The Eccles Centre for American Studies, The British Library, London Monday 16 January 2017 Cold War Geographies Keynote Speaker: Professor Klaus Dodds, Professor of Geopolitics, Royal Holloway The British Library’s next major exhibition will focus on ‘Maps and the Twentieth Century.’ The Cold War had a seismic impact on global geographies during the second half of the twentieth century. Not only did it physically impact lands from the barren Nevada desert to the jungles of South East Asia, but the ideological conflict of the Cold War also had a significant impact on national borders, global cities and imagined geographies. The legacy of the Cold war on global geographies has had a profound effect upon the way in which nations now think about their place in the world and their relationships with each other. From an American point of view, this has had a particular influence on how the U.S. is […]

15 years after 9/11 there are many conspiracy theories related to the events that have been discussed in films, literature and social media. However, this is not the only conspiracy theory of such long endurance. Many more, like the Jewish world conspiracy, the survival of Nazi Germany on the dark side of the moon, Area 51, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and many more have led to a large production of films, literature and social media (blogs or vlogs). For the second volume of Entertainment we are interested in papers that analyze these conspiracy theories and in how far they are created, stimulated or re-defined by these media. Articles should range between 5000 and 8000 words and use footnotes (following the latest Chicago Manual of Style). For detailed information on the journal and the submission procedure, check: http://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/entertainment/about The deadline for an initial proposal (250 words and a short CV) […]

HISTORICAL FICTION IN THE UNITED STATES SINCE 2000: CONTEMPORARY LITERARY RESPONSES TO THE PAST Call for papers: One-day symposium on 21st-century American historical fiction Date of conference: Saturday 18 March 2017 Location: University of Nottingham, UK Call for papers deadline: 1 December 2016 Historical fiction in English constitutes its own enduring tradition but in recent years, it has enjoyed a surge of critical acclaim and commercial popularity, as such scholars as Kate Mitchell and Nicola Parsons have argued. This one-day symposium at the University of Nottingham will explore how recent writers in the United States have engaged with the form. In what sense are American writers reinterpreting the past to produce what Elodie Rousselot has termed “neo-historical fiction”? Which periods are they examining? And why do US writers favor particular historical eras and episodes over others? Potential topics for papers (lasting no longer than 20 minutes) might include, but are […]

HISTORICAL FICTION IN THE UNITED STATES SINCE 2000: CONTEMPORARY RESPONSES TO THE PAST Call for papers: One-day symposium on 21st-century American historical fiction Date of conference: Saturday 18 March 2017 Location: University of Nottingham, UK Call for papers deadline: 1 December 2016 Historical fiction in English constitutes its own enduring tradition but in recent years, it has enjoyed a surge of critical acclaim and commercial popularity, as such scholars as Kate Mitchell and Nicola Parsons have argued. This one-day symposium at the University of Nottingham will explore how recent writers in the United States have engaged with the form. In what sense are American writers reinterpreting the past to produce what Elodie Rousselot has termed “neo-historical fiction”? Which periods are they examining? And why do US writers favor particular historical eras and episodes over others? Potential topics for papers (lasting no longer than 20 minutes) might include, but are certainly […]

***DEADLINE EXTENDED Britain, Canada, and the Arts: Cultural Exchange as Post-war Renewal 15-17 June 2017 CALL FOR PAPERS Papers are invited for a major international, interdisciplinary conference to be held at Senate House, London, in collaboration with the School of English, Communication and Philosophy (Cardiff University) and the University of Westminster. Coinciding with and celebrating the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, this conference will focus on the strong culture of artistic exchange, influence, and dialogue between Canada and Britain, with a particular but not exclusive emphasis on the decades after World War II. The immediate post-war decades saw both countries look to the arts and cultural institutions as a means to address and redress contemporary post-war realities. Central to the concerns of the moment was the increasing emergence of the United States as a dominant cultural as well as political power. In 1951, the Massey Commission gave formal voice in […]

'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 slowdown of […]

CFP: Freedom After Neoliberalism 9-10 June 2017, University of York, UK The conference invites proposals for 20 minute papers on the topics of freedom and neoliberalism. We seek specifically to explore the concept of freedom beyond its limited economic function in neoliberal theory, and to consider perspectives on a future beyond neoliberalism and perhaps beyond capitalism. We are interested in papers that engage with neoliberalism and freedom from a variety of disciplinary, theoretical, or thematic perspectives. Submit to: freedomafterneoliberalism@gmail.com Deadline for submissions: 16 December 2016 More information and full CFP: https://freedomafterneoliberalism.wordpress.com/2017-conference/

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 […]