Spring '08 Call for Papers or Proposals

Inaugural Conference of the Interdisciplinary Research Group

“E Pluribus Unum? — Ethnic Identities
in Processes of Transnational Integration in the Americas”

October 8 - 11, 2008
ZiF (Center for Interdisciplinary Research), Bielefeld University, Germany

The age of globalization has spawned a renewed focus on political and cultural negotiations in what one might call with Bourdieu the field of identity politics. This development manifests itself throughout the American hemisphere: new indigenous movements have contested post-colonial forms of political representation in Ecuador and Bolivia; the debates on ecological consequences of industrialization and on intellectual property rights have put indigenous groups from the Amazonian region on international agendas; large numbers of people have been mobilized for and against immigration reform in the U.S.; and so-called “ethnic minorities” may decide the current electoral process in the United States. In current academic discussions, concepts like multiculturalism, new ethnicities, creolization, hybridity, mestizaje, diasporas, and “post-ethnicity” articulate positionings vis à vis these developments, profoundly changing our understanding of “ethnicity.”

This renewed focus on ethnic identity demonstrates the need for a comprehensive and interdisciplinary model of analysis that incorporates the complexity of identity constructions in the context of transnational integration. The Inter-American Research Group at the Bielefeld Center for Interdisciplinary Research aims to contribute to an understanding of key factors in the field of identity politics, of the changing semantics of ethnicity, as well as of the cultural practices of identity construction. How are identity-shaping strategies and discourses translated into everyday practices and how do social elites, political institutions, businesses, the media, and agents of civil society (public intellectuals, filmmakers, writers, artists, educators, etc.) mediate between local, national, and transnational horizons of interaction?

In order to elucidate – in the context of inter-American transnationalism – the role of ethnicity in the field of identity politics, the inaugural conference will focus on the following three areas:

Conceptualizing the Field of Identity Politics
Constellations of social and cultural agents in ethnic negotiations and conflicts
Articulations of identity discourses; the positioning of self and non-self
Processes of translation between discourses and cultural practices
Narrations and performances of ethnic identities

Transnationalism and Ethnic Identity
Migration, ethnic diasporas, and translocal communities
Emergence of new ethnicities
De- and re-territorializations and the horizons of interaction of ethnic agents
Ethnic representations in transnational media

Ethnicity in/and Conflict
The use and misuse of ethnicity as a resource (or: the expediency of ethnicity)
Ethnic communities, neo-tribalization, and inter-ethnic competition
Postcolonial backgrounds of inter-ethnic conflicts
Intersections of ethnic, class, gender, religious, regional, and/or national identities

One-page proposals for 30-minute papers (in English or in Spanish) should be e-mailed by April 30, 2008 to: mailto:Daniela.Opitz@uni-bielefeld.de.

Conference participants may apply for partial funding of accommodation costs and travel expenses.

Organizers: Prof. Dr. Josef Raab (American Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen), JunProf. Dr. Sebastian Thies (Latin American Studies and Media Studies; Bielefeld University), Dr. Olaf Kaltmeier (Sociology, Bielefeld University)



Antípodas: Journal of Hispanic Studies

Trujillo, Trauma, Testimony: Mario Vargas Llosa, Julia Alvarez, Edwidge Danticat, and other writers on Hispaniola

Edited by Marta Caminero-Santangelo (University of Kansas) and Roy C. Boland Osegueda (La Trobe University)

Antipodas invites the submission of original papers dealing with literaryrepresentations of the era of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, dictator of theDominican Republic from 1930-61, for a special issue: "Trujillo, Trauma,Testimony." Manuscripts which consider the novels In the Time of theButterflies, by Julia Alvarez, The Feast of the Goat, by Mario VargasLlosa, and The Farming of Bones, by Edwidge Danticat, either singly or incomparison with each other, are especially welcome, as are approacheswhich employ theories of cultural and historical trauma or of thetestimonio genre. Discussions of other literary texts and testimoniosrepresenting Trujillo's dictatorship, including the 1937 massacre at hisorders of Haitians within the Dominican-Haitian border, are also invited.

Articles should be submitted via email as an attachment. Use the title ofyour paper as the file name of the attachment. A cover letter containingthe author’s name, full postal address and e-mail address is required. Theformat must be in accordance with the standard system of the latest MLAStyle Manual. The document must be in Word, Times New Roman, font size 12(including bibliography, notes and quotes), double spaced, A4 page sizewith one inch (2.5cm) margins all round. Use only one space after allpunctuation. Numbered superscripts and their notes must be manually typedout (do NOT use automatic endnotes or automatic footnotes). Do not usepage headers. Use no special formatting and turn off any custom "style"settings. Articles should have a minimum of 4,500 words and not exceed6,000 words (including footnotes) and can be in English, Spanish orFrench. Footnotes should be kept to a maximum of 10, and not exceed 5lines each. Avoid essay-like notes that detract from the primary text. Allnotes must appear at the end of the article before the bibliography.Please submit articles via email attachment no later than June 30th , 2008.

Articles and requests for further information should be sent to both:camsan@ku.edu and editor@antipodas.com.au

Antipodas is an international, peer-reviewed publication. For furtherinformation please visit the website www.antipodas.com.auMarta Caminero-SantangeloAssociate Professor, EnglishUniversity of Kansashttp://martacamsan.tripod.com/



MOURNING ZUCKERMANA

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of PHILIP ROTH STUDIES

Philip Roth's 2007 novel, EXIT GHOST, borrows its title from the repeatedstage direction in Act I, Scene I of Shakespeare's HAMLET - a stagedirection that is preceded by Horatio's plea: "Stay! speak, speak! I chargethee, speak!" Readers may likely feel the same way about Zuckerman whoappears, in Roth's play-within-the-play, by novel's end to be "Gone forgood." Roth's so-called alter-ego has reflected on the contemporary Americanlandscape since 1979, when Roth introduced Nathan Zuckerman as theup-and-coming writer already plagued by questions of legacy andsignificance, loss and historical tragedy in THE GHOST WRITER. Now, afternearly three decades featuring Zuckerman's fraught sense of the writer'sposition in the world, EXIT GHOST seems to be his final farewell.

For this fall 2009 special issue, PHILIP ROTH STUDIES seeks articles between4,000 and 8,000 words in length, and shorter note-length pieces notexceeding 2,500 words on the topic "Mourning Zuckerman." This special issuewill not only consider the loss of Zuckerman, who holds a special placewithin Roth's oeuvre, but also it will consider Zuckerman as a figurehimself perpetually in mourning. Possible topics could include, but are not limited to:

* EXIT GHOST as a final, or finalizing, text
* Nathan Zuckerman's mourning and/ or mourning Nathan Zuckerman
* The retirement of Roth's alter ego
* The relationship between other later novels, such as EVERYMAN, andEXIT GHOST
* The metaphor of illness in the Zuckerman novels
* The symbolic or narrative "deaths" of Zuckerman
* Zuckerman's failed romantic or familial relationships
* Zuckerman's narrative style, or narrative style as a function of Zuckerman
* Zuckerman's evolution as both a storyteller and fictionalprotagonist

Manuscripts must be prepared according to the MLA STYLE MANUAL, 2nd ed.(1998) by Joseph Gibaldi and should contain endnotes rather than footnotes.Address electronic submissions via email (as attached Word files) to:

Aimee Pozorski, Guest Editor, Central Connecticut State Univeristy(pozorskia@mail.ccsu.edu)andMiriam Jaffe-Foger, Co-editor, Rutgers University(miribird@eden.rutgers.edu)

Submission Deadline for Abstracts: July 31, 2008 Submission Deadline for Accepted Articles: December 30, 2008

We will respond to every submission and give notice of accepted abstracts by August 15, 2008. Acceptance of final essays is left to the discretion of theco-editors following a rigorous revision process during the spring of 2009.


2008 AIHA Conference
CALL FOR PAPERS41st Annual Conference

American Italian Historical Association
New Haven, Connecticut
Southern Connecticut State University And Courtyard by Marriot
6-8 November 2008

"Small Towns, Big Cities: The Urban Experience of Italian Americans"

The 41st conference of AIHA will investigate the urbanexperience of Italian Americans in its many facets. Papers on all topics welcome, especially those concerned with the following:

-The histories of neighborhoods
-Patterns of immigration and settlement in towns andcities
-Class mobility
-Flight from city to suburb
-Transnational urbanism
-Adaptation to city life
-Religious processions
-Street-corner society
-Social clubs and mutual aid societies
-Urban political life
-Forms of urban leisure (music, sports, clubs)
-The redefinition of Italian
-American identities
-The death and marketing of Little Italies
-Italian American beatnik culture and urbanity
-Music and urban locales
-Urban space and place
-Underworld genealogies
-Italian American intellectuals and urban places
-Ethnic intersections and successions
-Italian American language in the city
-Cultural and aesthetic representations of the city (film, dance, theatre, visual arts)

Proposals for papers should have titles and be no morethan one typed page in length. Proposals for panelsand other presentations should include titles and beno more than two typed pages. A brief biography ofeach presenter and participant must be included withhis/her affiliation, address, telephone number andemail address.

Special equipment for Powerpoint, DVD/Videopresentations, etc., must be requested as part of theproposal. We cannot guarantee equipment if requestsare made later in the organization process. Thoseinterested in serving as chair or commentator should notify the program chair by May 1.Limited travel subsidies are available for graduatestudents giving presentations; see website.

All presenters must be members of the American Italian Historical Association. For membership details, seethe AIHA website at www.aihaweb.org

Membership dues and proposals should be sent to:

The Calandra Italian American Institute,
Queens College/CUNY,
25 W. 43rd, 17th Floor,
New York, New York, 10036.

Proposals will not be considered ifpresenters/participants have not paid their dues byMay 1, 2008.

Please email proposals to: calandra@qc.edu.In the subject line, please write: "AIHA New HavenProposal."Confirmation of proposals will be by email. Those nothaving access to email should send proposals to The Calandra Institute (address above).www.aihaweb.org