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Interventions: New Perspectives on Politics, Freedom, and Democracy

CFP: Creating Comics, Creative Comics Symposium (University of South Wales, Cardiff)

Creating Comics, Creative Comics Please Note: the deadline for this CFP has been extended until 25nd April 2018. University of South Wales: Cardiff (Friday 01.06.2018) USW Cardiff: Comics Symposium 2018, Call For Papers Key Note from Dr. Julia Round, Bournemouth University: ‘Anonymous Authors, Invisible Illustrators, and Collaborative Creation: Misty and British Girls’ Comics’ The First USW Cardiff: Comics Symposium is interested in creator’s perspectives. It will explore comics and creativity and papers are invited which examine the practice of creating comics, and the particulars of storytelling in comics. Does changing a panel, change the story? How might a medium’s materiality affect its construction and reception? Pudovkin stated that “In order to write a scenario suitable for filming, one must know the methods by which the spectator can be influenced from the screen.” (Pudovkin, 1949, p. 1), and referring to adaption Weaver suggests this is, “the act of translating a story […]

CFP: Death and Celebrity (University of Portsmouth)

Call for Papers: Death and Celebrity Wednesday 6th June 2018, University of Portsmouth   Keynote Speakers: Dr Ruth Penfold-Mounce, University of York Dr Samantha Matthews, University of Bristol   ‘Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil’ (John Milton)   ‘Fame is a food that dead men eat’ (Henry Austin Dobson)   This one-day symposium seeks to interrogate the role of death in the construction, negotiation and perpetuation of celebrity identity. For the ancients, true fame was necessarily posthumous, but in modernity, too, there remains an enduring fascination with what Andrew Bennett terms ‘the immortality effect’. Following the death of a celebrity, a variety of agents – friends, family, fans, professional associates, arts and heritage bodies – may interact to frame his/her legacy for posterity; moreover, celebrities themselves may take an active role in choreographing their cultural afterlives while still alive. Yet, while cementing, augmenting or rehabilitating the celebrity’s public […]

CFP: The Genres of Genre: A Conference on Form, Format, and Cultural Formations (Lausanne)

SANAS Biennial Conference The Genres of Genre: A Conference on Form, Format, and Cultural Formations Nov. 2 and 3, 2018, Lausanne North American Studies have always had an intense but ambivalent relationship to genre, as these narrative patterns have participated in nationalist processes as well as in narratives of resistance. Emerging at the beginning of the twentieth century from concerns about naturalism and realism, American literary scholarship after WWII avoided the politicized post-war atmosphere by making the ‘romance’ the quintessential American novel genre, while cinematic genres such as the musical or the Western contributed to amplifying the mythic dimension of American self-definition. Since then, American Studies scholars have pioneered influential work on melodrama, the American Gothic, the jeremiad and other genres. Concurrently, Canadian literature’s prominent nation-building narratives were framed as documentary tales of regionalism, historical novels and social realism before evolving into dystopian and postmodern fiction, most famously by Margaret […]

CFP: Tourism, Cinema, and TV Series (Université de Lille)

Université de Lille 3, UFR LEA, France, 12 octobre 2018 Over the last thirty odd-years, a growing number of film and TV productions have left the confines of Hollywood studios, either to benefit from interesting tax incentives or to find new scenery that can visually surprise audiences. The popular success of some of those ‘runaway’ films or TV series then prompted many fans to walk in the footsteps of Luke Skywalker in Tunisia (Star Wars), of Frodo in New Zealand (Lord of the Rings), of Harry Potter and his friends in Great Britain, of Katniss Everdeen in North Carolina (Hunger Games), of Daenerys or Jon Snow in Ireland or Malta (Game of Thrones), thus significantly increasing the number of visitors to those places and countries. Some of those tourists strongly wish to re-live on site what they saw on screen while others are simply curious to visit the filming locations. […]

Cambridge American History Seminar: “Biography as History: How Far Can a Life Take You?”

Cambridge American History Seminar 2017-2018 We are pleased to announce the schedule of seminars and events for the academic year 2017/18. Seminars will be held on Mondays at 5:00 PM in the Knox Shaw Room, Sidney Sussex College, unless otherwise indicated. Several of the seminars will be based on pre- circulated papers that will be made available two weeks prior to the seminar date. All inquiries should be directed to Jonathan Goodwin, jmg216@cam.ac.uk, 01223 335317 Easter Term 30 April:  Lizabeth Cohen, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies, Harvard University Biography as History: How Far Can a Life Take You? 

CFP: Traditions and Transitions (Sofia, Bulgaria)

TRADITIONS AND TRANSITIONS 28-29 September 2018 SOFIA, BULGARIA   DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES SOFIA UNIVERSITY “ST. KLIMENT OHRIDSKI”   Second Call for Papers The Department of English and American Studies at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” invites scholars to submit proposals for the international conference Traditions and Transitions – to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria. The conference is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Department of English and American Studies at Sofia University and the 130th anniversary of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. People celebrate anniversaries in order to commemorate what has been achieved so far and to envision what should be achieved in the future. The event aims to look back at a distinguished past, and ahead to a challenging future. The conference seeks to bring together young and established scholars, and professors emeriti from academic institutions in Bulgaria and abroad, giving them a venue to debate and exchange views […]

CFP: Death & Culture II Conference (University of York)

Death & Culture II Conference 6-7 September 2018, University of York   Registration and abstract submission are now open for the second iteration of the Death and Culture conference taking place in September 2018. Registration fees include food and drink for the two days and a conference meal.   The human response to mortality is a research theme across the arts, humanities and social sciences. As a result, this conference seeks to provide a forum for networking and sharing interdisciplinary death scholarship. We welcome research rooted in empirical studies as well as conceptual and theoretical engagement which focus on cultural responses to death and the ways it has shaped understandings and perspectives on mortality. The conference, in its second iteration, seeks to continue engaging with the study of mortality as an academic enterprise, supported by evidence and framed by theoretical engagement. This truly interdisciplinary event brings together death scholars, including […]

Fourth Annual Conference of the UCL Americas Research Network

With support of the UCL Institute of the Americas and the UCL Doctoral School, we are pleased to present the 4th Annual Conference of the UCL Americas Research Network, which will be hosted under the theme of Intersections in the Americas at the UCL Institute of the Americas and at various venues from 2-4 May, 2018. Fascinating panels, a movie screening with Q & A, workshops, and networking events await. Your attendance can now be registered through our Eventbrite page. We are also very pleased to announce our Keynote Speakers: Dr Jelke Boesten (King’s College London), Dr Althea Legal-Miller (Canterbury Christ Church University). The Americas Research Network has welcomed presentations on many aspect of the Americas, as well as those relating directly to the conference theme of Intersections in the Americas, covering a range of periods and regions in the hemisphere. The conference’s guiding theme this year draws on contemporary issues of division in the geopolitical, societal and domestic spheres. Today the need to interrogate the […]

Cambridge American History Seminar: “What’s Yours is Mine: Family and Property in an Age of Landgrabbing”

Cambridge American History Seminar 2017-2018  We are pleased to announce the schedule of seminars and events for the academic year 2017/18. Seminars will be held on Mondays at 5:00 PM in the Knox Shaw Room, Sidney Sussex College, unless otherwise indicated. Several of the seminars will be based on pre- circulated papers that will be made available two weeks prior to the seminar date. All inquiries should be directed to Jonathan Goodwin, jmg216@cam.ac.uk, 01223 335317 7 May: Nathan D.B. Connolly, Herbert Baxter Adams Associate Professor of History, John Hopkins University What’s Yours is Mine: Family and Property in an Age of Landgrabbing 

Memories of Fiction: The Living Library (Live Art Event, Omnibus Theatre, Clapham)

'The Living Library', bringing to life local readers' memories of reading, at the Omnibus Theatre, Clapham, London UK, 9-13 May. This live art event comprises a series of storytelling, dance, sound art and participatory artworks spaced throughout the building's theatre and common areas. Audiences will explore individually as well as sharing group experiences, choosing what they are interested in, much like a library. (Omnibus Theatre is itself an old library, so the perfect space for it!). The piece stems from the project Memories of Fiction: An Oral History of Readers’ Lives (Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project based at the University of Roehampton). The project team, including Shelley Trower, Amy Tooth Murphy, and Sarah Pyke, interviewed Wandsworth libraries' reading group members and LGBTQ+ readers about their life stories and their experiences of books, reading and libraries. The artworks draw on this research, exploring topics including first encounters with books, memories of libraries and their vital and varied roles in people's lives, and […]

U.S. Embassy/BAAS Small Grants Programme

The British Association for American Studies (BAAS), supported by the United States Embassy, London, offers small grants for cultural, educational and outreach activities that will foster American Studies and otherwise enhance the understanding of the United States in the United Kingdom. Applications for activities that introduce new audiences to American studies and / or have a focus on children, young people, and disadvantaged communities are welcome. Applicants need to show how they intend to actively promote an understanding of the United States and how they will engage with American studies communities and the wider public. Grants may be requested for a range of activities, including (but not limited to): Curriculum development, including schools activities; Student exchanges; US and UK Speaker programs; Film and arts programming; Conferences and symposia; Faculty development and exchange; Public dissemination of academic research. Application Deadlines For activities commencing on or after 1 June 2018 the application deadline is 10 […]

CFP: Women’s Spring: Feminism, Nationalism and Civil Disobedience (University of Central Lancashire)

The Institute for Black Atlantic Research (IBAR), (University of Central Lancashire) would like to invite you to a conference co-organised with the Collegium for African American Research (CAAR),  Open Democracy 50.50, the Cornelia Goethe Center (Goethe University, Frankfurt); International Development and Inclusive Innovation, Strategic Research Area (The Open University) and De Gruyter: Women’s Spring: Feminism, Nationalism and Civil Disobedience 21-23 June 2018, University of Central Lancashire, Preston The aim of this conference is to explore the ways in which female activists and artists responded to the resurgence of far-right nationalism and the twin evil of religious fundamentalism. We want to take a closer look at grassroots emancipatory movements, women-led voluntary associations, as well as cultural texts by women – performances, installations, artworks, films and novels – in which authors take a stance against religious bigotry, xenophobia, homophobia, racism and misogyny. But we also invite contributions that focus on women’s endorsement […]