The Journal of Festive Studies, a new peer-reviewed journal published under the auspices of the H-Celebration network, invites submissions for its first issue, scheduled for March 2018. The journal’s stated aim is to draw together all academics who share an interest in festivities, including but not limited to holiday celebrations, family rituals, carnivals, religious feasts, processions and parades, and civic commemorations. The editors in chief -- Dr. Ellen Litwicki, Professor of History at the State University of New York at Fredonia and Dr. Aurélie Godet, Associate Professor of US History at Paris Diderot University -- welcome submissions of original research and analysis from both established and emerging scholars worldwide. Besides traditional academic essays, authors may submit video and photo essays, archival notes, opinion pieces, as well as contributions that incorporate digital media such as visualizations and interactive timelines and maps. Academic essays should be between 6,000 and 12,000 words; other pieces should be between 2,000 and […]

Doing Women's Film and Television History IV: Calling the Shots – Then, Now, and Next May 23 – 25, 2018 University of Southampton, UK Organising team: Shelley Cobb, Linda Ruth Williams, and Natalie Wreyford As researchers of the AHRC-funded project Calling the Shots: Women and Contemporary UK Film Culture 2000-2015 we are proud to host the fourth International Doing Women's Film and Television History conference in association with the Women’s Film and Television History Network – UK/Ireland. The focus for DWFTH-IV is predicated on the idea of the contemporary as an historical formation. The conference will offer a space to think about the interconnectedness of the past, present and future in feminist historiography and theory, as well as across all forms of women’s film culture and film and television production. It will also consider women’s film and television histories and their relationships with the contemporary, framed and read historically, to […]

Edited Collection: Gender, Sexuality and Queer Identities in American Horror Story Editors: Harriet Earle, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Jessica Clark, University of Suffolk, UK This call for papers seeks submissions that engage with the television series American Horror Story (produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk) as part of an edited collection on the theme of gender, sexuality and queer identity. Over seven seasons (so far), American Horror Story has received massive popular and academic interest for its bold and often apposite reworkings of a wide range of cultural tropes and folk stories, set against uniquely American backgrounds and played out through a distinct cast of characters. The series has included many nuanced – and also problematic – representations of sexuality and queer identities, as well as brought into question culturally entrenched issues of heteronormativity and mononormativity. Papers should be between 7000-8000 words and the deadline for final submission is 31stJanuary 2018. Papers should be […]

Special Issue of Southern Quarterly Call for Papers: Replaying Gone with the Wind and the New Souths Editor: Philip C. Kolin, The University of Southern Mississippi Publication Schedule: Volume 55, nos. 3/4 (Spring/Summer 2018) Submission Deadline: 15 November 2017 The Southern Quarterly invites submission of original essays, 20 to 30 pages, for a special double issue on Replaying Gone with the Wind: Voices of the New Souths to be edited by Philip C. Kolin. We would like to receive manuscripts that explore this iconic film in light of adaptations/parodies; post-South and postmodern readings; responses to the film from reviewers and famous writers in non-English speaking countries; Southern foodways; the film and World War II; the ways the film has been translated into or reinterpreted in other media including music, art, dance, photography; recasting gender/racial roles; etc. The journal welcomes contributions from a variety of disciplines, unpublished interviews, and related archival […]

As our current political and cultural climate elucidates, the modern world has become increasingly fascinated by surveillance systems. Popular television series’ such as Westworld and The Handmaid’s Tale speak of our fears of being controlled by those watching us, whilst remastered movies such as Blade Runner 2049 harness our inherent desire for, and ultimate reliance upon, technology’s advancement. The systems of hypersurveillance shored up in these examples demonstrate not only our Orwellian fear of being immersed in such systems, but also our active participation in their creation and perpetuation. In both examples, it is the architectural frames and division of boundaries which plays a fundamental part in controlling and dominating the individual. Westworld’s Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) controls his androids and their ‘roles’ via the vast network system at Westworld’s headquarters, which in turn controls the space of the ‘game’; Offred is controlled by Gilead’s network of spies and informers, […]

Writing, the State, and the Rise of Neo-Nationalism: Historical Contexts and Contemporary Concerns  In January 1868, John William De Forest took to the pages of The Nation with a call that would resound over the next century and a half: the writing of the "Great American Novel." In so doing, he asserted both the shaping force of the nation on the arts, and the importance of the arts for the national imaginary. On the sesquicentennial of De Forest's essay, the College of General Studies at Boston University will host a conference to explore the broader intersection of writing and the nation. This conference will meet on Boston University’s campus in London, England, on June 30, 2018. The conference will feature a keynote address by Daniel Karlin, Winterstoke Professor of English at the University of Bristol. The exigency of ongoing scholarly consideration of the relation between the nation and writing could not be […]

Call for Papers: The Cartographic Imagination: Art, Literature and Mapping in the United States, 1945-1980 A two-day international conference funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art, in conjunction with the Centre for American Studies at the University of Kent and the Départment d’Etudes Anglophones at the University of Strasbourg. Dates: 18-19 May 2018 Venue: Reid Hall, 4 Rue de Chevreuse, 75006, Paris, France Organizers: Monica Manolescu (University of Strasbourg); Will Norman (University of Kent) Keynote speakers: Pamela Lee (Stanford University), David Herd (University of Kent) and Stephen Collier (Simon Fraser University) This conference investigates spatial representations and practices in postwar US literature and art, and their intersection with mapping. We are particularly interested in the ways in which American space is constructed, imagined, reconfigured, displaced, and questioned in writing and in artistic form. The conference will examine the specificity of the literary and artistic appropriation of cartographic tropes, as well as […]

43rd Annual Conference of the British Association for Canadian Studies, Senate House, London/ 19-21 April 2018 Keynote: Professor Margaret Macmillan 2018 - A Century Later: Memory, Remembrance and Change  On the centenary of the end of the First World War, BACS’ 2018 Annual Conference will look beyond the war itself, at its impact upon Canada, engagement with and use of memory, and Canada’s place in the wider world. Change in the past century will very much be explored in the broader context of today’s Canada and its future. We are extremely pleased to announce that we will have Professor Margaret Macmillan as one of our keynotes. As per usual practice, therefore, papers addressing other themes in Canadian Studies will be very welcome, including those that look at the 50th Anniversary of Pierre Elliott Trudeau becoming prime minister and Canada’s role in the ever-shifting politics of 21st century North America. The organisers of […]