Transatlantic Encounters: American Studies in the 21st Century
University of Lodz, Poland
27 - 30 September 2008
We are pleased to announce an upcoming international conference, entitled “Transatlantic Encounters: American Studies in the 21st Century” to be held September 27-30, 2008 in Lodz, Poland. The conference is organized in celebration of the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Department of American Studies and Mass Media (ASM) at the University of Lodz. The conference will offer a forum for discussing issues related to American Studies as seen from the perspective of transatlantic and interdisciplinary research.
We invite proposals from individual scholars as well as groups of three to five presenters on topics including, but not limited to:
- media and society: film, radio, TV, the press, and the new media
- multiculturalism: approaches to and representations of
- globalization, regionalization, political leadership
- terrorism: military and intellectual responses to
- national identity, migration, and representation
- popular culture and its national and international contexts
- interdisciplinary American Studies/Transatlantic Studies pedagogy
Key-note speakers:
Emory Elliot (University of California, Riverside)
Alfred Hornung (University of Mainz)
Zbigniew Lewicki (Warsaw University)
Deadline for the submission of title and abstract of 200-250 words and proposals for panels (350 words, including names of presenters and titles of their presentations) is May 15, 2008.
Please submit abstracts electronically or by mail to the following address:
TRANS 2008
Department of American Studies and Mass Media,
University of Lodz
Skladowa 41/43,
90-127 Lodz, Poland
E-mail: trans2008@uni.lodz.pl
A selection of papers will be published by Peter Lang Publishers (Germany) in “American Studies and Media” Series. General Editors: Elzbieta H. Oleksy and Wieslaw Oleksy.
We invite scholars to contribute to the second volume of the “Readings in English and American Literature and Culture” series published by the University of Opole Press. The first volume (on Community and Nearness) was released in November, 2007. The second one, devoted to the issue of the body, is scheduled for publication in 2009.
Although the body features prominently in all academic disciplines, we would like to concentrate on cultural/ideological/literary constructions and manifestations of the body in English (British) and American literature of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century. We are open to various aspects and meanings of the issue, taking into account not only questions of corporeal self-construction but also such diverse, and yet interconnected, terms as “the body politic,” “canonical bodies” or “incarnation.” Thus we invite a wide range of voices which hopefully reflect the variety inherent in the somewhat general notion known as the “body.”
Possible topics include but are not limited to
- the body as site of social construction, contestation, identity, & authenticity
- mutilation and self-immolation; bodily disintegration; diseased body
- pornography and art; sexualized flesh
- gender and sexuality
- bodies in and as visual texts
- problems of perception and the phenomenological approach to the body
- the body politic and its corollaries
- body-mind dichotomy and its dilemmas
- body language; speech and sexuality
- embodied mind, virtual reality and artificial intelligence
“If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred” (Walt Whitman).
“In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art” (Susan Sontag).
Our deadlines are June 1, 2008, for 200-word abstracts, and October 31th, 2008, for whole papers (these should not exceed 20 pages; please follow the MLA documentation style). In case of inquiries contact Ilona Dobosiewicz (dobosiewicz@interia.pl) or Jacek Gutorow (jacek.gutorow@neostrada.pl); both at English Dept, University of Opole, pl. Kopernika 11, 45-040 Opole, Poland.
An International Conference organized by American Studies Center, University of Warsaw
May 19-21, 2008
The aim of the conference is to provide a space for an interdisciplinary and international conversation about nationalism. Theoretical perspectives, as well as case studies from various locations and fields, including sociology, politics, media studies, literature and the arts, are welcome. We invite original papers concerning both the history of nationalism(s) and its various present manifestations. Comparative perspectives are encouraged.
Examples of themes include:
Theories of nationalism and ethnicity
Religious contexts of nationalism
Hybrid identities
Colonialism and postcolonialism
Gender, sexuality and the nation
Collective memory and the politics of history
The idea of the chosen nation
Nationalism and civil religion
Nationalisms after 1989
Nationalisms and the European Union
Anti-Americanism and European identity
Minority rights in multi-cultural contexts
The visual culture of nationalism
Nationalism in age of globalization
Transnationism and nationalism
Presentations should be limited to 15 - 20 minutes to allow time for discussion.
Deadline for submission of abstracts (up to 500 words): February 29, 2008.
Proposals will be considered as they arrive with final notification of acceptance by 15 March.
Proposals should be sent to William R. Glass, conference co-ordinator, at nationalisms.conference@gmail.com