aspeers, the first and currently only MA-level peer-reviewed journal for American studies in Europe, will accept submissions by October 15, 2017. In its eleventh issue, aspeers will feature a general section and a topical focus. While the general section accepts submissions on any American studies topic (e.g. revised versions of term papers or chapters from BA theses), the topical section will focus on the theme of "Alternative Americas," calling for submissions that reflect on the diverse roles and meanings of alternative constructions of 'America.' Please find the two calls for papers below. More information can also be found at http://www.aspeers.com/2018 === General Call for Papers === For the general section of its eleventh issue, aspeers seeks outstanding academic writing demonstrating the excellence of graduate scholarship, the range of concerns scrutinized in the field of American studies, and the diversity of perspectives employed. We thus explicitly invite revised versions of term papers or chapters from […]

American Politics Group of the Political Studies Association Annual Conference 2018 Call for Papers The forty-fourth annual conference of the American Politics Group of the Political Studies Association will be held at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford from Thursday 4 to Saturday 6 January 2018. The keynote speaker will be Professor Marc J. Hetherington (Vanderbilt University) http://www.vanderbilt.edu/political-science/bio/marc-hetherington There is a broad conference theme: “The US Constitutional and Political Order: Challenges and Constraints”. This can be approached in various ways, and we will also be happy to receive proposals considering subjects and material beyond this particular theme. For example, papers or panel proposals examining contemporary US political institutions or processes, foreign policy issues or political history are invited. The conference organizers would also welcome papers addressing comparative themes or relevant theoretical or methodological issues. Proposals (no more than 150 words for single papers, 300 words for panels) should be sent […]

Call For Papers Rendering (the) Visible III: Liquidity Atlanta, February 8-10, 2018 Deadline: October 20, 2017 Since the early 2000s, the idea of “liquidity” has been mobilized in discourses ranging from social theory to aesthetics, from informatics to architecture, to describe a new relationship with the networked environments of life within global capital. More specifically, within the study of moving image culture, we have seen an increasing turn toward affective relations, plasticity, resonances and flows, whereby images and sounds—no longer grounded in an analogical relation to the real—are seen variously as malleable, untethered, “viral,” or fluid. The graduate program in Moving Image Studies at Georgia State University has, over the past several years, been exploring some of the implications of these ideas, specifically in relation to race, via our research group “liquid blackness.” Now, however, we wish to explore the ways in which the concept of liquidity might begin to chart […]

HOTCUS Winter Symposium 2018 We are particularly interested in using the symposium to showcase examples of the latest historical research in twentieth century American political history. This includes (but is not limited to): ·         Political ideas and ideologies ·         Social movements and the state ·         Race, class, gender and sexuality ·         Public policy and political development ·         Foreign affairs and diplomacy ·         Political economy, business and capitalism ·         Mass incarceration and the carceral state ·         The environment and environmentalism ·         The state and transnationalism ·         State of the field debates Please send any proposals and one-page CVs to Joe Merton (joe.merton@nottingham.ac.uk), Vivien Miller (vivien.miller@nottingham.ac.uk) and Bevan Sewell (bevan.sewell@nottingham.ac.uk) by Friday 27th October 2017. Further information is available at https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/history/events/2018/hotcus-symposium.aspx.

“Where’s Nora?” Reclaiming the Irish Girl’s Presence in New England literature A panel organized by Cécile Roudeau (Université Paris Diderot) and Stephanie Palmer (Nottingham Trent University) and sponsored by the Mary E. Wilkins Freeman Society for submission to the Transatlantic Women 3: Women of the Green Atlantic Conference at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, Ireland, June 21-22, 2018. Taking the title of one of Sarah Orne Jewett’s story as its tagline, this panel starts with a simple constatation: in nineteenth century New England literature, Nora, Bridget, Erin and other Irish girls were an ubiquitous presence. They popped in and out of New England sketches— from Louisa May Alcott’s “Work” (1873) to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’s “The Tenth of January” (1868) to Sarah Orne Jewett’s “A Little Captive Maid” (1893) or “Elleneen” (1901). And yet, ubiquitous as she is, the Irish girl is also conspicuously absent in major scholarly studies of New England […]

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 […]

Maria Curie-Sklodowska University Lublin, Poland May 10-11, 2018 Department of American Literature and Culture, in cooperation with the Video Game Research Center, is organizing a two-day international conference “ExRe(y) 2018. Exhaustion and Regeneration in Post-Millennial North-American Literature and Visual Culture.” We seek proposals for papers and panels that focus on the topic of exhaustion and regeneration in American and Canadian literature and visual culture (film, visual arts, video games, television, and others) of the last seventeen years, from the year 2000 to the present day. Topics may include but are not limited to the following:  post-millennial literature of exhaustion and replenishment psychological and emotional exhaustion and regeneration (mental disorders, breakdowns, burnout, psychotherapy) disease and recuperation environmental crisis and sustainable design globalization as the agent of exhaustion and replenishment scarcity and accelerationism exhaustion of/with politics apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic scenarios in texts of culture the many faces of passing: longevity, death, immortality, […]

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 […]