Spring '09 Calls for Papers or Proposals

*CALL FOR PROPOSALS:
EARLY AMERICAN BORDERLANDS,*
*Flagler** **College**, **St. Augustine**, **FL**, **May 13-16, 2010***

Continuing in the tradition of the “First Early Ibero/Anglo Americanist Summit” (Tucson, AZ, 2002) and “Beyond Colonial Studies” (Providence, RI, 2004), this event will bring together scholars of the early Americas working in various languages and disciplines in order to exchange questions, ideas, research and teaching methods, as well as to promote comparative perspectives and cross-disciplinary dialogue in the study of the early Americas. The thematic focus of this event will be on early American borderlands. Various concepts have been invoked to theorize cultural formations on early American borderlands—frontier, limit, border, contact zone, encounter, as well as syncretism, mestizaje/métissage, mulataje, transculturation, and inter-culturalism. We are inviting proposals for panels and papers on any aspect of early American borderlands throughout the Western hemisphere as spaces for the many forms of encounters that took place between various Native American, African, and European peoples from the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century European conquest of the Atlantic through the formation of early American nation states in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Send proposals for panels and/or 20-minute papers (including CVs), by *June 1, 2009* to Ralph Bauer at bauerr@umd.edu >. Accepted panels will be posted on the conference website for submission of additional paper proposals until *August 1, 2009*.

The event will be hosted by Flagler College, in St. Augustine, Florida, and is co-sponsored by the Society of Early Americanists (SEA).

Program Chairs: Santa Arias (U Kansas) and Ralph Bauer (U Maryland).

Program Committee: David Boruchoff (McGill), Thomas Hallock (U South Florida), Yolanda Martinez-San Miguel (U Pennsylvania), Dennis Moore (Florida SU), Luis Fernando Restrepo (U Arkansas), Gordon Sayre (U Oregon), Teresa Toulouse (U Colorado), Lisa Voigt (OSU), Ed White (U Florida).

Local Arrangements: John Diviney, Jr. (Flagler College), María José Maguire (Flagler College).

Conference website: http://www.mith2.umd.edu/fellows/bauer/summit3/index.html

Ralph Bauer
Associate Professor
Department of English and Comparative Literature
University of Maryland,
4103 Susquehanna Hall
College Park, MD 20742
Phone: 301-405-9647
E-Mail: bauerr@umd.edu
http://www.mith2.umd.edu/fellows/bauer/home.html



Transforming Visions in African American Literature and Rhetoric


51st Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association
November 12-15, 2009, St. Louis Union Station Marriott, St. Louis, Missouri
This is an open call for presentations at the Permanent Session on African American Literature. We invite papers that respond broadly to the conference theme of “migration.” Projects may treat literary, rhetorical, theoretical, and/or pedagogical concerns raised by the work of African American authors from any period. Papers that pursue transnational analytics or concerns are encouraged. Projects that intersect with feminist, queer, disability, and religious/spiritual inquiries are especially welcome. Proposals due by April 20 to T J Geiger at geiger.tj@gmail.com.

The Philip Roth Society will sponsor a panel or two at this year’s ALA Jewish American and Holocaust Literature Symposium, Sept. 9-12, 2009, in Salt Lake City, UT. The topic is open, and papers concerning any aspect of Roth’s work are welcome. We would also welcome any proposals for ready-made panels concerning Roth, his fiction, and any cultural issues surrounding his texts. Abstracts for paper and panel proposals should be 250-350 words, and should be sent to rothsociety@gmail.com.

For more information about the ALA Jewish American and Holocaust Literature Symposium, please visit http://www.jahlit.org/.

Deadline for submissions to Roth Society panels at this conference is Friday, May 15th.


EARLY AMERICAN BORDERLANDS,*
*Flagler** **College**, **St. Augustine**, **FL**, **May 13-16, 2010***

Continuing in the tradition of the “First Early Ibero/Anglo Americanist Summit” (Tucson, AZ, 2002) and “Beyond Colonial Studies” (Providence, RI, 2004), this event will bring together scholars of the early Americas working in various languages and disciplines in order to exchange questions, ideas, research and teaching methods, as well as to promote comparative perspectives and cross-disciplinary dialogue in the study of the early Americas. The thematic focus of this event will be on early American borderlands. Various concepts have been invoked to theorize cultural formations on early American borderlands—frontier, limit, border, contact zone, encounter, as well as syncretism, mestizaje/métissage, mulataje, transculturation, and inter-culturalism. We are inviting proposals for panels and papers on any aspect of early American borderlands throughout the Western hemisphere as spaces for the many forms of encounters that took place between various Native American, African, and European peoples from the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century European conquest of the Atlantic through the formation of early American nation states in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Send proposals for panels and/or 20-minute papers (including CVs), by *June 1, 2009* to Ralph Bauer at bauerr@umd.edu. Accepted panels will be posted on the conference website for submission of additional paper proposals until *August 1, 2009*.
The event will be hosted by Flagler College, in St. Augustine, Florida, and is co-sponsored by the Society of Early Americanists (SEA).
Program Chairs: Santa Arias (U Kansas) and Ralph Bauer (U Maryland).

Program Committee: David Boruchoff (McGill), Thomas Hallock (U South Florida), Yolanda Martinez-San Miguel (U Pennsylvania), Dennis Moore (Florida SU), Luis Fernando Restrepo (U Arkansas), Gordon Sayre (U Oregon), Teresa Toulouse (U Colorado), Lisa Voigt (OSU), Ed White (U Florida).

Local Arrangements: John Diviney, Jr. (Flagler College), María José Maguire (Flagler College).

Conference website: http://www.mith2.umd.edu/fellows/bauer/summit3/index.html



CFP – SPECIAL ISSUE OF SHOFAR DEVOTED TO JEWISH COMICSThe scholarship surrounding comics and “graphic novels” has proliferated over the past several years, as has studies focusing on particular comics themes or visual texts created by certain ethnic communities. Indeed, over the past three years alone there have been at least six critical studies investigating the links between comics and Jewishness. Given this emergent field of inquiry, Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies will devote a special issue to Jewish comics (slotted for Summer 2010). The scope of this volume will take in the theoretical, literary, and historical contexts of graphic narrative and its links to Jewish identity and discourse. Possible topics could include, but are certainly not limited to:

• The ways in which comics have articulated the American Jewish experience
• Comics and the Holocaust, as expressed in such narratives as Maus, Auschwitz, I Was a Child of the Holocaust, We Are on Our Own, Mendel’s Daughter: A Memoir, and Yossel: April 19, 1943
• The contributions of Jews in the history of comic strips and comic books
• Images of Israel in the works of Joe Sacco, Rutu Modan, Ari Folman, Miriam Libicki, and the Dimona Comix Group
• Jewish identity through superheroes and villains, from Superman to The Spirit to Shaloman
• The form of the contemporary “graphic novel” by Jewish writers/artists such as Kim Deitch, Joann Sfar, Miss Lasko-Gross, Ben Katchor, and Aline Kominisky-Crumb
• Graphic adaptations of Jewish texts and legends
• Immigration and ethnic urban landscapes in the works of comics artists such as Will Eisner and Ben Katchor
• Comics, the Diaspora, and Jewish internationalism
• Jewish identity and world conflict, from the world wars to 9/11
• Jewish autobiographic comics (e.g., Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor and Will Eisner’s autobiographic fiction) as well as graphic biographies of such figures as Franz Kafka, Emma Goldman, Houdini, and Anne Frank
• Representations of the Jewish gangster in comics
• The uses of the golem and its relation to the superhero

All essay submissions should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words, including notes. Contributors should format submissions based on the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, and use footnotes. Authors will be responsible for securing copyright permission for all images used. Address all inquiries, and submit all completed manuscripts, to the guest editor, Derek Parker Royal at Derek_Royal@tamu-commerce.edu. Please include the words “Jewish Comics” in the subject heading.

Deadline for final manuscript submission is October 2, 2009.

Shofar is published for the Midwest Jewish Studies Association, the Western Jewish Studies Association, and the Jewish Studies Program of Purdue University by the Purdue University Press. For more information on the journal, please visit http://www.cla.purdue.edu/jewish-studies/shofar/.