Keywords
Nineteenth-Century American Studies in the Twenty-First Century
University of Warwick, 6-7 November 2015

Keynote Speaker: Susan Gillman (University of California, Santa Cruz)

The second biennial BrANCA symposium aims to be a ‘state-of-the-field’ event that brings together researchers, writers, teachers and students to discuss the most pressing topics and concepts currently animating nineteenth-century American literary and cultural studies.

The symposium will be organised around a series of ‘keyword’ sessions. These sessions will allow those working in the field to share perspectives and debate the significance of the keyword in question: its meanings and implications, its challenges and problems, and how it informs and shapes our collective understanding of the American nineteenth century.

The organisers therefore invite proposals – from individuals or from groups – to participate in one of the keyword sessions. This can either be from the list below or, in the case of collaborations between two or more people, a keyword of your own choosing. Each session will consist of 4-5 main participants who, in the lead-up to the conference, will work together to collectively decide the format they wish to use: a standard panel, a series of pre-circulated position papers, a roundtable discussion, a workshop, or some combination of these and other formats.

Proposals are invited to participate in one of the following sessions:

Capital                                         Abolition
Work                                            Sensation
Race                                              World
Modernity                                 Ecology
Time                                              Utopia
Print                                              Crisis

The organisers also welcome collaborative proposals for sessions on keywords not listed here. Questions to consider include:

• Which keywords serve as the most useful touchstones for facilitating radical explorations in nineteenth-century American Studies?

• What omissions or silences in the field require present attention? What is nineteenth-century American Studies, as currently constituted, unable to articulate or address?

• Given the shift of the university model toward profit maximization as an overriding goal, how should scholars in the field respond?

Your expression of interest should include a brief CV and a short statement on why that keyword is important to your current research. In the case of groups proposing sessions, these may be done as a joint proposal, listing the names of the participants, their affiliations and status, and a rationale for why your session’s keyword is important.

There will be a reduced registration rate for postgraduates and those employed on temporary teaching contracts. In addition, the organisers are able to offer a limited number of postgraduate awards to allay some of the cost of registration and travel/accommodation; if you would like to be considered for one of these awards please indicate this on your proposal.

Please send any queries and proposals to branca1865@gmail.com or Mark Storey at M.J.Storey@warwick.ac.uk

The deadline for receipt of proposals is July 17th 2015.