The 2015 Triennial Conference of the Society for the Study of American Women Writers.

The strength of the society is rooted in the dynamic ideas and research accomplishments of its members, which the 2015 conference continues to facilitate and honor. As in the past, however, the organisers would also like to take the opportunity that the conference affords to create discussions and conversations around a shared theme, which we have designated as

Liminal Spaces, Hybrid Lives.

The terms liminality and hybridity are most familiar in post-colonial contexts; however, they suggest critical concepts that draw on multiple disciplines and privilege inclusion. Often informed by notions of crossing, intersectionality, transition, and transformation, these terms contest exclusionary practices involving class, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, and sex, among other variables. The word “limen,” from which liminality derives, designates threshold. The threshold functions simultaneously as both an obstructive barrier and an enticing opening for the entry into unknown, perhaps unknowable states that invite exploration. Both spatial and temporal, the liminal is a site of in-betweenness enabling non-normative perspectives. It is a site where difference becomes encounter as well as a location that resists assimilation while simultaneously allowing for the dynamic possibilities of fusion that hybridity embraces and articulates.

With the theme of “Liminal Spaces, Hybrid Lives,” the 2015 Triennial SSAWW Conference aims to celebrate the multiplicity of American women’s writing across a longstanding literary tradition that continues to be dynamic in contemporary times. The conference theme of liminality and hybridity, and the wide range of implications and meanings that these expansive concepts imply, will facilitate a process of encounters, engagements, and conversations within, between, among, and across the rich polyphony that constitutes the creative acts of American women.

Please direct questions about the conference to: ssaww2015.query@gmail.com

The organisers look to the 2015 conference to carry forward past achievements, and to create present and future opportunities for the growth of the Society and all its members with the understanding that inclusivity, in all its forms, intellectual rigor, and supportive outlooks are the responsibility of the entire membership. We look forward to hearing from you and receiving your submissions.

Conference Organizers:
Rita Bode (rbode@trentu.ca), VP of Organizational Matters and Conference Director
Dick Ellis (r.j.ellis@birmingham.ac.uk), President
Beth L. Lueck (lueckb@uww.edu), Associate Conference Director
Miranda Green-Barteet (mgreenb6@uwo.ca), Conference Program Coordinator
Leslie Allison (leslie.allison@temple.edu), Conference Grad Assistant
Rickie-Ann Legleitner