Conferences


Second North American Conference on The Learning Paradigm

*Visioning the Future of Undergraduate Education*
January 10 - 13, 1998
Holiday Inn on the Bay
San Diego, California, USA

The conference will be held from January 11 - 13, 1998, with a preconference workshop on January 10, 1998. Sponsored by Palomar College

To submit a proposal to the Learning Paradigm Conference, please mail or fax two hard copies of your proposal to:

William J. Flynn, Dean
Division of Media, Business & Community Services
Palomar College
1140 W. Mission Rd.
San Marcos, CA 92069

For further information :
760-744-1150, ext. 2154

Fax : 760-591-9108

e-mail: learncon@palomar.edu


The 5th Annual Southwest Graduate Literature Symposium

Arizona State University

March 6-8, 1998

Theme: "Visions of Change: (Re)Creating Identity in Times of Transition"

Submission deadline: November 14

The Graduate Scholars of English Association and the Department of English at ASU are pleased to announce a call for submissions to the 1998 Southwest Graduate Literature Symposium which will be held at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. The conference theme, "Visions of Change: (Re)Creating Identity in Times of Transition," will focus upon issues and interests surrounding academic and literary studies in the 21st century, a review of how such changes have been experienced in past literary texts as well as in previous literary theory, and explorations of cultures and ideas that have been challenged by transitions from one space and time to another. The keynote address will be presented by Professor Barbara Babcock, Regents Professor of English and Director of the Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies program at the University of Arizona. The 1998 conference will again take place at the University Club on ASU's Main campus, and a banquet will be offered with the keynote address.

E-mail: SWSYMPOSIUM@asu.edu


The Department of English at North Dakota State University

invites your submissions to

The First Annual Red River Conference on World Literature

Thursday, 23 April, to Sunday, 26 April, 1998

Fargo, North Dakota

The theme of the 1998 conference, "States of identity: culture, gender, ideology," suggests broad topics addressing the diverse ways in which non-western literature focuses on issues such as the formulations of cultural and national identity, marginalization, and Diaspora.

While proposals for topics on all aspects of world literature are welcome, we have identified the following as possible themes and areas of theoretical inquiries:

(This list is meant to be suggestive rather than comprehensive)

Abstracts: Please send an abstract of about 300 words outlining your topic for a 20-minute presentation. Include your name, professional affiliation, addresses (including e-mail if possible), and phone number. Inquiries are welcome.

The deadline for submission is November 14, 1997.

Send your abstract, address, and questions to:
R. S. Krishnan, Conference Coordinator
Department of English
322J Minard Hall
North Dakota State University
P. O. Box 5075
Fargo, North Dakota 58105-5075
e-mail: rkrishna@plains.nodak.edu
telephone: 701-231-7152
fax: 701-231-1047


IASTED International Conference

Computers and Advanced Technology in Education (CATE'98)

May 27-30, 1998

Cancun, Mexico

LOCATION

The IASTED International Conference on Computers and Advanced Technology in Education (CATE'98) will be held on May 27-30, in Cancun, Mexico. Cancun is among the most popular destinations for travelers to Mexico. It's cool white powdery beaches, clear waters, modern beach-front hotels, restaurants, nightclubs and convention entertainment centers have made Cancun a world class location for international conferences.

SUBMISSION OF PAPERS
Three (3) copies of the full paper (maximum of 12 pages double spaced with tables, figures and references) should be received at the IASTED Secretariat - CATE'98, #80 4500 - 16th Avenue NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T3B 0M6 by November 15, 1997. Authors should provide a maximum of five keywords describing their work, and must include a statement confirming that if their paper is accepted, one of the authors will attend the conference to present it. Please include the full name, affiliation, full address, telephone number, fax number, and email address of the corresponding author.

Email: iasted@cadvision.com


The Southern Humanities Council and Huntingdon College

present a Conference on Justice

Montgomery, Alabama, March 20-22, 1998

Plenary speakers are Laguna Pueblo writer Leslie Marmon Silko, author of _Ceremony_ and _Almanac of the Dead_ and African American writer Pearl Cleage, most noted for her dramas including "Hospice" and _Flyin' West_ . Proposals for papers, panel discussions, creative writing, and performance work, related to the theme of justice, are encouraged. Possible ways of looking at justice from either a literary, philosophical, or artistic perspective are through the following issues: race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexual orientation, ageism, neo-colonialism, multi-national corporations, difference, due process, religion, teaching, academia, and activism. As a result, possible topics may include but are not limited to the following:

Please send 3 copies of a one-page proposal (including audio-visual requests) postmarked by 15 November to Chella Courington, Huntingdon College, 1500 E. Fairview Ave., Montgomery, AL, 36106.

For electronic submission, please send proposals to by 15 November.


The Postcolonial and Commonwealth Studies Conference

Call for Papers

Panel on Irish Women Writers

May 7-9, 1998

Statesboro, Georgia

Papers are welcomed which deal with any aspect of Irish women's writing in any period and any genre. While the topic is open, I am particularly interested in papers which challenge the male-dominated canon and suggest ways in which female Irish writers have influenced male writers as well as each other.

Graduate students are welcome to submit their work.

Please submit abstracts or completed papers by November 15 to:

Dr. Helen Thompson
Department of English
Auburn University
9030 Haley Center
Auburn University, AL 36849

Please direct questions to me at: thomph2@mail.auburn.edu
(334) 887-5351


South Central Women's Studies Association

Call for Papers

Papers and panel proposals are invited for the 1998 annual conference, March 5-7, Houston, Texas, at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Keynote speaker: Adrienne Rich. All academic fields welcome; proposals from practitioners, community organizers, and feminist activists gladly received. Send 250-word abstracts or proposals to Dr. Margaret Snooks, Univ. of Houston-Clear Lake, 2700 Bay Area Blvd., Houston TX 77058. For more information, call Dr. Susan Turell (281) 283-3332.
Abstract deadline: November 14, 1997.


THE MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY WOMEN'S STUDIES PROGRAM

announces its fourth annual conference to be held March 26-28, 1998. The theme for the conference will be "WOMEN AND CREATIVITY: WOMEN AS ARTISTS AND SUBJECTS." Suitable topics for 20-minute presentations that could involve a multitude of disciplinary perspectives (e.g. historical, literary, artistic, visual, performance, etc.) include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:

women as literary, visual, or performance artists; the portrayal of women in literature; women as subjects in visual arts; the stories women tell; ways in which women's art does or does not reflect reality; glimpses of differing reality as illustrated through art; the interaction of women artists; the varying perceptions of women as artists; varying perceptions of women as subjects; women's access to outlets for the various art forms; critical considerations of women artists, etc.

One-page summary of paper proposal should be submitted by November 15, 1997 to:

Diane Long Hoeveler
Women's Studies Coordinator
Department of English
Marquette University
P.O. Box 1881
Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881
(414) 288-3466
FAX: (414) 288-5433
email: 6685hoeveler@vms.csd.mu.edu


"Teaching the Renaissance"

Fall/Winter Symposium

Renaissance Conference of Southern California

Saturday, February 7, 1998

California State University, Long Beach

Suggested Topics: Submissions on these and other topics are invited from scholars and teachers in all disciplines dealing with Renaissance studies--history, literature, art history and humanities; all critical approaches are also welcome. Ideas for presentations involving technology should be submitted as early as possible to allow us to reserve the necessary equipment. Please send abstracts for papers (reading length 20 minutes) or proposals for sessions for receipt by November 15, 1997 to: Julia Miller, Department of Art, CSULB, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840. Telephone: (562) 985-5665; FAX (562) 985-1650; e-mail: jimiller@csulb.edu

Please be sure to include a telephone number and/or e-mail address with your submission. For further information, please contact either Julia Miller or Cyndia Clegg, President, RCSC, (310) 456-4435, cclegg@pepperdine.edu


The Annual Claremont Early Modern Studies Graduate Symposium

on "Natural Law in the Early Modern Era"

March 7, 1998

Claremont Graduate University

CALL FOR PAPERS

Graduate students are invited to submit one page abstracts for papers of 20-minute reading length on any topic related to natural law in the Early Modern era (1450-1750). We welcome submissions from graduate students in the Humanities and related disciplines. Proposals for complete panels will also be considered. Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

Submissions should be postmarked/transmitted by November 24, 1997 and sent via mail, e-mail or fax to:

Claremont Graduate University
Humanities Center
Attn: Early Modern Studies Group
740 N. College Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711-6163
Phone: (909) 621-8612
Fax: (909) 607-1221
E-mail: bullockt@cgs.edu


Activism and the Academy: Opening Dialogues An Interdisciplinary Conference

Saturday, March 28, 1998

The George Washington University, Washington DC

With a keynote address by BRUCE ROBBINS, Rutgers University

Abstracts for papers, as well as panels and workshop proposals, are invited for The George Washington University's fourth annual interdisciplinary conference, hosted by the Departments of English, American Studies, and Anthropology, and the Programs in the Human Sciences and Women's Studies. We have two major goals for this conference: one, to initiate communication with activists who can inform academic inquiry; and, two, to explore ways in which academic inquiry can benefit activists.

All submissions should be received by November 25, 1997. Please submit one-page abstracts of your proposal for a 20-minute paper, workshop, performance, or viewing, in triplicate along with a listing of name, title of paper, professional affiliation (if applicable), telephone number, and email address to:

Activism and the Academy Conference
Program in the Human Sciences
801 22nd Street, NW, Suite T-412
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052
fax: 202/994-7034
email: openingd@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu


"Staging Change: Fifty Years of the Theatre"

An International Theatre Conference in the University of Sheffield, ENGLAND, 4-6 September 1998
The Society for Theatre Research celebrates its jubillee in 1998. The Jubilee Conference will take place in the University of Sheffield, ENGLAND.

Proposals for papers of 20-25 minutes duration are invited. These should address changes in any aspect of theatre work of the last 50 years, from acting to designing, writing, funding to censoring . . . A selection of papers will be published.

Email: P.E.Roberts@Sheffield.ac.uk

The deadline is 30 November 1997


The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, Theory and Interpretation (ASCA), Cornell University, and Felix Meritis

announce an International Conference

Come to Your Senses! Amsterdam, May 25-29, 1998

Conference Directors: Mieke Bal (ASCA) and Michael Steinberg (Cornell University)

Organizing Committee: Eloe Kingma, Frans-Willem Korsten, Fran‡oise Lucas, Wilma Siccama.

Reflection and discussion on the cultural life of the senses as a topic of inquiry helps overcome a number of oppositions that traditionally wreak havoc in academic work as well as in cultural life in general: between the individual and the social dimensions of culture, the body and the mind, the sense of truth according to sense-data and interpretation as a subjective act, and, last but not least, the universal facts of life and the historically contingent events that shape them. Are the senses universal, or is it possible to speak of culturally specific histories of sense perception? The divisions of academic work as well as of art practice are divided according to the senses into disciplines that derive their self-definition from a specific sense-domain: visual art, music, literature, even such a fundamentally multidisciplinary medium as film, tend to be defined according to the senses involved in the processing of the works of art that address them. These disciplines also tend to be defined as "the history of..." But history is in the present.


Texas Tech University Graduate English Society

CALL FOR PAPERS

"Expanding the Definition of our Discipline[s]: Language, Literature, Writing, and Technology"

February 20-21, 1998

The Graduate English Society of Texas Tech University invites papers from Graduate Students in the following areas: ***Deadline for Submission: December 1, 1997***

Proposals or complete papers should be submitted with the accompanying form to:
Lynnea Chapman King
Graduate Conference Committee
Texas Tech University
English Department, MS 43091
Lubbock, TX 79409-3091
or
email submissions to ykflc@ttacs.ttu.edu
This flyer and submission form may be duplicated without permission.

Submission Form

Expanding the Definition of our Discipline[s]: Language, Literature, Writing, and Technology

Graduate Student Conference, February 20-21, 1998

Name:

Institution:

Address:

Phone:

Email Address:

Title of Paper:

AV Requirements: (Please list)

Submission Requirements:
Proposals, abstracts, or completed papers must be postmarked by December 1, 1997 and must be accompanied by this form.

Proposals and papers should be submitted blind (your name and affiliation should appear only on this form).

Participants will be allowed a reading time of 12-15 minutes.

**Conference Proceedings: All papers presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in the conference proceedings. Accepted papers must be resubmitted by January 23, 1998. Proceedings guidelines will be included with the letters of acceptance.


Society for the Study of Southern Literature

Bi-annual meeting: April, 1998
Charleston, South Carolina

CALL FOR PAPERS

The topic is open, but we invite papers on any of the following topics:

Panel/discussion group proposals welcome. Please include 500-word proposals for each paper on the proposed panel.

Send all correspondence to:

Jeff Abernathy
Department of English
Illinois College
Jacksonville, IL 62650

aber@hilltop.ic.edu

Deadline: December 1, 1997.
Papers accepted for the conference must be submitted in full by March 10, 1998.


American Literature Association Conference

Panel on "William Carlos William: Out of the American Grain"

The panel will discuss Williams in the international scene, especially responses to Williams from outside of the U.S. Send abstracts or proposals by December 1 to:
Lisa Steinman
Department of English
Reed College
Portland, Oregon 97202
e-mail: lisa.steinman@directory.reed.edu


The ALA Meeting

San Diego, Memorial Day weekend,1998

The topic will be Kristevan and Lacanian readings of works in American Literature. Emphasis should be placed on the work rather than the theory. Send 500-word abstracts to Dr. Beth Jensen, Dekalb College, Department of English, 5155 Sugar Loaf Pkw., Lawrenceville, GA 30243 by Dec. 1, 1997. SNAIL MAIL ONLY.


Proposed Panel for the 1998 Meeting of the American Studies Association in Seattle (Nov. 19-22)

"Accommodating that 'Hideous Wish for Pictures': American Magazine Illustration and the Cultural Politics of Literacy, 'Print,' and the Visual"

In a 1914 letter to a staff member of _Harper's Monthly_, William Dean Howells complained that editor Henry Mills Alden had expressed a "hideous wish for pictures" for Howells's "Hours of Childhood," which the magazine was considering for publication. Insisting that photographs were superfluous to his writing, since he wrote "rather pictorially," Howells also emphasized that the omission of illustrations would give him more space for his narrative and thus would "not scant the hapless reader with a pitiful seven thousand words." As Christoph Lohmann has remarked, Howells's letter suggests not only the decisive technological shifts in illustration that had been occurring since 1870, but it also registers a distinctively fearful and bifurcated conceptualization of these changes. This session will examine the intersection of the material forms of magazine illustration and the ideological debates about literacy, "print," and the visual from 1870 to about 1920. Preference will be given to papers which analyze how specific magazines positioned their readerships in relation to these debates.

Send a one-page abstract and a one-page CV by December 5 to:
J. Arthur Bond
Department of English
Indiana University
Ballantine Hall 442
Bloomington, IN 47405

E-Mail inquiries are welcome: jbond@indiana.edu


RE-COVERING THE PAST

CALL FOR PAPERS

9TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Binghamton University

Binghamton NY

APRIL 17-18, 1998

GUEST SPEAKER: RICHARD C. TREXLER

To be included in the program, you are invited to submit an abstract of your paper (not to exceed 250 words) to the coordinator no later than December 15, 1997.

E-MAIL: Dr. Sobejano-Moran (sobe@binghamton.edu) , Conference Director OR
Carol Stiner (cstiner@binghamton.edu), Romance Languages' Secretary.


American Studies Association Annual Meeting

November 19-22, 1998

Seattle, Washington

Papers are sought for the following panel:

Reconciling Romance and Realism, 1880-1900

American literary history typically opposes the successes of the romance to the failures of realism. This panel seeks to examine what Amy Kaplan calls the "strange amalgam of romance and realism." By examining the tension between these two genres, we hope to solicit papers that consider romance and realism as contingent ideological forces at work in the construction of an American social scene. Some questions under consideration: What kind of social reality does each construct? How does literature of this time period represent contemporary concerns about space and place? How are the contingencies of literary form reflected in the shift from rural agrarianism to urban capitalism? In what ways does each literary genre constrict and/or enable discussions of race and gender?

1-2 page abstracts by Dec. 15, 1997: Matthew Davis or Julie Prebel, English Dept., University of Washington, Box 354330, Seattle, WA 98195
mrdavis@u.washington.edu
jep@u.washington.edu


INTERFACES: Communication and Connectedness in an Age of Fragmentation

Graduate Student Conference

March 27-28, 1998

Communication Department

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Deadline for submissions: December 20, 1997

Interface/ n. & v. / n. 1. a surface forming a common boundary between regions. 2. a point where interaction occurs among systems, processes, subjects, etc. 3. an apparatus for connecting pieces of equipment so that they can be operated jointly. /v. tr. & intr./ 1. connect with (another piece of equipment etc.) by an interface.

interfaces@comm.umass.edu


BRISTOL: ROMANTIC CITY

A Conference on Romantic Culture in Connnection with Bristol and the West of England

Department of English, University of Bristol

18-22 September, 1998

Call for Papers

To celebrate the bicentenary of the publication of the Lyrical Ballads in Bristol, we are planning a major international conference which will seek to reassess the cultural life of the city and its environs in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. This will provide an opportunity to redraw the map of Romantic Britain and to explore a network of intellectual and cultural connections.

Topics may include some of the following:

Proposals for papers are invited on any aspect of the intellectual and cultural contexts of Romantic Bristol. Abstracts should be no more than 200 words, to arrive not later than 31 December 1997.

Further details from:
Bristol: Romantic City
c/o Mrs Debra Blackmore-Squires
Department of English
University of Bristol
3/5 Woodland Road
Bristol BS8 1TB
Tel: (0117) 9287786
Fax: (0117) 9288860
email: D.J.Blackmore-Squires@bris.ac.uk


Call for papers: South Central Renaissance Conference (SCRC)

in Waco, Texas April 2-4, 1998

Keynote Speaker: David Bergeron

Papers are invited in any area of Renaissance studies: art history, music, literature, language, philosophy, science, theology, history, etc. Interdisciplinary studies are also welcome. Papers are also invited for any of the following special sessions:

Program participants will be expected to join the SCRC; participants will also be encouraged to submit publication-length versions of their papers to *Explorations in Renaissance Culture*, a scholarly journal sponsored by the SCRC.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: DECEMBER 31, 1997

Completed conference papers must be submitted in triplicate and must include SASE and 100-word abstract. Submitted papers are limited to 20 minutes reading time (8-10 pages). Please mail submissions to:

John R. Ford
SCRC Program Chair
Division of Languages and Literature
Delta State University
Cleveland, MS 38733
Inquiries can be made by phone (work: 601-846-4108; home: 601-843-1461)
or e-mail (jford@dsu.deltast.edu)


WESTERN SOCIETY FOR EIGHTEENTH CENTURY STUDIES ANNUAL MEETING

AT NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY, FLAGSTAFF, AZ

FEBRUARY 13 and 14, 1998

The organizers of the 1998 meeting of WSECS invite proposals for sessions and abstracts of papers on all aspects of the "long eighteenth century."

Plenary speakers are Isobel Grundy, Department of English, The University of Alberta, "The Woman Writer and Her Reputation: the Case of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu."

Donald Garrett, Department of Philosophy, The University of Utah, "Hume's Science of the Fancy" [about Hume's original conception of how literature and drama relate to the science of man, and the intended practical consequences of the science of man].

Please address proposals for sessions and abstracts to:

Dr. OM Brack, Jr.
Program Committee Chair, WSECS
Department of English
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287

e mail: jim.fitzmaurice@nau.edu


Word and Image: Pacific Northwest Renaissance Conference

Date: April 24-25, 1988
Place: Western Washington University
Bellingham, Washington USA

The theme "Word and Image" is intended to be interpreted very broadly to include considerations of iconography, film, religious images, illustration, maps, set design, costume, painting and other fine arts, descriptions of images, the presentation of manuscripts, documents, books, hypertext, etc. We also welcome papers addressed to the wedding of words and images in the teaching of Renaissance texts. The PNRC is an interdisciplinary conference. Plenary speakers to be announced.

Selected papers will be considered for publication in *Studies in Iconography,* a refereed journal supported in part by the English Department at Western.

Located on the coast about 90 miles north of Seattle and 50 miles south of Vancouver, B.C., Bellingham is surrounded by evergreen forests, saltwater coves, mountain-fed lakes, and snowcapped peaks. A city of 60,000 residents, Bellingham preserves a mix of urban and rural activity. Western Washington University is situated on hills above the city, overlooking Bellingham Bay with views of the San Juan Islands and the Cascade mountain range.

Please submit a one-page abstract of your paper by January 10, 1998, to:

Marc Geisler
Department of English
Western Washington University
Bellingham, WA 98225
fax: 360-650-4837
geisler@cc.wwu.edu

Proposals for panels are also welcome and should include, in addition to the abstracts, a 100-word statement of intent from the organizer, as well as the addresses and emails of all participants.

Selection/notification will be sent by February 16, 1998.


Southeastern Renaissance Conference

55th Annual Meeting

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

April 17-18, 1998

Now Receiving Papers on All Aspects of Renaissance Culture

Twenty Minute Reading Time

Send Two Copies and One-page Abstract Postmarked By January 15, 1998 To

Steven May , President
Southeastern Renaissance Conference
Department of English, Georgetown College
Georgetown, Kentucky 40324


The Kelly Miller Smith Institute, Vanderbilt University

and the Race Relations Institute, Fisk University

present

THE FIRST NASHVILLE CONFERENCE ON BLACK-JEWISH RELATIONS

April 2-4, 1998

Nashville, Tennessee

This year's topic, in acknowledgment of the 50th anniversary of the state of Israel: AFRICAN AMERICANS, AMERICAN JEWS, AFRICAN JEWS, AND ISRAEL

Individual paper proposals or panel presentation proposals are solicited from historians, political scientists, sociologists, literary critics, and other interested parties. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

Proposals should be sent, by January 15, 1998, to:
Adam Meyer
Department of English
Fisk University
Nashville, TN 37208
e-mail: ameyer@dubois.fisk.edu

For further information, contact the above address or Forrest E. Harris, Director, Kelly Miller Smith Institute, Vanderbilt University --
e-mail: harrisfe@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu

SPONSORED BY THE ESKIND FOUNDATION


Women's Exiles
An International, Interdisciplinary Conference

Universidad de Huelva, Spain

30 April, 1-2 May 1998

The Women's Studies Centre at the University of Huelva invites proposals for papers on the topic of women's exiles. This topic may appeal to scholars from any of the Humanities and Social Sciences. We would like to discuss the ways in which women have been marginalized throughout history, and how as a result they have, willingly or otherwise, suffered literal or figurative exiles, as well as the mechanisms they have used in order to survive and even progress:

Deadline for abstracts (100-200 words in either English or Spanish): 31st January 1998. Acceptance of papers will be notified around 1 March. Papers (10 pages, around 2500 words) may be delivered in English or Spanish. However, those contributors who want to have their papers considered for publication in the proceedings should (re-)write it or translate it into Spanish.

Please send your abstract by e-mail to:

Dr. Zen Luis at luis@uhu.es and carbon copy to Ms. Sonia Villegas at

Or by fax or snail-mail to:

Prof. Mar Gallego.
Dept. of English.
Facultad de Humanidades
Campus del Carmen
Huelva 21071 Spain.
Fax: (34) 59 27 09 87


10th AEGIS Graduate Conference on Literature & Culture

University of Houston

Houston, Texas

April 3-4, 1998

GUEST SPEAKERS: Michael BŠrubŠ, SueEllen Campbell

TOPIC: Discipline(s) and Dissent(s)

The Graduate English Society of the University of Houston invites individual papers (15 20 minutes) and panel proposals from Graduate Students. The conference title reflects our interest in keeping the topic open and broad, however, we are especially interested in submissions which exhibit dissident critical practices. For example, such papers may attempt to problematize traditional interpretations or critique the ideologies presented in the subject under study. Regardless of methodology, period, or academic discipline, we seek work interested in questioning and pushing the boundaries that have been established--by both authors and readers. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

***Deadline for Submission: January 31, 1998***

One page abstracts and panel proposals should be submitted to:
James Langston
Graduate English Society
Department of English
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77024-3021
or
email submissions to JTL11059@bayou.uh.edu


The Seventh Annual Graduate Student Conference in The Department of English at SUNY-Buffalo

"(In)finite Jests" 4 April 1998

"(In)finite Jests" at SUNY-Buffalo will provide an opportunity for scholars in such fields as literature, philosophy, film studies, theater, history, theology, cultural studies, and the sciences to address the sorely ignored concept of comedy. From Aristophanes to Woody Allen, from Dante to Sandra Bernhardt, comedy and ideas of the comic have occupied a central place in history. Unfortunately, comedy, just as frequently, has been berated and ignored by scholars because of its alleged inferiority to tragedy and other sanctioned genres and fields of scholarly inquiry. "(In)finite Jests," then, will be an event designed to investigate the field of the comic, to consider and build upon the tradition of intellectual inquiry into the study and structure of comedy, and, ideally, to demonstrate the value of the comic and comedic theory in the fields of knowledge mentioned above.

Papers from all scholarly fields dealing with comedy, laughter, the unspeakable, the body and laughter, jokes, the unconscious, contagious laughter, the structure of comedy, fools, clowns, and so on, are welcome.

DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS: 31 January 1998. Send a one-page (roughly 250 words) abstract to: Adam Sills and Kevin Costa, Dept. English, Clemens 302, SUNY-Buffalo, North Campus, 14260. PHONE: (716) 645-2575. E-Mail: sills@acsu.buffalo.edu or kjcosta@acsu.buffalo.edu


Eighth Annual Virginia Woolf Conference

VIRGINIA WOOLF AND COMMUNITIES

June 4 - 7, 1998

Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri

This conference will explore Virginia Woolf and her writings in terms of communities. Presentations may focus on any one or several of Woolf's texts or on the cultural/textual contexts before, coterminous, or after Woolf's writing. Presentations may take any perspective as long as they address, in some way, the issue of community.

The definition of community is deliberately left general. Presentations may address communities of which Virginia Woolf was a part--for example, Female Modernists, the Memoir Group, the Bloomsbury community, the feminist community, communities of artists, communities formed by letter writing, the lesbian community, the British community, the pacifist community--or not a part--for example, the Apostles, the working class. Presenters may analyze communities that Woolf describes in her writings--for example, the community of the "outsider," of the woman writer, of the village pageant, of the Dalloway's party, of _The Voyage Out_ travellers, of _Orlando's_ biographer. Focuses may be on textual communities outside the spheres in which Woolf is generally explored--for example, the Harlem Renaissance or Socialism--making connections and/or distinctions. Community may be interpreted as national, geographical, pedagogical, sexual, gendered, ideological, economic, racials, cultural, psychoanalytical, colonial, post-colonial. Community need not be restricted to Woolf's own era; a presentation of future, current, or past communities in terms of Woolf would be appropriate--for example, evaluating current communities of critics (Woolf and autobiography studies, Woolf and lesbian studies).

Proposals for individual papers, films or alternative types of presentations, performances, readings, and multi-media presentations are welcomed, as are proposals for three- or four-person panels, workshops, round tables, and conversations. Independent scholars are encouraged to submit proposals.

Proposals must include: one cover page, with name(s) and address(es), institutional affiliations (if any), phone numbers, title of individual paper(s), or panel, and format; and 15 copies of a one-page, 250-word abstract for an individual paper or for each presentation in a panel--include title of paper(s) or panel on the abstract, but _not_ names. Conference sessions will be 90 minutes.

*Deadline: February 1, 1998 postmark*

Mail proposals to Georgia Johnston, Women's Studies Program, Saint Louis University, 221 North Grand Ave., St. Louis, MO 63103. Queries? Email johnstgk@slu.edu or call 314-977-3003. Selected conference _Proceedings_ will be published.


"Willa Cather in New York:" An International Colloquium Presented by Drew University Graduate School

There is no question Willa Cather was struck by the energy and excitement of New York City. She remained a resident from 1909 until her death in 1947: more than half her life. What was it in this urban cacaphony that appealed to Cather and how did it influence her work? This colloquium will bring together top scholars to examine these questions and more. The arts, the publishing business, the stimulation of living among fellow artists--all certainly blended to create an intoxicating atmosphere for Cather.

Scholarly discussions will be held on the spacious and verdent campus of Drew University as well as in New York City locations of importance to Cather. Through a combination of pertinent scholarly addresses and tours of New York and environs we will soak up some of the richness that fed Cather's life during its later period. Participants are encouraged to consider Cather's relationships with other members of the New York literary community as well as with painters, sculptors, and musicians. The cultural diversity of New York should also provide the stimulus for reviewing Cather's depictions of ethnicity.

CALL FOR PAPERS:
Papers on all aspects of Cather are invited for possible presentation in special sessions. Papers which focus on the colloquium theme are especially welcome. Two hard copies of manuscripts should be submitted by March 1 (15-20 minute presentation time, maximum 3000 words). Send papers and further inquiries to:

Willa Cather Colloquium
c/o Drew Graduate School
Drew University
Madison, NJ 07940
Voice Mail: 973-408-3377


Modern Language Association (MLA)

December 27 through 30, 1998

San Francisco

This proposed special session will explore "Eudora Welty and Nineteenth-Century America's Popular 'Scribbling Women': An Unclaimed Heritage." It will be concerned with seeing Welty as an inheritor of 19th century popular culture, especially Hawthorne's scorned women novelists.

Please send proposals and submissions to:
Jo Ellyn Clarey
326 Norwood SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49506-1717
Phone: (616) 454-7457
Queries by e-mail to Jo Ellen Clarey at francior@gvsu.edu
Deadline: March 1, 1998


1998 MLA

A SESSION JOINTLY SPONSORED BY THE EZRA POUND SOCIETY AND THE WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS SOCIETY

Pound and Williams: Parents and Children

We invite proposals or papers focusing on the relations between the generations. Possible topics: Pound, Williams and their parents; Pound, Williams and their children; metaphorical parentage; Pound and Williams on the subject of generational contacts, disputes, affection, heritage, etc.

Send copies of proposals by 1 March 1998 to both Peter Schmidt, English Dept., Swarthmore College, Swarthmore PA 19081 and Barry Ahearn, English Dept., Tulane University, New Orleans LA 70118.

E-mail addresses:
pschmid1@swarthmore.edu and
(for queries only) ahearn@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu


Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibilities of Oppositional Culture

Since its first appearance as a series of cartoon vignettes on the Tracy Ullman Show in 1987 and its debut as a weekly program on Fox in 1990, The Simpsons has had multiple, even contradictory, media identities. The most successful animated prime-time show in television history, The Simpsons has consistently garnered high ratings while featuring some of the most acid political and social satire on US television. Now firmly in the mainstream of popular American culture, The Simpsons has its origins in the underground comics of Matt Groening, and while Bart Simpson can be found on lunch boxes and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, the program also has a loyal following which prizes the show for its darkly subversive, even leftist satirical vision. This essay collection proposes to investigate The Simpsons in its dual roles as mainstream TV hit and oppositional satire both to understand more fully The Simpsons as pop culture phenomena and to consider the possibilities for oppositional mass media in a postmodern world.

Interested contributors should write, phone, or e-mail with questions, or send 1-2 page abstracts by March 30, 1998 to:
John Alberti
Department of Literature and Language
Northern Kentucky University
Highland Heights KY 41099
Phone: (606)572-5578
Fax: (606)572-6093
e-mail: alberti@nku.edu


John Foxe and his World: The Third International John Foxe Colloquim

April 29-May 1, 1999

The Ohio State University

Address all inquiries, paper and panel proposals to:
Professor Christopher Highley, Department of English, The Ohio State University, 164 West 17th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1370
(tel 614 292-6065; fax 614 292-7816; Highley.1@osu.edu)


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