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British Association for American Studies ☰

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CFP: The International Ralph Ellison Symposium (Oxford University)

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Ex Parte Milligan at 150: The Constitution & Military Commissions in American Wars on Terror (Illinois)

Marriott Hotel and Conference Centre 201 Broadway Avenue, Normal, IL, United States

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 […]

CFP: ‘Negotiating the Borders and Boundaries of Americanism’, BAAS PG Conference (University of Leeds)

Call for Papers Making America “Great”: Negotiating the Borders and Boundaries of Americanism Saturday 19th November 2016 University of Leeds Deadline for Abstracts: 23rd September 2016 The current US presidential election has witnessed the resurgence of a nostalgia for a past American “greatness”, defined in the popular imagination by specific boundaries and characteristics. Notably, institutional, social and economic power structures have shaped less inclusive definitions of American identity which continue to endure. Conversely, others propose that American “greatness” is characterised by the nature of always being in flux, incorporating and reshaping various identities, traditions and social norms. Whereas many other national identities are rooted in centuries of shared history, religious and cultural traditions or language, American national identity has less tangible roots and can, arguably, be characterised by a constant process of redefinition. The constantly changing nature of what it means to be American contributes to and builds upon what […]

Mildred Taylor Symposium (University of Cambridge)

University of Cambridge Mary Allan Building, Homerton College, Cambridge, United Kingdom

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.

Job: Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Newcastle University Humanities Research Institute)

Location: Newcastle-upon-Tyne Salary: £28,982 to £30,738 per annum, with progression to £37,768 Hours: Full Time Contract Type: Contract / Temporary Closing Date: 26 September 2016 Following our success in REF2014 Newcastle University are making unprecedented strategic investment in our research capacity through a series of research fellowship positions. This post is supported by Newcastle University’s Research Excellence Academy (REA), which embodies the University’s commitment to foster an environment in which academic excellence and ground-breaking research can thrive. Posts are offered in the research institutes Newcastle Institute for Creative Arts Practice (NICAP), Newcastle University Humanities Research Institute (NUHRI) and Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal (NISR). We wish to appoint to appoint an outstanding postdoctoral researcher for a three-year research fellowship hosted by the Newcastle University Humanities Research Institute (NUHRI). The successful candidate will pursue a personal research project, contribute to the work of NUHRI more generally, and enhance the profile of humanities […]

Job: John G Winant Visiting Professor of American Government (Oxford University)

A stipend of £25,730 for the academic year is payable (pro rata if appointment is for only part of the academic year) The University invites applications for the John G Winant Visiting Professorship of American Government. The Professor will be expected to contribute to teaching and lecturing in the field of American Government, and will contribute to the intellectual activity of the Rothermere American Institute (www.rai.ox.ac.uk). Teaching will normally take the form of seminars, directed primarily but not necessarily exclusively to graduate students, in the Rothermere American Institute itself. The Visiting Professor will be intellectually eminent in American government. Candidates will have an academic background (e.g. PhD and research experience) in American Government, political science, or similar related field of study. The tenure of the Visiting Professor will be up to one academic year (1 October 2016 to 6 July 2017). He or she normally will be expected to give […]

Innovative Poetries – Innovations in Poetry (University of Łódź)

University of Łódź Rogowska 26 Street, 91-529 Łódź, Poland

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 […]

‘The Winchester: Legend of the West’ (British Library)

British Library Conference Centre 96 Euston Road, London, United Kingdom

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).

CFP: Literary Maryland in the American Imagination (Baltimore)

Date: September 30, 2016 Location: Maryland, United States Subject Fields: American History / Studies, Contemporary History, Literature In her 1998 play How I Learned to Drive, Paula Vogel described Maryland as a place where “You can still imagine what how used to be before the malls took over. This countryside was once dotted with farmhouses. From their porches, you could have witnessed the Civil War raging in the front fields.” Considering the preceding quotation—as well as Maryland’s geographical and figurative status as a border state between the North and South—in terms of America’s complicated racial and social history, the following panel invites scholars from a variety of disciplines to present on the representation of Maryland in the American consciousness at NeMLA's 2017 conference in Baltimore, Maryland (March 23rd-26th). How has Maryland paradoxically been portrayed as a place of freedom and promise, and, more recently, a place of civil unrest and failed […]

CFP: International Pynchon Week (La Rochelle, France)

Pynchon's New Worlds La Rochelle, France, June 5-9, 2017 Literary new worlds The 2017 International Pynchon Week will be held on the French Atlantic coast in the old harbor of La Rochelle, from which a number of Europeans set sail for the New World. The conference will be hosted by the Musée du Nouveau Monde, among its collection of Allegories of America. The conveners hope this liminal space on the margins of Europe will inspire Pynchon scholars to sail out towards yet unexplored territories, following some of the leads below or picking up any related or unrelated Pynchonian line.Convenors: Gilles Chamerois (Université de Brest) and Bénédicte Chorier-Fryd (Université de Poitiers) Pynchon's early fiction was published under the auspices of "new worlds:" "Low-Lands" was issued by New World Writing, a paperback magazine (volume 17, 1960); speculative fiction writer Michael Moorcock's New Worlds magazine ran "Entropy" in 1969. How "new" were and […]

USSO BAAS PG Keynote Award

In collaboration with this year’s BAAS Postgraduate Conference (19 November, University of Leeds) USSO is delighted to be launching its Keynote Competition for PGRs and ECRs. The winning entrant will be the USSO sponsored Keynote speaker at the conference, and will also be awarded with a £100 book token. The Keynote must engage with the theme of the conference, ‘Negotiating the Borders and Boundaries of Americanism’. The competition is open to all PGRs and ECRs. The closing date for abstracts is 30 September. For further details see: https://usso.uk/calls-for-contributions/cfps-us-studies-online/keynote-competition/

CFP: Duality and Duplicity in African-American Literature (Baltimore)

CFP: Duality and Duplicity in African-American Literature Location: Marriott Waterfront, Baltimore, MD Dates: 23/03/2017 – 26/03/2017 Organization: Northeast Modern Language Association The idea that African-Americans are actual and full-fledged citizens of the United States is not a new one; the racism that prevents that idea to flourish is also not new. Recent events, including the death of Freddie Carlos Gray, Jr. in Baltimore, have brought to the fore the question of whether or not the United States values its black citizens, and extends to them the same rights as it does to its non-black citizens. The historical record has much to say on this point, but the literary record also is instructive in perceptions of race in the United States. This panel will explore the literary precedents to examine how tensions between citizenship and real-world status have formed the basis of works by American authors.  How do the literary works […]

Job: Terra Foundation for American Art Visiting Professor (Oxford University)

Applications are invited for a Terra Foundation for American Art Visiting Professor for the 2017/18 academic year at Oxford University. This post, which is generously funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art, will be based in the History of Art Department, part of the History Faculty and is offered in association with a Visiting Fellowship at Worcester College. This 1-year post is a unique and exciting opportunity to build on long-term research networks, encourage international symposia and conferences, and inspire a new generation of American art academics and curators by further embedding the subject into Oxford’s graduate and undergraduate curricula. The successful candidate will be required to give tutorials, lectures, classes and supervision at both undergraduate and graduate level, to engage in examining and administrative work, and to engage in advanced study and original research in the history of American art. The successful candidate will hold a doctorate and […]