CFP: Special Issue of 49th Parallel

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Jennifer Daly

Call for Submissions

**A 49^th Parallel Special Issue –**

Money Talks: Inequality and North American Identity

“Let me tell you something. There’s no nobility in poverty. I’ve been a poor man, and I’ve been a rich man. And I choose rich every time” – Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

49^th Parallel is delighted to announce an upcoming special issue devoted to the theme of economic inequality and North American identity. Seven years on from the start of the Great Recession, North America remains racked with problems of poor job opportunities, financial sector profligacy, and the ever growing disparity between the mega-rich and the destitute. Occupy movements, government shutdowns and striking fast food workers signal the continued economic tumult of Obama’s U.S. Meanwhile Canada may have exited the downturn less scathed than others, but its recovery remains fragile in the face of disappointing prospects for growth. Amidst the macro-noise of economic stress, it is perhaps tempting to forget the micro-level ramifications for ordinary North Americans, who experience financial inequality not as abstract data, but as concrete fact. With these issues in mind, we ask: how has the recession influenced American and Canadian cultural production? Is financial hardship more visible than before in North America – or more anaesthetized? How does income inequality interact with ethnic, racial, sexual, and gender experience, whether in 2014 or 1773?

This Call for Submissions arises out of the conference ‘Money Talks: Inequality and North American Identity’, held by 49^th Parallel at University of Nottingham on Friday 19^th June, 2015, but is open to all. Topics for submissions may include, but are not limited to:

Economic inequality in literature, film, and popular culture
‘Capitalist Realism’ and Neoliberal Hegemony
Austerity cultures in a North American context
Identity (sexual, national, racial, etc.) and economic experience
Economic inequality throughout North American history
Financialization and the entrepreneurial subject
Populism and economics (Occupy, the Tea Party, etc.)
Labor, strikes, and worker’s movements
‘Ruin porn’ and representations of urban decay

Articles should be between 6000-8000 words and adhere to Chicago Manual of Style referencing. For full submission guidelines, please see the Submissions page on the 49^thParallel website.The deadline is 30th November 2015. Please submit articles and direct any enquiries to editors@49thparalleljournal.org.

PhD Studentship at University College Cork

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Jennifer Daly

PhD Studentship/Research Assistant 2016-2018 (fees only)

Closing date: 30^th November 2015

School of English, College of Arts, Celtic Studies, and Social Sciences, University College Cork

Research Area: Post-1900/Contemporary American Literature

Applications are invited for a fixed-term studentship from suitably qualified candidates who wish to undertake PhD research in the School of English, in the subject area of post-1900/ contemporary American literature, starting in January 2016. A PhD studentship of €5,770 per annum will be offered, covering PhD EU fees*, funded for 3 years, subject to the holder’s satisfactory progress as reviewed yearly by the School Graduate Studies Committee. The successful applicant will be assigned occasional research administrative duties on behalf of his/her supervisor, as part of his/her appointment.

Qualifications and person specification

Applicants must hold a first-class or good upper-second-class honours BA degree in the discipline of English. Candidates who also have a good MA or MPhil degree will be given preference. Candidates who have a proven interest in the fields of twentieth- or twenty-first-century American literature will be given preference. The successful applicant will be committed to doctoral research and have excellent academic writing abilities and strong research potential. They must be energetic, self-motivated and well-organised, with good communication skills.

How to apply and closing date

Please email a research proposal of approximately 1,000 words, a CV (including precise degree grades), and details of two academic referees by 30 November 2015 to: Anne Fitzgerald, Administrator, School of English, UCC: afitzgerald@english.ucc.ie.

Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Alan Gibbs, Lecturer in American Literature, School of English, UCC: a.gibbs@ucc.ie.

* The studentship may be used as a fee waiver for EU fees, a contribution towards non-EU fees or, if the applicant’s fees are being paid by a third party, as a stipend.

New Benefits for IAAS Members

Posted on October 21, 2015April 5, 2016 by Jennifer Daly

The IAAS is pleased to announce these new benefits for members of the association. To avail of either of these offers, you must be a paid member of the association. Please contact the Secretary (dalyj5@tcd.ie) for more information.

We are also pleased to offer a 50% discount on JPASS –JSTOR’s individual access plan.

JSTOR is one of the most heavily used research platforms at academic libraries. Scholars use JSTOR to discover, read, and build upon a wide range of academic journals that are archived from the very first issue published. Browse the full title list here.

For the first time, JPASS connects unaffiliated scholars—independent researchers, faculty with limited JSTOR access, and anyone working outside the academy—to the 1,900+ scholarly journals in the JSTOR archive on a monthly or annual basis. Designed specifically for those with limited or no JSTOR access, JPASS acts as your “personal library card” where you get unlimited reading and a download plan to JSTOR’s rich digital library.

IAAS members can access the annual JPASS for $99—a 50% discount off what others will pay. A $19.50 monthly plan is also available to those seeking short term JSTOR access.

Members of the IAAS can avail of discounted rates on annual membership rates at the Irish Film Institute. Some of the benefits of membership are listed below.

The IFI is a haven in the heart of Dublin City where you can enjoy some award-winning and fascinating cinema from all over the world, many of which are exclusive to the IFI. Discuss the film afterwards over a bite to eat in the IFI Café Bar or enjoy a few craft beers out on our terrace and with FREE WIFI the IFI Café Bar is also a great spot to meet for a coffee and a pastry in the morning.

Why become an IFI member? CHEAPER cinema tickets for members + up to 3 guests! DISCOUNTS at IFI Café Bar & IFI Film Shop, double loyalty points which add up to FREE cinema tickets, the chance to win tickets to a FREE preview every month, plus when you sign up for IFI membership you will receive a FREE off peak cinema ticket so your first film could be FREE. Members also receive a weekly email and the IFI programme in the post each month so you’ll never miss a film or special event again!

Full members benefits are listed here.

******* PLEASE NOTE THE IFI OFFER IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE ************

CFP: Marilynne Robinson Symposium

Posted on October 20, 2015October 20, 2015 by Jennifer Daly

A one-day symposium on Marilynne Robinson

Nottingham Trent University, 10 June 2016

Featuring a roundtable discussion with Prof. Sarah Churchwell (University of London) and Prof. Richard H. King (University of Nottingham)

Since the publication of her debut novel, Housekeeping, in 1980, critics have celebrated Marilynne Robinson as a singular author of American fiction. A prolific essayist, teacher, and public speaker, she is best known for a trilogy of historical novels set in the small town of Gilead, Iowa: the Pulitzer Prize winning Gilead (2004) and its “partner” novels, Home (2008) and Lila (2014).

This one-day symposium seeks to chart the development of critical opinion on Robinson and welcomes papers on any aspect of her fiction and collected/uncollected nonfiction. We are particularly interested in submissions that address the following areas:

Regionalism and the role of the “Middle West” in Robinson’s writing
Portrayals of small town America in the work of Robinson and her
contemporaries
Robinson’s use of domestic spaces and her portrayal of the American family
The ecocritical concerns of Robinson’s fiction/nonfiction
The importance of time and temporality in the Gilead novels
Robinson’s influence on contemporary writers via her role in the Iowa
Writers’ Workshop
Review culture, prize giving, and the production of “literary” fiction
Robinson’s stated influences, including Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville,
Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and the Bible
Robinson’s engagement with history, particularly the ongoing relevance of the American Civil War and Civil Rights movement to contemporary politics
The role of Congregationalist and/or Calvinist traditions in Robinson’s
writing
Robinson and US intellectual history, particularly the forgotten intellectual traditions of the Midwest
Readings of gender and/or sexuality in Robinson’s fiction
The Gilead novels and their relationship with genre, including popular
religious fictions, romances, westerns, or historical novels
Robinson’s international reputation

Please email abstracts of no more than 300 words to robinsonsymposium@gmail.com no later than Monday 18 January 2016.

Speakers will be notified by 19 February 2016.

Regular updates can be found on the symposium website.

Report from Catherine Casey, winner of an IAAS Postgraduate Research & Travel Bursary

Posted on October 8, 2015October 8, 2015 by Jennifer Daly

Catherine Casey is a PhD candidate in the School of English, Drama and Film at UCD where she is working on a dissertation entitled ‘Gender, Space and Power in David Mamet’. With the help of a travel bursary from the IAAS, Catherine was able to travel to the Harry Ransom Center in Texas recently to carry out some important research.

The Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas, USA is an internationally recognized archive of primary material on David Mamet’s work in theatre and film that was recommended to me by my supervisor. The Center’s resources include earlier drafts of Mamet’s canonical works, annotations on staging, correspondence, as well as audio and DVD/video recordings of master classes held in a range of American universities on his unique approach to directing for film.

Founded in 1957 by former president and administrator of the University of Texas, Harry Huntt Ransom (1908-1976), the H.R.C. is an archive, library, and museum specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the U.S. as well as Europe for the purpose of developing scholarship in the area of arts and the humanities.

The Mamet collection is quite extensive consisting of more than 300 boxes, as well as sound recordings and films. Since much of the material is not classified, I needed to focus my search on material specifically pertaining to selected works related to my thesis. Research involved a number of activities. I scanned and compared earlier drafts of iconic works to evaluate how the final draft was developed; listened to recordings, and viewed films on all aspects of his work, including those that outline Mamet’s epistemological directing approach and its relevance to the theories of Russian film theorist Sergei Eisenstein. I examined documentation on Mamet’s correspondence with other practitioners. A number of scans of folders for use in Dublin were also ordered.

This research trip was very fruitful. I retrieved several pieces of archival material on Mamet that are imperative to my academic research. They directly relate to analyses I have initiated, supporting and extrapolating arguments and aiding the primary and original value of my research. This research required that I be in situ in the Centre since most material was not catalogued. Importantly, I secured copies of unique correspondence between Mamet and English director and playwright Harold Pinter pivotal for critical scholarship on Mamet.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my supervisor Dr. Catherine Leeney for her guidance and support as well as the School of English, Drama and Film in U.C. D. Also my special thanks to Dr. Alan Gibbs, Dr. Dara Downey, and the Irish Association of American Studies for their generous funding without which this trip would not have been possible.

CFP: Ideas and Transformations in the Americas

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Jennifer Daly

April 28 – 29 2016 – UCL Institute of the Americas

Following the success of our 1st International Conference in 2015, the UCL Americas Research Network invites graduate students and early career researchers working on any aspect of the Americas to participate in our 2nd International Conference: ‘Ideas & Transformations in the Americas’ with keynote speeches by Prof Maxine Molyneux (UCL Institute of the Americas) andProf Diane Negra (University College Dublin).

With important elections coming up across the region in 2015-16 it is essential to pause and consider how ideas can transform the political, economic, social and cultural landscape across the Americas. We welcome papers from international researchers working across the humanities, the social sciences and beyond in order to create a dynamic, interdisciplinary conference that will showcase the depth and quality of emerging research on the Americas.

This includes proposals that explore Central, South and North America and we particularly encourage participation from researchers whose focus is upon Canada and the Caribbean. Whether this is national, regional, local, comparative, transnational, or global we hope to create a hemispherically-diverse conference which will foster interdisciplinary conversations that transcend the boundaries of the nation-state.

We welcome proposals that explore any topic pertaining to the broad theme of the conference, including:

The interaction of social, cultural, economic and political ideas
Regional transformation, cooperation, integration and conflict
International relations and foreign policy
History, narratives and identity
Democracy, human rights and security
Protest, social movements and regime legitimacy
Urbanization, ecology, communities and agrarian movements
Gender and feminism

The conference will be free to attend. Please submit abstracts to: uclamericasresearchnetwork@gmail.com by 14 December 2015 and feel free to contact the Network at the same email address for further information.

NOTE: Abstracts should be no longer than 250 words and should be accompanied by a short biographical note. The Network will respond to all potential participants in January 2016 and the deadline for the submission of accepted papers will be March 31 2016.

Publication: American Women’s Ghost Stories in the Gilded Age by Dara Downey

Posted on September 14, 2015September 28, 2015 by Catherine Gander

Dara Downey lectures at University College Dublin. In American Women’s Ghost Stories in the Gilded Age (Palgrave, 2014), she explores how closely late nineteenth-century American women’s ghost stories engaged with objects such as photographs, mourning paraphernalia, wallpaper and humble domestic furniture. Featuring uncanny tales that range from the big city to the small town and the empty prairie, she offers a new perspective on an old genre. Rather than seeing the spectres that stalk the pages of women’s writing in Gilded-Age America as mere hallucinations or signs of mental disturbance, Downey examines the unusual motif of haunted houses without ghosts. Rarely appearing as ghosts, the dead women in the tales studied here hide away in the patters of furniture and wallpaper, offering a radical critique of the male gaze that reduced female bodies to alluring objects. Covering murderous nightcaps, haunted boarding houses and spectral china closets, it allows the object matter of the ghost story to, almost literally, come out of the closet.

To find out more, or to buy a copy, click on the book cover.

Publication: Contemporary American Trauma Narratives by Alan Gibbs

Posted on August 27, 2015August 27, 2015 by Catherine Gander

Alan Gibbs is lecturer in American Literature at University College Cork. His Contemporary American Trauma Narratives, which won the IAAS’s 2015 Peggy O’Brien Book Prize, examines the representation of trauma in contemporary American fiction and non-fiction. The book looks at the way writers present the effects of trauma in their work and challenges dominant and widespread assumptions about literary representations of trauma. It explores a range of narrative devices, as well as events in contemporary America, including 9/11, the Iraq War, and reactions to the Bush administration. Contemporary American authors who are discussed in depth include Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison, Tim O’Brien, Mark Danielewski, Art Spiegelman, Jonathan Safran Foer, Anthony Swofford, Evan Wright, Paul Auster, Philip Roth and Michael Chabon. Contemporary American Trauma Narratives offers a timely and dissenting intervention into debates about American writers’ depiction of trauma and its after-effects.

A timely and important book, richly deserving of the Peggy O’Brien Book Prize, Contemporary American Trauma Narratives is published by Edinburgh University Press, and is available here.

CFP: Virtual cultural studies

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Catherine Gander

Call for Papers for the 1^st International Virtual Conference on Cultural Studies on the topic of “Languages, Literature and Cultural Studies: Sites and Insights” to be held from January 15 – 17, 2016

The conference is organized by North American Literary and Cultural Studies at Saarland University (Germany) and Black Sea State University (Ukraine).

Registration and Abstract Submission Deadline: September 10, 2015

Full Paper Submission Deadline: October 31, 2015

This virtual conference focuses on collaborative transnational cultural studies and wants to investigate how encounters with the English language and ‘American culture’ have shaped European identities. Sites of these encounters span literary and cultural texts (e.g. novels, short stories, plays, films, TV series), corporate mass culture (e.g. Social Networks, technological products or fashion items) as well as countercultural phenomena (e.g. social movements). ‘America’ in this project is an object of study that functions as a cultural process of translation. The primary research question is to examine how the signifier ‘America’ functions as an intermediary in the production of transnational civic European cultures.

The conference will gather researchers from universities, colleges and companies from all around the globe. The event will connect different cultures and knowledge, thus contributing to the improvement of intercultural communication and research skills.

For more information, see: http://cultural-studies.chdu.edu.ua

Selected papers will be published in a conference proceedings.

There is no participation fee.

Congratulations to the winner of the WTM Riches Essay Prize 2015!

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Catherine Gander

The IAAS is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2015 WTM Riches Essay Prize is Ciarán Kavanagh, a Masters student at University College Cork. The WTM Riches Prize is an annual prize, was established in 2004 to recognise and reward high-quality work being done by younger scholars in many of the areas that are covered by the term “American Studies,” including history, politics, literature, film, geography, the visual arts, architecture, and cultural / critical theory.

In a particularly impressive field of essays, all of which were deemed by the judges to be excellent and thoroughly enjoyable, Ciarán’s essay, “Diagnosing Kurt Vonnegut: A Response to Susanne Vees-Gulani on the Subject of Slaughterhouse-Five”, was commended for its clear and strongly articulated argument. In particular, the judges noted its close reading alongside a subtle critique of the way in which psychiatric categories are applied to literary tropes.

Wishing to acknowledge the high quality of the essays submitted, the judges also wish to give honourable mentions to the following students: Luke Monaghan (University College Dublin), for his informed and strongly conceived essay on Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative; Kelsie Donnelly (Queen’s University Belfast) for her cogent and contextually sophisticated reading of Don DeLillo’s Point Omega; and Martha Hegarty (University College Cork) for her polished and adeptly contextualised essay on works by Willem de Kooning. Congratulations to all concerned.

The prize of €100 in book vouchers (as well as the chance to revise the essay for publication in the Irish Journal of American Studies) will be awarded at the IAAS Postgraduate Symposium, held at the Clinton Institute on the 28th November.

A 49th Parallel Special Issue –

Money Talks: Inequality and North American Identity

**A 49^th Parallel Special Issue –**