Note on Publishing Opportunity:

We have been encouraged by the general editor of the Bloomsbury Ecocritical Theory and Practice series, Douglas Vakoch, to submit a proposal for an edited collection based upon this CFP. If you're interested in submitting your conference presentation as a proposed book chapter, please let us know in your submission. Bloomsbury requests chapters of at least 6000 words with at least one author with a PhD. More information on the series may be found here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/series/ecocritical-theory-and-practice/ 

Panel CFP

Adventure is intrinsic to the dominant mode of narrative; the implied “lighting out” of adventure stories is the break with stasis in the conventional narrative arc. Adventure, though, often gets compartmentalized and designated as a specific genre—one often seen as fit only for children’s stories or Hollywood blockbusters. The foundational place of adventure, though, renders the genre a mere container of the foundational problems of the culture that produces and consumes it. Obvious imperialist critiques arise in assessing the role of “adventure” in literature, film, and culture. As Joel Kovel writes in In Nicaragua, “Ever since Western colonialism gained a world and lost its soul in the doing, there have been those who have gone to find that soul in the South, in the dark, in the ones who have been oppressed . . . Taking their guilt and pride with them, they looked for themselves as they looked for the Other. They came to seek a history and ended by making it, sometimes well, sometimes destructively” (63). That is to say, adventure stories frequently feature a movement from a privileged position to spaces that are—and are inhabited by— the Other as a means for the self-actualization of the individual adventurer. We invite proposals that address these issues and their tangents.

Some question to consider:
—Given the entanglement of both ecological destruction and its supposed antidote of environmentalism with white supremacy and patriarchy, how can assessing the role of adventure stories through an ecological lens further complicate/illuminate forms of power?
—How can reading adventure stories ecologically enhance our understanding of the cultural mindset(s) exacerbating the climate crisis?
—Where is the structure of adventure found outside the genre? How do these unsuspecting adventure stories complicate the genre and its tropes?
—How does environment shape the adventure narrative and/or the adventurer?

In keeping with SAMLA’s theme of Knowledge, presentations may address the modes of knowledge implied by adventure stories through any of the following, or other related topics:
Frontier studies/myths of American individualism
Travel writing/tourism
Adventure in southern studies
Reliance on/role of modes of transportation in storytelling
The role of adventure in children’s literature/film
Gender in adventure narrative and/or gendered adventure narrative
Adventure in film
Video game narrative, esp. as related to single player perspective
“Road” narratives
Adventure in animal studies
“Academic adventure” ( adventure/exploration legitimized by academic or institutional interests, such as archaeology, research pursuits, etc.)
Adventure spurred by natural disaster

By September 8, 2025, please submit proposals of 300 words or fewer, a brief bio, and any A/V presentation requests here: https://samla.ballastacademic.com/Home/S/19424

Please feel free to reach out to panel co-chairs Will Underland (wtunderl@go.olemiss.edu) and Jency Wilson (jwilson17@una.edu) with any questions.

SAMLA 97 will take place in Atlanta, Georgia, November 6th - 8th, 2025 at Wyndham Atlanta Buckhead Hotel & Conference Center.