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CFP: Sound Collectives: The Acoustics of the Social in American Film and Literature 

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Call for Papers

Sound Collectives: The Acoustics of the Social in American Film and
Literature

An International Conference

Dec. 7-8, 2018

Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt

Sound positions individuals as social subjects. The presence of human
beings, animals, objects, or technologies reverberates into the material
and virtual spaces we inhabit and produces distinct soundscapes that
render social practices audible. The assessment of a sonic phenomenon as
noise or music, as rallying cry or offense, as reassuring or disturbing
event reveals the social paradigms that govern our perception. As
Michael Bull and Les Back write in /The Auditory Culture Reader/, paying
critical attention to ?sound makes us re-think [?] how we relate to
others, ourselves, and the spaces and places we inhabit? (4). When sound
travels through space, it becomes a repository for the relational
activities that define a living environment. Narrative media like film
and literature can be considered as cultural sites where the capacity of
sound to register and to expose the stratifications and constitutive
processes of society is negotiated.

This conference wants to facilitate the interdisciplinary exchange on
acoustic concepts, discourses, and practices related to the social in
narrative media. It seeks to address the increasing interest in sound
studies as a research area for American studies, particularly when it
comes to American film and literary studies. Which sound collectives do
films and literary works register and how are these represented or
mediated? What are the societal functions of sound, noise, and music in
film and literature? What kind of debates, methods, and theoretical
approaches on sound are currently developed in the respective scholarly
fields? And how can film and literary studies learn from each other or
even join forces in their critical engagement with sound?

Possible topics could include, but are not restricted to:

– literary or cinematic orchestrations of sonic communities and
polyphonic soundscapes

– politics of sound and social critique in literature and film

– sounds of resistance or subversion

– social narratives in film scores or soundtracks

– aural representations of the public sphere

– sound, social formations, and aesthetics

– power relations, agency, and sound

– sound and ethnic or racialized formations

– sound and class

– sound and gender

– practices of silencing

– ethics of listening

– acoustic practices of participation

– sonic sites of migration, globalization

– sonic nostalgia or futuristic soundscapes in film and literature

Please send a 300-word abstract and a short CV to Nathalie Aghoro
(nathalie.aghoro@ku.de) by June 20, 2018.

CFP: America’s Choice: Greatness and Liberties in Critical States (RFEA)

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The French Review of American Studies (RFEA)

CFP – RFEA special issue – early 2020

 

America’s Choice

Greatness and Liberties in Critical States 

 

***

This collection of theme-based papers entitled “America’s Choice: Greatness and Liberties in Critical States”proposes to examine and assess the Trump doctrine “America first: restoring and preserving its greatness” at the mid-term of the Trump administration. We will base our analysis on the results of the November 2018 by-elections and mid-term elections. Based on this data and the study of certain more specific fields, the impact of the organized dismantling of the Voting Rights Act (1965) will be assessed, together with the consequences of the redrawing of the boundaries of certain constituencies. How will the questioning of the right to vote and the readjustment of constituencies—to take account of demographic change—affect turnout, and particularly that of minorities, which is always lower at mid-term than for the presidential election? Will the Republican Party suffer a historic rout? Is it not caught between the omnipresence of the President and the hostility displayed by some of the majority’s elected representatives towards his ultra-nationalistic line and his leadership? What campaign strategy will the Trump administration opt for to enable it to keep hold of its majority in Congress? What conclusions will the Grand Old Party draw from the election results, both nationally and in key states, for the presidential election? Our thematic analysis will also aim to (re-)define and articulate the notions of “greatness” and of “freedom” to determine how Donald Trump’s presidency has revived the threat of social upheaval with the emergence of new modes of citizen protest and engagement (#ProtectTransTroops, #MeToo, #NeverAgain, #MarchForOurLives). To what extent may it be said that the restoration of the greatness of America is achieved to the detriment of the demands and the progress made by certain minority groups? In reviving the blatant strategies of erasure and invisibilisation, Donald Trump’s presidential method inevitably rests on chaos and distraction (Jean-Éric Branaa, Trumpland : Portrait d’une Amérique divisée, p.125), aimed in particular at undermining his predecessor’s political legacy.

The greatness and elevation of the presidential function as embodied by Trump have undeniably been clouded by his refusal to stick to “political correctness” by contravening more or less flagrantly the unifying principles of civil religion. In his official tributes to veterans, Trump constructs his presidential image by alternating barely overdone, respectable dignity and sincerity, and venomous verbal jousting to attack his detractors at the slightest opportunity. John McCain, the Khan family and the widow of the black sergeant David Johnson have all thus incurred Donald Trump’s wrath. His lack of compassion did not go unnoticed either when he threw toilet rolls at the inhabitants of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. The body language used by the president is the subject of numerous comments, particularly on the web, which oscillate between mockery, tension, interrogation and indignation. Contributions in the field of semiology will be particularly welcome.

As an unpredictable, much-parodied president, Trump masters the art of arrogance, staging and hence the strings of “show” politics so as to deliberately become undecodable by anyone resorting to the traditional communication channels used in the different circles of power. By injecting codes borrowed from reality TV (“You’re fired!”) and by his exclusive use of Twitter, he strategically occupies the media stage to dictate the agenda and impose a frenetic pace both on his staff and on journalists. He manages to deny the slowing down of certain reforms by resorting to artificial accelerations to divert attention and does not hesitate to expose himself publicly in dismissing his collaborators, constantly making shock announcements and rejecting outright the accusations he is subjected to in his various “affairs”. Trump tries to pass himself off as a victim of the system through an emotional approach to communication in order to elicit outrage among his followers and thus consolidate his electoral base. To what extent is Trump taking over and reinventing the cult of personality by deliberately lowering himself to the level of the anonymous masses in their relationship to conflict? How have lobbyists adapted to his style of communication so to be able to keep weighing on the political agenda?

There are also bodily issues, latent as they are, that have marked the beginnings of this administration. In The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, prominent psychiatrists and psychologists claim that the President may be suffering from mental illness. His mode of government is claimed to be dictated by his impulsiveness, recklessness and paranoia, which are in danger of compromising national and international security. It is in this very specific context that Donald Trump’s critics are attempting to have him pronounced as “mentally unfit” by appealing to the 25th amendment (section 4) to get him removed from office. This approach is unlikely to succeed, but it has the merit of raising questions about the paradoxical relationship between presidential greatness marked by outrageousness, and the principle of instability and uncertainty (Branaa, p.244).

In their essay How Democracies Die (2018), Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (political scientists and professors at Harvard) warn us about the potential threat posed to American democracy by this presidency, on the basis of a number of identification criteria that they claim corroborate the thesis that Trump is a danger for a whole system. We will cite just two of them: the legitimacy of any opposition (“mutual tolerance”) and the non-respect of democratic norms in the exercise of power (“forbearance”). As regards Robert Mueller’s investigation into suspicions of collusion with Russia and James Comey’s resounding revelations, can the (guilty?)  resistance / silence on the part of the Republican-dominated Congress be accounted for solely by blind opportunism with respect to long-term ideological stakes concerning the republican identity? To what extent has the President’s style of leadership reinvented itself and adapted to the institutional constraints of the system of checks and balances, faced as he is with the predictability of the Congress on the one hand and with the unpredictability of the Supreme Court on the other? It should be noted that the last conservative judge Trump appointed, Neil Gorsuch, clearly opposed the president’s migration policy by joining forces with some of the progressive judges. It should also be remembered that the president has personally engaged in a sensation-seeking crusade against what he calls “fake news”, thereby questioning the freedom of the press and the reliability of journalistic investigations. His untimely accusations against the “committed” media and the two majority parties also demonstrate the president’s difficulty in accepting the criticism and contradiction that lie at the heart of the democratic pact. These all-out attacks are also symptomatic of his presidential style and his hallmark as if he were seeking to destroy bipartisanship. In this context, how then does “greatness” allow the president to show a certain form of authoritarianism or, conversely, how does the greatness of democracy cause him to suffer a number of setbacks? We will try to pay particular attention to the militaristic culture of the South and the way in which the Sovereignty Movement (“the Tenther Movement”) has positioned itself under the Trump presidency through the mediatization of its Southern muses. In this hyper masculine presidency, what place do Melania and Ivanka Trump, the “first two” ladies in the White House, occupy?

In the face of this resurgence of conservatism, contributors should seek to question the durability of the economic and social successes achieved by the President. To what extent has he restored the dignity and freedom of speech of a fringe of his betrayed and weakened voters? The latter have constantly denounced the excesses of capitalism, the moral decadence of society and the untimely meddling of Washington DC. Can any credible political alternatives be envisaged to somehow reconcile a deeply fractured America?

Submissions may include case studies and specific examples or may adopt a comparative approach addressing the following areas:

– Electoral campaigns

– Cultural Studies

– Civil rights and protest movements

– Advocacy / activism

– Free press / media

– Religion(s) and religious freedom

– Democracy and culture wars

– Justice and/or checks and balances

– Regression and/or progress for women’s equality / minority rights

– Feminism and/or women’s quest for power

– Liberalism and economic freedom

– Immigration

– Populism

– White nationalism

– Foreign policy and/or « America first »

Special issue guest editor:

Anthony Castet, Université de Tours

A 500-word abstract in English along with a short biographical notice should be sent to Anthony Castet (anthony.castet@univ-tours.fr) by August 2, 2018.

Notification of acceptance will be given by September 30, 2018.

The selected articles should be turned in by July 1, 2019 and should not exceed 30,000 signs (inclusive of footnotes and spaces). They will then go through the peer-reviewing process before publication (January 2020).

Organizer: Anthony Castet

Lecturer/Assistant Lecturer

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Lecturer/Assistant Lecturer

Maynooth University, National University of Ireland Maynooth – Department of English

Ollscoil Mhá Nuad

The Maynooth University (National University of Ireland Maynooth) is the fastest growing university in Ireland with approximately 10,000 students and outstanding research and scholarship in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. The university is now entering a new and exciting phase of its development, with a new strategic plan centred on further enhancing our academic programmes, providing a distinctive student experience of the highest quality, focusing our research activities on a small number of priority themes, and further internationalising the university. To support this development, the university is seeking to recruit outstanding academics, with a strong track record of research and teaching, to the following position:

Department of English
Lecturer/Assistant Lecturer
(One Year Contract)

The Department of English has sixteen full-time members of staff and offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, based on its research strengths in British, Irish and other modern literatures in a vibrant learning environment. The study of Anglophone literatures across the early modern and modern period has long been at the forefront of the mission of the Department of English and these areas of teaching and research are constantly in strong demand from students at all levels. The Department offers BA programmes in English and Anglophone literatures and a new taught MA programme in Literatures of Engagement.

The Role

Maynooth University is committed to a strategy in which the primary University goals of excellent research and scholarship and outstanding education are interlinked and equally valued.

We are seeking an excellent academic to join our staff as a Lecturer/Assistant Lecturer in English. The person appointed will have a proven record of teaching, research and publication, appropriate to career stage. He/she will be expected to make a strong contribution to the teaching programme of the Department and undertake teaching duties on the Department’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Candidates should have a specialism in Irish Writing of the Twentieth- and/or Twenty-First Centuries, with an ability to teach across a broad range of the undergraduate curriculum.

The appointee will be expected to have a strong research profile that supports the University’s research strategy, including affiliating to the Research Institutes, and where appropriate and working with colleagues on national and international research. The appointee will be expected to sustain and conduct research, engage in scholarship of quality and substance and generate publications of international standard.

For further details including full comprehensive job description please see the Maynooth University vacancies page at: https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/human-resources/vacancies

Apply.

LSE Fellow (International History of Latin America)

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LSE Fellow (International History of Latin America)

London School of Economics and Political Science – International History

The Department of International History at the LSE invites applications for an LSE Fellow in the International History of Latin America, for the next academic session to commence in September 2018.

The successful candidate will contribute to the scholarship and intellectual life of the School by conducting teaching and research which will enhance the School’s reputation as a research-led teaching institution, with appropriate mentoring from department. They will be expected to participate in teaching at both undergraduate and masters’ level for up to a maximum of eight classroom contact hours per week; will have time to undertake research and will be expected to participate in the administrative and social activities of the Department.

The successful candidate for the 2018-2019 session will have completed or be close to completing a PhD in History by the post start date; Research interests in Latin America or US-Latin American Relations; A very good knowledge of twentieth century Latin American history and inter-American affairs; Excellent communication and presentation skills and the ability to work in close partnership with fellow teachers, including on a one-on-one basis and in small groups, and to provide effective support, as necessary. The ability to teach the Department’s Undergraduate course on Latin America and the United States since 1898 and its MSc course on The Cold War in Latin America is essential. Relevant teaching experience is also essential.

We offer an occupational pension scheme, generous annual leave and excellent training and development opportunities.

For further information about the post, please see the how to apply document, job description and the person specification.

If you have any technical queries with applying on the online system, please use the “contact us” links at the bottom of the LSE Jobs page. Should you have any queries about the role, please email Professor Piers Ludlow at n.p.ludlow@lse.ac.uk

The closing date for receipt of applications is 6th June 2018 (23.59 UK time). Regrettably, we are unable to accept any late applications.

Unfortunately this role will not meet the Resident Labour Market Test required by the UKVI in order for the School to be eligible to apply to sponsor candidates who do not currently have the right to work in the UK or who are currently working under Tier 2 of the UKVI Points Based System.

An LSE Fellowship is intended to be an entry route to an academic career and is deemed by the School to be a career development position.  As such, applicants who have already been employed as a LSE Fellow for three years in total are not eligible to apply. If you have any queries about this please contact the HR Division.

LSE is committed to building a diverse, equitable and truly inclusive university

Apply.

Assistant Professor in English (Creative Writing)

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Assistant Professor in English (Creative Writing)

Dublin City University

Three year Fixed Term Contract

Introduction:

Dublin City University (www.dcu.ie) is a research-intensive, globally-engaged, dynamic institution that is distinguished by both the quality and impact of its graduates and its focus on the translation of knowledge into societal and economic benefit. Excellence in its education and research activities has led to its consistent position in the rankings of the world’s top young universities.

The School of English in Dublin City University is a research active and vibrant School with specialist knowledge in the areas of Irish Studies, Theatre Studies, Poetry, Critical Theory, Children’s Literature, and the long Nineteenth Century. We are seeking to consolidate and expand our Creative Writing modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate level by recruiting an Assistant Professor (Lecturer) -above bar- from 1 September 2018. We are open to all suitable applications from Creative Writers in fiction with an international reputation in the arts and experience in teaching at University Level. Possessing the ability to teach modules beyond Creative Writing would be an advantage.

DCU has a strong track record in attracting both Irish and European Union research funding under Horizon 2020, Marie Curie Actions and Erasmus.  We offer a dynamic, internationally-focused environment in which to advance your academic career.

The School of English:

The School of English is involved in three undergraduate programmes, three taught postgraduate programmes including a new Creative Writing Masters programme and a PhD programme. The successful candidate will be expected to play a role in the development and delivery of the School’s taught programmes and in the identification and delivery of new programmes in their specialist area.

The School is committed to high quality research and publications and supports its staff in such work.

Skills and Experience:

Applicants for the position must hold an honours degree, should be qualified to a post-graduate level. Applicants must have experience of teaching at University Level. The successful candidate will have an excellent international publication record and profile within the arts. Ideally they should have at least two years higher-level teaching experience. The successful candidate should be capable of working in a team and of providing leadership in developing teaching within the School. Specialist academic knowledge in American literature and fiction would be an advantage.

Informal Enquiries to:

Dr. Derek Hand, Head of School of English

E-mail: derek.hand@dcu.ie; Tel. +353 1 700 6099

Please do not send applications to this email address, instead apply as described below.

Further information:

More information on the School, including areas of research expertise and details of taught programmes, may be found at:

http://www.dcu.ie/English  

Further information on the above position, including the job description and application procedure, is available from www.dcu.ie/vacancies/current.shtml

Salary Scales:

Lecturer below bar:  €37,352 – €51,724

Lecturer above bar:  €50,159 – €76,891*

* Appointment will be commensurate with qualifications and experience, and will be made on the appropriate point of the salary scale in line with current Government pay policy.

Closing date: 18th June 2018

Dublin City University is an equal opportunities employer

Apply.

CFP: INCREDIBLE: LYING, CREDIBILITY, AND THE TRUTH IN HISTORICAL RESEARCH

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INCREDIBLE: LYING, CREDIBILITY, AND THE TRUTH IN HISTORICAL RESEARCH

Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford.

27 September 2018

Recent interest in fake news has spurred a host of scholarly discussions on the history of propaganda, the media, and falsehoods. Yet historians have seldom asked themselves how to cope with lying in the historical record. Not all voices are trusted equally: census reports have always generated more trust than a child’s diary while feminist historians of rape have tended to invert the he-said/she-said dynamic and trusted victims over perpetrators. Age, gender, race, and class have all affected which voices appear credible or incredible. How do historians know when our sources are lying, and how do we use sources when we know that they lie? What is lying, are there different types of lying, and do historians have to adapt their methods to each case. How are lies told, who are they told to, and why are they told?

This conference will draw together a range of historians to ask how the problem of lying affects or should affect historical research.

The Rothermere American Institute invites applicants for papers and panels which explore the theme of lying and historical research from any historical perspective. The one-day conference invites a broad range of speakers to reflect on the methodological problems posed by credibility and incredibility. We welcome papers on a broad range of topics including, but not limited to:

– Falsehoods and fake news

– Credible and incredible historical voices

– Age, gender, race and credibility

– Trust as a historical method

– Tricksters and exaggerations

– Memory, forgetfulness, and lying

– Trust and anonymisation

Please email paper and panel proposals to the conference organisers at oenone.kubie@history.ox.ac.uk

Proposals for individual 20-minute papers should include a 300-word abstract and a 2 page academic CV. Panel submissions should include a one-paragraph overview in addition to individual paper proposals and CVs. The deadline for submission is July 15th 2018.

CFP: In Search of Global Impact of Asian Aesthetics on American Art and Material Culture.

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CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

International Graduate Students Workshop
Date: October 11-12, 2018
The University of Delaware and Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library

With the generous support of the Terra Foundation for American Art, the University of Delaware’s Department of Art History and the Winterthur Program of American Material Culture will host a two-day International Graduate Student workshop on October 11 and 12, 2018. This workshop is part of a series of events in October 2018 to launch the project “In Search of Global Impact of Asian Aesthetics on American Art and Material Culture.”

We invite graduate students from a variety of fields, from all regions of the world, to submit a short abstract of a dissertation in progress or a project that: 1) redefines the canon of art history, with a focus on the multidirectional impact of Asian aesthetics on American art and material culture, and/or 2) proposes new interpretations of the transcultural and transhistorical flow of aesthetics that not only redefine the geocultural boundaries of Asia and North America, but also rethink methodological formations of aesthetic emergence.

We strongly encourage proposals that consider the flow of global aesthetics beyond the circulation of objects, as well as those that examine “Asia” and “North America” as discursive structures or cultural constructs in connection with other world regions such as Africa, Europe, South America, among others. In sum: How do design ideas, patterns, and aesthetics travel across the globe, even when objects do not?

To apply, send a short abstract written in English (300-500 words) and a 2-page CV to global-aesthetics@udel.edu by June 8, 2018.

Applicants will be notified of decisions by July 8, 2018. Successful applicants will be invited to submit a dissertation chapter or excerpt, or paper, (9000-10000 words), to be pre-circulated and read before the workshop.

Applicants will be notified of decisions by July 8, 2018. Successful applicants will be invited to submit a dissertation chapter or excerpt, or paper, (9000-10000 words), to be pre-circulated and read before the workshop. Official respondents are: Partha Mitter (Sussex, emeritus), Dorothy Ko (Barnard/Columbia), Lee Glazer (Freer/Sackler Galleries), Marco Musillo (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz), with the Terra Foundation’s guest critics: Zhang Gan and Chen Anying (Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua, Beijing), in addition to the faculty workshop advisors from the Department of Art History and the Winterthur Program of the University of Delaware.

Lodging and meals are provided for invited participants throughout the workshop. Applicants seeking travel support should include in the application a letter demonstrating the need and a budget plan.

For further information, please see https://sites.udel.edu/globalaestheticasiaamerica/cfp/. More information on the larger conference, which includes the Graduate Students’ Workshop, can be found at http://sites.udel.edu/globalaestheticasiaamerica/.

In addition to the Terra Foundation, we thank the following organizations for their support: The University of Delaware’s Office of Graduate and Professional Education and the Center for Material Culture Studies, with grants from the Unidel Foundation, and National Endowment for the Humanities.

CFP: AISNA GRADUATE FORUM 2018

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AISNA GRADUATE FORUM 2018

1st AISNA Graduate Forum Conference

September 28, 2018

Centro Studi Americani

Roma, Italy

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Jeffrey C. Stewart 

UC Santa Barbara

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Rethinking 1968 and the Global Sixties

 

2018 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the protests of 1968, the moment in which several grassroots movements converged in their fights against social injustices and discrimination of race, class, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. From the civil rights movement to the anti-Vietnam War movement, the women’s movement and the environmental movement, the events of the Global Sixties were the culmination of a broad wave of activism that continued into the mid 1970s and beyond. This period was also paramount in reshaping the role of “hyphenated Americans.” Notions of citizenship were expanded and democratic principles and practices re-envisioned, pushed in new directions.

In situating 1968 in this broad timespan, the first AISNA Graduate Forum Conference aims at investigating the origins, the evolution, the dynamics and legacies of 1960s protest movements. Which kind of connection do current movements for social and civil rights such as Black Lives Matter or the Women’s March have with those of 1968? Which traces did the sixties counterculture leave in the music, media and film production of the following years?

AISNA Graduate Forum invites graduate students and early career researchers to send abstracts that investigate the origins and history of 1968 in every aspect of American culture, literature and history.We are also interested in rethinking the legacy of this period to reframe the debate about American racist and far right demonstrations and their influence on past and present American narratives and politics. The questions below are reflective of the theme and scope of the conference, but topics beyond these questions are welcome.

  • The opening up of American literary canon after 1960s social protests;
  • Post-Civil Rights African American literature; legacies and criticism of the Black Arts Movement (BAM);
  • The impact of the protests of 1968 on postcolonial critique;the influence of 1968 on the Occupy movement, Black Lives Matter, or other recent radical or leftist movements;
  • The impact and legacy of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the Chicano movement;
  • Feminist and womanist discourse after 1968;
  • 1960s in literature, film, music and the visual arts and media and pop culture portrayals of 1960s and mass protest;
  • The impact of 1960s alternative media on mainstream publishing and the impact of 1960s political activism on institutions;
  • The impact of 1968 in labour movement’s historiography and historical changes in historiographic representation of 1960’s social movements;
  • Movements of decolonization and national liberation and the new social movements (feminism, LGBTQ,…);
  • The environmental discourse and environmental justice;the transnational connections and interplays between progressive protests in a global context.

 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

We encourage interdisciplinary approaches, and we welcome pre-formed panels and roundtables alongside traditional papers.

 

PROPOSALS SHOULD INCLUDE:

  • 300-word abstracts for individual presentations;
  • 700-word abstracts for entire sessions (panels, roundtables)
  • Each speaker’s bio (300 words max).

 

PLEASE SEND ALL SUBMISSIONS TO: events@aisna-graduates.online

DEADLINE: July 15, 2018

 

TRAVEL GRANTS

Thanks to the generous support of the U.S. Embassy in Rome, AISNA is able to offer 10 grants (100 € each) to support travel and accommodation expenses for graduate and early career AISNA members. Priority will be given to participants according to the distance traveled to reach the conference venue. For information on how to become a member of AISNA, visit: https://aisna-graduates.online/become-a-member/

 

CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS:

aisna-graduates.online

www.facebook.com/AISNAGraduates/

We look forward to receiving your proposals and seeing you in Rome!

CFP: DIKES OF COURAGE: MARTIN LUTHER KING, THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND THE AESTHETICS OF PROTEST

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CFP: DIKES OF COURAGE: MARTIN LUTHER KING, THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND THE AESTHETICS OF PROTEST

23/24 November 2018

Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Nova University of Lisbon

Fifty years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s is frequently memorialized as a moment of almost inevitable national redemption, when a call to the better angels of American consciousness brought the country together to overcome injustices that no longer plague the present. As  historian Jeanne Theoharis argues in A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History (2018), this interpretative frame has frequently constructed a self-congratulatory discourse that whitewashes the immense obstacles and violence faced by the Civil Rights movement and its leaders, rather than soberly remember the “dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear” that, in Dr. King’s words, the movement demanded of its activists, and measure the incompleteness of what was then achieved. This process is seen in the yearly appeals to depoliticize Martin Luther King Day in the name of national unity and reconciliation, as well as in efforts to decouple the most successful social movement of the twentieth century from contemporary protests against lingering racial injustice (such as Black Lives Matter), often accused of distorting a sanitized version of its legacy.

The conference invites reflections on the representation of the Civil Rights movement not only in American historiography, public and media discourses but in literature, visual culture, filmic, musical and televisual texts produced in the last fifty years. It encourages an approach that goes beyond the understanding of these texts as artifacts that produce social memory, to ask how they illuminate debates about the aesthetics of protest, the relationship between activism and art, the collective and the personal, the politics of identity and intergenerational remembering. It also welcomes approaches that identify the networks between pasts and presents, following Ashraf Rushdy’s concept, in  Remembering Generations (2001), of African-American cultural texts constituting a palimpsest where what has happened in other space and time becomes experientially available, examining both the creative dialogues between the civil rights movement artists and their predecessors of the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, and  the aesthetical frames used by the contemporary generations of  “post-black” artists and writers  to invoke and reimagine that legacy. It is also interested in comparative approaches that explore the influence of the  African-American civil rights praxis and aesthetics of protest in other campaigns for equality that emerged during and after the 1960s namely Native-American, Asian-American, Latino/a and LGBTQ  movements.

The following topics are a sample of the broad scope of concerns the conference welcomes:

  • African-American literature and the civil rights movement
  • The Neo-slave narratives of the 1960s and after
  • The Black Arts Movement
  • African-American theater and civil rights: from Lorraine Hansberry to Suzan-Lori Parks
  • The Civil Rights Movement on the big and small screen
  • Music and Civil Rights: From “Mississippi Goddam” to Motown
  • Civil Rights movement in biography and memoir
  • African-American feminism in the civil rights movement
  • Visual arts and civil rights: from the Spiral Group to Basquiat and Kara Walker
  • The Civil Rights Movement in African-American satire
  • Afroturism: The Civil Rights Movement and Speculative Fiction
  • Writing against race?  Contemporary “post-black” literature
  • Representing the civil rights movement in the media: journalism and photojournalism
  • Whitewashing the civil rights movement: contemporary political discourses
  • The Civil Rights movement in Southern literature
  • The influence of the Civil Rights Movement in other American Equal Rights Campaigns
  • Black Lives Matter and the legacy of the civil rights movement
  • Looking from a distance: the international impact of the Civil Rights Movement
  • The Civil Rights Movement in World Literature
  • The Civil Rights Movement in Translation
  • International approaches to teaching the Civil Rights Movement
  • This conference is organized by the American Intersections Strand of CETAPS

Participants should submit a 250 word abstract by September 8, 2018, accompanied by a brief bio-note.

Inquiries should be emailed to Teresa Botelho (tbotelho@mail.telepac.pt),  Isabel Oliveira Martins (iom@netcabo.pt) and Maria Teresa Castilho (mcastilh@letras.up.pt)

Go to http://www.cetaps.com/events/dikesofcourage  for more information and submission of abstracts.

Registration fees: 60 Euros (full fee), 30 Euros (student fee)

Organizing committee

Teresa Botelho

Isabel Oliveira Martins

Maria Teresa Castilho

Natália Telega Soares

Susana Costa

Jaqueline Pierazzo

CFP: Third Biennial European Association for American Studies (EAAS) Women’s Network Symposium

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CFP: Third Biennial European Association for American Studies (EAAS) Women’s Network Symposium

 

In collaboration with the Hellenic Association for American Studies (HELAAS)

Feminism and Technoscience

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Museum of Byzantine Culture

 Thessaloniki, Greece

April 6, 2019

In light of contemporary sociopolitical developments and prevailing technological practices, the EAAS Women’s Network Symposium will explore the connection between feminism and technoscience. In particular, it will examine feminist activism in relation to central notions such as the body, nature, and subjectivity within the context of current technoscientific discourses.

The long history of the feminist movement and the great diversity it displays when approached through the perspectives of race, ethnicity, age, and class underscores its strong political impetus and dynamic evolution. Especially when viewed in the context of technoscience, feminism reveals different socio-cultural, political, and media practices at work that not only affect, but also shape, public perceptions of femininity with respect to gender-defined skills, relations, and reproductive abilities. A number of contemporary feminist theoreticians, such as Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, and Rosi Braidotti have commented, each from her own unique perspective, on the impact that technology has had on female labor, bodies, and subjectivity within the context of transnational and global capitalist control.

This symposium will emphasize the central role activism plays in raising awareness about the reciprocal influences that develop between feminism and technology. It will also facilitate the exchange and circulation of information with regard to the impact of technology on diverse groups of women within the context of American Studies.

We invite the submission of individual abstracts, panels, and workshop/roundtable proposals that explore all aspects of this theme. Possible subthemes may include, but are not limited to:

  • Gendered technoscience/technophobia
  • Feminism and the biopolitics of reproductive technologies
  • Feminism and transnational capitalism
  • Feminism and digital networks/the (social) media
  • Feminism and political advocacy/online activism
  • Misogyny and the (social) media
  • Domestic technologies and activism
  • Feminism and technological innovation
  • Ecofeminism and industrialization
  • Feminism and posthumanism
  • Performing gender in virtual environments
  • Cyberfeminism and gendered cyborgs
  • Feminism and cybersexualities
  • Feminism, technoscience and literature
  • Feminist game studies and game production
  • Queer(ing) technology
  • Ethnicity, femininity and technology
  • Feminism, technology, and workforce politics
  • Technological representations of feminism
  • Transnational feminism and technology

Proposals should be sent to the EAAS Women’s Network (eaaswomensnetwork@gmail.com) and should consist of a 300–400 word abstract in English, as well as a one-paragraph biography for each participant. The time allowance for all presentations will be 20 minutes. An additional 10 minutes will be provided for discussion.

Deadline for proposal submission: December 15, 2018.

In order to encourage the participation of as many individuals as possible, this symposium will have no registration fee

Presenters will also be invited to submit full-text articles (5,000-8,000 words) for possible inclusion to our e-journal, WiN: The EAAS Women’s Network Journal

More information will be posted on our website as it becomes available:http://www.women.eaas.eu