CFP: The International Ralph Ellison Symposium (Oxford University)

The Netherlands American Studies Association The RSC hosts the NASA conference in September 15-16 2016, which will look at the practical, theoretical, and polemical aspects of doing research digitally. How do Americanists use digital sources in their work? How do they combine the reading of texts with  digital tools? What new results did digital research deliver? Which unintended consequences can digitization have for the discipline? How do Americanists view the possibilities of the digital in education? Further details available here: https://roosevelt.nl/activities/conference-digital-trends-american-studies

American History / Studies, Law and Legal History, Government and Public Service, Political Science, Political History / Studies Illinois State University is proud to announce a conference to mark the 150th anniversary of ex parte Milligan (1866), sponsored by Illinois State University and the David Davis Mansion on September 22-24, 2016 at the Marriot Hotel, Normal Illinois. Written here in Bloomington, Illinois, Davis’s decision held that trial by military commissions was acceptable only where there was a real war and where civilian courts were impaired. Long dormant, Milligan has assumed new centrality in our political and constitutional debates arising out of the so-called “war on terror.”  We invite established scholars, practicing professionals, or graduate students from all fields to submit proposals on historical, legal, constitutional or political subtopics related to the Milligan decision itself, its antecedents, or its legacy. The conference will feature break out panels, plenary sessions and key […]

Please join us for a special two-day event celebrating the 40th anniversary of Mildred Taylor's classic children's novel, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Telling the story of an African American family living in Depression-era Mississippi, this award-winning text has inspired readers, teachers and researchers alike since its first publication. Confirmed keynote speakers: Professor Michelle Martin, University of South Caroline Dr Gabrielle Cliff-Hodges, University of Cambridge Talks cover a range of disciplines, including literary criticism, teacher training and translation studies. See http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/events/conferences/rollofthunder40/ or contact Sarah Hardstaff at sflh2@cam.ac.uk to find out more. Supported by BAAS and the Cambridge-Homerton Research and Teaching Centre for Children's Literature.

Innovative Poetries - Department of American Literature, University of Łódź, September 29-30 2016 Beginning with the modernist aesthetic revolution, poetry has continuously shown a stubborn resolve to respond to social, political and cultural shifts and crises with technical innovation. Such innovativeness speaks of the resilience of poetry, as genre, as it refuses to succumb to various announcements of its death or cultural irrelevance. The historical lineage of these responses is an impressive inventory of technical innovation in itself. While the New York School poets reacted to the monumental edifices of their modernist predecessors, their own performative-surrealist modes or varieties of "personism" were later replaced by the Language poets' insistence on the dissolution of personal expressivity, while both the Language and New York School poets have been seen as responding to the technically moderate "scenic mode" of the 1970's. But these innovations have already had their continuations and further reverberations. As various […]

When Friday 29 September, 18.30-20.00 Where The British Library Conference Centre Price £8/£6/£5 http://www.bl.uk/events/the-winchester-an-american-icon BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan explores the history of, and family behind the Winchester Rifle The Winchester Rifle, the iconic gun made in New Haven, Connecticut, and sold in its hundreds of thousands around the world, mirrors American expansion at a key period in the young country’s history. The lethal repeating rifle became the defining image of America’s frontier – and was known amongst Native Americans as “the spirit gun”. It represented both the pioneering vigour and the brutal force which conquered the West. Laura Trevelyan is a BBC journalist and descendent of the Winchester family. She is the author of The Winchester: Legend of the West (I.B.Tauris, September 2016).