Author: Sarah McCreedy

CFP: Transatlantic Studies Association 20th Annual Conference

Posted on by Sarah McCreedy

Transatlantic Studies Association
20th Annual Conference
University of Kent, Canterbury
4-6 July 2022

_________

Call for Papers

Submissions are invited for the 2022 Annual Conference

KEYNOTE LECTURES

Professor Jussi Hanhimäki (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies)

“Pax Transatlantica: America and Europe in the Post-Cold War Era”

AND

Dr Sarah Meer (University of Cambridge)

“American Claimants: Transatlantic Tales of Humility and Grandeur”

AND

Professor Mark Webber (University of Birmingham)

“NATO in a Tripolar World: Does the New Strategic Concept Deliver?”

 

PLUS

A Roundtable discussion on:

The End of an Era? The Transatlantic Alliance in International Politics from 9/11 to Covid-19
_________

 

The TSA is a broad network of scholars who use the ‘transatlantic’ as a frame of reference for their work in a variety of disciplines, including (but not limited to): history, politics and international relations, and literary studies. All transatlantic-themed paper and panel proposals from these and related disciplines are welcome.

The conference is organised around a number of subject themes, each of which is convened by members of the conference programme committee. If you would like to discuss your paper or panel proposal prior to submission, please contact the relevant programme committee members. This year’s subject themes are:

Diplomatic and international history
David Ryan, david.ryan@ucc.ie, Chris Jespersen, christopher.jespersen@ung.edu

Political and intellectual history
Joe Renouard, jrenoua1@jhu.edu, Gaynor Johnson, G.L.Johnson@kent.ac.uk

Social, cultural and religious history

Finn Pollard, fpollard@lincoln.ac.uk, Kathryn Gray, kathryn.gray@plymouth.ac.uk

International Relations and Security Studies

Michele Testoni, mtestoni@faculty.ie.edu, Joe Renouard, jrenoua1@jhu.edu

Literature, film, and theatre
Donna Gessell, donna.gessell@ung.edu, Finn Pollard, fpollard@lincoln.ac.uk

Transatlantic memory and heritage 

 Kristin Cook, kc31@soas.ac.uk, Kathryn Gray, kathryn.gray@plymouth.ac.uk 

Latin America in a transatlantic context         

 Robert Howes, robert.howes@kcl.ac.uk, Thomas Mills, t.c.mills@lancaster.ac.uk

Ethnicity, race and migration 

Thomas Mills, t.c.mills@lancaster.ac.uk, Tony McCulloch, tony.mcculloch@ucl.ac.uk

Special subject theme:

 The TSA is pleased to join SOAS and the University of York in welcoming proposals that seek to better understand the UK-US nuclear relationship as enshrined in the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement (MDA). This arrangement formalizes the US support for the UK’s nuclear weapons system, and regulates exchanges of sensitive nuclear materials and know-how between the two countries. The Mutual Defence Agreement has been regularly renewed since its inception, with the next renewal due in 2024.

 

While the nuclear relationship is commonly thought of as being at the heart of what is referred to as the “special relationship”, there is no academic centre in either the US and UK that has a sustained focus on this topic, and scholarly literature about it is sparse. The TSA thus encourages proposals for papers that elucidate and interrogate the Mutual Defence Agreement and UK-US nuclear relationship, drawing on traditional strategic studies, peace studies and critical perspectives.

 

For queries, please contact Professor Dan Plesch: dp27@soas.ac.uk

 

Conference Format

The TSA fully intends to hold its 2022 annual conference as a full in-person meeting. If there are unexpected and significant limitations on gatherings and international travel, the TSA Management Committee will reconsider the format accordingly. While primarily an in-person meeting, we will reserve a limited number of slots for online panels. These panels must be wholly online (i.e. all presenters and the chair will participate online); individual paper submissions will not be considered for online delivery. If you wish your panel to be delivered wholly online, please explain briefly when making your submission why this needs to be the case and/or why the panel would benefit from this format of delivery. Please note that panels and papers accepted for in-person delivery will not subsequently be considered for online delivery.

 

Other formats

In addition to the subject themes above, we welcome papers and panels on any aspect of transatlantic studies. Interdisciplinary papers and panels are particularly welcome, as are innovative formats, such as roundtables, workshops or multimedia presentations.

 

Submission Instructions

Panel proposals should constitute three or four presenters and a Chair (as well as a discussant if desired). Panel proposals should be sent by email as one document attachment to tsakent2022@gmail.com, and include:

  • 300-word overview of the panel theme;
  • 300-word abstracts for each of the papers;
  • 100-word author biographies;
  • 2-page CVs for all participants.

 

The subject line of the email for panel proposals should read: ‘TSA Proposal-[Last name of panel convenor]-[Subject theme]’ (state ‘Other’ if not falling under listed themes) (E.g. ‘TSA Proposal-Smith-Diplomacy and International History’).

 

Individual paper proposals should be sent by email as one document attachment, and include:

 

  • 300-word abstract for the paper
  • 100-word author biography;
  • 2-page CV.

 

The subject line of the email for paper proposals should read: ‘TSA Proposal-[Last name of presenter]-[Subject theme]’ (state ‘Other’ if not falling under listed themes) (E.g. ‘TSA Proposal-Smith-Other).

 

Please note: all submissions must come to the conference email address to be considered by the programme committee.

Travel Grants

The TSA particularly welcomes proposals from new members and junior scholars. Travel grants of £150 each are available to support early career scholars presenting a paper at the conference. As a result of funding from the Halle Foundation, the TSA is able this year to offer a number of additional travel grants to support early career scholars presenting a paper on any aspect of relations between the United States and Germany.

 

If wishing to apply for a travel grant, applicants should indicate this in the body of the email when submitting their paper or panel. If papers are believed to qualify for Halle Foundation funding, this should be indicated. In addition to the materials requested above, travel grant applicants should include a brief statement explaining why it is important for them to attend the TSA conference. For further details about TSA travel grants, see the TSA website: www.transatlanticstudies.com.


Deadline for panel and paper proposals: 15 January 2021
All paper and panel proposals, and travel grant applications, should be sent to the conference email:

tsakent2022@gmail.com.

 

Contact details

Chair of TSA: Thomas Mills: t.c.mills@lancaster.ac.uk

 

Vice-Chair of TSA: Kristin Cook: kc31@soas.ac.uk

 

Local Organiser: Gaynor Johnson, G.L.Johnson@kent.ac.uk

 

TSA Charity Number: SC039378

www.transatlanticstudies.com

Extended Deadline: Emily Dickinson International Society Conference, 2022

Posted on by Sarah McCreedy

Extended Deadline

 

The 2022 Emily Dickinson International Society Conference, “Dickinson and Foreignhood,” and the Dickinson Critical Institute in Seville

 

The Emily Dickinson International Society is extending its deadline until November 20 for proposal submission to its international conference, “Dickinson and Foreignhood,” and to its Critical Institute, both to take place at the College of Philology, University of Seville, Spain. The conference will go from Tuesday, July 12, to Thursday, July 14. The Critical Institute will be on Monday, July 11.

The Dickinson Critical Institute helps graduate students and early career scholars develop their work in collaboration with established Dickinson specialists. For more information about the Critical Institute in Seville, please see the conference website (https://edisforeignhoodconference.org/). To apply to the Institute, submit a one-page cv and a 500-800-word description of your project to Eliza Richards (ecr@email.unc.edu) and to Karen Sánchez-Eppler (kjsanchezepp@amherst.edu) no later than November 20. Use the subject heading “[Last Name] Dickinson Institute Application,” and attach your application materials as Word or pdf documents. Decisions on acceptance will be made by December 15.

The EDIS International Conference “Dickinson and Foreignhood” takes its cue from “A South Wind – has a pathos” (c.1864), where the poet refers to “much not understood – / The fairer – for the farness – / And for the foreignhood.” These lines represent the unknown as more beautiful when distant and unfamiliar, or foreign. The conference seeks to develop knowledge of how Dickinson understood the foreign, how she has been understood as foreign, and how foreign peoples have understood her.

The Program Committee welcomes all work on configurations of the foreign, broadly understood, in Dickinson’s writing, including:

• Conceptions of the foreign (or what we might call otherness) in Dickinson’s culture and historical moment

• Discussions of race, ethnicity, class, disability, gender, sexuality, and other categories that have historically been associated with alienation and cultural disenfranchisement

• Dickinson, geography, navigation, and foreign travel

• Parts of Dickinson’s environment, culture, or identity that seemed foreign to her

• Immigration, emigration, and exile

• Dickinson’s reception abroad

• Dickinson, foreign languages, and translation

• Lyric alienation and the poetics of estrangement

• Invasion, contagion, and infection as encounters with the foreign

Finally, regardless of theme, all proposals engaging serious scholarship on Dickinson’s work are welcome. Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words, along with a brief biography of 100 words maximum, to Jefferey Simons (dickinsoninseville@dfing.uhu.es) and to Cristanne Miller (ccmiller@buffalo.edu) before November 20. Please specify if you plan to present virtually rather than in person. The conference Program Committee will respond by December 15.

For further information, please see the websites of the conference (https://edisforeignhoodconference.org/) and of The Emily Dickinson International Society (http://www.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.org/).

CFP: Cormac McCarthy International Conference

Posted on by Sarah McCreedy

Call for Papers

 

Cormac McCarthy

International Conference

 

Sponsored by

Trinity College Dublin

in association with

the Cormac McCarthy Society

 

Topics open,

with special interest in

Cormac McCarthy’s relationship to Ireland and Irish heritage

 

June 14-17, 2022

Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

 

Send brief proposals for 15-20-minute presentations or complete panels by April 1, 2022 to:

 

Steven Frye, President of the Cormac McCarthy Society cormacmccarthysociety@gmail.com

 

email proposals only

Provide contact information including email address and region

CFP: Heidelberg Center for American Studies Conference

Posted on by Sarah McCreedy

Heidelberg Center for American Studies 19th Annual Spring Academy Conference

Heidelberg, Germany, 21–25 March, 2022

Call for Papers

The eighteenth HCA Spring Academy on American Culture, Economics, Geography, History, Literature, Politics, and Religion will be held from March 21-25, 2022. The Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) invites applications for this annual one-week conference that provides twenty international Ph.D. students with the opportunity to present and discuss their Ph.D. projects.

The HCA Spring Academy invites participants to work closely with experts in their respective fields of study and offers workshops held by visiting scholars.

We encourage applications that pursue an interdisciplinary approach and range broadly across the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Papers can be presented on any subject relating to the study of the United States of America. Possible topics include American identity, issues of ethnicity, gender, transatlantic relations, U.S. domestic and foreign policy, economics, as well as various aspects of American history, literature, religion, geography, law, musicology, and culture. Proposals should include a preliminary title and run to no more than 300 words.

Participants are requested to prepare a 20-minute presentation of their research project, which will be followed by a 40-minute discussion. The presentations will be arranged into ten panel groups.

In addition to cross-disciplinary and international discussions during the panel sessions, the Spring Academy aims at creating a pleasant collegial atmosphere for further scholarly exchange and contact.

Accommodation will be provided by the Heidelberg Center for American Studies.

Thanks to a small travel fund, the Spring Academy is able to subsidize travel expenses for participants registered and residing in soft-currency countries. Scholarship applicants will need to document the necessity for financial aid and explain how they plan to cover any potentially remaining expenses. In addition, a letter of recommendation from their doctoral advisor is required.

 

START OF APPLICATION PROCESS:                                          September 30, 2021

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS:                                                November 15, 2021

SELECTIONS WILL BE MADE BY:                                                January 2022

PLEASE USE OUR ONLINE APPLICATION SYSTEM:             www.hca-springacademy.de

MORE INFORMATION:                                                                 www.hca.uni-heidelberg.de

FOR FURTHER QUESTIONS:                                                        springacademy@hca.uni-heidelberg.de

 

DICE Network – Mission Statement

Posted on by Sarah McCreedy

Mission Statement

22 May 2021

 

The DICE Network (Decolonial, Indigenous, and Critical Ethnic Studies Network of the European Association of American Studies [EAAS]) is committed to creating discussions amongst, and connecting, scholars working in these fields. Inherent to the network’s approach is an inclusive participation of our members in the direction of our network and critical a focus on Indigenous, Black, Latinx, non-whitestream, anti- and decolonial scholarship. We aim to create a multi-institutional platform which facilitates deliberations and exchanges on research in decolonial, Indigenous, and critical ethnic studies being undertaken in Europe, on methodological queries and considerations on working in these fields in a European context and / or as Europeans, as well as on increasing connections with our colleagues in North America who work in these and related fields.

 

We thus welcome anyone who works or is interested in:

  • Decolonial and anti-colonial studies
  • Indigenous studies
  • Critical Ethnic and anti-racist studies
  • Black, African-American and / or Africana studies
  • Latinx studies
  • Asian-American and/or Asian-European studies
  • Migration studies
  • Settler-colonial studies
  • Intersectional studies
  • Everyone who works and/ or is interested in related fields 

 

We will hold our first ever network meeting at the 2022 EAAS conference which will take place in Madrid on the 6th-8th April 2022. We will hold at least one network-sponsored panel and one roundtable for which we will circulate a CfP shortly. Future events and publications will keep our conversations and deliberations developing.

 

Anybody interested in joining this EAAS network and putting their name on our mailing list, please contact us at DICEnetworkEAAS@gmail.com by sending your name, email address, and institutional affiliation, as well as your research interests. We promise to keep the number of messages to a minimum while aiming to circulate calls for papers and/or submissions and any relevant network information.

 

All suggestions on the network’s functioning, focus, topics, or activities are welcome.

Thank you for your interest!

 

Best wishes,

 

The DICE Board

Jonathan Ward, Aleksandra Izgarjan, Timothy Petete, and Cécile Hei

Irish Journal of American Studies Positions

Posted on by Sarah McCreedy

 

The Irish Journal of American Studies (IJAS Online) is seeking to fill two positions:

  • Co-Editor-in-Chief
  • Marketing & Reviews Editor

The Irish Journal of American Studies is an internationally respected, peer-reviewed, open access journal. It is the official journal of the Irish Association for American Studies (the all-Ireland scholarly association for the study of the United States and the Americas), and has published since 1992. It currently publishes issues annually at http://ijas.iaas.ie/ featuring articles, reviews and interviews on topics including history, literature, film, art, music, media, and politics. The previous Editor-in-Chief David Coughlan is stepping down, with the previous Marketing & Reviews Editor Tim Groenland moving to the position of Editor-in-Chief.

The journal is seeking a candidate to share the Editorship as well as a new Marketing & Reviews Editor. Both posts will run for three years, with the possibility of renewal. The roles are briefly outlined below, and we hope to fill both by September 2021; we anticipate a handover period, provisionally scheduled for the final weeks of August. Excellent editorial, organisational and communication skills are essential for both posts. An interest in academic publishing and research expertise in American Studies are also essential.

No salary is available for either role, as the journal is entirely volunteer-run. The nature of scholarly publishing means that the work will not be distributed evenly throughout the year, but we estimate that the Co-Editor-in Chief role will require a commitment of 2 hours per week, with the Marketing & Reviews Editor requiring 1 hour per week. The role also comes with a non-executive position on the IAAS committee, and the Editor-in-Chief is thus expected to attend the four committee meetings each year; attendance can be alternated between the Co-Editors.

The IJAS is committed to equity and inclusion, and we encourage expressions of interest from under-represented groups. Both roles will require regular consultation and coordination with the wider editorial team, but possibilities for role-sharing may be considered in the case of the Marketing & Reviews Editor position so as to accommodate varying responsibilities and workloads.

To apply, please send the following to irishjournalofamericanstudies@gmail.com by midnight on August 12th, 2021:

  • One-page cover letter outlining your interest in the role, skills, and experience
  • CV

Please direct any informal enquiries to the same address.

Outline of Roles:

Co-Editor-in-Chief

  • Working with Co-Editor-in-Chief Dr Tim Groenland to bring articles to publication;
    • identifying peer reviewers (with the assistance of the Editorial Board), liaising with reviewers, synthesising reviewer reports
    • Communicating with authors, working with authors on copy-edits, managing submission and revision deadlines
    • Publishing to the IJAS Online platform; formatting according to journal guidelines, sourcing suitable images, adapting content to WordPress requirements as needed
  • Maintaining and improving access to the journal;
    • Managing the journal’s website http://ijas.iaas.ie/ (e.g. updating menus and lists of Books for Review)
    • Preparing content for (and communicating with) JSTOR, formatting articles for print
  • Planning future issues and strategy in collaboration with Dr Groenland and the IJAS Editorial Board (a diverse supporting network of Americanist scholars in Ireland and beyond)
  • Mentoring early-career writing

Marketing & Reviews Editor 

  • Commissioning reviews, liaising with reviewers and publishers of books available for review, managing deadlines and review schedules
  • Preparing reviews for publication;
    • Editing, communicating with authors on approval for changes
    • Copy-editing and formatting reviews, liaising with the Co-Editors-in-Chief on publication
  • Marketing:
    • Liaising with IAAS Secretary to promote new articles & reviews in newsletter, and with American Studies conference organisers as well as local departments where appropriate to advertise the journal
    • Managing the journal’s social media account(s) (Twitter, at present)

 

 

Popularizing STEM | Science and Technology in 21st-Century US Popular Culture

Posted on by Sarah McCreedy

Popularizing STEM | Science and Technology in 21st-Century US Popular Culture 15-19 November 2021 (hybrid format conference)

Confirmed keynotes: Gerry Canavan, Charles Adler, Stina Attebery, André Brock, Emily Cox- Palmer-White, J. Jesse Ramírez.
Follow further updates on Twitter or the official conference website!

In 1959, British physicist and novelist C.P. Snow delivered a lecture in which he highlighted the increasing intellectual separation between the humanities and the sciences—the emergence of “two cultures.” While his arguments were clearly anchored in British society, he nevertheless suggested that this emerging chasm was “a problem of the entire West.” To present the argument in a perhaps even more exaggerated manner than Snow did: Not even the most highly educated humanities scholars can comprehend basic physics, while what we today would refer to as STEM professors don’t read “highbrow” literature. Snow came to understand that the situation was not quite as black-and-white as he suggested, which is why he anticipated the emergence of a “third culture” a few years later.

Of course, much has happened in the sixty-plus years since Snow’s iconic lecture. And, indeed, scholars such as Rachel Holland have diagnosed the emergence of a “third culture” and, along with it, third-culture cultural objects. In her recent book Contemporary Fiction and Science (2019), Holland argues that the increasing presence of science in fiction (and, by extension, popular culture) “is, in part, a response to the upsurge in interest […] in popular science.” Holland identifies a “new strand of fiction” that engages with “elements of popular science in a number of ways. These include: researching and relaying information gleaned from scientific publications; challenging or promoting ideas presented by science writers; exploring the moral and ethical implications of these ideas; and testing the limits and capabilities of the novel in relation to scientific discourse.” As some of the elements in this list suggest, science is a tool of power; science is purported to be objective and, hence, often serves as a purveyor of Truth. As such, it has been (ab)used in a variety of ways in the course of history–among others, scientific curiosity drove (and technology made possible) the exploration and colonization of foreign lands, science explained the inferiority of non-white peoples, iconic Nazi doctor Josef Mengele experimented on humans in the name of scientific progress, etc.

Holland’s elaborations also indicate that science and technology have taken an integral place in global society—and the ongoing pandemic has brought this process to the fore. Due to the proliferation of science and technology on television, in films, video games, and other popular media and the attendant use of YouTube and other platforms by STEM fields, it is important to study the dynamic and complex interrelationship between science & technology and popular culture. Indeed, science & technology has infiltrated popular culture. However, this is not a one-way street! “The cultural products that scientific discoveries and developments sparked have become significant parts of the discourse surrounding science,” as Steven Gil rightfully stresses in the opening editorial of the Journal of Science & Popular Culture.

We are particularly interested in presentations that seek to engage with questions of intersectional discrimination in STEM representations in popular culture, spanning from cultural products aimed at dissemination and debate on STEM to texts such as films, TV series, comics and graphic novels, genre fiction, video games, new media narratives.

Suggested fields of analysis might include but are not limited to:

  • STEM dissemination in popular culture: storytelling strategies, (in)accuracy, multimedia programs and projects promoting access, flexibility, and adaptability in STEM education and knowledge, deconstructing the existing barriers within the field and building equality in legitimacy
  • Interrelationship between STEM and Popular Culture: Using popular culture to teach/educate on STEM (i.e., in STEM programs) and teaching about STEM via popular culture
  • Economic discourses and the challenges of capitalism related to STEM in US popular culture and media
  • Representation of STEM in popular culture aimed at children and young adults
  • Intersectionality versus marginalization in the dissemination and communicationof science and technology
  • STEM and Gender Studies :  the portrayal of masculine, feminine, and gender non-conforming individuals in STEM-centered popular media narratives
  • Science, tech, and race/ethnicity: Afro(Latinx), Indigenous, and Chicana Futurism(s), minority perspectives, alternative narratives, borderland spaces
  • Digital technology and virtual realities as safe spaces for marginalized groups
  • The use of science and technology in depictions of the future as critiques or reevaluations of current realities: tech-noir and sci-fi utopias, dystopias, post/apocalyptic scenarios, and retrofuturism 
  • Cyborgs, AI, and the human: representations, conflicts, and horrific developments
  •  Health and technology: care robots and the representation of disabilities, human aging, biomedical issues
  • Representations of surveillance, biometrics, and biological citizenship
  • Tech, science, and the (non)human body: narratives related to experimentation,bioethics, artificial monstrosity, transhumanism, biopunk
  • Pop depictions of STEM: (in)accuracy, “prediction” of future technologies, breaking down the science and tech behind superhero narrativesDeadline for submission: August 31, 2021.Submit your abstract proposal (~ 300 words) at popmec.stem@gmail.com as an attachment, including name, affiliation if any, and contact email. Depending on the proposals and participants’ response, an editorial project might originate from the conference.

The conference will take place on the days 15-19 November 2021 in mixed format:

  • ONLINE | panels and main keynotes
  • IN PRESENCE at Universidad de Alcalá, historical campus, Friday 19 November |2 keynotes + workshop/seminars. If it will be feasible considering the changing COVID-19 related measures, we will allow selected panels to be carried out in person (if their participants wish to do so)Participation fees:
  • FREE for PopMeC members (membership yearly fees: 12€ students / non-tenured / unwaged / retired, 20€ regular)
  • Non-members: 15€                                                                 

 

The conference is organized by the PopMeC Association for US Popular Culture Studies, in collaboration with the Instituto Franklin-UAH located in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid, ES) and the academic research project Fiction Meets Science.Organizing committee: Michael Fuchs and Anna Marta Marini (coordinators), Laura Álvarez Trigo, Paula Barba Guerrero, Paul Mitchell, Dina Pedro, Erika Tiburcio.
On-site organization: Francisco Sáez de Adana, Ana Serra, Carlos Herrero (Instituto Franklin- UAH).