Deadline for submissions: December 1, 2016

Full name /name of organization: The Texas Center for Working-Class Studies

Contact email: LKirby@collin.edu

The Texas Center for Working-Class Studies, housed at Collin College, a two-year institution serving Collin County, is pleased to announce a one-day Working-Class Studies conference for interested scholars and students. The conference will consist of panels in a range of disciplines and on a variety of issues related to social class and labor issues, both historical and contemporary. The keynote speaker will be noted scholar Dr. David Roediger, Foundation Professor of American Studies and History at The University of Kansas. Dr. Roediger’s recent books include Seizing Freedom: Slave Emancipation and Liberty for All, How Race Survived U.S. History, The Production of Difference (with Elizabeth Esch), and The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class.

Conference organizers invite scholars from all disciplines to take part in this conference and submit proposals for individual papers, full sessions, roundtables, or workshops. Graduate and undergraduate students, in particular, are encouraged to submit their work.

Potential topics might include:
 Working-Class Literature
 The Worker and the Modern Workplace
 Understanding Working-Class Studies
 The Future of Working-Class Studies
 Working-Class History
 Connections among Race, Class, and/or Gender
 Class Representations in the Media and Popular Culture
 The Complexity of Social Class
 The Pedagogy of Social Class

Those interested should submit an abstract of no more than 150 words to Dr. Lisa A. Kirby, Director of the Texas Center for Working-Class Studies and Professor of English, at LKirby@collin.edu, by December 1, 2016. Please write “WCS Conference Proposal” in the subject line. Abstracts should also include name, e-mail address, phone number, requests for technology, and a brief biography. For more information, please contact Dr. Kirby.

Deadline for submissions: October 20, 2016

Full name /name of organization: F. Scott Fitzgerald Society Conference

Contact email: skosiba@troy.edu

CFP: “The Midwest in the Time of F. Scott Fitzgerald”

14th International F. Scott Fitzgerald Society Conference

St. Paul, Minnesota

June 25 – July 1, 2017

This call for papers solicits paper proposals for a panel that will explore the Midwest that F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) grew up in or experienced on return visits in the hopes of better contextualizing and understanding the greater regional elements that shaped or may have influenced his writing. We particularly encourage paper proposals and presentations from scholars outside the field of literature who may be working on historical or cultural studies relevant to Minnesota and the Midwest in the early twentieth century. Collaborative or interdisciplinary projects are of interest as well. If interested, please submit a 250 word proposal (noting any audio/visual needs) and a brief C.V. or biographical statement to Sara Kosiba at skosiba@troy.edu no later than Thursday, October 20th, 2016.

Deadline for submissions: September 30, 2016

Full name /name of organization: Susan Gilmore, Northeast Modern Language Association

Contact email: gilmores@ccsu.edu

Seeking proposals for a special session at the 2017 NeMLA Convention in Baltimore, March 23-26. How does a riot speak? How do we articulate and explore the riot as news, art, event, and mechanism for social change? How do riots redefine urban landscapes and the ways in which we inhabit and express them? Presentations welcome on riot in literary and theatrical works, such as poems and plays by Anna Deavere Smith, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Luis Valdez, as well as work in other contemporary media and social spheres. Papers on the literature and voices of the Stonewall Riots and papers with an emphasis on urban, cultural, ethnic, and Queer studies approaches and cross-cultural approaches to the phenomenon of the riot are also welcome. Propose online at www.nemla.org by September 30 2016.

Deadline for submissions: December 15, 2016

Full name /name of organization: Second Biennial EAAS Women’s Network Symposium

Contact email: eaaswomensnetwork@gmail.com

CFP: Second Biennial EAAS Women’s Network Symposium

Transnational Feminism and/in American Studies

University of Lausanne

Lausanne, Switzerland

March 31–April 1, 2017

As Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan convey in their seminal text An Introduction to Women’s Studies: Gender in a Transnational World (2001/2005), “transnational feminist studies is not a luxury that is added to the end of a syllabus or that can be relegated to one week out of the semester or quarter” (xvii). A mode of thinking in American Studies scholarship for over a decade, transnationalism should be integrated into all contemporary feminist discourse—whether through academic writing, in the classroom setting, or within the realm of activism—so that important questions are asked, and answered, about “ethnocentrism, racism, and nationalist viewpoints as foundation[s] to gender identity and issues of sexuality” (xvii). Unlike certain threads of global feminism, which espouse a “world-wide alliance of women,” invariably lapsing into the same tropes of condescension, paternalism, and cultural imperialism found in preceding feminist movements, transnational feminism represents a paradigm shift away from orientalist and colonial discourses that prioritize “the West” and that marginalize the social, cultural and historical contexts with which women struggle elsewhere in the world. Thus, transnational feminism signals a movement towards examining how “western” countries, such as the United States, are, for better or worse, implicated in global issues that impact women’s lives and how these issues can be broached.

“It may now be time,” as Susan Koshy cautions us in her 2008 response to Ali Behdad in American Literary History (vol. 20.1-2), “to think carefully about whether feminism travels well across borders, not because distances are as great as they were in the past, but precisely because they are alleged to have shrunk.” According to Koshy, “Transnational feminism, at the best of times a precarious project that negotiates neoliberal universalism, cultural relativism, asymmetrical knowledge flows, the demand for authenticity, and its own commodification, may be short-circuited by its mediatization. These shifts invite us to reflect on the possibility or impossibility of transnational feminism in our time” (302–303). Such a reconceptualization or rethinking has become all the more urgent as women’s rights, access to health care, and social and political spaces are being placed in jeopardy with rising global conservatism. Examining the women’s movement (past, present, and future) in a transnational way underscores the necessity and continued importance of feminism and feminist concerns.

The European Association for American Studies Women’s Network invites the submission of individual abstracts and panels which incorporate transdisciplinary explorations of transnational feminism(s) and welcomes submissions from any branch of American Studies. Possible themes include, but are not limited to:

What has transnational feminism accomplished so far? What still needs to be done? What are its lessons and limits?
Teaching transnational feminism in the US or in an American Studies program beyond US borders.
The politics of transnational feminism in European/American academia.
Transnational feminist narratives, literature and theory.
Is there a transnational feminist “canon” within American Studies?
How do US-centric viewpoints exclude other types/definitions of feminism?
How do we define American feminism(s) and understand its impact on other nations?
The collaboration between American feminists and non-American feminists (i.e., feminists organizing across borders).
Which functions do designations of “sister,” “cyborg” (Donna Haraway), “nomadic subject” (Rosi Braidotti), “new mestiza” (Gloria Anzaldúa), and “drag” (Judith Butler) (still) have within gender discourse and queer-feminist thinking and knowledge production?
Can/should American feminist organizational techniques—such as consciousness raising, collectives, manifestos, and grassroots activism—be applied transnationally?
Can the subaltern still speak?
American women of color (e.g., Chicana, Latina, Asian, African, Native American feminists) and transnational feminism.
Globalization, citizenship, immigration, and mobility.
Hybridity, diaspora, and (forced) displacement.
The role of men and masculinity studies in transnational feminism.
The language of transnational feminism.
Feminism as a transnational “F” word—the myths of feminism.
American feminist activism and transnational issues such as FGM, AIDS, sexual slavery, sex work/tourism, war/peace, violence, domestic abuse, natural disasters, sweatshop labor, economic exploitation, food production/distribution, consumerism, disability, women in art and popular culture, the beauty industry, the media, sports, critiques of capitalism, political oppression, human rights, NGOs, LGBT rights, reproductive rights, fetal sex selection, healthcare provision, education/literacy, and the anti-nuclear movement.
How do the concerns of transnational feminism intersect with environmental activism and environmental justice scholarship in American Studies research?
American feminist activism in transnational organizations such as the UN and the WHO.
The Internet, social media outlets (Facebook/Twitter), and transnational feminist activism.
The historical and literary roots/routes of American transnational feminism.
Comparative approaches that include the United States.

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 is 20 minutes. An additional 10 minutes will be provided for discussion.

Deadline for proposal submission: December 15, 2016.

Presenters will be invited to submit full-text articles (5,000-8,000 words) for possible inclusion in the inaugural issue of 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/

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.