Call for Papers for a special issue of Comparative American Studies: American Networks: Radicals Under the Radar (1868-1968) Networks are the life-blood of many collaborative artistic and political movements. The aim of this special issue is to explore the confluence of American art and radicalism transnationally in the hundred-year lead up to 1968, a high-point in radical artistic and political expression. In focusing on the precursors to this watershed, its editors seek essays that investigate American networks and challenge conventional scholarship about the makeup, shape and associations of such artistic and political collaboration. Affiliations between American artists and radical thinkers have led to paradigm shifts that have changed world history. Communists, Wobblies, revolutionaries, socialists, Fabianists, Pan-Africanists, Pan-Americanists, revolutionaries, anarchists, political exiles and Garveyites all played their role in shaping American literature, art and politics. Whether such networks existed in tangible social enclaves—homes, bars, cafés, offices and neighbourhoods—or virtually in an […]

Studying the South: Approaches and Orientations A one-day colloquium organised by the Southern Studies in the UK Network (www.ssukn.com) 26th August 2017, University of Hertfordshire Studies of the U.S. South have radically changed across the last century, and especially so in the twenty-first. As Michael Bibler (2016) has argued recently, southern studies scholars “begin with the assumption that there’s no such thing as a solid South. We are interested in all kinds of Souths, bringing a dazzling range of theoretical approaches” to the region. This one-day colloquium will explore the variety of perspectives or “orientations” (Bibler) that open up discussion of the U.S. South today. Where historically the South has been considered as the “nation’s region” (in Leigh Ann Duck’s words), southern studies scholars see the region in smaller and larger scales and frames. The South can be read in relation to other American regions like the West or Midwest; it can be thought […]

The Apollonian Vol. 4, Issue 3 (September 2017) Special Issue on Troubled Identity and the Continuing Relevance of Cultural Studies Deadline: 1 June 2017 Guest edited by Jonathan Wright and Susan Flynn (London College of Communication, University of the Arts, London) Our increased attention with new forms of citizenship, changing social landscapes and emergent sets of social relations suggest that Cultural Studies and its analyses of cultural products must rapidly evolve in order to stay relevant.  Our visions of the future seem to be replete with fears of new social realities; new media technologies call us to question privacy, location, marginality, the ability to relate meaningfully with others, and the unequal distribution of material wealth. Are Cultural Studies equipped to deal with the theorization of these new realities? Popular culture would have us believe that traditional identity categories are undergoing profound changes; gendered norms are called into question, the structure of the conventional […]

CFP: Social Cohesion in Times of Uncertainty, 24-25 September 2017 The annual Cumberland Colloquium stimulates discussion on areas of pressing social and ethical importance. This year’s theme is ‘Social Cohesion in Times of Uncertainty’. We live in an increasingly uncertain world. In recent years we have seen a chain of overlapping and intersecting crises – from the financial crisis to the refugee crisis, the ecological crisis and the crisis of liberal democracy. These crises pull us unevenly in every direction: pressing strangers together and pulling neighbours apart, creating new forms of hate and new forms of kinship. In these uncertain times, what are the prospects for social cohesion? How do we make sense of these issues from diverse disciplinary positions and professional backgrounds, and where are the commonalities between our understandings? We welcome proposals for presentations of research papers, roundtable discussions, film screenings and other events, from both academics (of all disciplinary backgrounds) and practitioners interested in social cohesion, broadly conceived, from community volunteers to […]

Exploring Identity: Between Being and Belonging AHRC NWCDTP Postgraduate Conference 2017 Dates: 25-26 October 2017 Venue: The University of Liverpool and FACT The AHRC North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership is delighted to announce that this year’s postgraduate conference, Exploring Identity: Between Being and Belonging, will be hosted by The University of Liverpool and FACT on Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th October 2017. The conference aims to bring together postgraduate researchers and academic staff in the Arts and Humanities to explore the concept of ‘identity’ from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives. Scholars, performers and creative practitioners are invited to reflect on ‘identity’, as representing a stable condition of being, a collective notion of belonging, and a continual process of becoming, in the light of current, progressively challenging contexts. This interdisciplinary conference seeks to examine the concept of ‘identity’ against this backdrop as it manifests across literature, language, and culture. We […]

Deadline for submissions: July 1, 2017 Full name/name of organization: Jody Baumgartner, editor Contact email: ABCCLIOSATIRE@GMAIL.COM Seeking contributors for ABC-CLIO’s two-volume forthcoming encyclopedia, “American Political Humor: Masters of Satire and Their Impact on U.S. Policy and Culture.” This two volume set, due out in the fall of 2019, will have a total of approximately 110 profiles, 2,000 words in length, of important individuals or media outlets (specific magazines, television shows, websites, and specific vehicles of political humor). These will be divided into 12 chronological chapters. In exchange for agreeing to contribute, all authors will have complimentary e-book access to the set and an ABC-CLIO gift card worth $100 as a token of appreciation. The complete list of the topics to be covered in the encyclopedia can be found at http://satire.jodyb.net (entries that are already “claimed” are in strike-out, italicized text). If you are interested, send an email to ABCCLIOSATIRE@GMAIL.COM listing […]