The American New Wave: A Retrospective An International Conference to be held at Bangor University, North Wales 4 th -6 th July 2017. In 1967, amidst the dying embers of the old studio system, two films were released that extinguished them apparently for good. Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate suggested the nascent promise of an American New Wave, as directors were emboldened by the collapse of the Production Code; inspired by the stylistic flourishes and narrative seriousness of their European counterparts; carried along by the youthful revolutionary fervour embodied by the optimism of the Civil Rights Movement and protests against the Vietnam War, and granted a creative freedom unheard of in Hollywood as producers and executives floundered desperately for the next big hit after a series of costly flops. Arguably, The American New Wave lasted only thirteen years, flaming out in spectacular fashion with the financial disaster of Michael […]

Imperial Cultures of the United States University of Warwick, 5 May 2017 It has been nearly 25 years since the publication of Donald Pease and Amy Kaplan’s seminal collection of essays, Cultures of United States Imperialism (Duke, 1993), a volume which built on and expanded in new directions a field of foreign policy and imperial studies initiated largely by William Appleman Williams and the Wisconsin School in the 1950s and 60s. Since then, of course, ‘US imperialism’ has become a familiar (if still deeply contested) concept for historians, political analysts, sociologists, literary critics, and scholars of other cultural forms. Meanwhile, U.S. foreign policy itself has moved in decisive new directions: the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, interventions in Libya and Pakistan, the changing relationship with Cuba and Iran, and so on. This one-day symposium seeks to revisit and reassess the continuing currency of ‘U.S. Imperialism’ as a concept and its place […]

Black Love: A Symposium The 80th Anniversary of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God September 14-16, 2017 CALL FOR PAPERS On September 18, 1937, Zora Neale Hurston’s seminal novel Their Eyes Were Watching God was published. It initially received tepid praise, at best, along with needlessly harsh criticism from fellow fiction writer Richard Wright for its supposed counterrevolutionary minstrel image. Ushering in a new era of protest literature, Wright objected to Hurston’s publication of a love story at the height of Jim Crow oppression during the Depression. Yet Hurston’s work, with themes of sensuality, self-discovery, spirituality, and voicedness inspired by the writer’s own bittersweet love affair, has endured in African American literary history. Black women writers and scholars, such as Alice Walker and Sherley Anne Williams, began to reclaim Hurston as a pivotal writer in the African American literary tradition in the 1970s. By 1980, Hurston’s significance was […]

Journal of Design History Special Issue Locating Design Exchanges in Latin America and the Caribbean   Guest editors: Patricia Lara-Betancourt (Modern Interiors Research Centre, Kingston University, London, UK) & Livia Rezende (History of Design Programme, Victoria & Albert Museum/Royal College of Art, London, UK)   Call for Papers The Journal of Design History is calling for submissions to a special volume of research articles on Locating Design Exchanges in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to be published in 2018. Its aim is to unearth exchanges, connections and comparisons in design and material culture among Latin American and Caribbean nations and between the region and other global geographies since 1800. With 626 million inhabitants who speak mostly Spanish and Portuguese, but also English, German, Dutch, Italian and many native languages, the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region is a culturally rich area whose economic prosperity, social movements, biodiversity and natural […]

DEADLINE EXTENDED ‘Borders vs. Bridges: (Trans)nationalism in the Americas since 1968’ 3rd Annual Conference, 11-12 May 2017 For a long time, transnational trends have inspired social, political, economic and cultural transformations across the globe.  In the Americas, and particularly since 1968, there have been numerous examples of bridge-building across borders.  From Human Rights and transitional justice processes to solidarity movements and the international trade agreements of more recent times, building bridges between nations has been seen as a means of progress across the Americas. Today, developments across the region seem to signal a ‘centrifugal’ tendency towards isolationism and nationalism.  Propelled by complex social phenomena such as migration, human displacement, economic instability and political upheaval, many are turning to the erection of barriers – real and imagined – as a means to cope with uncertainty.  In the US, discourses based on nationalism are on the rise.  Meanwhile, in Latin Americas, the […]

Call for Papers Family Sagas in World Literatures and Audio-Visual Cultures Reimagining Nations Across the Globe Centre for World Literatures – Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures University of Leeds, 28-29 June 2017, 9am-5pm The family saga is a constitutively transnational and multi-media genre, bridging highbrow and popular cultures. The genre counts some of the bestsellers of world literature, including not just novels, but also serial narratives (trilogies, cycles), and comics, ranging from the late nineteenth century up to the present day. Being serial narratives that appeal to audiences, family sagas have also been adapted to or produced for cinema, radio and TV series. Examples of family sagas include:  Zola’s Les Rougon-Macquart, Eça de Queirós’s Os Maias, Mann’s Buddenbrooks, Woolf’s The Years, Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, Haley’s Roots, Cunningham’s Flesh and Blood, Spiegelman’s Maus, Mo Yan’s Big Breasts and Wide Hips, Ferrante’s Neapolitan Cycle, Reitz’s Heimat, Giordana’s […]

Call for Papers: Insiders and Outsiders: Historical Perspectives on Power Relations in Modern America. The QMUL Biennial Symposium in American History At a rally in North Carolina on 5 November 2016, Donald Trump described his political journey: “I went from being the ultimate insider to being an outsider like they’ve never seen before.” Three days later he was elected the 45th President of the United States. Trump’s victory is redrawing the boundaries between insiders and outsiders in modern America. Yet the construction of these categories has always been contested, and that process of contestation is key to understanding power relations in the United States. We welcome proposals for papers that explore any aspect of this dynamic, including themes such as: populism, immigration, identity, and the public sphere(s). Date: June 16th 2017. Venue: Queen Mary University of London. Keynote Speaker: Professor Mae Ngai, Columbia University. Comment: Professor Eric Foner, Columbia University. The QMUL Biennial Symposium in American History seeks […]

Event: 03/10/2017 – 03/11/2017 Abstract: 01/15/2017 Categories: American, 1865-1914, 20th & 21st Century, African-American, Colonial, Revolution & Early National, Transcendentalists Location: Boston University Organization: New England American Studies Association NEASA New England American Studies Association (NEASA)– Call for Papers Hoaxes, Humbugs, Pranks and Play: Functions and Expressions of Foolery in American Society and Culture March 10-11, 2017 Boston University The New England American Studies Association’s (NEASA) annual spring conference offers an opportune moment to pursue connotations of playfulness and trickery, and of enjoyment and leisure. The emergence of myriad manifestations and sites of playfulness across social sectors has profoundly impacted American society and culture. Childhood has become a playful time to be treasured; diversionary activities have come to dominate cultural products; even nostalgia has acquired a pronounced lucidity. Play is also big business: gaming, sports, and other recreation activities are their own sectors of the economy. We therefore invite contributions […]

European Beat Studies Network Annual Conference  Paris Interzone: The Transcultural Beat Generation (Collaboration, Edition, Translation) The European Beat Studies Network invite proposals for the 6th Annual Conference of the European Beat Studies Network that will take place at the Chicago University Center in Paris on 20, 21 and 22 September 2017. In the late fifties and early sixties, several writers and artists associated with the Beat movement made their home in Paris at the so-called Beat Hotel, 9 rue Gît-le-coeur. Burroughs, Corso, Ginsberg and Gysin’s sojourn at the Beat Hotel has, of course, been a key moment in the development of Beat culture as a transcultural movement. Paris was an important port of entry: from the French capital the Beats travelled to Europe and Asia. Paris has also been a crucial springboard to publish writing that was controversial or banned in America, such as Naked Lunch (Olympia Press, 1959). This […]

4th March 2017, University of Edinburgh The Scottish Association for the Study of America (SASA) was formed in 1999 to encourage study of North America in Scotland. This year, SASA’s annual one-day conference will take place in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh on Saturday March 4, 2017. Our keynote speaker will be Professor Daniel Kryder (Brandeis University), the 2016-17 Fulbright-British Library Eccles Centre Scholar. The conference has no specific theme, but is intended to reflect the range and vitality of American Studies in Scotland and beyond. Participation is open to all scholars. We particularly encourage proposals from masters and doctoral students, who will be able to submit papers to our postgraduate essay prize competition sponsored by Adam Matthew Digital. Abstracts are welcome from all disciplines, including history, literature, politics, international relations, culture, religious studies, music, film studies and cognate fields. As always, the […]

Call for Papers: HARDBOILED HISTORY: A NOIR LENS ON AMERICA’S PAST University of Warwick, 19th May 2017 Confirmed Speaker: Warren Pleece, comic artist and graphic novelist (more to be announced) Abstracts are invited for a one-day interdisciplinary conference at the University of Warwick, supported by the Department of History and the Humanities Research Centre. Hardboiled History seeks to bring together scholars interested in the ways contemporary media represents and reinterprets history, by exploring how and why “noir” resurfaces in depictions of America’s past across a variety of mediums. Since the 1940s, when critics began to recognise Hollywood was producing a new “cycle” of films distinct in their visual style and cynical worldview, a wealth of scholarship has explored film noir as a genre (or “mood”, “phenomenon”), its ties to hardboiled literature, the industrial conditions that fostered it, and the tropes it codified. With their inherent darkness and existentialist explorations, the […]

Call for Papers. 2017 British Group in Early American History Postgraduate & Early Career Conference The above event will take place on Friday March 31st 2017 at the London-based Institute of Historical Research, the UK’s national centre for history. London, with its unique colonial archival resources and lively research student populati­­on, is one of the leading centres of early American scholarship in Europe, and the IHR is a natural location for this event. The IHR Library’s North American Room houses one of the foremost UK collections of published material relating to the early history of the United States, Caribbean, and Canada. We welcome proposals that embrace the broad field of North American history, including the Caribbean, from the seventeenth century through to, but not including, the American Civil War. Proposals for panels and papers of many types are sought: from traditional panels to roundtables to “state-of-the-field” or teaching panels. We will accept individual […]