CFP: Straight to the Front Row: Investigating Contemporary Western Gay Male Cinema Conference to be held at the University of Northampton (UK) 16/02/2019 – 17/02/2019 From Weekend (dir. Andrew Haigh, 2011) to Call me By Your Name (dir. Luca Guadagnino, 2017), from God’s Own Country (dir. Francis Lee, 2017) to Moonlight (dir. Barry Jenkins, 2016) and Love, Simon (dir. Greg Berlanti, 2018), contemporary Western gay male cinema has endured a shift in both representational strategies and a boom in popularity within both mainstream and independent spheres, since 2010. ‘Western gay male cinema’, more specifically, refers to cinema that features a gay male protagonist, has narrative themes that relate to gay male identities and films that are primarily produced for gay male audiences. Prior to 2010, there have been Western gay male films that have been significant in either their representations or their popularity (ranging from the films that centred on gay men in New Queer Cinema to films such as Brokeback […]

2019 HOTCUS Winter Symposium: “Nuclear States": Science, Technology, and American Society in the Atomic Age University of Lincoln  February 16th 2019 Plenary Speaker: Dr Audra Wolfe University of Pennsylvania In August 2017 President Donald Trump tweeted that if North Korea continued its path of missile development than it would be “met with fire and fury the likes of which the world has never seen”. This aggressive rhetoric, coupled with Trump’s subsequent withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear agreement, acted as a stark reminder for citizens of the United States and the world beyond of the continuing apocalyptic potential of nuclear technologies. Americans have lived with the shadows cast by the bomb on American politics, society and culture, alongside more affirmative visions of ‘free energy,’ ‘plowshares’, medical applications, and scientific advance for seventy years. As Trump’s fiery rhetoric revives Cold War concerns about nuclear doom, the time is ripe for historians to […]

The 64th BAAS Annual Conference, University of Sussex 25-27 April 2019, University of Sussex Keynote Speakers: Barbara Savage (University of Pennsylvania/University of Oxford), Robyn Weigman (Duke University), Jonathan Bell (UCL) Conference Themes Proposals are welcomed on any subject in American Studies, and submissions are particularly welcome that address our two broad themes: LGBTQ+ History. Inspired by the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots and the heritage of the Brighton area, the conference welcomes submissions relating to the American sexuality, civil rights and sexual dissidence. Activism and Radical Thought. Inspired equally by the East Sussex career of Thomas Paine, we also encourage papers exploring the history and culture of radical thought and activism from all sides of the political spectrum. Submission Guidelines Given the size and scope of the conference, we will give preference to fully formed panel proposals, but will also accept individual paper proposals where possible. All individual […]