while accounting for humans who are not entitled to human rights? Does one need a human-ish form to deserve rights including around one’s labor?