April 2009



Re-thinking the Idea of Africa in the Twentieth Century: 15th Annual Conference of the International Society of African Philosophy and Studies
University of Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Sénégal  -  1-3 April 2009
Deadline for proposals: 1 February 2009 (closed)
Over the past two centuries, Western educated Africans have attempted to explain African societies, to define African societal and political organizations, and to imagine "Africanness" from an African perspective. Yet, rather than producing an Afri-centrist representation of things African, African thinkers frequently react to Western definitions of the African subject, which have, since the 16th century, equated African-ness with inferiority. This reactionary tendency has led African thinkers and artists to acknowledge that one of the major challenges of African thought is to go beyond the reaction to Western definitions of the old continent in order to imagine Africa from an Afri-centrist perspective. As early as the 19th century, Edward Wilmot Blyden, for example, championed the possibility of going beyond the paradigm set by Western imperialist philosophers; more recently, thinkers such as Kwazi Wiredu pondered about how not to compare Africa with Europe, while Vincent Mudimbe and numerous postcolonial African thinkers call for the conception of an Africa that is neither an invention nor an idea. 
ISAPS' 15th annual conference, organized in collaboration with Cheikh Anta Diop University, welcomes papers that examine the extent to which discourses on Africa have evolved from the 19th to the 21st century. We invite participants to submit proposals that revisit the implications and possibilities of Afri-centrist conceptions of Africa.  Papers that explore questions of identity, history, language, the arts, democracy, economic development, and otherness are particularly welcomed.
As always, the conference will also welcome panels on other unexplored or inadequately explored aspects of African and African Diaspora literature, philosophy, art, history, sociology, law, economics, etc.
Please send a short abstract in English or in French to:
Cheikh Thiam, Linfield College, Oregon, USA <chairloc@isapsonline.com>
Aminata Diaw Cissé, Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Sénégal <amidiaw@refer.sn>
Lionel Mandy, California State University, Long Branch, USA <secretary@isapsonline.com>. 
The submission deadline is February 1, 2009.  
ISAPS will provide English translation for papers in French and vice versa.
(posted 29 Dec '08)



India and the Indian Diasporic Imagination
Université Paul Valery-Montpellier 3, France  -  1-4 April 2009
Deadline for proposals: 30 June 2008 (closed)
The 19th century witnessed large-scale migration from India to various parts of the world. Indentured labourers were recruited to work in the Caribbean between 1838 and 1917 (particularly Guyana, Surinam and Trinidad as well as Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Martinique), Fiji, Mauritius (as early as 1834), South Africa and a few other plantation colonies. Over one million Indians sold themselves into bondage before the system was made illegal in 1917. South Asians later worked in East Africa, to work on the railways and in other industries, going to Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania. The descendents of these peoples, along with those of other South Asian migrants, who have gone to Europe, North America and Australia since the Second World War, now constitute a substantial and fascinatingly diverse diaspora.
Representations of their notions of "Mother India" have been crucial to the shaping of identity among many of these diasporic peoples. As the stature of India as a potential world power has grown in the last ten years, there seems to be a resurgence of interest in India, which has contributed to enhanced self-esteem in these communities. Far from emphasizing the question of origin, the papers will focus on the interaction between Indians in India and those in the diaspora. If diasporic Indians have been transforming the countries they have been living in, it is legitimate to ask how India itself is being transformed by its peoples in the diaspora. The privileging of categories such as 'non-resident Indians' or 'persons of Indian Origin' by India enhances this line of enquiry.
In recent years outstanding works of the creative imagination, based on these diverse communities have emerged, in conjunction with an impressive body of scholarship. Yet, no major international, multidisciplinary and bilingual conference has sought to tap into this rich reservoir of learning. This conference seeks to redress this shortcoming.
This is a call for papers which explore all aspects of the Indian diasporic experience and its representations. Contributors are invited to participate in a conference that addresses the following areas: Cinema, Culture, Economics, History, Music and Dance, Photography, Religion, Sports, Women’s Studies. Literature and Comparative Literature will, of course, be prominent, and particular attention will be devoted to writers of Indian origin writing in English (one can think among others of Meena Alexander, Cyril Dabydeen, David Dabydeen, Mahadai Das, Amitav Ghosh, Ismith Kahn, Peter Kempadoo, Oonya Kempadoo, HS Ladoo, Jumpha Lahiri, Leelawatee Manoo-Rahming, Rohinton Mistry, Rooplall Monar, Shani Mootoo, Bharati Mukherjee, Lakshmi Persaud, Sasenarine Persaud, Vikram Seth, Ryhaan Shah, Rajkumari Singh, MG Vassanji…), or in French (Khal Torabully,  Ananda Devi…). For the cinema, one can think of Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta, Sandhya Suri, among others. English will be the language of the conference (except for works in French).
The conference will be held at Paul Valery University (Montpellier, France). It will be the result of collaboration between the Cerpac (Research Centre for the Commonwealth, EA 741, Montpellier 3), Desi (Diasporas : Research Centre on Indian Specificities / EA 4196 Climas, Bordeaux 3) and the Caribbean Studies Centre (London Metropolitan University, UK).
Those interested in participating should send their abstracts (between 250 and 300 words) as well as a short bio-bibliographical notice (200 words) to the two convenors: Dr Judith Misrahi-Barak <judith.misrahi-barak@univ-montp3.fr> and Dr Rita Christian <r.christian@londonmet.ac.uk>.
The deadline for sending the proposals is June 30, 2008. Acceptance will be notified by September 15.
(posted 5 Apr '08)



The Cycles of Novelty - Recycling in Eighteenth-century England
Université Charles V, Paris, France  -  3 April 2009
Deadline for proposals: 30 January 2009 (closed)
A worn-out concept, a broken object, a hackneyed expression, a threadbare fabric, or text; waste materials of the mind and the world - such are the unlikely sources of our reflection on eighteenth-century England. We wish to study how eighteenth-century writers, philosophers, musicians, scientists, painters and craftsmen transmuted a faded past into fresh novelty by a circular and paradoxical process – what is known today as "recycling."
Just as a palimpsest combines destruction and creation, practices and representations of recycling necessarily bring together old and new, iconoclasm and reinvention. Recycling in its broadest sense includes the salvaging, subversion and recreation of ideas, texts, objects and materials and as such may be researched by looking at equivalent ideas in literature, history, or cultural history: quotation, plagiarism, copying, piracy, counterfeit, parody, pastiche, subversion, revision, amendment, palimpsest for literature; reaction, revival, circulation, mutation, appropriation, conversion for history; the processes of consumption, wear and tear, scavenging, refurbishment, repair, salvage, recovery, restoration, alteration, renovation and (re)invention as far as material culture is concerned.
If the process of creating novelty is circular, is it as stable and predictable as a chemical reaction? Is nothing really lost and nothing created? Or does the process of recycling necessarily imply that something is lost and consumed either materially or culturally?
Recycling offers a wide trans-disciplinary perspective on the eighteenth century, allowing forays into sociology, cultural history, literature, philosophy, the history of ideas, objects and techniques. The market economy of second-hand objects is as relevant as the impact of recycling on social groups (highlighting the peculiar plight of the culturally central and yet socially marginal figures of pawnbrokers, scavengers and scrap-dealers). The question of renewing, re-inventing or lengthening the life cycles of objects can further be applied to ideas and cultural artefacts, allowing us to consider in a new light literary or philosophical debates, such as the controversy opposing Ancients and Moderns, or the Lockean notion of the soul and its possible reincarnations.
You are invited to submit your proposals to the workshop which will take place on Friday, 3rd April 2009. A second meeting is expected to take place as a two-day conference in 2010, to extend the boundaries of our research, possibly including other countries and centuries. Please send your proposals (max 300 words) to the organisers by 30th January 2009, at the following addresses:
<ariane.fennetaux@univ-paris-diderot.fr>
<junka@free.fr>
Organisers :
Ariane Fennetaux, Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7
Amélie Junqua, Université de Picardie Jules Verne.
(posted 14 Dec '08)




Henry James's Europe : Cultural (re)appropriations and transtextual relations
The American University of Paris, 31 avenue Bosquet, 75007 Paris, France  -  3-4 April 2009
Deadline for proposals: 15 November 2008 (closed)
"To have no national stamp has hitherto been a defect and a drawback", Henry James wrote to his friend T.S. Perry in 1867. Yet he also considered that being an American was "an excellent preparation for culture", insofar as Americans could deal, more freely than Europeans, "with forms of civilization not their own", could "pick and choose and assimilate and in short "aesthetically claim" their property wherever they found it.
The first conference organized by "The European Society of Jamesian Studies", will examine the various manners in which James achieved this aesthetic (re)appropriation - "the vast intellectual fusion and synthesis" he was dreaming of as a young writer. Conversely, what are the multiple ways in which he can be considered as part of a European heritage, interconnecting the culturally distinct European identities, (re)interpreting Europe, so to speak, "in the second degree", both ethically and aesthetically?
We mean to reevaluate the ethical quality of the whole process, situated as it was at the meeting-point between historical and inner culture.
For young Henry James, the American artist abroad possessed the unprecedented advantage of his "national cachet", "moral conciousness", an "unprecedented lighntess and vigour", which generated an active relation with the old continent - compared to the seemingly passive relation of the European to his own history and heritage. How did this energetic conception of art as an active cultural force evolve, from the early interpretation of the international theme, the staging of American identity as innocence beguiled, to the arcane poetics of redemption specific to the major phase? If art was indeed "making life", creating values, as James himself later reasserted in his famous reply to H.G. Wells, didn't those values prove to be at times, as again James enigmatically put it in his NYE preface to "The Turn of the Screw", "positively all blanks"?
The process of aesthetic (re)appropriation is what we more specifically refer to by borrowing Genette's conception of transtextuality as "all that puts one text in relation, whether manifest or secret, with other texts" (/Palimpsests/). The survey will draw on the whole of HJ's lifetime - the genesis of his  works of fiction, the question of literary influences, and his reinterpretations  and reevalutions of European literary traditions (through his fiction and critical essays). As transtextual relations "stop nowhere", we also mean to highlight HJ's symbolic "life after death", from a receptionist and transdisciplinary perspective - so as to include the multiple and multiform reverberations of his own work in modern and contemporary European fiction, literary theory, theatrical or film adaptations.
Annick Duperray, Université de Provence, <annick.duperray@free.fr>
Adrian Harding, Université de Provence & American University of Paris, <aharding@aup.fr>
Dennis Tredy, Université de Paris 3 (Sorbonne Nouvelle) <dennis.tredy@wanadoo.fr>.
Please send proposals (300 words maximum) to <Annick.duperray@free.fr> and <aharding@aup.fr>.
Deadline 15 November 2008.
Conference website: http://www.aup.fr/news/special_events/henryjames.htm
(posted 6 May '08, updated 2 Nov '08)



Charles Darwin's Legacy in European Cultures
Université de Nantes, France  -  3-4 April 2009
Deadline for proposals: 15 September 2008 (closed)
With the bicentenary of Charles Darwin's birth (February 12, 1809) and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species (November 24, 1859), the time has come for a re-assessment of the legacy the famous English naturalist left in Europe. No thinker born in the 19th century, except perhaps Freud and Marx, has had such a decisive influence on our present cultural frame as Darwin, who broke away with both Creationism and Lamarckism, to establish the role of natural selection in the evolution of all living organisms. Yet, even today his theories are violently criticised both by the American neo-Conservatives and by left-wing intellectuals. The former blame him for his atheistic materialism and his rejection of any intelligent design while the latter hold him responsible for the introduction of Social Darwinism. In Europe, many studies and scientific publications devoted to Darwinism are still being published yearly, to say nothing of the media coverage of recent polemical debates.
In the literary realm, Darwin's posterity is no less remarkable. As early as the 19th century, many novelists took an interest in his works (George Eliot and Thomas Hardy among others). More recently, literary criticism, following Gillian Beer's and George Levine's ground-breaking studies, started applying Darwinian paradigms to fiction (e.g. the Darwinian Tree or the metaphor of the entangled bank). Even Darwin's own style is of interest to specialists of rhetorics or stylistics. And the many current rewritings of 19th century literature (notably the neo-Victorian novels) refer to Darwin and to his neo-Darwinian descendants like Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge.
This conference aims at a comprehensive evaluation of the Darwinian legacy in European cultures. It is both comparatist, as it purports to initiate fruitful dialogues between European cultures and interdisciplinary, by bringing together specialists of civilisation, cultural studies, history, epistemology, literature, biology and translators of Darwin's works.
Proposals of about 300 words and a short biographical note to be sent (in English or French) before September 15, 2008 to:
Georges Letissier <georges.letissier@univ-nantes.fr>
Françoise Le Jeune <francoise.le-jeune@univ-nantes.fr>
Michel Prum <prum.michel@wanadoo.fr>
Conference website: http://www.cil.univ-nantes.fr/1211890652357/0/fiche___actualite/
(posted 29 Aug '08)



Life on the fringe? Ireland and Europe between 1800 and 1922
Queen's University Belfast, UK  -  3-4 April 2009
Deadline for prpoposals: 22 December 2008 (closed)
Up until the early 1990s Ireland remained on the fringe of Europe in psychological as well as geographical terms, often perceived as little more than 'the other island' in the Atlantic Archipelago. Since then, however, EU initiatives like the Erasmus and Socrates exchange programmes and the elimination of work barriers have caused a spectacular increase in intra-European mobility and have brought European countries closer than ever. 'The other island' has finally come into its own as one of Europe's most popular destinations for workers and tourists alike. The world of Irish historiography is no exception to this trend. Many European scholars have begun to engage with Irish history, bringing in their own social, intellectual and cultural backgrounds to provide fresh and illuminating insights. Unfortunately, intra-European networks are difficult to establish in the world of academic research; language barriers, physical difficulties of access to foreign archives, and high levels of specialisation, tend to enclose national histories within their own self-contained cocoons. Still, even such emblematic themes in Irish historical discourse as religious conflict, nationalism, republicanism, revolution, emigration and exile, diasporas and the reinvention of national culture, are by no means exclusive to the Irish context. By the mid-nineteenth century, long before the foundation of the European Union, a rich network of social, economic and cultural links had already been established among European countries, and phenomena like Daniel O'Connell’s liberal Catholicism, the Young Ireland insurrection of 1848, the successive emigration waves and the cultural revival of the late nineteenth century cannot be understood without the influence of contemporary European events.
In order to help bring Irish studies out of their national-history shell, and at the same time strengthen the links between European postgraduate students and scholars, the proposed conference aims at re-evaluating nineteenth-century Irish history by placing it in its European context, while bringing all participants together into an online research network.
We welcome papers from a wide range of disciplines, from social to political, economic and cultural history. Possible paper topics include: social and economic patterns, ethnic and/or religious conflict, nationalism and other ideologies, emigration and exile, and the history of science and technology. However, this list is by no means exhaustive, and all papers covering aspects of Irish history within a European framework will be considered.
Papers should not exceed 1,500-2,000 words in length (20 minutes' delivery). A 250-word abstract, along with a short author profile, should be submitted by 22 December 2008 to <europeconference@nuim.ie>.
The working language of the conference will be English.
For comments and further enquiries, please contact the organisers at the above address.
Pierre Ranger (Queen’s University Belfast)
Brian Heffernan (NUI Maynooth)
Zsuzsanna Zarka (NUI Maynooth)
Marta Ramón, PhD (NUI Maynooth)
(posted 22 Sep '08)



The Second International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca
University of Southampton, UK  -  6-8 April 2009
Deadline for proposals: 31 October 2008 (closed)
Following the success of the First International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca in Helsinki earlier this year, we are pleased to announce the second conference in the series. As everyone who attended the Helsinki conference can confirm, English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) has become both a vibrant field of research, and one of the most frequently discussed and hotly debated topics of our time. The 2009 conference will provide a forum for researchers to present updates on their work in this fast-moving field; for further discussion of  the implications of ELF research for language policy, teaching, testing, standards, and the like; and for the ideological debates to continue.
Plenary Speakers:
Anna Mauranen, University of Helsinki
Barbara Seidlhofer, University of Vienna
Henry Widdowson, Emeritus Universities of London and Vienna
Proposals for papers and colloquia: We invite submissions of proposals for individual / joint papers and colloquia, on any aspect of English as a Lingua Franca: linguistic, sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic, and/or relating to issues of language policy, language teaching, and language ideology that concern ELF.
Papers will be 20 minutes in length plus 10 minutes for questions and comments. Colloquia will be 2 hours in length, involve up to four speakers, and include at least 30 minutes for discussion.
For each submission, provide a title, an abstract of 150-200 words for papers, 250-300 words for colloquia, and the name, title, and affiliation of each presenter.
Proposals should be sent by email to: <aa3@soton.ac.uk>.
Closing date for submission of proposals: 31 October 2008.
Organising committee: Jennifer Jenkins (co-chair), Alasdair Archibald (co-chair), Robert Baird, Will Baker, Jill Doubleday, Liz Hauge, Caroline Hyde-Simon, Victoria Long, Mary Page, Chris Sinclair.
Further information available soon at: http://www.soton.ac.uk/ml/research/elf.html
(posted 14 Jul '08)



Reading the Past: Understanding the Future
2nd Annual Sigma Tau Delta Conference on Literature, Language, and Culture
Faculty of Philosophy, Nišić, Montenegro  -  9 April 2009
Deadline for proposals: 25 March 2009 (closed)
Alpha Xi Chi, the Montenegro Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, is proud to announce its Second International Conference, organized to meet the needs of advanced undergraduate and graduate students, but welcomes contributions from academics at all levels. The conference brings together scholars from all areas of Humanities and Social Sciences for a time of intellectual debate, cultural experiences, and networking.
This year’s conference theme is:
Submission of Abstracts:
We welcome the submissions of 200-500 word abstract on the topic of desire from the following fields:
- Literary Studies
- Rhetoric and Composition
- Creative Writing (fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and drama)
- Linguistics
- Modern Languages
- Cultural Studies
- Gender Studies
- Critical Theory
Abstracts for twenty-minute presentations should be sent by email to <std.montenegro@gmail.com> by March 15th, 2009. Abstracts should be sent as attachments in Microsoft Office Word format (.doc). In the body of the email please include your name, email address, and the title of your paper, as well as a brief biographical statement.
Notice of acceptance will be sent by March 25th, 2009.
Contact info:
Alpha Xi Chi Student Representative: Nikola Vuković <vukovicnikola@yahoo.com>
Alpha Xi Chi Assoc. Student Representative: Predrag Adamović <pepadzija@yahoo.com>.
(posted 10 Feb '09)



1759: An Interdisciplinary Conference
Queen's University Belfast, UK  -  15-17 April 2009
Deadline for Proposals: 31 July 2008 (closed)
Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Professor Thomas Keymer (University of Toronto), Professor Nicholas Rogers (York University, Toronto).
2009 sees the 250th anniversary of the events and publications of 1759, a crucial moment in British and global history, culture and ideas. To mark the occasion, the Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies at Queen’s University Belfast will be hosting an interdisciplinary conference on the theme of 1759. The conference will present an opportunity for discussion and critical assessment of a year that, according to Frank McLynn, should be 'as well known in British history as 1066'.
In the international realm, 1759 represented the turning point in the Seven Years' War and a watershed moment in Britain’s drive for colonial dominance over France, with British military and naval victories making national heroes of men such as Pitt the Elder, General Wolfe and (to a lesser extent) Admiral Hawke. In literature, 1759 also saw the publication of 3 canonical novels of ideas: Voltaire's Candide, Samuel Johnson's The Prince of Abissinia (later Rasselas), and the first two volumes of Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy. In the arenas of moral philosophy and aesthetic theory, Adam Smith outlined a rational model of sympathy in the first edition of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, while Edward Young published his Conjectures on Original Composition, Alexander Gerard an Essay on Taste, and Edmund Burke the second edition of A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, with its important new introduction on 'taste'. Elsewhere in culture and commerce, 1759 also saw the opening to the public of the British Museum; John Harrison's completion of chronometer Number 4 (the eventual Board of Longitude prize-winner); the formal suppression of the Encyclopédie; the deaths of Handel and William Collins; and the founding in Dublin of the St James' brewery, by Arthur Guinness.
The 1759 conference will enable discussion of all of these topics and anniversaries, and of the possible relationships between them. 300-word proposals are invited, for 20-minute papers. Proposals should be emailed to the conference organiser: Dr Shaun Regan, School of English, QUB <s.regan@qub.ac.uk>. The submission deadline is 31 July 2008. For further information and a conference flyer, please see the Centre’s website:
http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/CentreforEighteenthCenturyStudies
(posted 10 Apr '08)



4th International IDEA Conference
Celal Bayar University, Manisa, Turkey  -  15-17 April 2009
New extended deadline for Proposals : 26 December 2008 (closed)
The conference is jointly organized by Celal Bayar University, Department of English Language and Literature, and English Language and Literature Research Association of Turkey (IDEA). The conference will cover the following four main areas of studies in English: Literature, Language and Linguistics, Translation Studies, and Cultural Studies. The conference venue is Manisa, which is a neighboring city to İzmir in the Western part of Turkey. One of our keynote speakers is Terry Eagleton; the other(s) will be announced in due course. Excursions to historical sights in Manisa, to Sardes, and Pergamon will be included in the programme.
The venue: Süleyman Demirel Convention Center, Celal Bayar University, Manisa.
Talks should not be longer than 20 minutes, leaving another 10 minutes for discussion.
Please submit proposals of about 200 words by December 5, 2008 to <idea2009cbu@gmail.com> or by post to IDEA Conference, CBU Faculty of Science and Letters, Department of English Language and Literature, Muradiye Manisa, Turkey. Tel: +90 236 2412151 / 211 – 144 – 437
The Conference Web page is http://www.bayar.edu.tr/idea
The conference poster can be downloaded.
(posted 2 Sep '08, updated 28 Nov '08, updated 8 Dec '08)



After Arundel: Religious Writing in Fifteenth-Century England
University of Oxford, UK  -  16-18 April 2009
Deadline for proposals: 1 May 2008 (closed)
An international conference organised by the Faculty of English, University of Oxford, in association with the Bodleian Library, marking the 600th anniversary of the publication of Arundel’s Constitutions.
* Mapping Chronologies
* The Dynamics of Orthodox Reform
* Humanism and Intellectual History
* Literary Self-Consciousness and Literary History
* Discerning the Discourse: Language and Spirituality
* Heresy and its Textual Afterlife
Plenary speakers to include: Jeremy Catto, Anne Hudson, David Lawton, Miri Rubin and Sarah Beckwith.
Please send 500 word abstracts (for 30 minute papers) by 1st May 2008 to <vincent.gillespie@ell.ox.ac.uk>,
Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford OX2 6QA, UK.
Conference committee: Vincent Gillespie, Helen Barr, Mishtooni Bose, Kantik Ghosh, Annie Sutherland, John Watts.
(posted 10 Oct '07)



Manichean Discourses and Polarization    
University of Sousse, Tunisia  -  16-18 April 2009
Deadline for proposals: 31 December 2008 (closed)
Despite the efforts deployed by the advocates of relativism, tolerance and cross-cultural dialogue, today's world seems to be evovlving towards pure moral absolutism. Ideological tensions, political conflicts and cultural clashes have, gradually, resuscitated the hackneyed belief in an unhealthy polarization which aims at reviving a manichean view of the world based on bianry dualities.
Having served for long as a manipulative tool in the hands of politicians and ideologues, Manichean Discourse now picks its way to academic and intellectual circles. One of the conference’s objectives is to call into question, for the purpose of revision, the rising egocentric thinking propagated through cheap publications and biased mass media.
On the other hand, in its search for an alternative for the hegemony of pure dualism, the conference raises the valid question of the disastrous consequences of absolute relativism. It is, in short, a reappraisal of the condition of today’s intellectual who seems to be torn between radical ideologies and dissolving theories.
The English Department of the faculty of Arts and Humanities / University of Sousse is honored to welcome your constructive contributions in the different fields of culture studies, linguistics, literature, and other cognitive areas.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
* Absolutism vs Relativism
* Political Polarization
* Rightism / Leftism
* Secularism and Theocratic Thinking
* Intellectual Terrorism
* Manipulative Discourse
* Political Correctness / Incorrectness
* Academic Impartiality and the Risk of Bias
* The Aesthetics of Binarism, Selfhood and Otherness and other Manichean Discourses and Practices in the fields of Pedagogy and Teaching Methods.
Please send your abstracts before December 31st, 2008 to the Conference Steering Committee. E-Mail Address: <sousseintconf@yahoo.fr>.
Proposals may also be sent by fax to 0021673301903 or by post to the following address: University of Sousse. Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Sousse. English Department. B.P. 547. Cité Erriadh 4023.Sousse, Tunisia.
(posted 14 Jan '09)



Second James Joyce Research Colloquium
UCD James Joyce Research Centre, University College Dublin, Ireland  -  16-18 April 2009
Deadline for applications for scholarships: 7 February 2009 (closed)
This international colloquium aims to provide a forum for the discussion of current and future developments in James Joyce Studies by leading Joyce scholars.  It  also sets out to facilitate  active exchange between graduate students and practitioners in the field of Joyce Studies on the challenges and problems of undertaking research on Joyce.  
Speakers will  analyse and debate the usefulness of particular methodologies and theoretical positions for aspects of research projects that they have concluded or their applicability for works in progress.  The utility of historicist, material and textual approaches to Joyce will particularly be addressed.  The delegates at the colloquium will include doctoral and post-doctoral students currently engaged in research on Joyce at universities in Europe, the US, and elsewhere.   MA students, Joyce scholars, and those with an active interest in Joyce are also welcome to attend.   The fee for the colloquium is €50.00.
Close dialogue will be encouraged between all the participants to enable open and expansive discussion about the present state of Joyce Studies and the possible trajectories that it should follow.  
The initial lecture - on Thursday 16 April 2009 - will be given by Dr Dirk van Hulle about the links between Joyce and Beckett.  It will be open to colleagues across the university, the general public, and to Dublin Joyceans and Irish Studies specialists.  A day-long session on 17 April in the National Library of Ireland will be devoted to the genetic and interpretive problems raised by the manuscripts of Ulysses, with special concentration on the “Proteus” episode. 
The speakers at the 2009 colloquium include:  Dr Luca Crispi (University College Dublin), Professor Anne Fogarty (University College Dublin), Professor Luke Gibbons (Notre Dame University), Professor Andrew Gibson  (Royal Holloway, University of London), Professor Declan Kiberd (University College Dublin), Dr Emer Nolan (National University of Ireland, Maynooth), Dr Sam Slote (Trinity College Dublin), and Dr Dirk van Hulle (University of Antwerp).
Scholarships
Scholarship funding is available for doctoral and post-doctoral students and will cover  accommodation, travel, and tuition fees.  Applicants should forward by email a curriculum vitae, a letter of introduction (outlining your interests in Joyce and why the colloquium might be of benefit to you), an academic reference (which can be sent as an attachment), and any other relevant documentation. The deadline is 6 February 2009. Late applications may be considered; preference will be given to first-time applicants.  For further details and initial inquiries contact: Professor Anne Fogarty, UCD James Joyce Research Centre, School of English, Drama and Film, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.   Telephone: +353-17168159; email: joyceresearchcentre@ucd.ie
(posted 29 January 2009)



The Fairy Tale after Angela Carter
University of East Anglia, UK  -  22-25 April 2009
Deadline for proposals: 3 November 2008 (closed)
2009 will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, a story collection which has had a profound and pervasive impact on our understanding of and engagement with the fairy tale. 'The Fairy Tale after Angela Carter' will take the anniversary as the starting point for an assessment of the state of the fairy tale and of fairy-tale studies in the wake of The Bloody Chamber. It will take 'after' in both senses of the word, to suggest influence – both direct and indirect - as well as chronology. As such, the primary focus will be the critical and creative legacy of Carter's work as writer, critic, editor and translator of fairy tales. Fairy-tale studies is an inherently interdisciplinary field, in which there is a mutually enriching relationship between literary-historical scholarship and various forms of creative practice. The aim of the conference will be to stage and explore this relationship; to assess the state of current critical and creative practice and to pinpoint future directions for writing and research.
Selected conference papers will be published in a special issue of Marvels & Tales (2010).
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Jack Zipes, University of Minnesota
Marina Warner, University of Essex
Cristina Bacchilega, University of Hawai’i
Donald Haase, Wayne State University
Suggested topics:
New cultural, political and social histories of the fairy tale
Fairy-tale aesthetics after The Bloody Chamber
The theory and practice of fairy-tale fantasy in the wake of Angela Carter
The fairy tale and fiction after The Bloody Chamber
Identity politics and fairy-tale studies since the 1970s
The fairy tale after postmodernism
The fairy tale and contemporary opera (composers such as Heinz Holliger, Helmut Lachenmann and John Woolrich)
The fairy tale and contemporary visual art (artists such as Paula Rego, Kiki Smith, Vanessa Jane Phaff and Louise Bourgeois)
The fairy tale and contemporary children's literature, including illustrated books
The fairy tale and contemporary cinema
The fairy tale and contemporary theatre, dance and performance
The fairy tale and new media
Orality, textuality and virtual spaces
The fairy tale and translation
Please send abstracts (200 words, inc. title, plus brief biographical details) and ideas for panels to: <fairytale@uea.ac.uk>.
The deadline for submission of proposals is 3 November 2008. We also welcome suggestions for readings and related events.
Further questions should be directed by email to Stephen Benson <s.benson@uea.ac.uk>.
Conference website: http://www1.uea.ac.uk/cm/home/schools/hum/lit/eventsnews/fairytale
Conference organisers: Stephen Benson (University of East Anglia) and Andrew Teverson (University of Kingston).
Dr Stephen Benson
School of Literature and Creative Writing
University of East Anglia
Norwich
NR4 7TJ
<s.benson@uea.ac.uk>
01603 593819
(posted 15 May '08)



Art and Commerce in Great Britain, 18th to 21th century
Université Rennes 2 - Haute Bretagne, Rennes, France  -  23-24 April 2009
Deadline for proposals: 31 May 2008 (closed)
The University of Rennes 2 in Brittany, France, is organising an international conference to take place on the 23d and 24th of April, 2009 entitled "Art and Commerce in Great Britain, 18th to 21th century". Proposals of around 150 words must be submitted along with a few words on the authors to Sophie Mesplede <sophie.mesplede@uhb.fr> and to Charlotte Gould <c.gould@wanadoo.fr> before May 31, 2008.
(posted 7 Jan '08)



Matters of State: Bildung and Literary-Intellectual Discourse in the Nineteenth Century
Leuven University, Belgium  -  23-25 April 2009
Deadline for proposals: 30 September 2008 (closed)
The American and French Revolutions are generally considered as decisive episodes in the emergence of what we have come to know as modern democracy. Their displacement of time-honored models of hereditary rule and of monotheistic conceptions of sovereignty inaugurated Western modernity. The fall-out of these ruptures made the 19th century an era of unprecedented intensity in the history of politics and the political. As a time of massive demographic change, new patterns of production and distribution, seismic surges in geopoliticization, and relentless social differentiation and specialization, the 19th century became a ‘condition’ demanding to be addressed. This challenge was met by a multiplicity of discourses, few of which can be decisively told apart: poetry, political economy, cultural criticism, historiography, philosophy, and science in their different ways all attempted to measure the impact of the displacements that defined their modernity and to shape an adequate response to them.
It is from this context that nineteenth-century discourses of the State derive their urgency. As strategies to imagine - and to actively pursue - forms of collectivity that can serve as a concerted response to the challenges of modernity, these discourses enlist (or reject) categories such as the nation, education, or the imagination in order to formulate a new rhetoric of community. What distinguishes the discourse on the State is its express ambition to contribute to an appropriate response to the modern condition by training its audience to become responsible citizens of the State. This typically involves the adaptation of models for the cultivation of the modern self, such as those inherited from the German discourse on Bildung, to contexts of increased scale and complexity that challenge these models to the core. Not only in Britain or Germany, but in every locality where the task of articulating the nation with the State is recognized as a discursive challenge, literary-intellectual discourse becomes an archive where many of the tensions and contradictions of the nineteenth century intersect in a particularly condensed way.
Because the imagination of the State, as a political and social unit, relies on rhetorical, tropological, and imagistic processes, disciplines that explicitly focus on textual and imagistic strategies are crucial in the analysis of the politics of the State. ‘Matters of State’ proposes to revisit significant instances of the literary-intellectual attempt to re-think the State, and relevant intersections of these attempts with related and/or competing political, literary, scientific, (crypto-)religious, iconographic, … discursive strategies to imagine the State. We are interested in papers that focus on explicit or implicit contributions to a public aesthetics of the State by way of new or modified rhetorics of community.
Possible topics include but are not restricted to the following:
* What are the means of production, cultivation, preservation and reproduction of “moral sentiments” appropriate to an ethos of the State?
* How do affective dispositions like sympathy and trust travel from the intimate sphere of personal encounter to the public sphere of citizenship?
* Given the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment reassessment of the impact of religion on the individual, what are the discursive formations that take over, at least in part, the public administration of emotional investment traditionally monitored by religious institutions?
* How do available or emergent routines of identity formation in terms of class, gender or race relate to models of citizenship?
* How do concepts such as “region,” “country,” “nation,” and “Empire” find a place in a rhetoric of community centering on the State?
* What are the effects of the interaction of organic metaphors and an increasingly industrialized nineteenth-century reality?
* In what way do present-day discourses on governmentality, biopower, and sovereignty allow us to reflect on nineteenth-century conceptualizations of the State?
* How do discursive constructions of the State differ in different countries, both in Europe and abroad?
* To what extent do literary-intellectual discourses exploit not only the educational but also the imagistic denotation of the term Bildung?
* How do constructions of the State construct the State’s other?
* How did poetry, and literature more generally, operate as a privileged space for the embodiment, testing, and subversion of models of the State?
* To what extent do imaginings of citizenship, equality, fraternity … inevitably entail the persistence, or even the promotion, of economic, ethnic, and/or gender inequalities? How do inclusive models (fail to) account for their exclusions?
* How do scientific models taken from mathematics and the natural sciences influence discourse on community and citizen formation, and to what extent are these models (biological, psychological, sociological, anthropological, economic, …) accommodated in a prospective science of State or Staatswissenschaft?
* How do nations and individuals come to terms with modernity as a growing dependence on the specialized, expert discourses of science and technology, and how are these idas of dependence and expertise themselves constructed rhetorically?
Keynote speakers:
Amanda Anderson (Johns Hopkins University)
Karl Heinz Bohrer (Stanford University)
Eva Geulen (Universität Bonn)
Thomas Pfau (Duke University)
Tilottama Rajan (University of Western Ontario)
Joseph Vogl (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, to be confirmed)
We welcome proposals for panels and for 20-minutes papers in English, French, or German. Please send your one-page proposal (two pages for panels), together with your contact data, in a separate word document to <matters.of.state@arts.kuleuven.be> before September 30. For panel proposals, provide a general introduction and short abstracts for the different papers (3 or 4). Notification of acceptance no later than November 15.
For more information, check the conference website: http://www.arts.kuleuven.be/matters_of_state.
The conference website will be updated regularly as more information becomes available.
 (posted 2 Jul '08)



Transtextuality and Semiotic Operations of Transfer
Université Jean-Monnet, Saint-Etienne, France  -  24-25 April 2009
Deadline for proposals: 15 January 2009 (closed)
An international conference organised by the research group EsTRADes-CIEREC at Université Jean-Monnet, Saint-Etienne, France, on April 24th – 25th, 2009.
Transtextuality being understood to mean whatever relates a text to another, we shall consider the generic meaning of text as the weaving of one or several modes of expression. Hence, the possibility of working on transfers from not only prose fiction, but also images (movies, paintings, ekphrasis), human relationships (involving feelings, religions, political debates, or else), social actions, biographies, etc. into some dramatic text opening onto all sorts of staged productions (a play, a musical, a ballet…). One may also work on the reverse transfer from a dramatic text into another kind of text.
Since CIEREC means 'Centre Interdisciplinaire d'Etudes et de Recherche sur l'Expression Contemporaine', we will primarily consider favourably papers dealing with 20th/21st-century texts. We are expecting all case studies to be leading to theoretical conclusions on operations of transfer.
Proposals of around 300 words, in French or in English, should be submitted by January 15th, 2009 to:
Jean Berton <Jean.Berton@univ-st-etienne.fr>
and/or
Gilles Mayne <Gilles.Mayne@univ-st-etienne.fr>.
(posted 3 Nov '08)



Language, Literature, Identity
University of Niš, Serbia  -  24-25 April 2009
Deadline for proposals: 15 February 2009 (closed)
On behalf of the LLI Organising Committee, it is our pleasure to send you the Call for Papers with a detailed set of information concerning the forthcoming multidisciplinary Language, Literature, Identity conference, organized by the English Department of the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš, which will be held on 24-25 April, 2009. Identity, the central topic of our conference, allows different approaches by means of various disciplines in the domain of philology, philosophy and arts.
The Organising Committee would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has already applied for the Conference and to invite the new participants to do so. All you have to do in order to apply is to submit a 200-word abstract (of the paper you are going to present at the conference) before February 15th, 2009 to the following e-mail address: <anglistika.nis.jki.2009@gmail.com>.
We would like to ask you to list all the necessary technical equipment you will need for your presentation in the table provided in Appendix 1 (PC, Projector, OHP, Audio devices, etc.). The full call for papers, including Appendix 1 and Appendix 2 (a list of hotels in the vicinity of the Faculty building) can be downloaded here.
Due to the large number of expected participants, the conference will have two parallel sessions, both of which will have a number of panels. Presentation time is 15 minutes, with the additional time for any questions that might follow your presentation. The conference proceedings publication is planned for late 2009. The proceedings collection will be sent out to all the participants once it is available. Every participant will also receive a copy of the last year’s conference proceedings.
We would also like to invite you to be our guests at the dinner we are going to organize after the conference at one of Niš’s finest national restaurants (please confirm this in Appendix 1 as well).
(posted 4 Dec '08)



Rosamond Lehmann (1901-1990)
Cambridge University, UK  -  25 April 2009
Deadline for proposals: 1 November 2008 (closed)
Papers are invited on any aspect of the writing of Rosamond Lehmann (1901-1990) for a colloquium to be held in Cambridge on Saturday, April, 25, 2009. Confirmed speakers include Francoise Bort, Lucy Carlyle, Gill Frith, Clare Hanson, Wendy Pollard, Victoria Stewart, and Judy Simons. Please send a 250 word abstract for a 20 minute paper in the form of an e-mail attachment to both of the convenors by November 1, 2008 if you would like to contribute.
Convenors:
Professor Clare Hanson, University of Southampton <Clare.Hanson@soton.ac.uk>
or
Professor Mary Joannou, Anglia Ruskin University <Mary.Joannou@anglia.ac.uk>.
(posted 29 Aug '08)



12th International Cultural Studies Symposium: Redefining Modernism & Postmodernism
Izmir, Turkey  -  29 April-1 May 2009
Deadline for proposals: 19 December 2008 (closed)
This conference invites reconsideration of modernity, modernism and postmodernism from literary, cultural and a wide range of interdisciplinary aspects, aiming to broaden the current debates.
Panel proposals chaired by colleagues from different universities are especially welcome, along with individual papers, roundtables, workshops and performances either in English or Turkish. Please note that there will be no translations during the conference.
Topics might include but are not limited to:
•    Modernities / Postmodernities
•    From tradition to innovation / modernism, avant-garde, decadence, kitsch, postmodernism
•    Ethics of (post)modernity
•    Dialectics of enlightenment
•    Eradication, redemption or reconstruction of myths
•    Mechanism of (dis)belief
•    Aspects and limits of certainty
•    Primitivity and (post)modernity
•    'Biophilia' and biopolitics
•    (Post)modernity and (meta)narratives
•    (Post)modernity and time
•    Modernity and secularism
•    Aesthetics of modernity
•    Historical relativism
•    Modernity and the Body
•    Crisis in representation
The deadline for proposals: December 19, 2008. Please send a 250 word abstract for a 20 minute paper and a short bio in the form of an email 'word' attachment to the coordinator at <css2009ege@gmail.com>.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şebnem Toplu
Dept. English Language & Literature
Faculty of Letters
Ege University,
35100-Bornova, Izmir
Turkey
Fax: +90 (232) 388 11 02
Selected papers will be published in the forthcoming proceedings. 
For further information the Symposium website will be online shortly at http://css.ege.edu.tr
(posted 16 Sep '08, updated 12 Nov '08 )


  

May 2009



Reciprocal Images of Two Spaces: Africa and the West
University of Oran, Algeria  -  4-5 May 2009
Deadline for proposals: 31 January 2009 (closed)
The Laboratory of Languages, Literature, Civilisation and History in Africa invites proposals (up to 300 words) for an inter-disciplinary conference on the theme of Reciprocal Images of Two Spaces: Africa and the West to be held in the University of Oran, Algeria, on 4–5 May 2009. Papers addressing any of the following themes are invited :
1- Identity, otherness and migratory movement;
2- Contact of languages and cultures;
3- Intercultural space;
4- Cultural relativism;
5- Mediterraneity.
Please note that the languages of the conference are English/French/Arabic and presentation time for each paper is limited to 20 minutes.
Abstracts and a short bio notice should be sent by 31 January 2009 to: <colloque2009@aol.fr>.
Full-length papers should be sent by 25 April 2009.
Our University offers full accommodation for 3 nights to all participants. Travel expenses will, however, be at the charge of participants.
A selection of papers will be published in the Africa & the West Journal in a volume of proceedings in 2009.
Participants are kindly advised to check with the Algerian Embassy in the country of their residence whether they are required to have a visa to get to Algeria.
(posted 19 Dec '08)



Experiencing Gender: IV International Interdisciplinary Conference
Universidad de Huelva, Spain  -  6-8 May 2009
Deadline for proposals: 15 December 2008 (closed)
After the success of the three international conferences on gender studies held in 1998, 2001 and 2005, the Women's Studies Centre at the University of Huelva invites proposals for papers on experiencing gender. We would like to share experiences of gender across time, space, and bodies. Is this an ex-gender era, i.e., has gender stopped being a necessary category for understanding human experiences?  Or is it still crucial to understand the ways in which we relate to each other in society as well as to promote a more egalitarian one? Related topics may include:
    the role of (women's/ feminist) associations and institutions in the construction of gender;
  discourses on gender: life writing, confessional discourse, autobiography, auto/ethnography, non-sexist language, genderlects, rhetorics of gender;
  staging gender, gendering the stage; gender in the visual arts; gender in films and media; gendered iconographies;
    experiencing the body as the seat of sexed/gendered identity: transsexuality, trasvestism, gay rights, genital mutilation;
   consciousness-raising events and experiences; women‚s gatherings, support and therapy groups, self-help books, and their impact on gender;
    teaching and research on women‚s studies and gender studies: current and future agendas;
    marketing gender: the commodififcation of gender in western society;
    gendering ecology: gender and sustainable development;
    experiencing spirituality and gender: is feminism compatible with religion?
    biological motherhood, adoption, new family structures;
    the „feminized‰ professions: redefining the disciplines from a feminist perspective;
    the legal structuring of gender: does the law help expand the concept of gender or otherwise?
    gendering war and terrorism;
    masculinity and gender violence: how can men stop violence against women?
    new and old classroom approaches to gender;
    the politics of health and care: pregnancy, childbirth, women and androcentrism in medical research;
    new cultures of travel: gender and tourism;
    Living multiculturalism: gender, ethnicity and race; globalization and its discontents.

Deadline for abstracts (300-500 words in either English or Spanish): 15 December 2008.  Acceptance of papers will be notified around 15 February 2009.
Papers should not exceed 10 pages (2,500-3,000 words, 20 minutes‚ delivery) and they can be presented in either language. A selection of the conference papers will be considered for publication.
More information will be available soon on: http://www.uhu.es/dfing/exgen
Please send your abstract by e-mail to: <exgen@dfing.uhu.es>.

IMPORTANT: Three bursaries covering accommodation and board during the conference will be awarded to graduate students or independent scholars in need of financial assistance; unfortunately, travel costs cannot be funded. If interested, please attach your CV and an expression of interest in a bursary when you e-mail your abstract.
(posted 17 Aug '08)



Re-Imagining Identity: New Directions in Postcolonial Studies
Waterford Institute of Technology, Waterford, Republic of Ireland  -  6-8 May 2009
Deadline for proposals: 1 December 2008 ( (closed))
Keynote speakers: Bill Ashcroft.
This inaugural conference of the Postcolonial Studies Association will focus on a broad re-consideration of the cultural, political, theoretical and practical re-imaginings of the concept of 'identity' as it relates to the field of Postcolonialism and the wider Humanities and the Social Sciences.
The conference aims both to explore current understandings of 'identity' in a  multicultural, globalised and conflicted world, and to encourage disciplinary self-reflexivity. We welcome papers that interrogate the conceptual category of identity itself, as well as those that relate to the ways specific identities are constructed, assigned or imagined. Questions to be asked will include: 'What is the future of Postcolonialism as a discipline?' and: 'What is the relationship between received understandings of "identity", specific formulations of key contemporary identities, and our understanding of "the postcolonial"?'
The PSA invites papers from academics working in the disciplines of Literature, History, Cultural Studies, Film, Human Geography, Linguistics, Politics, Psychology, Religious Studies, Art, Music, Media & Communication and related fields. Our aim is to bring together a wide variety of scholarly interests and methodological approaches.
Paper or panel topics may focus on the following conceptual intersections:
- Identity, Religion and Spirituality (the secular & sacred, New Age & alternative spiritualities, the Enlightenment, sectarianism, religious symbolism, fundamentalism)
- Identity and Time (history, memory, policy, repetition, development, modernity, eternity, death)
- Identity and Language (language policy, seizing the pen, language as mission and calling; propaganda)
- Identity and Politics (resistance, war, terror)
- Identity and Space (regions, blocs, global flows, the EU and the wider world, the environment)
- Identity, Theory and Disciplinary Boundaries (postcolonialism as a discipline, theoretical approaches, the policing of knowledge, multidisciplinarity, comparative postcolonialisms)
Panels will normally comprise three 20-minute papers. Proposal acceptance is subject to organising committee approval.
To submit a paper or panel proposal please contact:
Dr Christine ODowd-Smyth <codowdsmyth@wit.ie>
or
<psa@postcolonialstudiesassociation.co.uk>.
Closing date for abstract submissions: 1 December 2008.
For more information please contact:
Dr Gerri Kimber <gerri@thekimbers.co.uk>
or
Dr Marta Vizcaya Echano <martavizcaya@hotmail.com>.
(posted 3 Nov '08)



The (In)Visibility of War in Literature and the Media: II CECC Conference on Culture and Conflict
Lisbon, Portugal  -  7-9 May 2009
Deadline for proposals: 15 December 2008 (closed)
The conference wishes to address the visibility of war in the media and in literature in the 20th and 21st centuries. Either as a visible or a latent event, as a singular experience or as invisible discourse, war has shaped the social construction of modernity and influenced cultural and political production. The discourse of war as mediation is indeed a site of contention, where the narrative of the nation clashes with the individual rights and exerts pressure upon the subject of the narrative/reporting, thus affecting the substance of narration. This primal event, as modernist rhetoric claimed, was on the one hand aesthetically inspirational and culturally productive, and on the other ravaging and destructive. In fact, war is deeply intertwined with representation. On the one hand, as an exceptionally violent event, war challenges the work of representation. On the other, the work of representation is structurally supported by conflict and antagonism.
Focussing on the visuality of war, on the one hand, and on its discursive dimensions on the other, the conference wishes to address both the visible and the hidden discourses of war and the pervasiveness of this rhetoric in non-warring situations, such as the economy, the media or politics. It also aims to address the ways in which war affects, constrains and constructs subjectivity, be it the collective subjectivity of nationhood, or the individuality of warriors, victims, reporters and artists.
Papers are invited on the following themes:
1 – Visible Wars
- The representation of war in literature, film and other media.
- Reporting war: issues and debates.
- Censorship and media incitement.
- Commemorating war: memorials, parades, exhibitions, cemeteries, battlegrounds, ruins.
- The visuality of war: war as spectacle.
- Structures of antagonism: friend/foe, soldier and victim.
- War as a media event.
- Religion and sacrificial violence.
- Colonial Wars and (post)colonial subjects.
2 – Invisible Wars
- Remembering conflict.
- The law of war.
- Spectacles of surrender.
- (An)Other war: sex, race and identity in battle.
- The rhetoric of war.
- Hidden wars: spying, conniving, negotiating.
- Hyper-wars:  Virtual reality and gaming
- Silent wars: trauma and PTSD.
- The war within: homecoming and the homefront.
- War and the modern project.
Confirmed Guest Speakers:
- Anton Kaes (UC Berkeley)
- Peter Geimer (ETH-Zurich)
- Robert Doran (Rochester U. New York)
- Andreas Huyssen (U. Columbia)
- Elisabeth Bronfen (U.Zurich/NYU)
Deadline for submissions: December 15, 2008. Please send a 200-word abstract and a short vita to: <cultureandconflict@fch.lisboa.ucp.pt>.
Contacts:
Diana Gonçalves
Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Cultura
Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Palma de Cima
1649-023   LISBOA   PORTUGAL
Tel: + 351-21 7265692
<cultureandconflict@fch.lisboa.ucp.pt>
The conference website: http://www.cecc.com.pt/
(posted 22 Sep '08)



Forms and Evolution of Travel Literature in Different Literary Traditions
University of Bialystok, Bialowieza, Poland  -  11-13 May 2009
Deadline for Proposals: 31 December 2008 (closed)
In all literary traditions travel is one of the most common ways of describing the world (the real and the quasi-real) and is used by novelists both as a motif and as a structural device - also in cases when it disrupts the structure of a novel, which can be, nevertheless, refreshing in an artistic sense (through, for example, the continuous renewal of relationships with the world beyond literature).
The themes of travel literature that we would like to explore are:
•    the uniqueness of the representations of the world (of cultures and civilizations);
•    the anthropological, sociological, philosophical, mental and sensual character of travel narratives;
•    the borders between travel genres;
•    the critical reception of travel books;
•    travel literature in post-colonial, post-modern and multi-cultural perspective
Speaker's proposal (including the name of the presenter, affiliation, the title of the paper and a 100-150 word long abstract) should be sent to the Secretary of the conference <jacek.partyka@op.pl> by Dec, 31st 2008.
For the details about the conference see: http://travelconf.uwb.edu.pl/home.htm
(posted 2 Oct '08)



Literary Journalism: Past, Present and Future
Chicago, USA  -  14-16 May 2009
Deadline for proposals: 31 January 2009 (closed)
International Association for Literary Journalism Studies.
The Fourth International Conference for Literary Journalism Studies.
Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism, Evanston, Illinois, USA.
The International Association for Literary Journalism Studies invites submissions of original research papers, abstracts for research in progress and proposals for panels on Literary Journalism for the IALJS annual convention on 14-16 May 2009. The conference will be held at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA (Evanston is the first suburb immediately north of the city of Chicago). The conference hopes to be a forum for scholarly work of both breadth and depth in the field of literary journalism, and all research methodologies are welcome, as are research on all aspects of literary journalism and/or literary reportage. For the purpose of scholarly delineation, our definition of literary journalism is "journalism as literature" rather than "journalism about literature." The association especially hopes to receive papers related to the general conference theme, "Literary Journalism: Past, Present and Future." All submissions must be in English.
The International Association for Literary Journalism Studies is a multi-disciplinary learned society whose essential purpose is the encouragement and improvement of scholarly research and education in Literary Journalism. As a relatively new association in a relatively recently defined field of academic study, it is our agreed intent to be both explicitly inclusive and warmly supportive of a wide variety of scholarly approaches. Details of the programs of previous annual meetings can be found at:
I. Guidelines for Research Papers
Submitted research papers should not exceed 7,500 words, or about 25 double-spaced pages, plus endnotes. Please regard this as an upper limit; shorter papers are certainly welcome. Endnotes and bibliographic citations should follow the Chicago Manual of Style. Papers may not be simultaneously submitted to any other conferences. Papers previously published, presented, accepted or under review are ineligible. Only one paper per author will be accepted for presentation in the conference's research sessions, and at least one author for each paper must be at the convention in order to present the paper. If accepted, each paper presenter at a conference Research Session may be allotted no more than 15 minutes. To be considered, please observe the following guidelines:
Submission by e-mail attachment is required, in either an MS Word or Adobe PDF format. No faxes or postal mail submissions will be accepted; Please include one title page containing title, author/s, affiliation/s, and the address, phone, fax, and e-mail of the lead author. Also include a second title page containing only the paper's title and the paper's abstract. The abstract should be approximately 250 words in length. Your name and affiliation should not appear anywhere in the paper [this information will only appear on the first title page; see (b) above].

II. Guidelines for Poster/Work-in-Progress Presentations (Abstracts)
Submitted abstracts for Poster/Work-in-Progress Sessions should not exceed 250 words. If accepted, each presenter at a conference Poster/Work-in-Progress session may be allotted no more than 10 minutes. To be considered, please observe the following guidelines:
Submission by e-mail attachment is required, in either an MS Word or Adobe PDF format. No faxes or postal mail submissions will be accepted; Please include one title page containing title, author/s, affiliation/s, and the address, phone, fax and e-mail of the lead author; Also include a second page containing only the work's title and the actual abstract of the work-in-progress. The abstract should be approximately 250 words in length.

III. Guidelines for Proposals for Panels
Submission by e-mail attachment is required, in either an MS Word or Adobe PDF format. No faxes or postal mail submissions will be accepted; Panel proposals should contain the panel title, possible participants and their affiliation and e-mail addresses, and a description of the panel's subject. The description should be approximately 250 words in length; Panels are encouraged on any topic related to the study, teaching or practice of literary journalism; SPECIAL NOTE: A panel on the subject of the practice and/or teaching literary journalism in the new era of digital media is already under consideration. Anyone interested in participating as a panelist is invited to contact the Conference Program Chair (e-mail address below).

IV. Evaluation Criteria, Deadlines and Contact Information
All research paper submissions will be evaluated on originality and importance of topic; literature review; clarity of research purpose; focus; use of original and primary sources and how they support the paper's purpose and conclusions; writing quality and organization; and the degree to which the paper contributes to the study of literary journalism. Similarly, abstracts of works-in-progress and panel proposals will be evaluated on the degree to which they contribute to the study of literary journalism. Submissions from students as well as faculty are encouraged.

Please submit research papers or abstracts of poster/works-in-progress  presentations to:
Prof. Isabel Santos
Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (Portugal)
2009 Conference Research Chair, International Association for Literary Journalism Studies
E-mail: <isantos@iscsp.utl.pt>
Please submit proposals for panels to:
Prof. Norm Sims
University of Massachusetts, Amherst (U.S.A.)
2009 Conference Program Chair, International Association for Literary Journalism Studies
E-mail: <sims@journ.umass.edu>
Deadline for all submissions: No later than 31 January 2009
For more information regarding the conference or the association, please go to http://WWW.IALJS.ORG or contact:
Prof. David Abrahamson
Northwestern University (U.S.A.)
President, International Association for Literary Journalism Studies
E-mail: <d-abrahamson@northwestern.edu>
or
Prof. Alice Trindade
Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (Portugal)
Vice President, International Association for Literary Journalism Studies
E-mail: <atrindade@iscsp.utl.pt>
or
Prof. John Bak
I.D.E.A., Nancy-Université (France)
Past President, International Association for Literary Journalism Studies
E-mail: <john.bak@univ-nancy2.fr>
(posted 29 Dec '08)



Obituaries of the Invisible: New Readings of Fitz-James O'Brien's "What Was It?"
Paris, France  -  15 May 2009
Deadline for proposals: 15 March 2009 (closed)
The idea behind this one-day conference is to look at a variety of approaches, both literary and graphic, to a single short story by Fitz-James O’Brien. It is hoped that this year’s project on "What Was It?”"will be extended over the coming years within the framework of the partnership between Prisme (the research group in Paris 3) and ENSAD.
The Story
Who can submit a paper? Any master or doctoral student.
Events: Contributors will have the opportunity to meet the students from ENSAD and see their work in March 2009. Then the following events will be organized:
* A one-day conference on May 15th, during which the ENSAD students and the students whose papers will have been selected are to present their work together and will be encouraged to put into perspective interpretations and graphic creation around the text.
* An exhibition over a fortnight starting May 14th at the Irish Cultural Center (5, rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris) presenting the work of the students from ENSAD.
Selected papers will be published in a book.
The papers submitted must put forward an analyses of invisibility in the story in the light of a number of themes listed below:
* Genre: the Gothic, science fiction, the short story / tale
* Science and scientific theories (evolutionnism)
* Literature in US magazines
* American / Irish historical context
* Invisibility in the social or literary spheres
* The status of the narrator
Length of papers: 15,000 signs maximum (6-7 pages, font Times New Roman size 12, line spacing 1.5).
Language: preferably English.
Deadline: 15th March 2009.
Contact : <Cecile.Chartier@univ-paris3.fr>.
(posted 15 Jan '09)



The European Republic of Letters (18th-21st centuries)            
Institut du monde anglophone, 5 rue de l'Ecole de médecine, Paris 6e, France  - 15-16 May 2009
Deadline for proposals: 15 January 2009 (closed)
A conference organized by the British Academy Network / Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREA XVIII, PEARL EA 397.
The 'Republic of Letters' may be regarded as having begun in the Italian Renaissance, and been developed in France by the time of Louis XIV into a set of institutions controlling and guiding the norms of literature and critically judging the outcome; most European literature was translated and disseminated from France, and the translations observed the rules of  decorum represented by 'les belles infidèles', that is, the style of translation that most smoothly and effectively brought the work over into polite literature and the 'target' language. Actual institutions such as Academies and journals developed with an eye to carrying out these functions. The notion of the 'Republic of Letters', however, could also represent an ideal of independent cultural activity, apart from any state or national institutions, and possibly critical of them, as in England, where the notion of controlling norms being enforced by a central literary Academy was rejected, and in Germany where there was no centralized state and where 'Culture' or 'Bildung'  became a liberating idea of the Enlightenment. In more recent times, the network of communication, production and distribution, including publishers, copyright laws, presses, and journals and their European connections have been the subject of inquiry.
Our question is: Is the 'Republic of Letters' still a useful concept in the Europe of today?
Papers (25-30 minutes) are invited examining these institutions and ideals, and their practical operations across Europe. Please send your proposals to Isabelle Bour, Sorbonne nouvelle, by 15th January, 2009, at the following address:
<Isabelle.Bour@univ-paris3.fr>.
The British Academy Network on Reception Studies has held a series of meetings in different European venues (including London, Aix-en-Provence, Cambridge, Brussels, Leon, and Bologna), and proposes a Conference in conjunction with the Sorbonne nouvelle on the topic of The European 'Republique des Lettres', from the eighteenth century to the present. The Conference will take place on Friday and Saturday 15-16 May 2009. We call for papers (in French or English) for the Friday 15 May sessions; on Saturday 16 May the British Academy will open its Network session to all who have attended the Conference. The Session will include a keynote British Academy Lecture by a major figure in the field, followed by four responses to the paper, and a two-hour seminar on the topics of the lecture, the responses, and the papers of the previous day. All members of the Conference are invited to attend and participate in the discussion. A dinner will be held in the evening on Saturday.
Organisers:
- Professor Isabelle Bour, Professor Marc Porée, Sorbonne nouvelle
- Dr Elinor Shaffer
British Academy Network on Reception Studies
Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies
University of London
- Professor Annick Duperray
Overseas Director of the British Academy Network on Reception Studies
University of Aix-Marseille
(posted 12 Nov '08)



Oratorios and Choral Symphonies in the English-Speaking World
Université de Caen Basse Normandie, France  -  15-16 May 2009
Deadline for proposals: 1 March 2009 (closed)
A Conference organised by ERIBIA/Centre LSA
Organisation: Gilles Couderc & Marcin Stawiarski
The English oratorio, that particular form of non-theatrical music drama, based on the Bible, which combines elements from English masques, anthems, French classical drama, Italian opera seria and oratorio, and German Protestant oratorio, with extended choral interventions, is essentially the creation of Handel, as Italian opera was dropping out of fashion in London. Its almost accidental birth in 1732 resulted from the Bishop of London's refusal to allow the revival of Handel's Esther and the use of Holy Writ on the opera stage. The new work was instant success and encouraged Handel to compose oratorios which later provided fodder for English choral societies, with hundreds of performers meeting for the 1791 Handel Festival to celebrate his music. The creation of music festivals or meetings such as the Three Choirs and the foundation of choral societies in cities, villages and later factories proved a ready market for this democratic and popular art form, regarded as a sure means to achieve moral salvation and secure social peace. The rise of English choralism, prompting the comment that England was divided in two classes, those who sing and those who don't, resulted from the invention of Tonic Sol-fa which made sight-singing easier by the Congregationalist minister John Curwen (1816-1880), from the expansion of the railways and from cheaper printed music. In the 1850's, London's Crystal Palace became the venue for epic performances of oratorios by Handel, Mendelssohn, Spohr, Gounod, Dvorak and their English imitators. To become a respectable British composer, it was essential to aim at the oratorio market, or its secular version, the dramatic ballads or choral symphonies commissioned by such festivals as Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool or Norwich. The English musical Renaissance of the late 1890's, with Parry and Stanford, then Elgar, Delius, Holst and Vaughan-Williams, developed from within this tradition, much derided by G.B. Shaw. If choralism decreased after 1918 as new form of recreations emerged, like the  cinema, and the demand for higher standards of performance increased, oratorios or choral symphonies successfully lived on with Walton, Tippett and Britten, not to mention Paul McCartney, or their American counterparts, Weill, Copland and Bernstein. 
The popularity of such essentially choral music, fitter to represent a nation than opera or instrumental music, raises several questions involving aesthetics, religion, politics and sociology. How to create drama without the theatre, especially with the choral symphonies, particularly those based on anthologies of poetical texts? To what extent has the rewriting, adaptation, translation or collation of biblical texts or poetical works, like those of Walt Whitman for example, contributed to building a national identity, a national music or to social engineering? Has the choral movement, instrumentalised for moral and political purposes, helped the masses access high culture?       
Abstracts should be sent before March 1 2009 to <gcouderc@club-internet.fr>. 
(posted 20 Nov '08)



Land and Identity
University of Derby, UK  -  16 May 2009
Deadline for proposals: 9 February 2009 (closed)
This one-day event aims to gather academic researchers, artists, writers, and other creative practitioners whose work focuses on land and identity. The aim of the symposium is to investigate the complex issues surrounding contemporary cultural discourses on land and identity – their production, construction, and reconstruction. The symposium will be structured around papers that offer disciplinary and trans-disciplinary approaches opening up discussion and new routes for research in a number of interrelated areas.
Keynote Speakers:
    * Professor Stephen Daniels, University of Nottingham
    * Professor Donna Landry, University of Kent.
Potential topics could include (but are by no means exhaustive):
    * Representations of landscape
    * Land and identity
    * Borders/Borderscapes
    * Gendered landscape
    * Virtual and imagined landscapes
    * Contested lands/spaces
    * Ecocritical approaches to land
    * National identity and nationalism
    * (Post)Colonial lands
    * The globalisation of land
    * Cartography
    * Maps
    * Countryside vs City
    * The politics of land
The organizers are hoping to attract contributors from a wide variety of subjects and disciplines such as Archaeology, Cultural Studies, History, Geography, Languages, Literary Studies, Music, Politics, Social Anthropology, and the Visual and Creative Arts. Proposals by postgraduate students and early career academics will be welcome.
A peer-reviewed selection of papers will be published. The organizers are currently in discussion with a suitable academic publisher.
Length of papers should not exceed twenty minutes to allow for discussion. Please send proposals of 250 words and a brief bio-sketch to the organizers by February 9 2009.
For any further queries, please contact the organizers
    * Dr. Robert Hudson, r.c.hudson@derby.ac.uk
    * Dr. Christine Berberich c.berberich@derby.ac.uk
Faculty of Arts, Design and Technology
School of Humanities
University of Derby
Kedleston Road
Derby DE22 1GB
UK
To book a place on the conference, please download a registration form from the conference website and return it to: Rebecca Savage <r.savage@derby.ac.uk>
or by post to:
Conference Office,
University of Derby,
Kedleston Road,
Derby,
DE22 1GB.
For any queries with regards to booking please contact Rebecca Savage on +44 (0)1332 591395.
A poster for the symposium can be downloaded here.
(posted 4 Jan '09)



Translation in Multilingual Cultures
Leuven, Belgium  -  20-22 May 2009
Deadline for proposals: 31 October 2008 (closed)
The research group "Translation" and the research unit "Literary relations and post/national identities" of the KULeuven organise an international colloquium on "Translation in multilingual cultures", May 20th, 21st and 22nd 2009 in Leuven, Belgium.
The recent understanding of the multilingual character of past and present cultures asks for a reconsideration of disciplinary boundaries that are traditionally language-bound. The complex practice called 'literature' can no longer be fully apprehended (if it ever could) in linguistic isolation, or within constricting frameworks like 'space' or 'nation'. Beyond relatively familiar critical examinations of the national paradigm in the description of multilingual spaces like Canada, Belgium, the Caribbean Islands, Switzerland, Spain etc., it is now also necessary to examine how disciplinary procedures routinely obscure diversity within so-called monolingual cultures, as well as the artificial or fallacious formations that institutions like the Francophonie or the Commonwealth have imposed on regional, urban, island or other literatures.
The questioning of linguistic, spatial or national boundaries in relation to which separate literatures are constructed, urges us to rethink the nature of the relationships between literatures: how to replace the familiar distinctions between 'source' and 'target' or between 'import' and 'export'? How do we accordingly describe the complex multilateral relations between major and minor literatures sharing the same territory, or between minor literatures belonging to different spaces? Does Translation Studies offer appropriate concepts and methods to analyse the new literary cartographies, to rethink literary relations in multilingual cultures where the notions of (linguistic) frontier and of (national) space are actually questioned? Is Translation Studies prepared to transgress the distinctions on which it has built part of its raison d’être? We need to make explicit the discipline's presuppositions, but also the rationale behind the choice of translation corpora, and (re)assess the translational meta-language based on inadequate, reductive, binary distinctions. Thus, the concept of ‘translation’ itself, complemented with the epithet 'cultural', seeks to broaden its signification, until now restricted to an intertextual and interlingual scope. But is it necessary -- by analogy with inter- and intralingual translations (Jakobson) -- to distinguish between inter- and intracultural translations? And how do the latter differ from other operations of 'cultural transfer'?
The colloquium is open to the totality of these historiographical and translational questions, preferably tackled by means of case studies dealing with European and non-European literatures. It focuses on the period ranging from the birth of monolingual ideologies in the 19th century to their radical questioning during the 20th century.
Papers are invited which develop one or more of the following perspectives:
• The conceptual and methodological articulation of different 'levels' of cultural translation: discursive, institutional, intracultural, intercultural etc.
• The challenges to national literary histories raised by the notion of intracultural translation.
• The comparison of forms and functions of translations within such discourses as history, philosophy and literature, in particular during the 19th century in Europe, when young, emerging cultures massively turned to translations.
• The interaction between agents of translation that take on the role of intercultural mediators: translators, editors, magazines etc.
• The tactics deployed by translations when they are produced in spaces with a strong political or ethnic coefficient? like Ireland (English, Gaelic) or Spain (Castilian, Catalan, Basque) as well as in most of the colonised or formerly colonised spaces.
• The cartography of networks of translations (publishers, genres, translators) covering cultures that share the same language: Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec, France or Austria, Germany etc.
Proposals of 300 words approximately (English or French) and a short CV should be submitted to the organizers before October 31st 2008. Papers and discussions will be held in English and French.
Reine Meylaerts <Reine.Meylaerts@arts.kuleuven.be>
Lieven D’hulst <Lieven.Dhulst@kuleuven-kortrijk.be>
Francis Mus <Francis.Mus@arts.kuleuven.be>
Karen Vandemeulebroucke <Karen.Vandemeulebroucke@kuleuven-kortrijk.be>.
Blijde-Inkomststraat 21
3000 Leuven
Belgium
(posted 15 May '08)



19th Conference on British and American Studies (BAS)
Timişoara, Romania  -  21-23 May 2009
Deadline for proposals: 15 February 2009 (closed)
Keynote Speakers:
Prof. Liliane Louvel, University of Poitiers
Prof. Allan James, University of Klagenfurt
Presentations (20 min) and workshops (60 min) are invited in the following sections:
• Language Studies
• Translation Studies
• Semiotics
• British and Commonwealth Literature
• American Literature
• Cultural Studies
• Gender Studies
• English Language Teaching
Please submit 60word abstracts, which will be included in the conference programme, to our website: http://www.litere.uvt.ro/formular_bas.php or to dr. Dascăl <reghina_dascal@yahoo.co.uk>.
Deadline: 15 February 2009.
Please include the following details:
- Details of presenter: First name, Last name, Title (Mr/Ms/Mrs/Dr/Prof), Affiliation, Email address, Address (work and home).
- Details of presentation / workshop, Presentation/Workshop (please indicate), Title, Section, Abstract (60 words: abstracts longer than 60 words are not accepted).
The general conference registration fee is EUR 75. For RSEAS members it is the lei equivalent of EUR 30, to be paid upon arrival.
Hotel reservations will be made by the conference organizers or can be made directly by participants by accessing  http://www.timisoara-tourism.com/index.php?page=hotels
 Prices per night vary between 40 and 100 EUR. Accommodation details will be available on the website by January 2009.
For additional information, please contact one of the following:
  • Reghina Dascăl, <reghina_dascal@yahoo.co.uk>, tel. and fax + 40 256 452224
  • Luminiţa Frenţiu, <frentiuluminita@yahoo.com>, tel + 40 256 492338
  • Hortensia Pârlog, <hparlog@mail.dnttm.ro> or <abaparlog@gmail.com>, tel + 40 256 498277.
    • (posted 25 Sep '08)



    Thomas Wolfe Society 2009 Conference
    Paris, France  -  21-24 May 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 31 January 2009 (closed)
    Join the Society for what promises to be a stimulating conference in the City of Lights Wolfe roamed widely and lovingly.
    Meeting headquarters will be the Maison Nicolas Barré, located in the Montparnasse district on the Left Bank. The conference banquet will take place at the Rotonde, where Wolfe himself dined.
    The conference will begin with a boat trip along the Seine. Sessions on Friday and Saturday will examine a variety of topics, with particular attention devoted to Wolfe's transformative experiences in Europe. There will be a chamber reanding from Wolfe's "Ca, C'est Paris" (edited by Frank Wilson). The conference will include a group outing to Saint Germain-en-Laye on Sunday.
    Paper proposals for the conference are welcome on any topic related to Thomas Wolfe. Papers on Wolfe's connection to Europe are especially welcome. Please send 250-word paper proposals by January 31, 2009 to: David Radavich, Department of English, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL 61920 or <daradavich@eiu.edu>.
    The full call for papers is available on the Thomas Wolfe Society website: http://www.thomaswolfe.org/
    (posted 13 Jan '09)



    The Playful Paradox: Creative Writing on Campus. A mini-festival of imagination in practice
    Univ. Bedfordshire, Park Square, Luton, UK  -  23 May 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 18 April 2009 (closed)
    Keynote speakers will include Judy Corbalis, Emma Darwin, Tiffany Murray, and Kate Pullinger.
    Following the success of the 2008 Postgraduate Creative Writing Conference, this new event will explore further the timely issues that increasingly concern all who study or teach creative writing in an academic environment. Papers and/or presentations of creative work are warmly invited that address (but are by no means limited to) such - advisedly provocative - issues as:
    * What utility is there in an MA or PhD programme in creative writing (CW)? Should this question be asked?
    * Are CW programmes, in their confluence with theory, unwittingly fashioning new literary genres (eg. the 'PhD novel')? Is this desirable or disturbing?
    * Do tensions emerge, in the process or outcome of a CW programme, between pedagogy and practice? If so, are they productive or perilous?
    Plus... whatsoever topics that delegates might wish to present or discuss that are relevant to their personal experience of creative writing on campus.
    The conference presents a 'once-in-a-year' opportunity for delegates to pose, among their peers, questions rarely asked and to hear answers rarely given. And to showcase their work and meet fellow students, staff and lecturers from throughout the UK and Europe. And to hear - and network with - authors, scriptwriters, poets, and other practitioners, distinguished both within and beyond the pale of academia.
    Contributions are invited in the form of papers or presentations of creative work of 30 minutes max., to be followed by an additional 10 minutes of questions and discussion. Submissions will be peer-reviewed and selected papers will be considered for publication in the proceedings of the conference. For reference, the programme and papers from the prior (2008) conference can be found at http://www.cwparadox.wikidot.com
    Abstracts should be no more than 300 words in length. Please include name, contact address (preferably e-mail), and university affiliation, along with the title or topic, and any audio-visual requirements. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is Sat 18th April 2009. E-mailed attachments should be in Microsoft Word format. A brief 100-word max. biography should also be included for the conference programme. Abstracts can be e-mailed or posted to:
    2009 Creative Writing Conference: the Playful Paradox
    C/o Dr Gavin Stewart, Rm C101
    School of Media, Art & Design
    University of Bedfordshire
    Park Square
    Luton LU1 3JU
    United Kingdom
    E-mail: <creativewriting@beds.ac.uk>
    Web: http://www.cwparadox.wikidot.com
    (posted 10 Mar '09)



    Contemporary Transformations
    University of Westminster, UK  -  23-24 May 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 31 December 2008 (closed)
    The UKNMFS in Association with University of Westminster, UK.
    A significant characteristic of artistic movements is the reconfiguration, adaptation and transformation of texts. The focus of this conference is the appropriation and conversion of existing artistic works for use in a contemporary vogue. This ambition to 'make it new' in tandem with the politics and intentions behind the transformation has led to the emergence of startling works of contemporary art.
    This interdisciplinary conference seeks papers focusing on transformations where the new text has been created after 1968 and there is strong engagement between each work. There is no limit to the time period from which the source text can be located.
    Submissions are welcomed from research students and established academics.
    Possible topics include but are not limited to:
    Theatrical/filmic adaptations of novels
    The role of the graphic novel as medium for transformation
    Globalisation and transformation
    The intersection of different artistic movements
    The fetishism of the transformation
    Cross cultural and cross genre adaptation
    We will be pursuing various publishing outputs related to the conference.
    Send abstracts (no more than 250 words) for proposed 20 minute papers by 31st December 2008 to <martyn.colebrook_at_english.hull.ac.uk>.
    Please mark the subject of your email "Contemporary Transformations abstract".
    Alternatively, you can post your abstracts to Martyn Colebrook, Department of English, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull, East Yorkshire, England HU6 7RX.
    Proposals for comprised panels of three speakers are also welcome.
    (posted 15 May '08)



    Violence on Stage: III International Conference on American Theatre and Drama
    Cádiz, Spain  -  27-29 May 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 30 September 2008 (closed)
    Ever since the Greeks, drama and violence have rarely been far from one another, at least within the Western dramatic tradition. The staging of violence, apart from being a representation of one of the most powerful and recurrent of human traits, can also be a reflection of larger social and cultural forces. As a matter of fact, the existence and continuity of a nation such as the United States cannot be adequately explained without a study of the use/abuse/containment of violence and, among others, its representation on stage. Serious drama in America has resorted to literal or figurative violence to pass judgment on an unfair, violently repressive society; to denounce the self-deceiving drives of many individuals; to expose the brutalizing effects of traditional family patterns and the violent exclusion of (non-mainstream or otherwise) individuals from the American Dream; or to (violently) break with inherited theatrical forms and open up new avenues of artistic experimentation. We believe that an exploration of the role of violence in American theatre and drama will result in fruitful and fresh insights into a dramatic tradition which has rarely been approached from this angle.
    Among the specific issues which the conference hopes to address - always through their representation on the American stage - are:
    -    Theatrical theories of violence (Grotowski, Artaud, The Living Theatre,…).
    -    The history of violence. Violence in history.
    -    The aesthetics of violence. Theatrical strategies for the representation of violence.
    -    Collateral effects: the violence of conflict as suffered by both the invader and the invaded, the winner and the loser, the soldier and the civilian.
    -    Violence experienced (or inflicted on) those of other gender, racial, sexual groups.
    -    Institutional, social and structural violence.
    -    Violence in the workplace: abuse, mobbing, harassment, bullying.
    -    Psychological abuse. The psychology of the abuser; the effect on the abused. Justification of the abuser. The abused as guilty.
    -    Linguistic excess as violence. The strategy of silence.
    -    Audience reaction to violence on stage.
    -    The failure of the American Dream and the subsequent generation of violence.
    The conference will take place on May 27, 28 and 29, 2009, in Cádiz, one of the oldest, most harmonious and nicest cities in Europe (site of Phoenician and Roman ruins), situated in southern Spain and literally surrounded by the often violent but always suggestive ocean, in an environment propitious for scholarly reflection and the exchange of ideas. Across the Cádiz bay lies the US Rota Military Base, a useful reminder of the kind of world we live in and the role of violence in it. The University of Cádiz, with its upgraded technological infrastructure, is one of the most modern in all Spain and will prove an excellent venue for the conference. The city, on the other hand, boasts one of the mildest climates in Southern Europe and offers a rich cultural background and ample opportunities for leisure and recreation. Among the keynote speakers that will honor the conference are Paula Vogel, Cheryl Black, John Frick, and (to be confirmed) Bob Vorlicky.
    Those wishing to present a paper at the conference or organize a round-table discussion should send a 500-word abstract, in English, by September 30, 2008, to the following e-mail address: <berceo@gmail.com>
    Authors of accepted papers will receive confirmation of acceptance by December 15, 2008. The organizers intend to publish a volume of essays based on a selection of the papers presented at the conference. Authors will be duly informed of the style specifications for manuscript submission and the editors’ expectations for such a volume. For upgraded information on the conference please visit the conference website: http://www.violenceonstage.com
    Conference organizers: University of Cadiz, University of Seville, University of Málaga and the American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS).
    (posted 27 Jun '08)



    Multicultural Perspectives on the English Language, Literature and Culture
    Tallinn University, Estonia  -  28-29 May 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 15 March 2009 (closed)
    The aim of the conference is to bring together researchers of different philological disciplines (linguistics, literatures in English, cultural studies and teaching English as a foreign language (EFL)). The conference will take the form of plenaries and workshops. Plenary sessions will be conducted by:
    - Dr Richard Nordquist ("Online Perspectives on the English Language")
    - Dr David Malcolm ("Wreckage: Hubert Crackanthorpe and the /Fin-de-siècle/ Short Story").
    Workshop presentations which adopt an interdisciplinary perspective are particularly welcome.
    The official working language of the conference is English. The length of plenary speeches is 40 minutes plus 10 minutes for discussion. Presentation time for speakers is limited to 20 minutes plus 10 minutes for discussion. The deadline for registration and abstracts for presentations is 15 March 2009. Abstracts, summarising the presentations, should not exceed 250 words. Selected papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings.
    The conference fee is EUR 32 or EEK 500, payable upon arrival. Registration forms and abstracts should be submitted to  Johanna Marley via e-mail: <yanza@tlu.ee>.
    The registration form can be downloaded here.
    Participants are expected to arrange their own accommodation. To assist you, information in English is accessible on the Internet. The organisers recommend the following sites:
    We look forward to welcoming you in Tallinn.
    Prof. Suliko Liiv, Chair of the Conference Committee <iiv@tlu.ee>.
    (posted 2 Mara '09)



      

    June 2009
     

    Two Centuries of Utilitarianism
    Université Rennes 2 - Haute Bretagne, Rennes, France  -  4-5 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 29 September 2008 (closed)
    The international conference on Two Centuries of Utilitarianism will be held by the research group Axe Civilisation Britannique (University of Rennes II) and the Centre Bentham (University of Paris Ouest-La Défense) on June 4-5 at the Université Rennes II.
    Utilitarianism remains largely misunderstood in France where it has been reduced to a couple of caricatured position which disparage its image. This attitude is at odds with a number of dominant theories taken mostly from the English speaking world which grant utilitarianism a privileged status: either as a source of inspiration or as a rival concept. From a theoretical point of view, it represents a major tradition and philosophical benchmark. From a practical point of view, it ranks among the most influential ethical and legal doctrines.
    Thinkers developed utilitarian thought in the fields of ethics and ontology from Antiquity onwards. But utilitarianism, in its contemporary sense, emerges with Jeremy Bentham who expresses it in his principle of utility. It aims to "maximize the greatest happiness of the greatest number." Bentham then systematizes its application, broadens its scope and establishes it as the primary principle of his philosophical system in the Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation first published in 1789.
    For utilitarian thinkers, ethics is founded upon the idea that the moral value of an action is determined by its potential to increase or reduce general happiness. In addition to being a moral theory, utilitarianism also applies to several practical and theoretical fields including politics, law, the philosophy of action, economics, and sociology.
    This conference aims to examine on the one hand the roots of utilitarianism and on the other its legacy, evolution and development. More than two hundred years after the Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, what has become of utilitarianism? What has become of Bentham’s emblematic concepts: "felicific calculus," happiness, pleasure, well-being, and the panopticon? Is it true that, in the words of Tim Mulgan, "perhaps the most important question dividing utilitarians is the definition of happiness or 'well-being' or 'utility' or 'whatever makes life worth living.'"? (Understanding Utilitarianism, Stocksfield: Acumen, 2007)
    In the light of such questions, we would like to encourage the opposition of interdisciplinary viewpoints (English studies, philosophy, sociology, law, economics, history etc.) on key political and social issues (justice, democracy, international law, rights, political economy, ethics etc.). In addition, we advocate the comparison of classical utilitarians (Bentham, Mill, Sidgwick), and 20th-century utilitarian theories (Hare, Moore, Singer).
    The following themes could also be addressed:
    - Demandingness, paternalism, sacrifice: is utilitarianism an extreme moral theory?
    - Utilitarianism and applied ethics: animal ethics, environmental ethics, medical ethics, bioethics etc.
    - Consequentialism.
    - The integration or exclusion of utilitarian and deontic calculus and teleological considerations in practical reasoning.
    - Utilitarianism and the protection of the individual.
    - Universalim and particularism.
    - Act, rule, and preference utilitarianism.
    - Utilitarianism and the concept of desert.
    - The political influence of utilitarianism.
    - Utilitarianism and state intervention / non-intervention.
    - Utilitarianism and international law.
    - Utilitarianism and distributive justice.
    Presentations may be in French or English.
    Please submit 250-word abstracts by September 29th, 2008 to Emilie Dardenne <emiliedardenne@yahoo.fr> with "Two Centuries of Utilitarianism 2009 Proposal Submission" noted in the subject line. Attachments should be in Rich Text or Word format only. Please include your name, professional affiliation, and contact information. Notification of acceptance will be made by December 2nd, 2008.
    The best papers will be subsequently selected for publication.
    Keynote Speakers:
    Catherine Audard, London School of Economics
    Tim Mulgan, University of St Andrews (to be confirmed)
    Fred Rosen, University College London
    Philip Schofield, University College London
    The full cfp can be downloaded from the Conference website: http://bentham.free.fr/Colloque_Rennes_english.html
    (posted 14 Apr '08)



    Perceiving & Representing Space in the English-Speaking World
    Université Nancy 2, France  -  4-5 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 31 December 2008 (closed)
    The Research Group on Interdisciplinarity in English Studies (IDEA) in collaboration with the research groups EA741, RIRA21 and SIELEC in Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier 3 is pleased to announce the organisation of an international conference "Perceiving & Representing Space in the English-Speaking World" to be held in Nancy on June 4-5, 2009.
    This conference extends IDEA's investigation of the theories and practices of Interdisciplinarity in English Studies. It will be the continuation of the two previous conferences held in Nancy in 2004 and 2007 that gathered European and American researchers sharing complementary interests in the composite objects and methods of interdisciplinarity. The upcoming conference proposes to address the issue of spatial representation in the cultures of the English-speaking world. We encourage submissions analysing the forms and functions of spatial representation in literature, geography, the visual arts and architecture, and their subsequent influence upon the shaping of perceptual models accounting for the coexistence of diverse, complementary, and sometimes conflicting ways of inhabiting space.
    Proposals are invited from faculty, independent scholars and researchers exploring the facets of this theme from an interdisciplinary perspective in the following fields:
    1. Postcolonial Studies
    2. Cultural or Literary Geographies
    3. Cultural Studies: the Cultural Turn and the spatialization of history.
    4. The Visual Arts (cinema, painting, installations)
    5. Architecture
    Please send proposals with a title, a 300 word abstract and a short bio-bibliographical note to the organisers, listed below. The last date for sending proposals is Decembre 31, 2008. Participants will be notified of acceptance by January 30, 2009. A selection of the proceedings will be published in our collection "Regards Croisés" with Nancy University Press.
    Organising committee:
    J-F Durand <roq.durand@wanadoo.fr>
    Claire Omhovère <claire.omhovere@univ-montp3.fr>
    Jean Sevry <sevry@wanadoo.fr>
    David Ten Eyck <david.ten-eyck@univ-nancy2.fr>
    (posted 3 Nov '08)



    Women in science, Women of science: figures and representations from 18th century to present
    Université Stendhal Grenoble III, France  -  4-6 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 14 November 2008 (closed)
    (Note: this conference was originally announced for 12-14 June 2008)
    Scientific knowledge has always been, both empirically and politically, a masculine stronghold. Since the mid-19th century, however, despite institutional and cultural resistance, women have progressively gained access to scientific studies and careers.
    The first theme of study will focus on emblematic female scientists of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Papers may concentrate on historical, social and political analyses of how, why and when women "infiltrated" the scientific world and (re-) appropriated scientific discourse at different moments in History. Another possible approach is to analyse the reactions of the scientific community/ the press to such women.
    The second theme of study will analyse the evolution of (pseudo-) scientific discourse on women and women's condition (for example medical or eugenist discourse, etc).
    The third theme will be devoted to fictional representations: how does the popular culture construct and vehicle images of women of science and women in the world of science? From the famous scientist's wife/daughter to the androgynous cyborg of feminist science-fiction, to what extent have these representations evolved over time? What impact did the feminist movement of the 1970s have on how women are seen and how they see themselves in relation to the sciences? Papers which include studies of television, cinema and various genres of pulp-fiction will be welcome.
    The conference will be followed by a publication.
    Deadline for submissions: November 14th 2008
    Please send a 300- to 350- word abstract (in French or in English) to the co-chairs:
    <Donna.Andreolle@u-grenoble3.fr>
    <Veronique.Molinari@u-grenoble3.fr>
    And to the research secretary: <Agnes.Vere@u-grenoble3.fr> with the heading "WS abstract, copy".
    (posted 26 Feb '08)



    Theatre and nation: the theatrical creation and staging of national identities
    Université du Maine, Le Mans, France  -  4-6 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 15 January 2009 (closed)
    An international conference organised by the research group 3LAM (Universities of Angers and Le Mans) at the Université du Maine, Le Mans, June 4th – 6th, 2009.
    The metonymic relation which links the theatrical space to the geographical space (town, region, country) it inhabits and to the shared cultural and linguistic identity of a theatrical audience conspire to make the theatre a privileged site for the representation of collective identities. The theatre has always interrogated the defining traits of such identities and contributed to the constant redefinition of the very essence of the societies from which it emerges.
    The particular collective identity which this conference proposes to explore is that of the nation whose emerging political, cultural, and linguistic identity is crucial to early modern European history, but which is also central to post-colonial societies and to societies whose national identities were forged without reference to European models. The conference is thus open to all geographical, historical and cultural spaces and all forms of national identity. Its purpose is to examine both the role that theatre plays in constructing and developing but also questioning and attacking the idea of the nation, and the impact of national identity on theatrical creation.
    Theatre and nation are linked in so many different ways that there is little point in trying to draw up an exhaustive list given that it is precisely one of the objectives of the conference to explore them. We offer the following suggestions as a basis for reflection:
    - the institutional identity of the theatre, its role as a cultural business, its physical incarnation as a building, and the interaction between theatrical and national institutions.
    - specific national modes of theatrical representation: acting styles, staging, costumes, scenery, theatrical genres, performance conventions...
    - the representation of national identity in different theatrical genres including historical or political plays, dramatic satire, and propaganda.
    - the theatrical portrayal or interrogation of the idea of so-called "national genius".
    - writings on the theatre (treatises, criticism, theatrical (auto)biographies, memoirs etc.) which explore the links between theatre and nation.
    Papers will be welcomed which open up a wider debate about the different ways in which theatre and nation connect, whatever the particular historical or cultural issues addressed. The conference seeks to promote heightened awareness of the importance of these modes of connection at a time when theatrical creation is involved in the emergence of new national identities and new conceptions of nationhood.
    Proposals of around 500 words, in French or in English, should be submitted by January 15th 2008 to:
    Jeffrey Hopes <jeffrey.hopes@univ-lemans.fr>
    and
    Hélène Lecossois <helene.lecossois@univ-lemans.fr>
    (posted 30 Aug '08)



    CDE Conference 2009, "Staging Interculturality"
    Vienna, Austria  -  4-7 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 15 January 2009 (closed)
    The German Society for Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English is pleased to announce its 18th Annual Conference (4-7June 2009). It will be organised by the Department of English (Prof. Rubik, Prof. Huber) at the University of Vienna and held as a rooming-in conference at the Don-Bosco-Haus, Vienna (13th district).
    In the age of globalisation, contacts between different cultural groups have become a common aspect of everyday life. Intercultural competence is now a set requirement for corporate staff, and training courses suggest that intercultural encounters are deserving of the highest attention. However, the resulting challenges to national, ethnic, class and gender identities point to the considerable com¬plexity of encounters between different cultural groups. While intercultural encounters have been conceptualised rather positively as 'multi-culturalism' emphasising the benefits for all participants, theories of the 'clash of civilisations' paint a much darker picture. The number of buzzwords created in recent years in order to articulate aspects of migration and cultural exchange, such as hybridity, cultural diversity, cross- and trans-culturalism, gender performance, and sociological change all testify to an increased awareness of, and interest in, these phenomena among politicians and academics alike.
    The 2009 CDE conference aims to examine how contemporary drama and theatre engage in the discourse of interculturality. Starting from a broad concept of culture, topics for papers may include (but are not restricted to)
    • clash of cultures, hybridity, métissage
    • cross-cultural exchange, cultural transfer
    • representations of migration/emigration/immigration and diasporas
    • exoticism in dramatic form and/or content
    • minority theatre (subcultures, youth cultures)
    • transgressions (race, class, gender, colonialism/post-colonialism)
    • world theatre vs. national traditions of playwriting
    • plays centering on globalisation/localisation/glocalisation.
    N.B.: In accordance with CDE’s constitutional policy, papers should deal exclusively with CONTEMPORARY (i.e. post-Beckettian, post-1989) THEATRE AND DRAMA IN ENGLISH.
    Abstracts: Abstracts (250 words) of suggested papers (20 minutes' delivery max.) should include a short biographical note plus full address and institutional affiliation.
    Deadlines: Enquiries and submissions should reach the organisers no later than 15 January 2009.
    Contact: <cde2009.anglistik@univie.ac.at>
    Prof. Dr. M. Rubik  / Prof. Dr. W. Huber
    Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
    Universität Wien
    Spitalgasse 2-4
    AAKH Hof 8,
    A-1090 Wien
    AUSTRIA
    tel: ++43-(0)1-4277-42481; fax: ++43-(0)1-4277-9424.
    NB: Only paid-up members are eligible to read papers at CDE conferences. Membership subscriptions may be taken out or renewed during the conference. For details, please contact the Treasurer:
    Prof. Dr. Eckart Voigts-Virchow (University of Siegen): <voigts-virchow@uni-siegen.de>
    (posted 22 Sep '08)



    Intercultural Communication in the European Context
    Lodz Academy of International Studies (WSSM), Łódź, Poland  -  6-8 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 15 April 2009 (closed)
    Today to an even larger extent than in the past centuries, communication frequently takes place between individuals and institutions representing different national and cultural backgrounds. This has resulted in a vast body of theoretical discussions on the relation between language, culture and discourse as well as in the emergence of empirical research on intercultural encounters.
    Łódź is a city in Poland known for its multinational character and history. The conference "International Communication in the European Context" aims at presenting and discussing multiple approaches to cross-cultural communication within Europe, or involving European cultures and perspectives. The organizers welcome contributions on a wide range of subjects, such as e.g. sociolinguistic studies on biculturalism and migration, the effects of linguistic and cultural differences upon the process European integration, business communication, new media, and the communication aspect of political relations and cultural exchange between the European Union and the United States of America as well as perspectives of other cultures on Europe.
    We welcome studies, of theoretical and empirical character, on the role of pragmalinguistic differences and different conventions of speech and text genres in  cross-cultural contexts, as well as on the effects of power relations upon  the forms of intercultural discourse. Social change, international political campaigning, linguistic minorities, advertising, management, corporate internal communication, tourism, youth culture, international diplomacy, internal communication in the institutions of the EU, and public media discourse are all within the range of subjects which we expect to be dealt with at the conference.
    The organizers invite contributions from  linguistics,  international relations, political and economic disciplines, business studies, social psychology, culture and media studies, literature and religion studies, and foreign language education.
    Proposed subtopics (the list is not exhaustive):
    1.    Minority discourses
    2.    European diversity and European integration
    3.    Europe and the United States of America: communication and  interpretation
    4.    Europe and other cultures and languages
    5.    Acquisition and teaching of cross-cultural competence
    Ad 1) This section focuses upon the discourses involving cultural and linguistic minorities,  their positioning in the mainstream discourse and the evolution of national cultures and styles of communication under the influence of cultural diversity within national borders.
    Ad 2) As the process of European integration proceeds towards its declared goal of  coordinated standards of social, judicial and ethic policies, differences of cultural backgrounds as well as institutional and linguistic practices come into view. The questions to be addressed are among other things problems caused by the diversity and homogenization of Europe’s cultures, international business relations and border-crossing developments in arts and mass media, as well as communication in foreign languages and the enrichment of individual and social repertoires of interaction practices brought about by intercultural encounters.
    Ad 3) The impact of American culture, economy and politics forms a clearly visible aspect of globalization. On the other hand, the differences  between Europe and the USA in historical development, social and institutional backgrounds and cultural assumptions lead to different discursive practices and may result in diverging approaches to a number of issues, including among other things global safety, ecology, medical ethics and institutional interventionism in economy and business. The issues to be addressed are mutual discoursive interpretations and intercultural discourses in any area illustrating successful communication, mutual or one-sided influences on discursive practices as well as obstacles to the achievement of mutual understanding. 
    Ad 4) This subtopic addresses interests of scholars writing on encounters with Europe from other non-European perspectives.
    Ad 5) Contributions discussing the acquisition and teaching of cross-cultural competence will provide a link between the results of research in any of the above listed areas and their emergent and future practical implementations.
    Conference languages
    Contributions will be accepted in English and German.
    Submission of abstracts
    Deadline for submitting abstracts is 15th April 2009.
    Please send your abstract in max. 300 words edited in MS Word to: <hanna.pulaczewska@sprachlit.uni-regensburg.de>.
    The academic committee will notify you whether your proposal has been accepted within 21 days after receiving the abstract, at latest on April 23th.
    Proceedings
    Proceedings will be digitally published on the conference website. Selected papers will be published in book form with an international publisher.
    Conference homepage
    Further details are to be found at http://icec2009.wssm.edu.pl
    The Academic Committee
    - Prof. dr. hab. Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, Academy for International Studies (WSSM) Łódź and University - Prof. dr. hab.  Hanna Pułaczewska, Academy for International Studies (WSSM) Łódź
    - Dr. Iwona Witczak-Plisiecka, Academy for International Studies (WSSM) Łódź and University of Łódź
    - Dr. Adam Bednarek, Academy for International Studies (WSSM) Łódź  and University of Łódź
    Keynote speakers: Jens Allwood, Helga Kotthoff
    (posted 5 Feb '09)



    Seventh International Symposium on Iconicity in Language and Literature
    University of Toronto (Victoria College), Toronto, Canada  -  9-14 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 1 February 2009 (closed)
    The seventh in a series of biennial international and interdisciplinary symposia organized by the Iconicity Research Project since 1997, this meeting will once again focus on iconicity – understood as form miming meaning, and form miming form - in language and in literature, but will also feature a special workshop on Cognitive Poetics. Previous symposia have, on the one hand, concentrated on iconicity as a driving force in language on all grammatical levels, on language acquisition, and on language change. On the other hand, they have addressed the various mimetic uses of more concrete and creative iconic images and/or more abstract iconic diagrams at all levels of the literary text, in both narrative and poetic forms, and on all varieties of discourse (literary texts, historical texts, political texts, advertising, language and music, literature and music, etc.). These possibilities remain open for the 2009 symposium.
    The meeting will be hosted by Victoria University in the University of Toronto (Canada) and will be held on the Victoria College campus which is conveniently located in the centre of the city of Toronto. The symposium language will be English, but papers may also be read in French and German. Presentation time for papers will be 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes of discussion.
    We welcome proposals addressing any of these issues. Session proposals and abstracts together with a brief c.v. should be sent (preferably by email) to Prof. Dr. Olga Fischer and PD Dr. Christina Ljungberg before 1 February 2009.
    A second announcement with practical details will be sent in the fall. For further information about the Iconicity project, please consult our website: http://www.iconicity.ch

    Prof. Dr. Olga Fischer
    Universiteit van Amsterdam
    Spuistraat 210
    1012VT Amsterdam
    The Netherlands
    Phone: +31-20-5253825
    Fax: +31-20-5253052
    <olga.fischer@hum.uva.nl>
    		 PD Dr. Christina Ljungberg
    University of Zurich
    Plattenstrasse 47
    8032 Zurich
    Switzerland
    Phone: +41-44-6343551
    Fax: +41-44-6344908
    <cljung@es.uzh.ch>

    Local contact: Ms. Ann Lewis, General Secretary for the Iconicity Symposium, <alewis@chass.utoronto.ca>
    (posted 19 Jul '08)



    Angela Carter: A Critical Exploration
    University of Northampton, UK  -  5-7 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 31 January 2009 (closed)
    UKNMFS in Association with the University of Northampton, UK.
    Keynote Speakers: Dr. Sarah Gamble, Dr. Rebecca Munford and Prof. Anja Muller-Wood.
    Angela Carter ranks as one of the most studied and significant British authors of the late-twentieth century. Regarded as an emblem of the 'postmodern' but with an oeuvre marked by far greater depth and complexity, her work remains an outstanding testament to her artistic achievements. Notable for their intricate fusing of symbolism and parody with a deliberate mixing of generic forms, Carter's works stand in juxtaposition with the concerns of post-war British Fiction.
    This conference seeks papers on any aspects of Carter's life and work.
    Submissions are welcomed from research students and established academics.
    Topics may include but are by no means limited to:
    Angela Carter, Myths and Fairy Tales
    Angela Carter and The Sadeian Woman
    Angela Carter and the Gothic
    Angela Carter and friends: influences and the influenced
    Angela Carter and the absent mother figure
    Angela Carter and Empire
    Angela Carter and Hollywood
    Angela Carter and gender, sexuality and identity
    We will be pursuing various publishing outputs related to the conference.
    Send abstracts (no more than 250 words) for proposed 20 minute papers by 31st January 2009 to <Martyn.Colebrook_at_english.hull.ac.uk>, <Lawrence.Phillips_at_northampton_at_c.uk>  and <sonya.andermahr_at_northampton.ac.uk>. Please mark the subject of your email "Angela Carter: A Critical Exploration abstract".
    Alternatively, you can post your abstracts to Martyn Colebrook, Department of English, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull, East Yorkshire, England HU6 7RX.
    Proposals for comprised panels of three speakers are also welcome.
    (posted 15 May '08)



    The Impact of the British Abolition of the Slave Trade on Nationalist Discourses in Colonial and Metropolitan France, the United States, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands
    Paris, France  -  11-12 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 30 November 2008 (closed)
    Organizing Committee:
    - Myriam Cottias, CNRS, coordinatrice du programme EURESCL (7è PCRD)
    - Marie-Jeanne Rossignol Université Paris-Diderot
    Contact: <collainfp7@aliceadsl.fr>
    Proposals must be sent by November 30, 2008 (one page project and CV)
    An answer will be given by January 10, 2009.

    I- QUESTIONING THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION OF ABOLITION
    1- LIBERTY, NATION, ABOLITION
    The abolition of the slave trade in 1807 by Great-Britain, then the abolition of slavery in 1833, were major decisions: they mobilized British public opinion; they had regional and world repercussions geopolitically, as well as universal intellectual and moral consequences.
    Our first questions bear on how various nations reacted to these decisions: which nations did react, and according to which parameters.
    The abolitions that took place in the wake of the British decisions must be understood within the frame of a (re)definition of the British nation around the value of Liberty: a question is how did other nations, which had constructed themselves around the notion of Liberty as well - while being involved in the slave trade and slavery -, accommodate British abolition to their own national construction ? Did they withdraw into themselves, as Serge Gadet has shown for France?
    2- WARS, NATIONS, AND ABOLITIONS
    How did the abolition of slavery in the Northern United States (former British colonies) between 1776 and 1804, the 1794 French abolition and the re-establishment of slavery in French possessions in 1802, or the abolition of the slave trade by Denmark in 1803, play a role in the popular, national, and legislative process of abolition in Britain (were there references to France, the United States and Denmark in petitions, legislative debates, and the press? etc.).
    Conversely, one may wonder whether and how the British movement was articulated into other national processes of abolition, in a broad period characterized by wars, then the rise of European and Western nationalisms.
    II- INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS: SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION TO ABOLITION
    Part of this general interrogation is how the British abolitionist impulse spread to the other nations involved in the slave system, including their colonial domains.
    1.THE INTERNATIONAL DIFFUSION OF ABOLITION
    We are interested in investigating the networks through which British ideas and decisions spread: religious societies (Quakers, evangelicals…) as well as philanthropic ones, or free-masonry… It is also necessary to question the resistance to such networks, most specifically nationalist resistance. But other sources of opposition may have existed, such as religious ones (Catholic v. Protestant for example). Finally another dimension of the problem is how abolition spread from a committed elite to the general population (literary circles, workingmen's associations, women's societies…).
    2. THE IMPACT OF ABOLITION ON COLONIAL DOMAINS.
    First we must investigate the nature of the fears created by British abolition in settlers and the ruling colonial elite in general. How did the settlers' national allegiance articulate itself with the perspective and the fact of the abolition of slavery?
    Then did the emergence of forced labour in a renewed colonial context lead to a new affirmation of British liberty by contrast with the practices of other nations in their own colonial domains? More generally one aim of the conference is to ask what role the notion of "liberty" played in national ideology as it applies to the definition of colonization, from the 18th century to the 19th century colonial empires?
    Finally, another question is how local actors, the dominated colonial population, made their voices heard in the face of the national dimension put forward by the various colonial powers?
    III- ABOLITION IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MEMORY AND HERITAGE
    1- BICENTENNIAL COMMEMORATIONS IN GREAT-BRITAIN AND THE WORLD
    A great echo was given to the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade by Great-Britain. Questions to be addressed are: what shapes did this commemoration take, which institutions (museums, research centers, universities) were most involved? What were the main themes of the commemoration and recent historiography? Was the commemoration a key moment in the redefinition of British identity? More generally were abolitions moments of national redefinition? In particular a special emphasis will be put on the connections between the commemoration and current discussions on the notion of Empire inside and outside Britain. Finally one wonders whether the discourse on the Nation in Britain has evolved on the occasion of the bicentennial, to repossess the notion of Liberty in a critical sense and with a universal dimension.
    2- THE COMMEMORATION OF ABOLITION: A BEGINNING OR AN END?
    Can commemoration be seen as the end or the beginning in an international process that largely developed outside continental Europe?
    How do memory processes and commemorations organize themselves around the abolitions of the slave trade and slavery (and how does the commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade turn into an abolition of slavery and why)? Do memory claims support a redefinition of national groups or transnational allegiances, how and in which circumstances?
    Marie-Jeanne Rossignol
    Professor of American Studies
    Institut Charles V, 10 rue Charles V, 75004 Paris
    Fax : +33 1 57 27 58 21 <www.ufr-anglais.univ-paris7.fr>.
    (posted 29 Sep '08)



    Spreading the Written Word in the English-speaking World, 16th-18th Centuries
    University of Mulhouse and University of Strasbourg, France  -  11-13 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 1 September 2008 (closed)
    What might seem a fairly obvious topic inspired by the local Northern European Humanist tradition characteristic of Gutenberg's area of adoption now acquires greater immediacy in a world where the written word is constantly challenged by new media.
    The object of this conference is to provide insight into the significance and circulation of the written text in European culture from the 16th to the 18th century.
    The written word should be understood in its broadest sense, from the most learned humanist tradition (poetry, history, emblem books, translations of the classics, educational, rhetorical and political treatises, theological and philosophical works…) to more popular aspects (romance, novel, ballads, broadsheets and pamphlets, chronicles, histories, lives, vernacular translations of religious texts, travel accounts, emergence of the press…)
    The topic invites us to study the cross-fertilization between written culture and the remanence of non-written tradition (including iconography, music and folklore) of which the theatre is a prime example.
    Guest speakers:
    - Mme le Professeur Suzy Halimi (Université de Paris III)
    - Professor Balz Engler (Basel University)
    Please send your proposals for 20-minute papers in English or in French by September 1, 2008 to:
    Anne BANDRY, EA 3437 ILLE (Institut des langues et littératures européennes), Université de Haute-Alsace, Mulhouse <anne.bandry@uha.fr>
    and
    Jean-Jacques CHARDIN, EA 2325 « Recherches sur le monde anglophone », Université Marc Bloch, Strasbourg:
    <chardin@umb.u-strasbg.fr>.
    (posted 24 Mar '08)



    Ethnic visibility/invisibility in the English Speaking Area
    Université Denis-Diderot (Paris7), France  -  12-13 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 15 June 2008 (closed)
    In the mid-1950s, Hannah Arendt already underlined the existence of 'audible' minorities (new immigrants) as well as of 'visible' minorities (African-Americans) in the USA. In his work Race and Racism (1967), comparing the situation in the USA and in South Africa, Pierre L. van den Berghe made a distinction between the concepts of "race" and "ethnicity'. He contrasted people's "visible", "physical", "innate" or "immutable" characteristics to their purely cultural and/or religious ones, even though he also insisted on the fact that physical distinctions depend on external or internal definitions. In 1988, Milton M. Gordon took up this view while stressing that the physical and cultural differences also rest on the "perception" that individuals have of them.
    Today, the terms "physical", "innate", "immutable", are not in use any longer because they suggest a fixed and "objective" difference redolent of racism and xenophobia. However, the concept of "visibility", which rests on the idea of a culturally shaped sensory perception, has become essential in the English speaking area. Not so in France where the usual Republican discourse, which continually emphasises "ethnic-blindness", has not led to more inclusive practices as far as the so called "coloured population" is concerned. It may be necessary to go back to the sources of racial thought, and in particular to Darwinism or to social Darwinism, to understand this difference in approach between these two cultural areas.
    Without excluding references to other cultural areas which could be used as counterpoints, this conference will attempt to define what is now meant by "ethnic visibility" in the English speaking area. We will pay particular attention to the links between phenotypes and social construction, to the expressions of identity (gender, religious practice, social class, etc.) as well as to the representations of ethnicity (remembrance, history, museography, stereotypes, ethnic groups categorisation in censuses, media, etc.).
    Main fields of research:
    1 - Phenotype and social construction
    2 - Expressions of identity
    3 - Interethnic conflicts
    4 - Representations of ethnicity (remembrance, history, media, statistics, stereotypes, etc.)
    Proposals for papers should not exceed 500 words, and should be sent together with a short bio-bibliographical note. Both should be addressed either to Lucienne Germain <lucienne. germain@univ-paris-diderot.fr>, or to Didier Lassalle <didier.lassalle@wanadoo.fr>, or to Michel Prum <prum.michel@wanadoo.fr>, before 15 June 2008.
    Scientific Committee and Conference Organisation:
    Dr. Florence Binard (Denis-Diderot university-Paris 7)
    Dr. Bénédicte Deschamps (Denis-Diderot university-Paris 7)
    Pr David Fraser (university of Nottingham)
    Pr. Lucienne Germain (Denis-Diderot university-Paris 7)
    Pr Didier Lassalle (university of Orleans)
    Pr. Michel Prum (Denis-Diderot university-Paris 7)
    (posted 8 Apr '08)



    Women and Spirituality
    Université d’Aix-Marseille, France  -  12-13 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 15 November 2008 (closed)
    In international conference organised by LERMA, Université d’Aix-Marseille, in collaboration with Queen Mary University, London, to be held at Aix-en-Provence.
    This conference, focusing on the English-speaking world, will explore the complex relationships between women and spirituality.  Culturally defined by their gender, women occupy an ambiguous place both at the centre and on the margins of the spiritual sphere.  Such ambivalence is palpable in the Judeo-Christian heritage, where virginity and motherhood are valued respectively as badges of purity and fruitfulness, whilst the biological processes which underlie them are considered taboo or impure.  Throughout history, women are in turn represented as inferior, defective creatures or as privileged ‘empty vessels’ in their relationship with the divine. This polarised, dual conception of the nature of woman has influenced the way in which religious institutions, learned writers, or indeed women themselves came to consider the female relationship with the divine.
    We will explore spirituality as a board concept, of which religions are a crucial, visible part but which can also take a variety of pagan or secular forms.  Studies of various aspects of female mysticism, wisdom or contemplation will therefore be appreciated.
    This multi-disciplinary conference welcomes papers belonging, amongst others, to the fields of history, literature and the history of arts. Studies offering a comparative analysis with France will be gladly considered, as will any papers exploring such themes as:
    - The position of religious institutions and religious authorities towards women
    - Female spirituality and the construction of a religious orthodoxy
    - Accounts of female spirituality (autobiographies, diaries, hagiographies, eulogies…)
    - Feminist perspectives, re-membering the history of women’s spirituality
    - The historiography of female spirituality
    - Female bodies and female spiritualities
    - Women and spirituality in fiction and the visual arts
    Proposals (approx. 400 words) to be sent to Dr Laurence Lux-Sterritt <laurence.sterritt@univ-provence.fr> and Dr Claire Sorin <clairesorin@hotmail.com> before 15 November 2008. Languages spoken at the conference will be English and French; papers will not exceed 25 minutes each.
    (posted 10 Jul '08)



    Mobility, movement and transference of cultures and identities in the English-speaking world
    Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France  -  12-13 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 15 January 2009 (closed)
    Exchange and interaction lie at the heart of social and cultural activity. Ever since the Kristevan concept of intertextuality, Gerard Genette's notions of transtextuality and architextuality and the processes of separation and cultural differentiation identified by Fredrik Barth first gained intellectual currency, mobility, transference and movement have played a central role in understanding both social development and cultural and personal exchange with the other.
    The conference will study the different forms of mobility, movement and transference in the fields of the arts, culture, literature, linguistics and society that have marked or which are currently impacting on English-speaking countries. Such interactions may lead to the construction of a canon, doxa or norm, to the establishment of particular cultures and dominant modes of thinking, whilst others conversely find themselves excluded, pushed to the margins of society. Papers may examine the societal and ideological repercussions of the selection, rejection and negotiation of cultures and identities. Ethnic and social dimensions, as well as various forms of migration which encourage exchange, may also be taken into consideration. Issues linked to racism, to the rejection of difference, or conversely to the appropriation of markers of identity, undoubtedly represent a significant aspect of cultural interaction and contribute to establishing the specificity of any given culture or dominant mode of thought.
    Papers of around 20 minutes in length may be given in English or in French, the languages of the conference. Abstracts (in English or French) of around 300 words should be submitted by the 15th January to
    Margaret GILLESPIE <m.gillespie@voila.fr>
    and
    Philippe LAPLACE <philippe.laplace@univ-fcomte.fr>
    (posted 19 Nov '08)



    Constructions of Masculinity in British Literature from the Middle Ages to the Present
    Dresden University of Technology, Germany  -  17-20 June 2009
    Convenor: Prof. Dr. Stefan Horlacher
    Keynote speakers:
    Michael Kimmel (Stony Brook)
    Richard Collier (Newcastle)
    This international, interdisciplinary conference explores the rapidly developing field of masculinity studies specifically with a view to the British literary context. Through recourse to a wide spectrum of theoretical approaches and by providing an extensive historical overview of its literary constructions, the contributions are aimed at elucidating the critical potential and challenging nature of masculinity studies. While the conception, analysis and theory of male identity lies at the heart of the first section of the conference, the second section comprises readings of key literary texts and their constructions of masculinity from the Middle Ages through to the present.
    Speakers confirmed include:
      

    		Rainer Emig Berthold Schoene Fatemeh Hosseini


    		Susanne Scholz
    		Claudia Lainka
    		Christoph Houswitschka


    		Silvia Mergenthal Sebastian Müller
    		Christiane Koch


    		Gabriele Rippl
    		 Thomas Kühn
    		 Sigrun Meinig


    		Ralf Schneider Laurenz Volkmann Andrew James Johnston
    Paper topics include:
  • New Perspectives in Masculinity Studies
  • Masculinity and the Law
  • Masculinity and Queer Studies
  • Robin, Gamelyn and Medieval Masculine Escapism
  • Masculinities in Early Modern England
  • Images of Masculinity in Texts of Early Modern Women
  • Masculinities in Daniel Defoe's Novels
  • Sentimental Masculinity
  • The Weaker Sex: Male Illness in Nineteenth-Century British Literature
  • Concepts of Masculinity in Victorian Crime, Detective and Gothic Fiction
  • Masculinities and the Great War
  • The Rise of the Angry Young Man
  • Gay Men and Romance in Novels by E. M. Forster, Tom Wakefield and Alan Hollinghurst
  • 'Filiarchy' and the Male Principle in the Work of Ian McEwan
    • For further information please contact:
    Prof. Dr. Stefan Horlacher, <stefan.horlacher@mailbox.tu-dresden.de>, Tel.: 0351 463-33848.
    Sponsors: Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung; TU Dresden
    (posted 25 Sep '08)




    Paris and London in Postcolonial Imaginary
    French Institute, London, UK  -  18-19 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 15 March 2008 (closed)
    Paris and London were once the world's largest cities and they still remain metropolises of global reach. When France and Britain withdrew from their colonies, these cities that once ruled the world began to attract expatriates and migrants from various countries. Following the decolonization, the international citizenry of the former empires converged in both cities in a phenomenon called the "reinvasion of the centre" (Ball, 2004). As immigrants started to occupy the centre and thus changed its demographic and cultural constitution, Paris and London came to include a transnational 'world', which is increasingly taking over. This conference proposes to examine the diverse ways in which contemporary Paris and London are experienced and portrayed by their exogenous, first or second generation writers from the 1980s until today. Adopting a comparative approach, it proposes to bring together theorists and practitioners of the contemporary French and English literature with the aim of addressing the postcolonial urban imaginary in which Paris and London prominently feature.
    The use of the term 'postcolonial' might be at first surprising in a comparative perspective as it refers usually to the British colonial experience. Until recently, postcolonial theory has been seen in France as a predominantly "Anglo-Saxon" cultural model, whereas cultural products emerging after the influence of French colonialism have been addressed within the framework of Francophone studies (David Murphy and Charles Forsdick, 2003). In the 1990s and 2000s however, France witnessed the rise of a new interest in the migrant condition, eminently demonstrated by the cultural event "The Foreigner’s Home", organised in autumn 2006 by the Louvre and the Afro-American writer Toni Morrison. As Morrison stated in an interview given to Télérama, the principal aim of this event was to question the key issues of territory, migration, asylum, homeland, otherness and belonging in an increasingly global context. Migrant writers' depiction of postcolonial London has been widely studied and theorized, as well as the discrepancy they create between the proposed model of national cohesion and the diversification from within (McLeod, 2004). In France, where an increasing number of studies have been recently devoted to postcolonial Diaspora writing, the urban imaginary has mainly been addressed with a focus on the 'Beur' movement' (Laronde, 1993) and the Afro-Parisian Diaspora (Cazenave, 2003). While there is an evident parallel between literary representations of postcolonial London and Paris, there are only a few cross-cultural approaches exploring their similarities and differences. The aim of the present conference is to fill this gap by launching a cross-cultural dialogue on London and Paris in postcolonial imaginary in order to defy the national, linguistic and epistemological divide. We propose the following thematic axes:
    1) How is urban space represented?
    The imagery of the postcolonial metropolis is a composite portrait that emerges from fictions about migrants having spent part of their lives dwelling in the city. What are the main characteristics of these spatial representations? What structural similarities or differences can be distinguished in works depicting London / Paris?
    2) How does the repossession of the centre enable exogenous writers to reshape national identity?
    As a result of their position at the crossroads of several geographical and intellectual territories, exogenous writers are uniquely placed to reshape national identities and refashion literary canons. In what ways do these authors contribute to the emergence of new identities, styles and literary models?
    3) How do literary establishments in France and Britain convey access to exogenous writers?
    The presence of exogenous voices within France and Britain and their impact on national canons are becoming more evident. How does this progressive modification of the centre-periphery relations influence in a global context the migrant writers’ access to publication, position in the literary field and opportunity to achieve literary legitimacy?
    Aiming to promote dialogue between scholars, publishers, authors and readers involved in postcolonial urban literature, we are hoping for this conference to offer paper presentations, round table discussions and readings given by writers. Paper proposals should include a short CV and a list of relevant publications attesting a research interest in a field linked with postcolonial London or Paris writing, a 200-word abstract outlining the proposed issue including the name of the studied writers and the chosen thematic axis. Proposals should be sent by email with name, institutional status, address and email address no later than 15 March 2008 to <metropolenetwork@gmail.com>.
    Responsible: Christina Horvath, Senior Lecturer in French, Oxford Brookes University
    For more information on Research Network MetroPole: http://metropolenetwork.blogspot.com/
    (posted 31 Jan '08)



    Thomas Hardy Conference: The Letter
    Université of Rouen, France  -  18-19 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 28 February 2008 (closed)
    This year the theme of the annual Hardy conference is "the letter". The conference this year is organized by CORPUS (Conflits, représentations et dialogues dans l’univers anglo-saxon) at the Université of Rouen.
    Inside the diegesis of Hardy's novels, characters are under the spell of the letter. Some are submitted to the power of the Holy Scriptures. Others are bound by the laws of social life.
    In Jude the Obscure, we are reminded that "the letter killeth". Indeed the letter kills in Hardy's tragic world, often because it becomes "incarnated" in the flesh of human beings. Letters have a literal power, and disasters often result from words being taken to the letter. In other cases, letters are written and sent but never reach their addressees, or are opened by the wrong people, at the wrong time.
    Hardy's texts bear witness to the overwhelming power which the letter exerted on Hardy’s craft - were it only in the obvious sense that it is letters that make up the innumerable texts that he wrote. In novels and short-stories as well as in Hardy's poems, in his letters and essays, the letter is the conveyor of meaning, but it is also a silent trace on the page, the "litter" of language whose materiality deserves all our attention.
    Papers may focus on the letter of the law, of religion, on the materiality of the letter and the literality of meaning, the letter as opposed to or as a conveyor of meaning, the letter as the text or the letter of correspondence, on the Scriptures, on the act of writing, etc.
    Please send your proposals (20 to 50 lines) before 28 February 2009, along with a short biographical note, to:
    Stéphanie Bernard <s.bernard@solidev.org> .
    (posted 22 Sep '08)



    Nation, Immigration and Identity Across the Atlantic: France, Great Britain and the United States in Comparative Perspective
    Université Charles de Gaulle-Lille III, France  -  19-20 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 15 May 2008 (closed)
    The past several years have witnessed a powerful resurgence of nationalism and xenophobia on the political terrains of Europe and the United States. Not merely the extreme right but more centrist political forces appear to have tacitly declared multicultural society a failure, adopting immigration control and law enforcement as hot button issues and largely jettisoning the projects of antiracism and racial integration. Somewhat ironically but not at all coincidentally, this hardening of racial divisions in political discourse and everyday life has occurred in an ideological context marked by notions of colorblindness, tolerance, human rights and civic universality. And yet, despite the claims of those who champion such ideologies, ethnoracial identities are hardly disappearing on either side of the Atlantic; communities and protest movements continue to organize around such identities, appealing both to cultural solidarities as well as to shared experiences of institutional and grassroots racism. Under such circumstances, it has become more important than ever to examine how ethnoracial identities, meanings, and divisions form and function in contemporary metropolitan societies.
    This kind of reflection can be greatly enriched by thinking across national boundaries and placing national histories in comparative perspective - a still underutilized approach in analyses of race, culture, and politics. We are seeking to build upon some of the research currently underway by organizing an international conference that brings together both junior and senior scholars across a range of disciplines whose work contributes to debates surrounding citizenship, postcolonialism, immigration and racialization, and the politics of racial identity in the United States, France, and Great Britain.  Proposals that indicate some effort to bring at least two of the countries into comparative perspective are encouraged. A number of papers will be selected for inclusion in a collective edition to be published by a major press in France in 2010.
    Potential contributors are asked to reflect on any of the following themes:
    - the persistence of a racialized underclass;
    - the structure and meaning of contemporary racism;
    - race, nation and citizenship;
    - the current state of multiculturalism;
    - the politicization of racial and ethnic identities;
    - ethnic mobilizations;
    - universalism and the politics of cosmopolitanism;
    - colorblindness, whiteness, and white racism;
    - the past and future of affirmative action/state anti-discrimination policies;
    - secularism and Islamophobia;
    - culture as a field of power/cultural politics;
    - racism and post-coloniality;
    - the politics of race, class, gender and (trans)nation.
    This conference is organized within the framework of an ANR Project hosted by the Université Charles de Gaulle-Lille III. It will take place in Lille on June 19th and 20th, 2009. Limited funds are available to defray the travel expenses of overseas participants (to be applied for with proposal). The working language for all proposals and presentations is English.
    Interested scholars should send a short curriculum vitae and abstract (maximum 2000 characters, spaces included) to
    <emmanuelle.letexier@univ-lille3.fr> and <andrew.diamond@univ-lille3.fr> by May 15, 2008.
    (posted 28 Jan '08)



    Writing Religion in Early-Modern and Enlightenment Europe: Religious Letters and Correspondence
    University of Montpellier, France  -  19-20 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 30 June 2008 (closed)
    This international conference is organised by IRCL: Centre de Recherches sur la Renaissance, L’Âge Classique et les Lumières (CNRS, UMR 5186) University of Montpellier, France.
    In centuries profoundly marked by intense discussion of religious doctrine, putting one's name to anything could be a hazardous undertaking. The dispatch of a letter, in particular, could be an especially dangerous indiscretion ; entrusted to a carrier, it left the safety of the author’s protection and was vulnerable to interception or misrepresentation, serving as a mute witness to what was construed as (and may indeed have been) deception, treachery or heresy. Often expressing personal commitments that questioned, contradicted or even ridiculed the official positions of governments and churches, letters were often poised uneasily between the public and the private domain. Many different motives were involved in their dispatch.
    Letters are therefore key documents for the study of religious communication, feeling and piety in Early-Modern and Enlightenment Europe. This conference will examine epistolary writing from c. 1600-1800, focusing on correspondence in which the writers explore their religious commitments and doubts, and investigating the way letters served as the principal means of communication between the members of the clergy and believers, and between believers and the Churches.
    Papers in the following areas are particularly welcome :
    – the nature of letters : pastoral letters, prison letters, patent letters, mission letters, scientific letters, public, private or fictional correspondence
    – relationships between writers : letters between Churches, letters from ministers to their flocks, letters from the ecclesiastical hierarchy (either papal, episcopal, synodal) to the clergy, religious correspondence between believers
    – the role of the letters : daily communication about the affairs of the Church, spiritual counsel, cases of conscience, questions of discipline, letters as testimonies to private conversion, letters as vehicle for religious orthodoxy and heterodoxy
    – the epistolary models : Pauline writings, Classical, Patristic and Reformed models
    – the circulation of manuscript letters in Europe
    – the transmission of the letters by private agents, traders, hawkers
    – censorship : spying and the interception of letters, strategies to avoid censorship such as codes and ciphers
    – the passage from script to print : the cultural intermediaries, the role of the book-trade, the translation of letters, the change of contents between manuscript and printed text
    – the status of « silence » : the interruption of correspondence
    – challenges for the scholar : how to study religious correspondence in Early-Modern and Enlightenment Europe
    Proposals for 30-minute papers (in English or French) should be sent before 30th June 2008 to the conveners :
    Anne Dunan-Page <anne.page@univ-montp3.fr> and Clotilde Prunier <clotilde.prunier@univ-montp3.fr>.
    Selected contributors will be notified by 30th September 2008.
    (posted 24 Mar '08)



    'The Bridegroom cometh!': Prophets and prophecy in the long eighteenth century
    Nottingham Trent University (Clifton campus), UK  -  24 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 6 April 2009 (closed)
    Confirmed Plenary Speaker: Professor Phyllis Mack (Rutgers University)
    This interdisciplinary conference aims to provide an opportunity for scholars to re-evaluate the role of prophets and prophecy in the long eighteenth century. Some major figures are well known (Jane Lead, William Blake, Richard Brothers, and Joanna Southcott), but others are still emerging (Dorothy Gott, Samuel Spavold, Samuel Best - a.k.a. 'Poor Help'). Perhaps their most immediate point of interest today arises from their blend of religious appropriation, personal charisma and propensity to gather bands of dedicated followers through their personal interactions and spiritual interpretations as circulated in their writings. While individual prophets are distinctive, their collective works and ministries present some of the most visible ways in which religion impacted on contemporary social groups, such as through publicity, self-promotion, authorship, publication, scriptural authority, visual and material cultural, and patronage.
    The conference invites proposals for 20 minute papers (300 words abstracts) on issues such as (but not confined to):
        * Enthusiasm and enlightenment
        * Role of personal charisma
        * Gender and prophecy
        * Prophecy and prophetic traditions
        * Scriptural sources and prophecy
        * Prophetic diversity
        * The management, mechanics and economics of prophetic movements
        * Prophecy and oral/print/visual culture
        * Visionary processes
        * Prophecy and class
        * Communicating the esoteric
        * Prophetic afterlives
        * Prophecy and the body
        * Prophecy and dissent
        * Prophetic language/linguistics.
    The "Bridegroom Cometh!" conference is an activity within the Dorothy Gott project based at NTU and supported by the Panacea Society.
    If you are interested in our event, please send 300 word abstracts to <nancy.cho@ntu.ac.uk> and/or <david.worrall@ntu.ac.uk> by 6 April 2009.
    To register interest and obtain registration details, please use the same email addresses.
    (posted 23 Mar '09)



    Ambiguity
    Ružomberok, Slovakia  -  24-26 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 15 December 2008 (closed)
    The Faculty of Arts and Letters of the Catholic University in Ružomberok invite papers for an International Conference on the theme of "Ambiguity," in Ružomberok, Slovakia, from 24 - 26 June 2009.
    The organizers hope to receive proposals from all relevant disciplines, including, but not limited to, literature, linguistics, rhetoric, history, philosophy, culture, and literary criticism.
    Paper titles, 250-300 word abstracts (for 15 minute papers), and 150 word bio-sketches should be sent to Dr. Janka Kaščáková at <kascakova@fphil.ku.sk> by 15 December 2008.
    Decisions will be announced by 15 February 2009.
    Publication possibilities will be of three kinds: commercial publication, publication by the University, and publication on the internet. All papers submitted for publication will be subject to double blind peer review.
    For additional information, see the official website at http://ff.ku.sk/ambiguity
    (posted 2 Nov '08)



    Artists' Words & Writers' Images
    College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Ma, USA  -  24-26 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 1 February 2009 (closed)
    Abstracts are solicited for An International Word & Image INTERFACES Conference, organized jointly by The College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass (USA) and Université Paris Diderot, France.
    The focus of the conference will be on practitioners of the verbal and plastic arts and the significance of their sister practices in their works.
    The conference organizers are open to a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches as well as diverse disciplines and fields of study; preferred, however, are presentations which focus on the link between verbal and non-verbal representation. The topic of the conference will allow for a rich interdisciplinary approach of all the possibilities it offers within a strict "Word & Image perspective."
    Abstracts and papers can be submitted in French or English.
    This event is sponsored by the international French/English journal INTERFACES, the University of Paris Diderot, and the College of the Holy Cross. Papers submitted for the conference will be considered for publication in INTERFACES.
    Abstracts deadline is February 1, 2009.
    Send abstracts to:
    Frédéric Ogée <frederic.ogee@univ-paris-diderot.fr> / Maurice Geracht <mgeracht@holycross.edu>.
    (posted 3 Nov '08)



    The New Exotic? Postcolonialism and Globalization
    University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand  -  24-26 June, 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 15 April 2009 (closed)
    The coference is organised by the Postcolonial Studies Research Network, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
    Keynote Speakers:
    Professor Robert J.C. Young, New York University
    Professor Graham Huggan, University of Leeds
    Associate Professor Susie O'Brien, McMaster University.
    Postcolonial theory and criticism have consistently pointed to the exploitative and oppressive effects of exoticism in relation to the (post)colonised world: where Edward Said's account of orientalism as a mode of perception facilitated extensive postcolonial critiques of colonial as well as more recent constructions of 'the exotic,' contemporary work also takes account of the global late-capitalist system in which these exoticist discourses circulate. However, while the notion of the exotic has been subjected to rigorous postcolonial critique, it persists in both popular and institutional constructions of culture and cultural difference. Is this the persistence of old exoticisms, or are there new forms, objects, modes of circulation?
    An exoticist perspective constitutes 'the other' as the domesticated and known other, positing the lure of difference while assimilating its object to the circuits of consumption (of ideas, experiences, objects, images, and so on). It constructs the other, or projects otherness, from the point of view of the hegemonic Same, the known, the familiar. What, then, is the fate of the other, of otherness? As the global economy has shifted towards an emphasis on consumption, information, services and experiences - such as tourism, domestic or abroad - and towards a need to market not only products but even nations for 'difference', we are daily addressed through, and incited to participate in, exoticist discourses. Even postcolonial practices in teaching and research are susceptible to complicity with the exoticism it supposedly critiques.
    This conference seeks to investigate the various ways exoticism functions across a wide range of social, political, cultural and ecological domains. We ask such questions as: Why do exoticist practices and discourses persist in the face of postcolonial critique? Are these discourses sustained and circulated through old or new mechanisms? Is there, perhaps, anything enabling or agential for the (post)colonised in mobilising discourses of the exotic? How can places, foods, fashion and experiences continue to be marketed as 'exotic,' or through appeal to 'the exotic,' despite a growing awareness of the dangers of such marketing? What politics underlie the embrace or proscription of exotic plants and animals; how do nostalgia, aesthetics, ecology, environmentalism and bio-security inflect these stances? Who, what or where are the new objects of exoticist discourses? How has exoticism inflected discourses of sexuality? How does exoticism signify differently through trans-national communications circuits and flows of images and products, and at nation-state borders? How does globalisation point to both total access and knowability, and the allure of exotic otherness? What other forms of otherness remain possible within this politico-semiotic economy? How does exoticism relate to the increasing hybridity of populations and cultures, as well as plant and animal biological forms? After colonial discourses of degeneration with transplantation of 'exotics', what discourses pertain today relating to ‘transplantation’, to subjects of migration and diaspora? Have practices in postcolonial studies theory and research overcome the complicity of that field with notions of exoticism, or do they continue to underlie or haunt the field?
    We invite 20-minute papers or panels of up to three 20-minute papers from across the disciplines, including interdisciplinary work, that address any aspect of the topic of the postcolonial exotic, such as:
    The persistence of colonial forms of exoticism, or exoticist practices, discourses
    The contemporary emergence of new forms, practices or discourses of exoticism
    The adequacy or otherwise of postcolonial theory or critique to intervene in and subvert exoticist discourses
    Contemporary circuits of exoticist representations
    Exoticism and indigeneity
    The relation of exoticism to other forms of difference, otherness
    The politics of the exotic as applied to plants and animals
    Desires or affects of the exotic; exoticism/eroticism; fetishism
    Banal vs. spectacular exoticism
    How exoticism articulates race/racism, or nation/nationalism/culture
    The place of exoticism in postcolonial studies teaching and research
    Please send abstracts of up to 500 words and a short bio. note (panels should submit an abstract and bio. note for each paper) to Dr Chris Prentice <chris.prentice@stonebow.otago.ac.nz> by 15 April, 2009.
    (posted 2 Mar '09)



    Color: Between Silence and Eloquence
    Sorbonne (Université Paris 3),  France  -  25-26 June 2009
    Deadine for proposals: 28 February 2009 (closed)
    SAIT and the Sorbonne invite proposals for their international, interdisciplinary conference on "Color: Between Silence and Eloquence" in Paris on June 25-26, 2009.
    One of the two days will open with a plenary conference by Jacqueline Lichtenstein, Professor of Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art at the Paris-Sorbonne University.
    "Color is the material in, or rather of, painting, the irreducible component of representation that escapes the hegemony of language, the pure expressivity of a silent visibility that constitutes the image as such" Jacqueline Lichtenstein (The Eloquence of Color)
    Following up on the analysis of text-and-image relationships as initiated in the previous conferences on art writing, the 2009 international SAIT conference will focus on color, envisaged as a transversal theme lending itself to a multidisciplinary exploration in perspectives which may be historical, artistic, philosophical, literary and/or linguistic. The goal of this conference is to analyze the role of color not only in the visual arts - painting, sculpture, photography, and the cinema - but also in texts, literary or theoretical, by taking the question of meaning and representation down to its very limits, the ineffable. As a trace irreducible to language, a mark, a spot, or a flash of light which resists both verbalization and the capture of the gaze, color makes the (visual or textual) work of art oscillate between form and lack of form, between the figurative and the figural, the visible and the invisible, the readable and the unreadable, between eloquence and silence. Moreover, the ambivalence of color between light and matter conjures up both the optical and the haptical function of the gaze, both the eye and the hand, the sight and the touch in a dialectical to-and-fro movement corresponding to two modes of viewing and apprehending the text. We welcome submissions which relate color in art and color in texts, since it is at the junction between art, literature, and the discourse on art that colorist aesthetics came into being (see Jacqueline Lichtenstein, The Eloquence of Color, The Blind Spot), from the Ancient quarrel between drawing and color (as early as in Plato's Cratylus) to the liberation of color with the Modernists, via the famous conflict between Poussinists and Rubenists. Along those lines, submissions may also examine the latent or patent manifestations of the often overlooked, and yet, omnipresent ambivalence of color between an intellectual, cerebral, rational, spiritual, purified, and dematerialized pole (austere and mystical conception of color) and an unbridled, sensual, ludic, impulsive, naturalistic and anti-conformist pole (sensual and libertine conception of color). We invite contributors to analyze the ways in which color can open a gap in the image by tearing its legible surface and leaving in it a remainder or a vacant space, as well as the ways in which color, the untamable, eludes "obedience to words" (see Jean-Pierre Guillerm), or is used by some writers to transcend generic boundaries, and in particular to break the limits between the verbal and the visual. Within this view of color as silent inscription, one may consider the specificity of white, as both the arch expression of the inherent silence of colors and a metaphor of the writer's block, and black, as both the saturation of meaning and a metaphor of opacity and nonsense.
    Topics may include, but are not limited to:
    - Color and the Discourse on Art
    - Color and Literature
    - Color and the Visual Arts
    - Color and Music
    - Color and Architecture
    - Color and Language
    - The History of Color
    Please send a 250-word abstract and a short 100-word biography as a Word attachment to:
    Laurence Petit: <laurence.petit@univ-lyon2.fr> or <laurence.petit@ccsu.edu>
    and
    Murielle Philippe: <murielle.philippe@u-paris10.fr>.
    Submissions must be received by February 28th, 2009.
    Registration form and more information available on the website of SAIT:
    http://www.textesetsignes.org/colloque.html
    (posted 13 Jan '09)



    The Critic as Artist / The Artist as Critic
    University of Lancaster, UK  -  27 June 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 28 November 2008 (closed)
    A one-day conference organized by the Department of English and Creative Writing, University of Lancaster.
    Plenary speakers:
    critic: Valentine Cunningham (Oxford)
    poet: Paul Farley (Lancaster)
    We invite papers and/or readings that would in one way or another explore or enact what it might now mean to fuse literary criticism and creative writing - or, if you will, the work of the critic and that of the artist. Each speaker will share a 90-minute session with two others, thus allowing 20 minutes for each presentation plus 30 minutes for discussion. All papers/presentations will be considered for inclusion in an edited volume of writings to be published as part of Sussex Academic Press's series 'critical inventions':
    http://www.sussex-academic.co.uk/sa/titles/SS_Critical/_critical.htm
    Proposals (c.300 words) to Professor John Schad <j.schad@lancaster.ac.uk>
    Deadline: November 28th 2008
    Fee (includes lunch, coffee, tea): £30 (speakers); others: £15 (salaried), £10 (unsalaried)
    The day will conclude with a wine reception sponsored by Sussex Academic Press.
    (posted 19 Jul '08)



    The Cormac McCarthy Society Conference 2009
    The CAPITAL Centre, University of Warwick, UK  -  28 June-1 July 2009
    Deadline for proposals: 30 November 2008 (closed)
    The Cormac McCarthy European Conference 2009 will bring together academics from around the globe for a series of papers, workshops and seminars dealing with all aspects of Cormac McCarthy's work, including fiction, criticism, stage and film.
    Proposals are now invited for short papers (20 minutes), panels, seminars and workshops. Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to:
    Nicholas Monk (Warwick) <nicholas.monk@warwick.ac.uk>
    Rick Wallach (Cormac McCarthy Society) <rwallach@bellsouth.net>
    Further enquiries may be directed to either organiser.
    We particularly welcome proposals for interactive or enactive sessions. The CAPITAL Centre (Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning) is a centre for innovative teaching and includes rooms suited to workshop / practical work as well as traditional papers.
    Pete Kirwan
    Office Manager
    The CAPITAL Centre
    Millburn House, Millburn Hill Road
    University of Warwick Science Park
    Coventry CV4 7HS
    <Peter.Kirwan@warwick.ac.uk>
    Tel. +44 2476 150377
    Fax +44 2476 150470
    http://go.warwick.ac.uk/capital
    CAPITAL: Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning
    Conference website: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/capital/cormac/
    (posted 9 Jul '08)


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