*CFP* "FEMINISMS NOW", A VIRTUAL FEMINIST STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 2021 CONFERENCE

Feminisms Now: A Virtual Conference

The Korean Society for Feminist Studies in English Literature (KFSEL)

28th-29th May, 2021

Via Online

 

The Korean Society for Feminist Studies in English Literature (KFSEL) presents a virtual conference on “Feminisms Now” to be held on Zoom from Friday, May 28, 2021 to Saturday, May 29, 2021.

Women everywhere have disproportionately shouldered the social and economic fallout of COVID-19. Taking seriously the pandemic’s regressive impact on domestic violence, female care work, and women in the labor force, we invite scholars, students, and activists to discuss practical and theoretical challenges for feminism today. Beyond the gendered consequences of the pandemic, we’ll reflect on how recent movements such as #MeToo engage new technologies such as digital media to operate locally and globally. How might culturally contingent, specific concerns gain wider traction and concrete executive force? Is international feminist solidarity possible under the current conditions of global inequality and racist violence? Can feminism respond effectively to the rise of misogyny on social media?

*CFP* "PERHAPS YOU MAY BE ABLE TO HELP SOLVE A MYSTERY", CRITICAL ESSAYS COLLECTION

Created by John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer, Unsolved Mysteries is an iconic American true-crime documentary series that has—since its initial broadcast as seven standalone specials in 1987—aired in more than thirty-five countries. For nine seasons on NBC (1988-1997), two seasons on CBS (1997-1999), and an additional stint on Lifetime (2001-2002), the show included a variety of segments, such as “Lost Loves” (in which individuals sought to reunite with someone from their past), “Murder” (usually committed by an unknown perpetrator), “Wanted” (known individuals responsible for a crime), “Missing,” and “Legend” (paranormal activity). Following the show’s cancellation, more than one hundred and fifty old episodes were repackaged, edited, and broadcast on Spike TV (2008-2010). 

As a result, Unsolved Mysteries is one of the longest-running programs in television history. Utilizing interviews and reenactments, the show was the first to encourage viewers to help solve a mystery by submitting credible information through a telecenter hotline and, once production of new episodes ceased, a post office box. Owing to the persistence of its creators and the fascination and passion exhibited by its fans,the show’s YouTube page began featuring cases submitted by the public in 2017. Throughout its run, the show has featured more than 1,000 cases; hundreds of these have been cracked at least partially based on viewer tips.

*CFP* "NARRATIVES OF AMERICAN COLONIZATION AND IMPERIALISM", SPECIAL ISSUE, ASPEERS JOURNAL

400 years ago, the Mayflower arrived on Patuxet land and established the settler colony of Plymouth. Just two years later, the Patuxet peoples were pronounced extinct. Despite or due to this settler violence, the Plymouth colony gave rise to the American tradition of “Thanksgiving” and the mythology of Europeans building a ‘City upon a Hill’ in America.

200 years later, in 1820, eighty-six free black ‘immigrants’ traversed the Atlantic to establish the first settlement in Liberia. This was sponsored by the American Colonization Society (ACS). The ACS’s core belief was that Black freedom—Black voting, Black landowning, Black civil liberties—was incompatible with (white) American ideals and democracy, and that founding colonies in Africa promised to thus ‘whiten’ the US.

Now, in 2020, the United States has hundreds of military bases worldwide, spreading across scores of different countries and housing, according to some estimates, about 200,000 troops. Even though the US is technically a nation, its ubiquitous global influence on economies, politics, and cultures constitutes it as an empire.

*CFP* "CHICAGO: AN IRISH-AMERICAN METROPOLIS? POLITICS, ETHNICITY AND CULTURE FROM 1930S TO THE PRESENT TIME", INTERNATIONAL AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE

Chicago: an Irish-American Metropolis? Politics, Ethnicity, and Culture from 1830s to the present Time

An International and Multidisciplinary Conference

21st-23rd 2021, 

University of Paris

Keynote Speakers:

James Barrett, Professor of History, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

David Brundage, Professor of History, University of California at Santa Cruz

Aileen Dillane, Professor of Ethno-musicology, University of Limerick

Clair Wills, King Edward VII Professor of English Literature, University of Cambridge

Viewed from continental Europe, Irish immigration to the United States often relates to American harbors, like New York City, New Orleans, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, or even to two major “Irish” towns: Boston and New York City. This prevailing but restrictive outlook is easily explained.

*CFP* "FEAR NARRATIVES AND THEIR ROLE/USE IN THE UNITED STATES", THE 15TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE SPANISH ASSOCIATION FOR AMERICAN STUDIES (SAAS)

"Fear Narratives” and their Role/Use in the United States

The 15th International Conference of the Spanish Association for American Studies (SAAS)

March 24-26, 2021

University of Deusto, Bilbao

There is little question that conflicting “knowledge claims” play a major role in current social, cultural, political, and policy debates in the U.S. These knowledge claims are generally articulated in the form of enticing narratives that try to resonate with certain interests, concerns, and values in the general population. With uncertainty becoming one of the key defining features of our era, it seems only natural that the media, policy-makers, politicians, and even scholars should exploit their public’s most immediate dreads and anxieties to build their narratives. “Fear narratives” may cover broad issues that range from international migrations or the threat of terrorism to the competition of emerging economies or the waning power of traditionally dominant social groups. 

*CFP* CALL FOR ARTICLES, AUTUMN 2021, 2022 AND 2023 ISSUES, VICTORIAN POPULAR FICTIONS JOURNAL

Victorian Popular Fictions Journal is currently accepting proposals for guest-edited Autumn 2021, 2022 and 2023 issues. Past and future special issues focus on "Mapping Victorian Popular Fiction" and "Short Stories". For full issues, please see the VPFJ website. All special issue guest-editors should be members of the VPFA throughout the publishing process. Information on VPFA membership can be found here.

Victorian Popular Fictions is the journal of the Victorian Popular Fiction Association. The VPFA was established in 2009 in order to offer a regular forum for the dissemination and discussion of new research into nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century popular narrative. Mariaconcetta Costantini and Andrew King launched the VPFJ in Spring 2019 to publish the new research of the organisation on an Open Access online platform to a wider audience.

Focussing on popular narrative in all its forms, VPFJ solicits articles which help us re-evaluate our view of Victorian culture as a whole and how that might be considered, including debates about canonicity and hybridity, digitisation, and the identification of pedagogical issues in the teaching of Victorian popular fictions.

*CFP* "STREAMING THE ULTRA-ORTHODOX JEW: NEW VISIBILITIES IN TRANSNATIONAL CONTEXTS", SPECIAL ISSUE, JEWIESH FILM AND MEDIA: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL

One of the evident transformations that were brought about by the rise of streaming platforms in the past decade is the sheer volume and diversity of television and film content from around the world showcased to global mainstream audiences.    Within this landscape, the number of TV series and films that portray Jewish communities and themes seem to be flourishing, so much so that a recent headline of the popular entertainment magazine Vanity Fair proclaimed “When Did TV Get So Jewish?”. 

Indeed, recent productions range from comedies such as The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel (Amy Sherman-Palladino, 2017 -) Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Rachel Bloom, 2015-2019) and The Awakening of Motti Wolkenbruch (Michael Steiner, 2018), to dramas such as Transparent (Jill Soloway,2014-2019) and Hunters (David Weil, 2020), as well as titles featuring the Israeli security services including The Spy (Gideon Raff, 2019), Mossad 101 (Izhar Harlec, Uri Levron and Daniel Syrkin, 2015-2018), The Angle (Ariel Vormen, 2018) Fauda (Lior Raz and Avi Issascharoff, 2015-2020), The Red Sea Diving Resort (Gideon Raff, 2019). These examples seem to share a global appeal that speak to different audiences around the world.

*CFP* "HEARLAND: U2'S LOOKING FOR AMERICAN SOUL", INTERNATIONAL 2020 VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

Heartland: U2’s Looking For American Soul

An International Virtual U2 Conference For Scholars And Fans

October 18th- 24th, 2020

U2 has journeyed – at times uneasily – through an America of pulsating metropolis, rugged heartland and shining sea. It long ago fell under the spell of America, but for just as long has felt it still hasn’t found America.

When U2 talks about America, it often describes it in terms of an idea, a dream or an experiment rather than a physical reality. Bono sings in “American Soul” (ft. Kendrick Lamar) on Songs of Experience:

It’s not a place / This country is to me a sound / Of drum and bass. … It’s not a place / This country is to me a thought / That offers grace / For every welcome that is sought.

*CFP* "GRAPHIC WESTS", 55TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE WESTERN LITERATURE ASSOCIATION, VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

Graphic Wests

55th Annual Conference of the Western Literature Association

21st-24th October, 2020

Virtual Conference, Western Literature Association

Due to the unusual and unprecedented public health concerns and attendant restrictions on university sponsored-travel related to COVID-19, the 2020 conference will be held virtually. 

The American West and the western have long been nurtured by visual culture, in particular via the California-specific locations of Hollywood and its ties to the film industry and San Diego as the international headquarters for comic book culture. Drawing on this mixture, the theme “Graphic Wests” invites proposals that take up the graphic in all its connotations, from graphic content to visual texts as well as the intersections of the two when considering the varied literatures and cultural products of the North American West.

*CFP* "MONTAGE OF A DREAM DEFERRED: PROJECTING LANGSTON HUGHES'S VISION DURING COVID-19", SPECIAL ISSUE, THE LANGSTON HUGHES REVIEW

Recently, in an epic #Verzuz battle organized by producer Swizz Beatz and rapper-producer Timbaland, the Grammy-Award winning singers Erykah Badu and Jill Scott appeared on Instagram live. Therein Scott invoked Langston Hughes as an inspirational artist, pointing to the poet’s continued popularity in the twenty-first century, especially during #Covid19. For countless African Americans, the death tolls from the virus, inadequate health care, unemployment, and white supremacist bigotry epitomize Hughes’s notion of the dream deferred. Video footage released May 26, 2020, showed officer Derek Chauvin of the Minneapolis Police Department kneeling on Floyd’s neck for at least seven minutes in broad daylight. Floyd died afterward. CNN reports: “By the end of the video, he is seen motionless, with his eyes shut, lying on the pavement.”

Floyd’s horrific death occurred only a few weeks after video footage revealed two white men, Gregory and Travis McMichael, killing Ahmaud Arberry in broad daylight also. In yet another incident two months ago, officers of the Louisville Police Department killed Breonna Taylor, a twenty-six year-old black woman, after bursting into her home while she was sleeping in bed. As Hughes himself might argue, these events exemplify real-life versions of “Nightmare Boogie,” which appears in his book-length poem, Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951). Published nearly seventy years ago, Hughes’s groundbreaking work continues to speak to our conditions during the crisis of Covid-19. Recently, Elliot Cosgrove, a rabbi at Manhattan’s Park Avenue Synagogue, quoted the opening line from “Harlem” in his article on students’ disappointments about cancelled job offers and graduation ceremonies. He asked: “What happens to a dream deferred?”

*CFP* OP. CIT.: A JOURNAL OF ANGLO-AMERICAN STUDIES, 2ND SERIES, NR 8: 2019

Op. Cit.: A Journal of Anglo-American Studies (the Journal of APEAA – Associação Portuguesa de Estudos Anglo-Americanos/ the Portuguese Association for Anglo-American Studies) is calling for papers for its forthcoming issue, 2nd Series, Number 8, which will be published in November 2019.

Proposals along the Journal’s usual fields, disciplines and areas of research are welcome. The Journal covers all aspects of the cultures of the English-speaking countries from a variety of angles, including literary studies, cultural studies, post-colonial studies, performance, film and theatre studies, gender and sexuality studies, translation studies, linguistics, language teaching and methodology.