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CFP: Special Issue of the European Journal of American Culture: American Horror Story

Call for Papers: Special Issue of the European Journal of American Culture: American Horror Story Guest 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 a Special Issue for the European Journal of American Culture. Over six 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. Papers should be between 6000-8000 words and the deadline for final submission is 31stJanuary 2018. Papers should be submitted to the Special Guest Editors Harriet Earle and Jessica Clark via AHSspecialissue@gmail.com. Submissions to this journal could include, but are not […]

Doig Country: Imagining Montana and the West (Montana State University)

Doig Country: Imagining Montana and the West  Montana State University, Bozeman, September 14-16 2017 On September 14-16, 2017 the Western Lands & People Initiative at Montana State University in Bozeman, with the College of Letters & Science and the MSU Library, will host the symposium to celebrate the work of Ivan Doig and the acquisition of his papers by the university. The organizers invite proposals for papers and presentations that address the literature, history and geography of Montana and the West that Doig explored in his memoirs and fiction. Work need not directly address Doig's writings, but should allow participants to enter into a broad discussion of the connections between landscape and human experience, history and fiction, or what close observation and attention to place contribute to the various disciplines that engage us as scholars and as readers. Further information can be found at http://ivandoig.montana.edu/symposium-2017/

New Directions in American Philanthropy (Sheffield Hallam University)

New Directions in American Philanthropy Sheffield Hallam University 14-15 September 2017 Meaning, literally, “love of all mankind”, the historian Lawrence J. Friedman has framed philanthropy as ‘a collective form of charitable giving.’ In the nearly two centuries since Alexis De Tocqueville’s observation that the United States is a ‘nation of joiners,’ volunteerism and philanthropy have played a significant role in America’s domestic and international history. For some, such as the scholar Olivier Zunz, philanthropy is ‘part of the American progressive tradition.’ Yet despite good intentions, the history of American philanthropy is not without controversy. Indeed, the political scientist Inderjeet Parmar, acknowledging that ‘it is difficult to believe that philanthropy…could possibly be malignant,’ has argued that it has not always been either an effective tool or a force for positive change. The purpose of this workshop is to engage in this debate concerning the positive and negative aspects of American philanthropy. […]

Lecture: “Foundations of America’s Empire: How Elite Networks Dominate American Power at Home and Abroad” (Sheffield Hallam University)

Free Public Lecture: Professor Inderjeet Parmar (City University of London), "Foundations of America’s Empire: How Elite Networks Dominate American Power at Home and Abroad" - 14th September 2017, 17.30-19.30, Sheffield Hallam University In this lecture, Parmar argues that corporate foundations – like Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller, among others – have played a significant but neglected or misunderstood role in the rise and development of American power. He argues that despite their cuddly public image and claims of benign support for democracy, human rights, development and freedom, such institutions are locked into the strategic heartlands of American elite power at home and its imperial global projects. Combining a historical analysis with the rise and politics of the Trump phenomenon, this lecture suggests that elite power-knowledge networks centred on influential American foundations, but which extend to think tanks, both main political parties, major universities, the federal executive, mass media and international organisations, built […]

College Art Association and Terra Foundation Publication Grants

The College Art Association and Terra Foundation for American Art Announce Opening of 2018 Terra Foundation for American Art International Publication Grant The College Art Association welcomes applications and letters of intent for the 2018 Terra Foundation for American Art International Publication Grant. Guidelines for the grant define “American art” as art (circa 1500–1980) of what is now the geographic United States. Awards of up to $15,000 will be made in three distinct categories: grants to US publishers for manuscripts considering American art in an international context, grants to non-US publishers for manuscripts on topics in American art, and grants for the translation of books on topics in American art to or from English. Letters of intent are due in the CAA office by September 15, 2017. A complete application to the award is by invitation only. The grant also provides funds each year for travel to CAA’s Annual Conference, […]

CFP: Edited Collection on the Writing of Marilynne Robinson

As part of the Manchester University Press series, Contemporary American and Canadian Writers, this volume will chart recent and emerging critical opinion on the celebrated author, Marilynne Robinson. Having issued an earlier call for papers, the editors now seek proposals that specifically address the following areas:  Robinson and her contemporaries; Robinson’s nonfiction writing; Robinson and race; Robinson’s role as a public intellectual; Literary review culture, prize giving, and the production of “literary” fiction via the Iowa Writers’ Workshop; Robinson’s engagement with history, particularly the ongoing relevance of the American Civil War, Reconstruction, and/or Civil Rights Movement to her work; Robinson and US intellectual history.   Please email abstracts of no more than 300 words with your institutional affiliation and brief bio (c. 250 words) to robinsonsymposium@gmail.com no later than 15th September 2017.   All chapters will be subject to a blind peer review process and full details and submission guidelines will be provided to contributors on […]

CFP: ‘Avant-Garde as Protest: Experimental Literature and Its Role in the American Avant-Garde’, Panel at EBAAS 2018 (London)

Lizzy Pournara (Ph.D. Candidate at the department of American Literature in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece) is looking for panel participants for the upcoming conference organized by the European Association of American Studies that will take place in King’s College London, University College London, and the British Library, 4th - 7th April 2018 The panel is entitled “Avant-Garde as Protest: Experimental Literature and Its Role in the American Avant-Garde” and  participants are sought for 20 minutes presentation papers concerning but not limited to digital literature and multimodal narratives, experimental poetics, innovative poetry and fiction, interdisciplinary artistic practices, visuality, experimental typography. The deadline of the submission is on 22nd September 2017.   Please send an abstract (250 words), including a title and a short CV by 22nd September 2017 at lizzypournara@gmail.com

CFP: “Illness and the environment in American Literature and Cinema”, Panel at EBAAS Conference 2018

CFP: “Illness and the environment in American Literature and Cinema”, EBAAS Conference 2018 Panel organized within the framework of the European Association for American Studies (EAAS) and the British Association for American Studies (BAAS) conference King’s College, University College, and the British Library, London. 4-7 April 2018. “Environment, Place and Protest.” Deadline for abstracts: September 25, 2017 In Toxic Exposures: Contested Illnesses and the Environmental Health Movement (2007), Phil Brown, American sociologist and specialist in environmental studies, examined the relationship between disease clusters and the environment. He concluded environmentally provoked illnesses (EPI) to be “contested illnesses” as they involve scientific disputes and extensive public debate. The environment as an agent in health has long been an issue in American cinema and literature. Literary scholar Heather Houser’s recent volume Ecosickness in U.S. Contemporary U.S. Fiction: Environment and Affect (2014) speaks to this issue looking at a variety of productions including Todd Haynes’ Safe (1995) and Richard Powers’ Gain (1998), to mention only a few. Literary and filmic narratives that […]

Job: Teaching Fellow in American Literature, Part-time (University of Durham)

Contract Type: Part-time (14 hours per week) Fixed-term (until 30 June 2018) (This post closes for applications at 12.00 midday on the day of closing.) This post is part-time, 14 hrs per week (0.4 FTE) and therefore the salary is pro-rata to the salary shown. It is also offered on a fixed term basis until 30 June 2018, ideally the successful candidate will be in post by 1 October 2017. Applicants will: Contribute to undergraduate teaching at all levels. Undertake assessment and examination of student work. Participate in the meetings of the Department and wider University, as appropriate, and undertake Departmental administrative duties. The successful candidate will have research and teaching interests in American Fiction and the ability to teach courses on prominent modern authors such as Toni Morrison. S/he will be joining a Department with significant strengths in American Literature, ranging across modes and periods Colleagues working in the area […]

CFP: “A More Perfect Union”, IAAS Postgraduate Symposium (Trinity College Dublin)

IAAS Postgraduate Symposium Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute November 25th, 2017 In their 1789 Constitution, the founders of the United States aspired to “form a more perfect Union”. Over two hundred and twenty years later, what is the state of this “more perfect Union” today? Have modern exclusionary tactics led to an “America for Americans only” feeling immanent in Trump’s speeches? How has American literature, music, film and philosophy been used to enforce or challenge these feelings of  “America for Americans only”? What can an examination of history and politics do to illuminate the United States’ relationship with the rest of the Americas and the wider world? These are some of the questions we hope to examine in our one-day symposium. We welcome proposals for papers that deal with personal, national, international, unions of any kind. Topics include, but are not limited to: Union and/or disunion […]

CFP: Coming to Terms? Confronting War and Peace through the Visual and Material in the Atlantic World, 1651-1865 (University of Pennsylvania)

CALL FOR PAPERS:  Coming to Terms? Confronting War and Peace through the Visual and Material in the Atlantic World, 1651-1865 Conference at the University of Pennsylvania, McNeil Center for Early American Studies, and The University of Delaware 8 – 10 November 2018 Keynote Speaker: Professor Leora Auslander, University of Chicago. Program Committee: Dr Zara Anishanslin (University of Delaware), Dr Manuel Barcia, (University of Leeds), Professor Kathy Brown, (University of Pennsylvania), Dr Joshua Brown, (The Graduate Center, CUNY), Dr Joanna Cohen, (Queen Mary University of London), Dr Christian Crouch (Bard College), Dr Catherine Dann Roeber, (Winterthur Museum), Dr Bronwen Everill, (Cambridge University), Dr Ignacio Gallup-Diaz, (Bryn Mawr College), Dr, Benjamin Irvin (Indiana University and Editor, Journal of American History). How does war end and who ends it? Historians often turn to diplomacy and formal politics to answer this question. It is clear, however, that a much broader population, both military and civilian, […]

CFP: Emotions and American Protest, Panel for EBAAS 2018

Call for Panelists (EBAAS 2018): Emotions and American Protest We are recruiting panelists for a session on the role of emotions in 20th century U.S. protest and activism, as part of the upcoming EBAAS conference in 2018. In his seminal The Art of Moral Protest, James Jasper calls on scholars to pay more attention to the variety of emotions in social movements: “First, individuals have emotional allegiances and experiences that help propel them into protest. Fear, dread and an accompanying sense of threat are key motives. Grief could also play a role, either following the loss of a loved one or as a more general sense of cultural loss. An alternation between shame and anger drives much political conflict. Anger and outrage will almost always play a part, as will pre-existing negative and positive affects toward symbols, places, individuals, and groups.” Although protest is inherently an expression of dissatisfaction with the […]