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CFP: HISTORICAL FICTION IN THE UNITED STATES SINCE 2000: CONTEMPORARY LITERARY RESPONSES TO THE PAST

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One-day symposium on 21st-century American historical fiction
 
Date of conference: Saturday 18 March 2017
Location: University of Nottingham, UK
Call for papers deadline: 1 December 2016
 
Historical fiction in English constitutes its own enduring tradition but in recent years, it has enjoyed a surge of critical acclaim and commercial popularity, as such scholars as Kate Mitchell and Nicola Parsons have argued. This one-day symposium at the University of Nottingham will explore how recent writers in the United States have engaged with the form. In what sense are American writers reinterpreting the past to produce what Elodie Rousselot has termed “neo-historical fiction”? Which periods are they examining? And why do US writers favor particular historical eras and episodes over others? 
 
Potential topics for papers (lasting no longer than 20 minutes) might include, but are certainly not limited to:
 
•       the retrieval and recuperation of “lost” or hidden histories
•       the creation of a usable past
•       memorialization, commemoration, and fiction as a site of memory
•       fictional treatments of particular historical moments (for instance, specific military conflicts or political events) or decades (e.g. the 1950s)
•       formal experimentation and reinvention across literary genres and subgenres (for example, novels, short stories, graphic narratives, creative nonfiction, counterhistorical texts, detective fiction, the Bildungsroman and so on)
•       time travel and temporal inversion 
•       innovative engagements with earlier forms of historical fiction within and beyond the United States    
 
Please send abstracts of 150 words and a brief biography (50 words) to Ruth Maxey (ruth.maxey@nottingham.ac.uk) by 1 December 2016. 
 
 Successful applicants will be notified by 10 January 2017.

Report: Alison Garden, winner of a Postdoctoral and Early Career Bursary

Posted on by Jennifer Daly

Alison Garden is a Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellow at University College Dublin and was awarded a Postdoctoral and Early Career bursary by the IAAS earlier this year. You can follow her on Twitter at @notsecretGarden.

 

‘All literature begins with geography’,

Robert Frost

 

The ‘Digital Turn’ in humanities scholarship has led to the embrace of a number of new research tools, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS). I was absolutely delighted to receive the 2016 Irish Association of American Studies Postdoctoral Award, which I used to fund my attendance at the ‘Geographical Information Systems’ summer school at the University of Lancaster, part of the Lancaster Summer Schools programme in Corpus Linguistics and other Digital methods. GIS is an area within geography that enables the production of digital maps from data mined from various sources: but GIS systems are as much data-handling systems as mapping systems. Using GIS software, such as ArcGIS and Quantum GIS (Q-GIS), is becoming increasingly popular with humanities scholars (both within and outside the often nebulously-defined ‘Digital Humanities’) to create resources to grapple with data in novel ways and disseminate findings in engaging, accessible formats.

But how are these new tools useful for those of us working with qualitative data, such as textual and literary sources, rather than quantitative data? GIS can be used in various ways and excellent examples of public-facing projects include poetryatlas.com, an interactive global map tagging poems to place and litlong.org, created by a team based at the University of Edinburgh, led by Professor James Loxley, uses GIS (amongst other digital tools) to mine and map the literary archive of Edinburgh. As a scholar of the Atlantic world, my work traces, explicates and complicates the connections between Atlantic literatures, cultures and histories. Such connections are found in curious places, often transhistorical and nearly always transcultural. We often talk about ‘mapping’ the relationships between texts but I wanted to acquire the skills to make these mappings more tangible: what would a map of such connections actually look like?

Under the expert tuition of Professor Ian Gregory and James Perry, a PhD candidate at Lancaster University, a diverse group of PhD students and postdocs spent four very busy days getting to grips with the basics of several GIS programmes, including ArcGIS, Google Earth, Google Maps and a frustrating, failed attempt to get QGis to download onto my ancient Macbook. Through working with databases, both pre-existing and ones we created ourselves, we worked through how to construct our own maps, exploring how to manipulate and analyse spatial data. We learnt where to find examples of beautiful old maps (oldmaps.com and davidrumsey.com) and how to upload these old maps onto ArcGIS, using Google Earth to georeference these with accurate coordinates.

Most immediately, I plan to use these new skills to digitally map the travels and literary afterlives of Roger Casement, the Irish nationalist and human rights campaigner, whose career and politics took him to the Congo Free State, the Putumayo region of the Amazon, the United States and Germany, amongst other places. However, the impact that this course will have on my future research stretches far beyond this current project, enabling me to create visual and interactive resources for multiple audiences, including academics, students and the wider public. Literature from the United States and the Atlantic space is so driven by travel – of people, material cultures and ideas – that using GIS methods would be an enormously productive way of grappling with the vast internal geographies of these literatures.

However, resources created through GIS often generate more questions than answers; Ian Gregory reminded us at multiple points that scholars ought to think of these tools as a means of furthering our analysis and interpretation, not as end results in and of themselves. My time in Lancaster got me thinking not just about how to trace poetic or political influence as plotted spatial data, but also left me with methodological questions about what it means to ‘read’ texts, and how cartographic modes of academic enquiry open up literature in hugely creative and invigorating ways. The relationship between literature and place has always fascinated me, from Irish dinnseanchas, narratives of migration and the myth of the West in the popular culture of the United States, but this course challenged me to reflect further about how maps themselves influence our interpretations of texts, culture and society – and not always unproblematically, as postcolonial theorists have emphasised.[1] Exploring the opportunities afforded by GIS, this summer school encouraged me to think about new ways into texts, new ways of engaging with cultural echoes and new ways of tracing the complex, echoing histories of Atlantic interexchange.

 

 

[1] Graham Huggan contends that colonial map-making projects entail ‘the reinscription, enclosure and hierarchization of space, which provide[s] an analogue for the acquisition, management and reinforcement of colonial power’ (115). It is also worth remembering the cartographic violence done to North America by white European settlers, asserting that ‘seventeenth-century maps of North America reveal a progressive loss of [Native American] names, for which names of English origin are substituted’ (185). See Graham Huggan, ‘Decolonizing the Map: Post-Colonialism, Post-Structuralism and the Cartographic Connection’, Ariel: a Review of International English Literature, 20: 4 (1989): 115-31; and Mary Hamer, ‘Putting Ireland on the Map.’ Textual Practice, 3: 2 (1989): 184-201.

XVIII International Hemingway Conference

Posted on by Jennifer Daly

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 7th 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.

 

 

 

 

Meet the Committee: Ron Callan

Posted on by Jennifer Daly

Ron Callan recently retired from the School of English, Drama and Film at UCD where he was a lecturer in American Literature and general legend for many years. He is also a leading light in the IAAS, has held various committee positions, was the editor of the Irish Journal of American Studies, and is the first President of the IAAS.

roncallanHow did you end up where you are now?

The result of a remarkably persistent ageing process, and experiences as a student and/or teacher in Trinity College Dublin, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, University College Cork and University College Dublin.

Tell us a little bit about your current research interests?

After attending a fine panel at the IAAS/BAAS conference, I am rereading the work of Henry David Thoreau.

Favourite book/film/album?

Book: Endless list of the influential ones include, Edwards’s Narrative, Spring and All, Transport of Summer, Moore’s Collected Poems, Moby Dick, Scarlet Letter, Wings of the Dove, The Crying of Lot 49, Beloved, Libra, Infinite Jest, and on and on it goes!

Film: My reaction to my first movie, a Three Stooges film, was a protest—I walked out because they were “too rough.” Still managed to find my way back to the Drumcondra Grand Cinema regularly. At one time, I could say that I had seen every movie showing in Dublin. Still recall the thrill of Vanishing Point, The Graduate, French Connection, Sophie’s Choice, and Raising Arizona as part of a long list.

Music: The excitement of the 1960s and Butch Moore and the Capitol Showband, the Memories, the Johnstons (included Paul Brady) and the Vampires … and the Beatles, Beach Boys, Bob and the Band, Mountain, Joni, Leonard, and on and on through Bruce to Gorgeous Colours and Oliver Cole indicate a line of interest.

Universities don’t exist. What job would you have instead?

I’d be a semi-professional footballer for Drumcondra in the days when expenses were inexpensive and Tolka Park drew capacity crowds.

Who would play you in the movie of your life?

President Michael D. Higgins (average camera work and we could be body-doubles)

How did you get involved with the IAAS?

Peggy O’Brien’s and Stephen Matterson’s encouragement and direction.

In an alternate universe to question 4, you have somehow ended up establishing your own university. What’s the motto?

Feet on ground; head in books!

We’re all going to call around this evening. What’s for dinner?

Cheddar cheese sandwiches on wholemeal bread and Coca Cola; tea and chocolate for dessert!

Who is your hero, academic or otherwise?

Now this roll is endless as I marvel at the lives of my family and extended family, friends, former colleagues, and former students, and reflect on their immense influences on me. Without the slightest doubt, I can apply the term “hero” to an extensive list.

Research Associate University of Sheffield – School of English

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Location: Sheffield
Salary: £29,847 Per annum, Grade 7
Hours: Full Time
Contract Type: Contract / Temporary
Placed on: 9th September 2016
Closes: 12th October 2016
Job Ref: UOS014476

Faculty of Arts & Humanities

Fixed-term for a period of 2 years

An exciting opportunity has arisen for Research Associates to work in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and Faculty of Social Science in English, History, Urban Studies & Planning and the Sheffield Institute for International Development.

The School of English is known for its international-quality research in English Literature, Theatre and Performance, Creative Writing, Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Literary Linguistics, and English Language. We have an international reputation for high-quality and innovative learning and teaching, delivered by staff committed to providing an outstanding student experience and who are at the cutting edge of research in their own disciplines.

As a Max Batley Peace Studies Research Associate you will design and conduct a comparative research project which investigates the discourses and processes of reconciliation after religious conflict in at least two different chronological periods and/or geographical areas. You will disseminate the findings of that research through oral presentations, scholarly articles, and publications and events aimed at audiences beyond academia.

The posts offer excellent opportunities for publications, project visits and conference trips. Candidates must have, or be close to completing, a PhD or have equivalent experience; as well as a good track record of successful research writing. In addition to this, candidates need to have experience of and skills in conducting research relevant to the project. Experience and knowledge of interdisciplinary research and funded research projects is highly desirable.

Apply here.

 

CFP: Roots at 40: Reflections and Remembrances

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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

CFP: Ingest with Care: Asian American Bodies Consuming

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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).

CFP: Notes on Camp

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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.

The Berry Chair in English Literature – AC9645ML

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University of St Andrews – School of English
Location: St Andrews
Salary: Not specified
Hours: Full Time
Contract Type: Permanent
Placed on: 7th September 2016
Closes: 10th October 2016
Job Ref: 113503

Start Date: 1 September 2017, or as soon as possible thereafter.

The School of English wishes to appoint an internationally distinguished scholar and teacher with interests in any area or areas of the literature of the English-speaking world. The Berry Chair, founded in 1897, is the sole named chair in the School, and one of the earliest of its kind in Britain. The School has long been placed in the top rank of UK English departments and in REF 2014 it was ranked 6th in the UK; in the result adjusted for intensity it rose to 3rd. The school offers a research-intensive environment that nonetheless prides itself on the delivery of high-quality teaching, and was ranked 2nd in the Guardian and 3rd in the Good University Guide subject league tables for 2016.

The appointment would commence in September 2017, or as soon as possible thereafter.

Informal enquiries to Professor Gill Plain, Head of School, email: enghos@st-andrews.ac.uk.

The University of St Andrews is committed to promoting equality of opportunity for all, which is further demonstrated through its working on the Gender and Race Equality Charters and being awarded the Athena SWAN award for women in science, HR Excellence in Research Award and the LGBT Charter; http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/hr/edi/diversityawards/.

Please quote ref: AC9645ML

Further Particulars: AC9645ML Fps

Apply here.

Lecturer in American History and Culture

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Canterbury Christ Church University – School of Humanities
Location: Canterbury
Salary: £31,656 to £36,672 per annum
Hours: Full Time
Contract Type: Permanent
Placed on: 6th September 2016
Closes: 3rd October 2016
Job Ref: FAH0672

Background

The Faculty of Arts & Humanities offers a diverse range of high quality programmes across contemporary and traditional areas of study in the Arts and Humanities. Within the Faculty the School of Humanities is a large academic School running programmes in American Studies, Archaeology, Creative and Professional Writing, English Literature, History and Theology and Religious Studies. It has a strong commitment to high quality teaching, learning and the student experience, as is demonstrated through very positive student satisfaction rates. We are looking to expand our American Studies team in terms of both teaching and research and invite applications from historians of modern and contemporary America. Applications from those with a research and teaching interest in the Civil Rights Movement are especially welcome.

The Role

We are looking for an American Studies scholar with teaching and research specialisms in modern and contemporary American history and culture, and especially the Civil Rights Movement. The successful candidate will contribute to teaching and module leadership on a number of our existing undergraduate modules and assist in delivering and supporting a successful undergraduate programme, as well as making a full contribution to future Research Excellence exercises. This role is fixed term for two years in the first instance.

Requirements

You will be an exceptional early career scholar with a completed PhD and a proven track record in terms of teaching and research publications. You will also have the potential to attract external research funding and supervise postgraduate students. You will be a self-motivated team player, capable of working independently and as part of a thriving American Studies team.

If you require further information regarding the post please feel free to contact Dr. David Grummitt (strictly no agencies, thank you) or via email: david.grummitt@canterbury.ac.uk quoting reference number FAH0672.

Additional Information

Interviews are to be held: w/c 17 October 2016.

How to apply

To gain further details about this post please visit our Vacancies page: www.canterbury.ac.uk

For posts of this nature you will be required to fill in the main details section as well as upload your CV and any supporting documents.

If you require further information regarding the application process please contact the Recruitment Team at hr.recruitment@canterbury.ac.uk quoting reference number FAH0672. Please note applications must be made online via the University website; details sent directly via email cannot be considered.

No agencies, thank you.

Apply here.