International Symposium
October 19-20, 2017
École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon (France)
Thoreau from across the pond

Organized by Julien Nègre (ENS de Lyon)
François Specq (ENS de Lyon)
and Laura Dassow Walls (University of Notre Dame)

Guest speakers (confirmed):
–        Professor Branka Arsić (Columbia University)
–        Professor William Rossi (University of Oregon)

In honor of Henry David Thoreau’s 200^th birthday in 2017, this conference would like to interrogate the multiplicity of viewpoints from which he is read today. In recent years, Thoreau’s writings have been approached from a variety of perspectives: he has been envisioned as a poet and a philosopher, but also as a political thinker, a scientist of sorts, a surveyor, a lover of nature and an environmentalist. While these different perspectives complement each other to a certain extent, they also reveal how multifaceted his writings are, and how elusive his figure remains. Something resists in his texts, which is probably the surest sign of his ongoing relevance today.
The purpose of this conference is to confront these different readings and explore the issue of how we perceive and understand Thoreau today. The geographical separation between Concord and Lyon invites us to question the distance–temporal, intellectual, theoretical perhaps–between Thoreau and us. What does it mean to read Thoreau from across the pond, that is to say, in this case, from across the Atlantic, but also from the 21^st century and from the frame of reference of our own modernity? In a journal entry from June 7, 1851, Thoreau playfully warns: “Keep your distance, do not infringe on the interval between us, and I will pick pick [sic] up lime & lay real terrestrial eggs for you, & let you know by cackling when I have done it.” What is the right “distance” to read Thoreau, then? What sort of theoretical tools, historiographic work of contextualization or biographical sources do we need to find the right “interval”? Thinking about Thoreau from across the pond also invites us to consider his inscription in American culture, both in his own time (through the study of his reception by his contemporaries) and in the way he has been perceived by several different generations of readers.
In 2009, scholars from around the world gathered in Lyon for the “Thoreauvian Modernities” conference, the first Thoreau event ever organized on this side of the Atlantic. That gathering led to important debates on Thoreau’s “modernity,” as evidenced by the multiple and sometimes divergent approaches displayed in the Thoreauvian Modernities volume (University of Georgia Press, 2013). Following up on these debates, the organizers of the present conference are interested in papers that illustrate and confront the variety of theoretical approaches and perspectives on Thoreau’s texts and his life. Participants might consider, but not necessarily limit themselves to the following topics:
–        New approaches to Thoreau’s writings
–        Thoreau’s texts and their inscription within the fields of philosophy, politics, science, environmental studies, etc.
–        Thoreau’s life
–        Thoreau’s network: his friends, relatives, correspondents, etc. and their influence on his thinking;
–        Thoreau’s sources: the documents he used, read, owned, borrowed, annotated, etc.
–        Thoreau’s reception by his contemporaries and until today.

To submit a proposal, please send an abstract (250-300 words) and a short CV to thoreau.lyon2017@ens-lyon.fr by October 1, 2016.

The Terra Foundation for American Art International Essay Prize recognizes excellent scholarship by a non-U.S. scholar in the field of historical American art. Manuscripts should advance the understanding of American art, demonstrating new findings and original perspectives. The prize winner will be given the opportunity to work toward publication in American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s scholarly journal. He or she will also receive a $1,000 cash award and a travel stipend of up to $3,000 to give a presentation in Washington, D.C., and meet with museum staff and fellows. This prize is supported by funding from the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Ph.D. candidates and above who have not published in American Artpreviously are eligible to participate in the competition. Essays may focus on any aspect of historical (pre-1980) American art and visual culture; however, architecture and film studies are not eligible. Preference will be given to submissions that address American art within a cross-cultural context and offer new ways of thinking about the material. A strong emphasis on visual analysis is encouraged.

Submissions for the 2017 prize must be sent to TerraEssayPrize@si.edu by January 15, 2017. For more information about eligibility and the format for submissions, please visit www.americanart.si.edu/research/awards/terra.

HEMINGWAY IN PARIS

“Paris est une fête” . . . Hemingway’s Moveable Feast

JULY 22-28, 2018

Conference Co-Directors: H. R. Stoneback & Matthew Nickel

Paris Site Coordinators: Alice Mikal Craven & William E. Dow

Host Institution: The American University of Paris

Mark your calendars now for what promises to be an amazing conference in Paris, July 22-28, 2018. Paris is Hemingway’s moveable feast. A major concern of the conference directors is to make this a truly international conference. To that end, committees have already been established to ensure the input and participation of French, European, Asian and worldwide Hemingway scholars and aficionados. If you have special knowledge and expertise in the matter of France, or useful French and Parisian contacts, or you would like to serve on a Paris 2018 Conference Committee (or suggest on-site individuals who might serve on such committees), let us know as soon as possible. And please invite and encourage your colleagues and students and friends to be there with us—in Paris, with Hemingway.

Our Host Institution will be The American University of Paris, centrally located in the heart of historic Paris, in the 7^th arrondissement near the Seine and the Eiffel Tower, yet far enough from the madding tourist crowd to guarantee an authentic and idyllic Parisian experience for Hemingway conferees. From our home-base academic sessions at AUP to special sessions at The Sorbonne, from a cocktail or dinner bateau mouche boat-ride on the Seine to a dazzling array of other special events now being investigated and considered from among l’embarras des richesses that Paris has to offer—an overabundant embarrassment of riches and choices—we promise that this conference is not to be missed. (And this word from an old Paris hand: don’t be scared by that word “riches”—Paris is inexpensive compared with some of our conference venues and our recommended hotel list in Paris 2018 will be less expensive than most hotels in Oak Park in 2016, Venice in 2014, etc.)

Enthusiasm for the Paris 2018 conference is running high, in the U.S. and abroad. One reason to be in Paris in 2018 is the truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in the global commemoration of the First World War Centenary and to do so in Paris, at the heart of such commemorations. Papers and panels on all aspects of Hemingway studies are welcome. Stay tuned. Watch for the CFP coming soon. Follow the news on the Hemingway Society website hemingwaysociety.org.

Deadline for submissions: February 1, 2017.

Full name /name of organization: Goodwin College.

Contact email: rlaist@goodwin.edu

In the final week of January, 1977, the ABC miniseries Roots became the most-watched television program of all time. To the surprise of the show’s producers, Roots became not only a ratings windfall, but a cultural phenomenon, articulating an African-American counter-narrative of American history, provoking a dialogue about the legacy of slavery, and presenting African-American characters with a dignity and integrity that differed sharply from the caricatured representations common to television up to that time. In many ways, the response to the show by the media and the general public constitutes the first of many “conversations about race” that have punctuated the Post-Civil Rights era.

On October 6 and 7 of 2017, Goodwin College will host a special conference to mark the 40th anniversary of the original broadcast of Roots. Goodwin College houses a significant repository of Alex Haley’s writings, and it is committed to promoting dialogue about social justice and opportunity for all. We welcome 250-word proposals for conference presentations focused on any aspect of the miniseries, its impact, and its legacy.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

Media representations of slavery and African-Americans over the last half-century,
The sociological and educational impacts of intergenerational trauma,
Re-viewing Roots within the context of contemporary concerns such as the epidemic of mass-incarceration, the cultural heritage of the Civil War, the Black Lives Matter campaign, etc.,
The power of television as both an agent of change and as upholder of the status quo,
Generic interactions between oral history and novelistic fiction, and between historical iconography and televised melodrama,
The history of attempts to have a public “conversation about race” and their ambiguous outcomes,
Genealogy, naming, and African-American identity,
Approaches to teaching the novel and the miniseries.
In addition to scholarly contributions, we also welcome artwork, creative writing, personal narratives, and multimedia reflections on Roots for inclusion in the conference program.

Please visit the conference website at the following address to submit your proposal:

http://digitalcommons.goodwin.edu/roots/

Or send proposals directly to Randy Laist at rlaist@goodwin.edu.

Deadline for proposals: February 1, 2017

Deadline for submissions: October 1, 2016.

Full name /name of organization: Shawn Higgins /Association for Asian American Studies.

Contact email: shawn.higgins@nmt.edu

AAAS 2017 Special Session CFP (Please share widely).
13-15 April 2017, Portland, OR.

“Ingest with Care: Asian American Bodies Consuming” explores the foods, drinks, supplements, carcinogens, and other matter consciously either consumed or rejected by Asian American bodies. Ideally, this diverse panel will feature scholars of the humanities, social studies, and the sciences.

150-250 word abstract and CV by 1 October 2016; Shawn Higgins (shawn.higgins@nmt.edu).

Deadline for submissions: December 19, 2016.

Full name /name of organization: John Brittingham (Greenville College) and Andrew Marzoni (Georgia Institute of Technology).

Contact email: andrew.marzoni@lmc.gatech.edu

Since the first back-to-the-land movements of the late nineteenth century, summer camps have occupied a unique place in the American cultural imagination. Part coming of age ritual, part sanctuary, part nostalgia, part babysitter, summer camps have expanded from a select few operations to a cornucopia of specialized options in the twenty-first century: sports camp, music camp, nerd camp, fat camp, bible camp, coding camp, cooking camp––with every summer comes new possibilities.

We are seeking a variety of academic essays and nonfiction narratives for a volume titled Notes on Camp. Topics may include a film theory analysis of summer camp movies, an art historical perspective on camp crafts, or a musicologist’s take on “Kumbaya” and the role of summer camp in American folk music. We’d love to hear from writers eager to share their personal experiences as campers, counselors, parents, psychologists, coaches, and educators. Such essays might discuss encounters with the wilderness, organizations such as Boy Scouts of America or Girl Scouts of the USA, camp rivalries and pranks, adolescent romance, appropriation of Native American cultures and traditions, the sociology of the end-of-summer-dance, or even water sports. Ultimately, we are hoping to put together a volume at once touching and humorous, rigorous and anecdotal, bringing together a number of distinct academic disciplines and narrative voices.

Finished essays should be between 3000 and 5000 words in length, with the option of shorter submissions for narrative pieces. Previously unpublished work only, please.

Email 500-word abstracts to John Brittingham (johnbrittingham@gmail.com) and Andrew Marzoni (andrew.marzoni@lmc.gatech.edu) by December 19, 2016. Finished essays will be due early Spring 2017.

Deadline for submissions: September 23, 2016

Full name /name of organization: ACLA

Contact email: mmalburn@highpoint.edu

Monsters in Our Midst: Hauntings, Taboos, and Terror in Global Literature

Organizer: Meredith Malburne-Wade

Co-Organizer: Ashley Reed

Co-Organizer: Megan Goodwin

In his essay on the unheimlich, Freud proposed that the uncanny is “something which ought to have remained hidden but has come to light.” Toni Morrison foregrounds the specter of race haunting the American literary imagination when she asks, “are there ghosts in the machine?” Barbara Creed’s engagement of Kristeva suggests that “abjection, as a source of horror, works within patriarchal societies, as a means of separating the human from the non-human.” Edward Ingebretsen’s answer to the question “why does one make a monster?” is chilling: “to watch it die, of course.”

The ogres of our imagination are raced, gendered, classed, and embodied. Societies define themselves at the threshold of repulsion. The stories we tell ourselves about what we fear reveal who we are, what we want, and what we cannot or will not tolerate. How do cultures narrate unspeakable things? How may literature help us approach—or repel—the unthinkable? Can our specters be benevolent, or can history only haunt us?

Building on these observations and inquiries, this seminar invites explorations of monstrosity, hauntings, abjection, and interstitial embodiment in global literature. We invite papers on both research and pedagogy, including the challenges of teaching monstrous or haunted works. Open to texts from or situated around the world, we look forward to discussing the history of terror, taboos, and the “ghosts in the machine,” as well as the ways in which literature hides or exposes them. ACLA will be held at Utrecht University in Utrecht, the Netherlands, July 6-9 2017. Paper proposals must be submitted by September 23. ACLA seminars run a bit differently: each seminar meets over 2-3 days and all participants should plan to attend all 2-3 days of the seminar to encourage conversation about and between individual papers. Questions can be addressed to Meredith Malburne-Wade at mmalburn@highpoint.edu