Deadline for submissions: January 31, 2018
Full name/name of organization: Northern Illinois University
Contact email: mcllm@niu.edu

CALL FOR PAPERS: MCLLM

Conference Date: April 13th-14th, 2018

Deadline for Proposals: January 31, 2018

Theme: “Borders and Transitions”

The 26th annual Midwestern Conference on Literature, Language and Media (MCLLM) at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL, is currently accepting proposals for 15-minute presentations from individuals and panels. This year’s conference theme is Borders and Transitions. This theme encourages argument-driven papers that explore the relationship between ever-changing geographical, cultural, and technological boundaries and the humanities. How do language, literature, and media both reinforce and challenge these boundaries? How do these changing boundaries impact approaches to scholarship within the humanities?

We encourage a variety of approaches to these questions, including (but not limited to) the following topics:

-Changing Concepts of Nationality, Race, Class, Disability, Gender, and Sexuality
-Transnationalism and Hybridity
-Interdisciplinary Humanities (ex. Science and Literature)
-Political and Historical Change
-Public vs. Private Identity
-Society and Technology
-Art as Activism
-Pop Culture and Academia

MCLLM welcomes proposals from a wide range of research in the humanities. Possible research areas include: literature and poetry, creative writing, linguistics, written and visual rhetoric, journalism, narrative and documentary film, music, games/video games, anime, television, radio, new and social media, history, and pedagogy in these fields.

This year’s distinguished keynote speaker is Peter J. Capuano, associate professor of English and the director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Examples of his work include his 2015 book Changing Hands: Industry, Evolution, and the Reconfiguration of the Victorian Body, along with essays such as “Digital Dombey” and “Computational Contexts and Dickensian Depths.” Dr. Capuano’s research demonstrates a variety of exciting new approaches to discussing literature, particularly in terms of reconsidering traditional boundaries between the humanities and the sciences.

If you are interested in presenting at the conference, please submit 200-500 word proposals by January 31, 2018, to mcllm@niu.edu. Include a cover page with your name, institutional affiliation, graduate student or faculty status, email, and phone number. Panel proposals should include a brief overview of the panel’s theme and purpose, along with an abstract and cover page for each paper.

Founders Award

The Founders Award carries a $500 prize, given to one graduate student attending the conference and presenting a paper. The award honors Chuck Bowie and John Carlberg, the co-founders of the MCLLM conference. All graduate students presenting at the conference are eligible. This award is given based on the strength of the proposal, particularly in terms of how it relates to the conference theme and the quality of the argument presented.

Deadline for submissions: December 31, 2017
Full name/name of organization: Timothy Shary and Frances Smith
Contact email: refocusjohnhughes@gmail.com

UPDATE:

CFP: The Films of John Hughes (Refocus Series)

Series Editors: Gary D Rhodes, Robert Singer

Editors: Timothy Shary, Frances Smith

The films of writer, director, and producer, John Hughes, have enjoyed popular and critical success. With Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), and Pretty in Pink (1986), Hughes portrayed mercurial suburban adolescence in America. In doing so, he was responsible for bringing to the fore a whole new troupe of actors, dubbed The Brat Pack, which included Molly Ringwald, Matthew Broderick, Emilio Estevez, and Andrew McCarthy. Despite the lasting success of Hughes’ teen output, it was his move into mainstream comedy that secured his greatest commercial successes with hits like Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Uncle Buck (1989), Home Alone (Chris Columbus, 1990), and 101 Dalmatians (Stephen Herek, 1996).

Since Hughes’ death in 2009, there has been a growing appreciation of his work, and particularly of his teen output. Contemporary nostalgia for the 1980s has played a role, in works such as Easy A (Will Gluck, 2010), Pitch Perfect (Jason Moore, 2012), The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig, 2016), and Permanent (Collette Burson, 2017). Yet Hughes also deserves to be considered as an independent filmmaker, who eschewed the calls of Hollywood to film in his native Midwest (particularly Chicago). To be sure, Hughes’ films remain relevant and are well remembered. However, despite his popular appreciation and the sporadic commentary about his movies, there has to date been no scholarly volume dedicated to the discussion of his work as a whole.

This anthology seeks to address this gap in scholarship, and will be published by Edinburgh University Press in 2019 as part of the Refocus series, which has included books on Amy Heckerling, Delmer Daves, and Preston Sturges. Edited by Dr. Gary D Rhodes and Dr. Robert Singer, this series is dedicated to examining the work of overlooked filmmakers. We are seeking proposals of 500 words, plus a biography of 100 words, for essays to be included in the book. Completed essays should be between 6500 and 8000 words and follow the Chicago endnote referencing style. We are open to proposals on all aspects of John Hughes’ work. Essays may focus on individual works, or on recurrent themes throughout his oeuvre.

Contributions are particularly welcome, but by no means limited to, the following areas:

• Hughes and teen cinema

• The American family in Hughes’ films

• His early work for National Lampoon movies and TV shows (1979-1985)

• Analysis of individual films (1980-2008)

• Gender and teen comedy

• Topics of class, race, sexuality, or gender across Hughes’ films

• Analyses of individual star performances in his films, e.g.: John Candy, Macaulay Culkin, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall

• Hughes’ eight films as director (1984-1991)

• The aesthetic style of Hughes’ work, as writer and/or director

• Hughes as Hollywood producer of family comedies, e.g.: She’s Having a Baby (1988), Dutch (1991), Dennis the Menace (1993), Flubber (1997)

• Midwest geography and culture in his stories

• Use of music in his films, particularly pop hits

• His writing as alter ego Edmond Dantés, including Beethoven (1992), Maid in Manhattan (2002), and Drillbit Taylor (2008)

• Anything connecting his essentially secluded personal life to his work

Proposals should be sent to refocusjohnhughes@gmail.com by December 31, 2017. Both editors will review all proposals and respond by January 31, 2018. If successful, essays will need to be completed by September 30, 2018. Please send any enquiries to refocusjohnhughes@gmail.com.

Please visit exrey.umcs.lublin.pl for further details.

Deadline for submissions: December 11, 2017
Full name/name of organization: Ryan Edel – DFW Conference
Contact email: rjedel@ilstu.edu

The Fifth Annual David Foster Wallace Conference on Contemporary Literature and Culture, June 7-9, 2018

The Fifth Annual David Foster Wallace Conference on Contemporary Literature and Culture will be held at Illinois State University, June 7-9, 2018. The conference invites both critical scholarship and creative writing. Papers and panels should focus on literary works published since the 1950s and/or in the works of David Foster Wallace. Creative writing proposals in all genres are welcome.

Proposals are due by December 11, 2017.

Critical Papers and Panels

Topics for critical papers on Wallace or contemporary literature might include, but are not limited to:

· A Decade without Wallace: Legacy, Absence, and/or Contemporary relevance

· “The Long 1990s” and (Post) Millennial Culture

· Writing after Wallace: Influence, the “Post-Wallace Novel,” Memorialization, and/or Backlash

· Global Influences: Non-American Influences, Readings and/or, Contexts

· The “Post-Critical” Turn in Literary Studies

· Location/the Local: Institutions, Environment, the Midwest and/or, Boston

· The Body and Embodiment

· Neoliberalism, Freedom, and/or Politics

· Modes of Difference: Gender, Race, Sexuality, and/or Disability

· The State of the Field: Where Are We Now?

Special Sessions

In conjunction with the David Foster Wallace Society, we will be conducting special sessions on teaching David Foster Wallace and diversity in DFW Studies. We will also hold special sessions on interdisciplinary approaches to DFW Studies and academic freedom. Please visit our website at WallaceConference.com for more information.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit your proposals for critical, creative writing, and special session submissions through our online proposal form at WallaceConference.com. We require a 150-300-word proposal, a 50-word program abstract, and a 50-word bio. For creative works, we require submission of a current draft of the full text. Presenters may take part in up to two panels. Please submit by December 11, 2017.

Inquiries

In case of questions, please e-mail Ryan Edel via our Contact Page at WallaceConference.com.

Social Media

For regular updates, please Like us on Facebook and Follow Us on Twitter.

Proposals are due by December 11, 2017.

Deadline for submissions: January 19, 2018
Full name/name of organization: Gregory Eiselein / Louisa May Alcott Society
Contact email: eiselei@ksu.edu

Roundtable: Louisa May Alcott Society

American Literature Association Conference, San Francisco, CA, May 24-27, 2018

The Newness of Little Women

When it initially appeared in 1868, Little Women broke new ground. Fresh, lively, and distinctly American, in the eyes of its first reviewers, the novel offered up singular depictions of young women and men playing, talking, dreaming, creating, and learning in ways that embodied its era and region and that also immediately generated passionate responses. For this roundtable, we anticipate an animated conversation inspired by concise and stimulating perspectives about the newness of Little Women. Proposals might consider questions such as the following: In what ways did Alcott’s book revolutionize the novel as a genre or form? In what ways did Alcott’s slangy diction transform the language of American literary realism? What are Little Women’s most distinctive contributions to the development of literary or popular culture? How did the novel change the ways writers could represent young people, mothers and families, art and ambition? How does Little Women represent in unique or ephemeral ways its own moment in history? We would also welcome emerging approaches to Little Women: What are the newest or most innovative ways of examining and teaching the novel, and how can they help us see it with fresh eyes? Please send 300-word abstracts by email to Gregory Eiselein at eiselei@ksu.edu and Anne K. Phillips at annek@ksu.edu. The deadline for proposals is Friday, January 19, 2018. Early submissions welcome.

Deadline for submissions: December 18, 2017
Full name/name of organisation: Community Change Journal
Contact email: maryryan@vt.edu

Special Theme Issue
Pursuing Democratic Community Change in the Time of Trump

Issue Topic:

The 2016 presidential election has brought changes and challenges to the United States. During his campaign, then-candidate Donald J. Trump declared that Mexican migrants were criminals, called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, and told supporters to engage in violence against opponents. In these ways, Trump brought xenophobia, nativism and political violence directly into the nation’s political discourse. Hate crimes have spiked since Trump’s narrow electoral victory and neo-Nazis and white supremacists have been emboldened to mount a number of very public displays and rallies. This heightened level of activity has pressed fringe groups into broader public consciousness. Executive actions and legislative attempts by the Republican-controlled Congress have tried to roll back health insurance for millions, civil rights protections, environmental safeguards and regulatory oversight of the banking and securities industry. Against this backdrop, we conceive of democratic community change as progressive, emancipatory, and liberatory in character.

Community Change’s second issue invites articles that explore new ways of thinking to maintain exiting protections as well as analyze popular, community, and legal responses to Trump’s claims and activities. We solicit scholarly articles (4,000-6,000 words), book reviews (1,000-1,500 words), multimedia, and artwork that analyze responses to the evolving political and social landscape since the 2016 election. These might include, but are not limited to: 1) explorations of new initiatives, on-going activism, and community organizing and how they have changed since the 2016 campaign and election; 2) analyses of historical movements that have informed or might inform current responses; and 3) pieces on tactics and strategies employed to resist, counter and educate citizens concerning the dangers for democracy and self-governance of nativism, xenophobia, white supremacy and other reactionary ideologies or political doctrines.

Key Dates:
Call for submissions open – October 11, 2017
Submission deadline – December 18, 2017
Author notification of selection – January 8, 2018
Online publication – May 2018

Deadline for submissions: February 1, 2018
Full name/name of organization: Anna Lillios/Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society
Contact email: Anna@ucf.edu

The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society Announces

THE RAWLINGS WRITING AWARD

The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society is sponsoring a writing contest for currently enrolled graduate and undergraduate students. Prizes include $1,000 for graduate students and $500 for undergraduate students. Students are expected to write 1500—3000 words—either a critical essay or a piece of creative work—on a subject related to the works, career, or legacy of Rawlings. They are expected to present their work at the next annual Rawlings conference at the Lakeside Inn, Mt. Dora, April 20-21, 2018.

Contact Dr. Anna Lillios at Anna@ucf.edu for further information.