For the 2021 BAAS Postgraduate Symposium, we invite proposals from postgraduates and early career researchers across all disciplines and time periods that reflect aspects of the theme, Visibility/Invisibility: Representation & Community Formation in American Studies.

The past two years have seen a renewed visibility of global activist movements, and we aim to both analyse how we as a community unearth narratives historically excluded from mainstream understanding, including how our work has been informed by recent sociopolitical, cultural, and economic movements working to amplify marginalised voices and perspectives. We seek to answer the following questions: what do we understand by the terms  ‘visibility/invisibility? How might gatekeeping and canonical understanding affect communities, representation, and our understanding of these terms? How does this impact the content of our research and our methodologies? How do we ensure the visibility of systematically minoritised voices? Is visibility/invisibility truly binary, and if so, how does this duality frame our research practices? How do we approach visual culture, employ multimedia techniques, and find alternative meanings in canonical texts?

We welcome the submission of both individual papers and complete thematic panels of three researchers. Individual presentations should be approximately 20 minutes long, and panel submissions should not exceed 90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A portion. We would also like to encourage submissions that encompass innovative and interactive formats, including but not limited to, collaborative roundtables, multimedia presentations (particularly visual/creative presentations and accompanying short papers), and experimental formats such as workshops.

The deadline for submissions is Sunday 14th November 2021. Please send proposals including a title, an abstract (up to 250 words), and a short biography (up to 100 words) to baaspgsymposium2021@gmail.com. If submitting a collaborative proposal, please ensure each presenter includes an individual proposal and an additional statement (up to 250 words) detailing the aim of the panel.

For further information and updates about this year’s symposium, follow us on Twitter @PGBAAS2021 or contact us at baaspgsymposium2021@gmail.com.