SAMLA 2009 Session: Teaching Language and Literature
Open Topic
We welcome papers that deal with any and all issues related to the teaching of language and literature.
Proposals may be related to issues such as the language of gender, comics as literature, or teaching new
media, but this is not required. Send your inspiring ideas!
By May 1st, please submit proposals of no more than 150 words by email – preferred – to
luria@mailbox.sc.edu or by post to University of South Carolina, Arts Institute, Attention: Rachel Luria,
1212 Greene Street/228 Sumwalt, Columbia, SC 29208
Local/Global Shakespeares: 4th British Shakespeare Association Conference
King’s College London & Shakespeare’s Globe
11 – 13 September 2009
Seminar: Asian Shakespeares in Europe
From Ariane Mnouchkine's controversial "Orientalised" of Richard II in 1981 to Kenneth Branagh's
Japanese-inflected As You Like It in 2006, from Yukio Ninagawa's Kabuki-Macbeth at the Edinburgh
Festival in 1985 to Eugenio Barba's and Ong Keng Sen's adaptations of Hamlet with Euro-Asian casts at
the Kronborg castle's Hamlet Sommer festival (2006; 2002), and from the Kathakali King Lear at the
London Globe in 1999 to David Tse's bilingual King Lear at the RSC Complete Works festival in 2006,
there is a rich history of interactions between Shakespeare performance and Asian idioms in Europe.
The recent influx of people of Asian descent into Great Britain and Western Europe has fuelled crosscultural blending, imposition, and appropriation. Whether "made in Europe" or "imported from Asia," these
performances have compelled Anglo-European audiences to negotiate the unfamiliar and foreign forms of
the familiar and "local" canon that is Shakespeare.
Papers on critical issues raised by Asian-themed Shakespearean performance in Europe are invited.
What resources are available in critical theory that we might bring to bear on the connections and
disjuncture between Asian Shakespeares in Europe and more traditionally-defined national Shakespeares
around the world? Papers may address but should not be limited to questions such as: Does watching
bilingual or multilingual Shakespeares–through subtitles or surtitles–overcome or reinforce cultural
boundaries? Are such encounters with otherness (other Asia, other Shakespeares) legitimising local reading
positions or the operation of cultural imperialism?
Please send your proposal to: Alexander Huang (acyhuang@psu.edu). Proposals should be submitted
by 31 May 2009.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/news/conferences/localglobal/
Shakespeare et l’Ailleurs / Shakespeare and Elsewhere
Ed. Muriel CUNIN and Pascale DROUET
What does “Elsewhere” mean? It refers to an ambivalent form of space. It can hold out the
promise of another life, of an escape to “The Azure”, of an invitation to the voyage when the routine
drudgery of life is dull, drab or even unbearable. But it can also be synonymous with want, wandering, loss
and exile, or with a form of menacing emptiness and bring out the fear of the unknown. Be it read in a
positive or in a negative way (it will be worth wondering if the multiple forms of Elsewhere may allow the
notion to escape this polarity), it is always a physical or spatiotemporal projection towards the unfamiliar.
Hence the following questions: can Elsewhere be located anywhere? Is it a utopia (or a dystopia)? Is it a
fantasy, an illusion, a delusion? Can it be mapped or is it to remain uncharted? How can it be represented?
How can it be staged?
Suggested topics:
- Elsewhere and the distancing, travelling, discovering, conquering and territorialising process, that is
to say, to use Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s terms, the dynamics of the smooth space to be
subjugated; Elsewhere as the promise of new worlds and new spaces; Elsewhere as a form of encounter
with another territory, but also with the Other, which is reminiscent of the dialectics described as follows
by Richard Marienstras: “Moving away from what is near, moving close to what is far off, inverts the usual
relationship of man with his social and natural environment ”.
- Elsewhere in its relation to exile and banishment, to what is “outside”, to unmappable territories –
“ces contrées d’en dehors des cartes ” –, in a deterritorialising process; and, more radically, Elsewhere as
“the undiscovered country” of Death, a country that cannot be imagined or represented. Which means
Elsewhere as the space of exclusion, exclusion from society and the natural order .
- Elsewhere as a form of dream, as an escape to imaginary buildings and landscapes. Elsewhere as part
of theatrical illusion, as a place for ephemeral creation and, more broadly speaking, as artistic space. Papers
may focus for instance on perspective as a passage to another space, just like the stage described by Serlio,
which becomes a place of wonder: “within a small space could be seen palaces aligned in perspective, with
great temples and divers houses near and far, fine, spacious open places decorated with many buildings,
long straight streets, crossed by side streets, triumphal arches, marvellous high columns, pyramids, obelisks
and a thousand other singular artefacts .”
- Elsewhere as a reflection of Bonnefoy’s Hinterland. Elsewhere as opposed to here and now, as a
mental place, a place for quest, a “country of higher essence ” where projection and reminiscence interact;
the “unlocatable elsewhere” as opposed to the “perishable here .” How can they be linked? How can they
be reconciled?
- Elsewhere as a form of withdrawal (which can also be a form of opening) into inner spaces, which
may result in switching off through madness, melancholy, meditation or prayer. Hence the following
question: how is it possible to avoid autism or schizophrenia? How is it possible to reconcile inner and
outer space, reality and imagination?
Completed contributions, either in French or in English, with note on contributors (200 words) and
abstract (200 words), should be sent by attached file (.doc or .rtf) to pascale.drouet@neuf.fr and
muriel.cunin1@libertysurf.fr before 30th APRIL 2010.
For the style-sheet specific to the Cahiers Shakespeare en devenir please see
http://edel.univ-poitiers.fr/licorne/document.php?id=4067
On February 20th 2009 we are pleased to announce a Call for Papers to be included in the first
issue of our magazine 452ºF.
This is the first call of our magazine, open to everyone holding a degree and willing to take part
in our recently launched project.
The procedure for the reception and publishing, always subject to the regulation that can be found in
the “Evaluation and Peer Review system”, “Style-sheet” and “Legal notice” sections, is the following:
- Deadline for paper submission (full text): April 23rd 2009, and those received afterwards will not be
taken into consideration.
- Originals should be submitted to the following email address: revista@452f.com
- The number of articles to be published is estimated in 12 to 16. 40% of the articles chosen will be
written by doctoral students; while the number of papers written by members of the editorial board will
never exceed a 20% of the articles published.
- Papers must be sent full-text in PDF or DOC format, conforming to the “Style-sheet” and “Legal
notice”.
- The monographic topic for the first issue is “The figure and works of Edgar Allan Poe”; this
will include 4-6 articles; subtopics of particular relevance include:
a. Biographical aspects
b. Influences
c. Ethical-aesthetic approaches
d. Themes, myths, motives, archetypes, etc.
-The Editorial Board is committed to creating a Bibliography on Edgar Allan Poe, which will be
published as an Appendix to the Monographic section.
- The rest of the articles will be included in the Miscellany section. The contents and approach in these
papers must be included between the margins of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, but otherwise
is unlimited.
- Papers should be sent to the following email address: revista@452f.com; the email subject must be
clear as to whether the paper qualifies for the Monographic or Miscellany sections of the magazine. It must
also include the paper’s title and the author’s name.
5. CONTACT INFORMATION
In order to answer this request or for any other general enquiries you are welcome to contact us at
revista@452f.com
We also invite you to visit our webpage: www.452f.com
April 24, 2009 (Atlanta, Georgia)
The James Weldon Johnson Institute of Emory University presents the symposium, A Keeping of
Records: The Art and Life of Alice Walker. When: April 24, 8am to 5:30pm
Where: Emory Conference Center and Hotel
Web: www.jwji.emory.edu/sub-special.htm
A landmark event in the world of arts and letters, the symposium and eponymous exhibition commemorate
the arrival of the Alice Walker archive to the African American Collections of Emory’s Manuscripts,
Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL), and the opening of the Walker archive to researchers and to
the public. The cosponsors for the symposium are the Hightower Fund of Emory University, and the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
‘CELEBRATING KATHERINE MANSFIELD’
Menton, France, Friday 25 September 2009
A Symposium organised by the Katherine Mansfield Society to celebrate the 40th anniversary of
the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship
The year 2009 sees the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Katherine Mansfield Memorial
Fellowship, offered annually to enable a New Zealand writer to work at the Villa Isola Bella in Menton,
once the home of Katherine Mansfield. During a week of celebrations in Menton from 21-26 September
2009 to mark this anniversary, the Katherine Mansfield Society will be holding a Symposium on Friday 25
September.
The Symposium will be opened by H.E. Sarah Dennis,
New Zealand Ambassador to France
and Richard Cathie, Chair, Winn-Manson Menton Trust
Keynote speakers (both former Menton Fellows):
Vincent O’Sullivan
C.K. Stead
• Gerri Kimber, (Deputy-Chair, Katherine Mansfield Society), will present a talk on Katherine
Mansfield’s reputation in France.
• Amelia McBride, playwright, will perform her play ‘Something Childish but Very Natural’, including
adaptations of Katherine’s stories, on the subject of growing up and learning to love.
We now invite 200 word abstracts on ANY aspect of Katherine Mansfield studies for 15 minute papers
to be presented at the Symposium. Papers on Mansfield in relation to French literature or related to the
Menton Fellowship will be particularly welcome.
Please send your abstracts to the Symposium organisers: Professor Janet Wilson, Dr Delia da Sousa
Correa and Dr Gerri Kimber:
kms@katherinemansfieldsociety.org
Closing date for submissions: 14 June 2009
For further details and updates, please visit our website:
http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/
The Katherine Mansfield Society gratefully acknowledges the support of:
New Zealand Embassy Paris
The Winn-Manson Menton Trust
Mairie de Menton
New Clear Forms is an international 2-day conference to be held at the University of Glasgow on
11th and 12th September 2009. It aims to explore the poetic responses to national and international
affairs of this era, in a bid to further understand the deep and complex relations between
propaganda and private consciousness, rebellion and art, nation and self.
We are currently inviting proposals for 20-minute papers that reflect on these themes. Topics may
include but are by no means limited to:
War
Schools, groups and movements
Anthologies
Capitalism and consumerism
Adolescence, youth and counter-culture
The avant-garde
Links between poetry and art
Communism
Transatlantic concerns
Nuclear power and apocalypse
Eco-poetics
Nostalgia
Idealism
Lyric
Epic
Elegy
Please email a 250-word abstract (in Word format) to: newclearforms@googlegroups.com, by Friday
1st May 2009.
Keynote Speakers include: Yusef Komunyakaa, Prof. Adam Piette, Prof. Michael Schmidt and Prof.
Geoff Ward.
More information is available on our website:
www.gla.ac.uk/departments/sesll/seminarsandconferences/newclearforms/
MMLA
"Finding Form in Contemporary Innovative Poetry." Many innovative poets have begun to reincorporate, redevelop, or find new forms based on techniques such as counting. The participants will
explore the variety of new forms, single author explorations of innovative forms, or the new directions in
contemporary poetry signaled by combining innovative techniques with traditional forms. William
Allegrezza, Indiana University Northwest, wallegre@iun.edu.
The theme of this year's issue is Consuming Cultures. We are accepting submissions of articles,
essays, creative work, reviews, and art that explore the ideologies, politics, and cultures of
consumption fairly broadly. The deadline for submissions is June 15, 2009. Questions and submissions
can be sent to disclosurejournal@gmail.com.
disClosure is an annual thematic publication dedicated to investigating and stimulating interest in new
directions in contemporary social theory. By encouraging submissions from a variety of disciplinary,
geographical, and theoretical perspective and genres, the journal seeks to expand the nature of what is
studied by the academy and how it is studied. In an effort to construct new approaches to form and content,
we encourage submissions that employ innovative writing styles as well as formal scholarly work. The
journal annually publishers articles, art, creative writing, interviews, and book reviews.
Conference: Renaissance Society of America conference
Venice, Italy, 8-10 April 2010
Why has human society consistently incorporated drama into its sense of self and community?
Why do people want to watch other people "playing out" scenarios in history and fiction. Why are people
compelled to live out stories and explain themselves and their relations to other people, places, and objects
in dramatic ways? Where do we draw the line in historiography, theater history, art and literary studies
between "drama" and the "dramatic" - between official play and the merely playful?
This panel invites papers that discuss the "dramatic" in early modern life. Domestic dramas, political
dramas, re-presentations of history, manipulations and farcical narratives. How is drama used (intentionally
and unintentionally) to create, alter, and negate personal and communal identity in urban, regional, rural, or
national settings? Papers that speak across space and time and that cross disciplinary lines are especially
encouraged.
Please send 200-word abstracts in the body of an email plus 1-2 page cv to lkermode@csulb.edu by
May 1.
The Harvard Celtic Department cordially invites proposals for papers on topics which relate
directly to Celtic studies (Celtic languages and literatures in any phase; cultural, historical or social
science topics; theoretical perspectives, etc.) for their 29th Annual Celtic Colloquium, to take place at
Harvard University, October 9-11, 2009. Papers concerning interdisciplinary research with a Celtic focus
are also invited. Attendance is free.
Presentations should be no longer than twenty minutes. There will be a short discussion period after
each paper. Papers given at the Colloquium may later be submitted for consideration by the editorial
committee for publication in the Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium.
Potential presenters should send a 200-250 word abstract, plus a brief biographical sketch. We
encourage online responses, but submissions may also be sent by e-mail to hcc@fas.harvard.edu, faxed, or
posted to the departmental address.
Further information and online submission form available at our Website:
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hcc/
Closing date for proposals: May 15, 2009.
We are now accepting submissions for a collection of stories, essays, and poems for a proposed
book on comparative American spatial concepts, partially titled “Stories the Land Holds.” The
editors are looking for texts variously addressing “stories in the land.” What are the stories the land
tells? Vine Deloria has warned us of problems that result from a perspective that is not
fundamentally spatial, and such has been the case for current problems that range from ecological
disaster to fanatical environmentalism and bundled mortgages. We believe that these complex and
problematic American events can be understood more fully from a Native American perspective.
However, cultural amnesia after 1776 has obscured how fundamental Native American ideology is to who
we are as Americans, and how vital this philosophy can be for redirecting the disastrous turn of events in
American history by recovering and listening to the stories.
Are there truly American “stories” that have been lost or forgotten in colonial efforts to redefine the
continent as a “New” or empty world and reshape these lands of Turtle Island with stories and perspectives
from other places? Take, for example, the Diné who at one time performed 500 ceremonies but today only
a handful of ceremonies remain. Beneath the current political and ideological structures that cover the
surface of America, there is the land itself, and in the land the stories embedded there by Native voices that
speak to us about who we are in relation to the natural surroundings that hold us. The natural sciences
developed by Native Americans over the millennia across America included their reciprocal relationship
with natural environments. This is a spatial and local view where both land and individual are visible.
A working structure of our book includes stories of the creation and stories of the encounter, from
Emperor Charles’ and Spanish demands in the 1500s for vast acquisitions of land and rent from the Indians
to a Susquahannough’s trading of stories in the 1600s with a Swedish Minister from “New Sweden” in
Pennsylvania, and lastly to a view of the land as exorbitantly priced real estate with family homes no longer
being local possessions but parts of the vast acquisitions of bundled mortgages by unknown international
groups.
Please query by email first, or send abstracts, or completed manuscripts of up to 6,000 words to any of
the editors: Anna Lee Walters at Anna_Lee@frontiernet.net -- Catherine Rainwater at
cathernr@stedwards.edu -- Cristine Soliz at csoliz@csoliz.com or cristine.soliz@colostate-pueblo.edu.
Abstracts or manuscripts should be accompanied by a short biographical paragraph. Several presses
have expressed interest, however no contracts can be made until the texts are selected. We will begin
reviewing immediately and plan to complete our selections by July 31.
All quiet on the wrong side of the tracks?
Inquiries into the Interrelation of the Other and the City today Workshop, Berlin 2-3 June 2009
Cities are considered key sites for the investigation of processes of inclusion and exclusion of the
respective society and their social, spatial, symbolic, economic or political manifestations. Today’s debates
around globalization, transnationalism and increasing diversity of Western cities suggest changed
conditions for the construction of those boundaries within society and in urban space.
Yet when examining processes of negotiation of belonging, othering, and the construction of a
culturally and ethnically ‘Other’, the city is oftentimes reduced to a mere backdrop for this inquiry. It
serves as popular research site and provides descriptive ornament, but its impact on the processes in
question often remains unclear.
This workshop aims at exploring the interrelation between representations of the city and of those
labeled as culturally and ethnically different today by discussing previous and contemporary concepts from
various fields of social research dealing with this very interrelation. The wide spectrum of urban thought
and theory includes classical conceptualizations of the city as organism as developed by the early Chicago
School and more recent ones such as the Integration Machine (Häußermann).
Inextricably linked to the examination of the city and a so-called ‘Other’ is the relation between
representations and urban experiences. Hence, following de Certeau’s conceptualization of the city as both
discursively mapped and corporally practiced, a particular focus will be placed on how the various concepts
incorporate the relation between discursive and imagined Otherness and its material expression.
Considering conceptualizations of the mutual impact between ‘the Other’ and the city of the 20th
century until present time, the workshop aims at tracing transformations over time, critically assessing the
new quality of today’s situation and to inform current research projects of the workshop participants. The
interdisciplinary comparison will be a central element, with special focus on concepts from sociology,
urban anthropology, urban studies, literary and cultural studies.
Questions to be raised in the workshop include:
How do images of the urban - such as the ghetto, ethnic enclave or parallel society but also, in a
metaphorical sense, as a stage - relate to discourses of ‘the Other’?
What kind of urban self-representations are expressed by those marginalized within the city, e.g. in
media and literary products?
How does the city, on various levels, impact negotiations of belonging, resistance or membership of
those construed to be different?
Does the contemporary city have an “integrative potential” and how could this be conceptualized?
Workshop format:
The workshop aims at facilitating intense dialogue and exchange among doctoral students and junior
researchers dealing with the interrelation of constructions of the Other and the City in their work. This will
be reflected in the amount of time in the program allocated for discussion in a constructive, supportive
setting. We expect from the invited participants to prepare a discussion/working paper outlining their
current research. This working paper can contain work in progress but should be related to the central
themes of the workshop.
The working paper will be circulated to all participants well in advance. Participants are expected to
read the working papers in order to participate in the discussion. Additionally, each participant will have
the opportunity to introduce central questions in five-minute inputs at the day of the seminar. The workshop
will be based on discussion following participant presentations and on the basis of the submitted working
papers. Main objective of the workshop is to provide a constructive setting for intense discussion on central
issues in this field of research and to provide helpful comments for further development of the current
projects / working papers of participants.
There will be a maximum of 20 participants. Workshop language is English.
Working Papers
We invite working papers presenting theoretical and/or empirical contributions from a variety of
methodological perspectives, with special focus on urban studies, popular culture, literature, sociology and
urban ethnography addressing the role of the city in their research.
Submitted working papers should:
-be directly related to one of the main questions of the workshop
- present current research
- identify relevant dimensions of the city for the research project
Papers should not exceed length of 5,000 words and include an abstract (no more than 500 words).
Application
Please submit your abstract and short CV with contact details to the following address:
othercity@metropolitanstudies.de
no later than 1st of May 2009.
Applicants will be notified before 6 May 2009.
(deadline for handing in of complete working paper by participants: 25 May 2009)
All sessions will be held at the Center for Metropolitan Studies, Technical University Berlin,
Ernst-Reuter-Platz 7, 3rd floor, 10587 Berlin, Germany.
Participation in the workshop is free of charge for all selected participants. Unfortunately, the Center
for Metropolitan Studies cannot offer travel grants. Travel and accommodation expenses are responsibility
of individual participants. However, we can support you with recommendations and information regarding
your stay in Berlin.
For further questions, please contact us at:
othercity@metropolitanstudies.de
Viola-Donata Rauch
Kristina Graaff
Riza Baris Ülker
Maria Stehle
Mothering and Hip- Hop Culture
CALL FOR PAPERS FOR EDITED VOLUME
Demeter Press is seeking submissions for an edited collection by Maki Motapanyane and Shana
Calixte to be published in 2011.
Motherhood is an experience that has been ever- present yet invisible in the global music genre of HipHop. Yet this aspect of women's experiences within the movement has garnered little or no interest from
journalists, writers and scholars of Hip- Hop culture. Nor do we have any understanding of how mothers
who remain Hip- Hop enthusiasts negotiate their relationship to the culture of Hip- Hop and its music with
their children. What are the spaces that motherhood occupies in Hip- Hop? Are there ways of
understanding mothering in Hip- Hop along a historical continuum? What are some of the ways that
motherhood complicates the very masculinist discourses around hip hop? How can we create an
empowered and feminist Hip- Hop mothering, what would it look like and how would it challenge the
status quo? How are mothers engaging with Hip- Hop, both locally and globally?
The aim of this collection is to give motherhood within Hip- Hop culture an intellectual point of entry
into an existing field of academic debates. Themes that submitted proposals engage may include:
* Hip- Hop histories
* Masculinity
* Misogyny and violence
* Consumerism and capitalism
* The globalization and/or transnationality of Hip- Hop
* Cultural appropriation
* Political subversion
* Cultural diversity
* Feminist mothering
* Heterosexualities
* Queer identities and sexuality
* Aesthetic continuity and change
* Representation and the marketing of identities
* Other themes not mentioned here
We seek both creative and academic submissions that tackle the complex ways in which motherhood
and Hip- Hop frame these and other discussions. Abstracts are welcome from a variety of academic
disciplines and perspectives.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Abstracts: 250 words in length.
Deadline for Abstracts: August 1, 2009
Papers: 15- 18 pages
Deadline for Papers: January 7, 2010
Midwestern Modern Language Association
“Teaching Graphic Novels in the Literature Classroom”
Increasingly comic books and graphic novels find their way onto literature syllabi. Recent anthologies
such as _Teaching Visual Literacy: Using Comic Books, Graphic Novels, Anime, Cartoons, and More to
Develop Comprehension and Thinking Skills_, edited by Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher, and _Building
Literacy Connections with Graphic Novels: Page by Page, Panel by Panel_, edited by James Bucky Carter,
emphasize the use for such texts in secondary schools. But what are the benefits of teaching comic books
and graphic novels in college? And how do we best go about doing it? This panel seeks papers that discuss
the benefits of teaching these new genres in the Literature classroom. Papers may address pedagogical
issues and concerns as well as sample lesson plans and/or anecdotes from experience. Please email
abstracts by April 15, 2009 to Dr. Robyn Schiffman, Fairleigh Dickinson University, rls@fdu.edu.
Timeframes, the third annual Dundee comics conference, held in association with the Dundee
Literary Festival, will explore how the medium of comics bends, distorts and manipulates time.
Proposals for papers are requested on this theme, focusing on the representation of the past and future in
comics, or how comics capture the present, or how the comics form relies on sequence. Proposals should be
300 words long, for papers lasting 20 minutes.
For more information contact Dr Chris Murray (c.murray@dundee.ac.uk), or consult the Dundee
Literary Festival webpage: www.literarydundee.co.uk/
Michael Jackson, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Reaganomics, crack cocaine, the AIDS epidemic,
MTV, the successful nomination of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Tiananmen Square are just a
few noteworthy events that are representative of the 1980s. Of course this list is not exhaustive and
could fill several scholarly volumes should one desire to compile such texts.
We are currently seeking completed works or chapter proposals for one edited volume entitled,
The 1980s: A Critical and Transitional Decade? This edited volume places its topics within the context
that the 1980s as a decade could be seen as both critical and transitional following the activist 1960s and
free-spirited 1970s. This does not simply mean highlighting the significance of the period, but rather
demonstrating how so many apparently disparate events were in fact closely inter-related and also products
of their specific age. This holistic analysis of the decade will focus on major turning points, developments
in literature, art, entertainment, politics, lifestyle, and social activism. This volume cannot be all-inclusive
and is not intended to be a chronicle of the 1980s. What it will do is explore the 1980s as a phenomenon
exhibiting its significance to the American landscape.
It is now almost twenty years since the end of the 1980s, giving us some perspective on this intriguing
decade. Given that there are very few scholarly works that examine the events of the 1980s within the
context of a critical decade, this edited volume will be a groundbreaking and a stand-alone introductory
text. Given as well the eclectic nature of the topics discussed, it will appeal to those scholars and upperlevel students interested in greater cross-disciplinary scholarship and who desire to explore American
culture through the holistic lens of a particular decade. We anticipate the accepted chapters will also
highlight the contribution of this decade to contemporary American society.
We invite completed works (20-25 pages) or chapter proposals (3-5 pages) in the following thematic
and topical areas:
• centering the 1980s as a decade of significance for myriad of events, occurrences, and changes to our
society;
• across disciplines including, but not restricted to, American Studies, communication, cultural studies,
finance/economics, media studies, film studies, history, political science, sociology, literature, LGBT and
women’s studies;
• highlighting key events in the arts and entertainment world such as the creation of the fourth
television network, FOX, as well as the literature that influenced and changed our understanding of this
decade;
• exploring the multitude of events that motivated our youth, caused political strife, and exposed
America to a new set of social ills;
• discussing the role of American culture in a global context and/or addressing our intercultural
relations, domestically and abroad;
• investigating this decade within the constraints of the conservative politics of Reagan and the
prosperity that followed, including works on financial markets, labor issues, and exorbitant
commodification of products
Submissions should be postmarked no later than July 15th. Please send an electronic copy of your
submission to both individuals list below:
Dr. Kimberly R. Moffitt
kmoffitt@umbc.edu
410.455.1451
Dr. Duncan Campbell
campbe@umbc.edu
410.455.2106
Participants will be notified of paper’s status no later than August 15th. Completed papers will then be
due by November 15th. Should you have questions about the proposed book or the submissions process,
please contact either of the co-editors.