March, 2002

Cripping Postcoloniality/Cripping Globalization

Deadline: March 1, 2002

Construction (de/reconstruction) of disabled/postcolonial/gendered/sexed/raced/ethnic identities; body and nation as inflected by ability/disability; globalization/anti-globalization and disability; cross-cultural constructions/representations; the WHO and other international bodies; the "worlding" of disability, etc. Written, visual, and/or embodied texts.

250-word abstracts and brief cvs by March 1 to Martha Stoddard Holmes
(mstoddar@csusm.edu) AND Robert McRuer (rmcruer@gwu.edu).

After Orientalism

Deadline: March 1, 2002 

Intersecting: Place, Sex and Race is the name of a book series published by Rodopi. The mission of this series is to rigorously bring into encounter the crucial insights of black and ethnic studies, gender studies, and queer studies, and facilitate dialogue as well as confrontations between them. The series wants to think together place,  sex and race, while aiming for the realization of productive alliances in a radical, transnational community of scholars and activists.

In 2003 it will be 25 years since Edward Said published his seminal work on Orientalism. For an issue on the aftermath of Orientalism Intersecting seeks contributions on the myriad ways in which Said's book has stimulated research in the humanities. Contributions should be theoretically informed and take the intersecting axes of place, sex and race into account. We welcome articles that extend into fields not covered in Orientalism and into novel, interdisciplinary approaches in post-colonialism, transnational culture studies or cultural analysis. Articles may focus on visual culture, text-image relations, popular culture and/or combine literature, film, photography, fashion, opera, architecture, advertising, travel etc. Publication of the issue is expected in April 2003.

Articles should be in English and must not exceed 20 pages (8.000 words). Send 1-page proposals before March 1, 2002. For information and proposals, contact Inge E. Boer, Dept. of Literary Studies, University of Amsterdam, Spuistraat 210, 1012 VT Amsterdam, The Netherlands  e-mail: inge.boer@hum.uva.nl or intersecting@let.leidenuniv.nl

Queer Fictions of Race

Deadline: March 1, 2002

Modern Fiction Studies invites submissions for a forthcoming special issue entitled Queer Fictions of Race to be guest edited by Siobhan Somerville. We seek essays that bring together queer theoretical approaches with analyses of race and racialization in a variety of twentieth-century texts and genres (including the novel, biography, autobiography, memoir, and film, among others). 

Queer theory has promised to move beyond a focus on sexual identity per se, but sustained analyses that bring the insights of queer theory to bear on literary and cultural representations of race and racialization are only now emerging.  Likewise, the ways that race and racialization are central to representations of sexuality and queer cultural production have yet to be fully developed.   This special issue will explore the possibilities and limits of such approaches through a range of texts from various cultural and national contexts.  We especially encourage essays that consider race and sexuality as mutually constitutive and/or those that explore the relationships among transracial, transgender, and/or transnational narratives.

Articles may be 20-35 pages in length and should follow the MLA Style Manual.  Please submit two copies of your essay plus an IBM- compatible disk (Microsoft Word referred) to The Editors, Modern Fiction Studies, Department of English, Heavilon Hall, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1389.

Ingrates at the Gates: People of Color in Higher Education Talk Back

Deadline: March 1, 2002

Edited by Patti Duncan (Women's Studies Department, Portland State
University) and Kimberly Springer (Black Studies Department, Portland
State University)

We seek papers that engage the personal and political experiences of people of color in academia, for inclusion in an interdisciplinary edited anthology.  U.S. Academic institutions are engaged more and more in discussions about "diversity" and "multiculturalism."  Yet, even as sites for higher education work to transform curricula and strive for greater diversity among students and faculties, little is done to create safe, inviting environments for people of color in the academy. Instead, people of color often find ourselves tokenized, objectified, and exploited within higher education.  Asked to represent all people of our racial and ethnic groups, isolated and marginalized within our various departments, stereotyped according to racist myths, and victimized by both overt and subtle forms of institutional and interpersonal racism and oppression, many of us find ourselves increasingly at odds with the university culture.  When we explicitly challenge such forms of oppression, we are often deemed "ungrateful." In the face of assumptions that we are "only here because of affirmative action," we attempt to preserve our integrity and our energy using multiple forms of resistance, both direct and subversive.   This anthology seeks to document the experiences of people of color, frustrated by tokenism, white supremacy, Eurocentrism, racism, heterosexism, sexism, ablism, and a host of other forms of discrimination.  At the same time, we also seek to produce a "guidebook" for future scholars of color, complete with examinations of the strategies that may or may not have worked for us in varying contexts. Thus, we seek jargon-free theoretical analyses, personal essays, collaborative writings, and poetry about your experiences as "ingrates at the gate."

Suggested topics:
- Discrimination in admissions; as undergraduate and graduate students; on the job market; in tenure-track v. fixed-term/adjunct positions; in  promotion and tenure; and at all stages of an academic career.

- Strategies for dealing with inappropriate interpersonal discrimination, including racist assumptions and behavior from professors, colleagues, students; racialized sexual harassment; unfair  demands and expectations.

- The lack of adequate mentoring available to students of color; and the difficulty in balancing mentoring and career imperatives, for faculty of color.

- Confronting tokenization (especially when we are expected to serve on multiple committees, for the purpose of "diversifying" them).

- Coping with isolation, being the "only one," and developing strategies for community building.

- The extremely low hire and tenure rates for faculty of color in U.S. institutions.

- Developing pedagogies to address racism and other forms of oppression; and/or confronting expectations that we will rely on certain political or personal frameworks because of our racial/ethnic identities.

- Discrimination and teaching evaluations; hostility from students and  colleagues who assume that we are only where we are because of affirmative action.

- Distinct stereotypes and forms of oppression and discrimination we may face, based on our distinct racial/ethnic identities, which sometimes result in people of color being pitted against other people of color.

- The effects of internalized racism, on our parts and/or on the parts  of our professors, our colleagues, and/or our students.

Anonymous submissions will not be accepted, but other methods of
confidentiality will be respected.

Please direct inquiries to pduncan@pdx.edu, and send completed papers to
the following address by March 1, 2002.

Patti Duncan / Ingrates at the Gate
Women's Studies Department
469 Neuberger Hall
Portland State University
P.O. Box 751
Portland, OR 97207
503.725.8510
pduncan@pdx.edu

Shakespeare in America

Deadline: March 1, 2002

Conference to be held: July 18-20, 2002

For a conference held in conjunction with the 25th Anniversary Season of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, we seek papers on all aspects of Shakespeare''s relationship to American history, culture and education. Festival performances of Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, and Merchant of Venice will be featured during the evenings of the conference, so papers relating to these plays are especially welcome.   

The Shakespeare in America conference is a joint production of the School of Theatre and the Department of English at Illinois State University.    The Illinois Shakespeare Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary in the 2002 season. Affiliated with the School of Theatre, the Festival is one of the ten largest in the United States and operates under professional agreements with Actor's Equity Association, United Scenic Artists, and Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. The season runs from mid-June to mid-August and features three shows in rotating repertory in the 425-seat, outdoor Theatre at Ewing Manor, a facility dedicated in 2000 expressly for the use of the Festival.

Paper topic areas might include but are not limited to the following:

Shakespeare and the Youth-Exploitation Film (10 Things I Hate About You, etc.)
The Shakespeare Industry
Commercial Shakespeare (Appropriations of Shakespeare as Cultural Capital)
The Shakespeare Festival Phenomenon
Disney's Shakespeare (Shakespeare in Love, Lion King, etc.)
Populist Shakespeare
Shakespeare and American Racial Politics
Shakespeare in Utopian and Dystopian Discourses
Shakespeare and Sexual Politics
Shakespeare and Modernity/Postmodernity
Queer Shakespeare   
Shakespeare in the Schools
Shakespeare for Young Children

Papers should be planned for 15-20 minute presentations.

Abstracts (300-500 words) should be emailed to Elizabeth Reitz Mullenix at: emullen@ilstu.edu

Deadline for Abstracts:  March 1, 2002
Deadline for Completed Papers:  July 1, 2002

Society, Embodiment, and the Environment

Deadline: March 1, 2002

19th International Social Philosophy Conference Sponsored by the North American Society for Social Philosophy Invites submissions on the theme: Society, Embodiment, and the Environment

We encourage contributors to submit proposals for presentations which focus on the theme of this conference, but we also welcome proposals in all areas of social philosophy.  Please submit a 300-500 word abstract of your proposal to:

   Joe Betz
   Department of Philosophy
   Villanova University
   Villanova
   PA 19085

   Phone: 610-519-4708
   Email: joseph.betz@villanova.edu

The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2002.  Outside the U. S. and
Canada, January 15, 2002.

The conference will be held July 18 - 20, 2002 at The University of Oregon in beautiful Eugene, Oregon. For arrangements contact Barbara S. Andrew, Department of Philosophy, 1295 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR  97403-1295. Office: (541) 346-5541; email: bandrew@darkwing.uoregon.edu.

Program Committee: Joe Betz and Sally Scholz at Villanova University

Please direct all replies and questions to
   Sally Scholz <sally.scholz@villanova.edu>
   or Joe Betz <joseph.betz@villanova.edu>

Making Sense of Making Sex: On Thomas Laqueur

Deadline: March 15, 2002

Call for papers for a *proposed* special session at MLA 2002 in New York (December 2002).

This panel proposes to explore, challenge, and/or revise Thomas Laqueur's history of gender. Thomas Laqueur's _Making Sex_ suggests a pre-modern "one-sex model" of gender in which men and women were placed in a hierarchy.  Contrasting with modernity's formulation that men and women are "opposites,"in the earlier model Laqueur proposes, women were seen as fundamentally similar--yet imperfect or failed--versions of men. 

Of particular interest are the following questions:  

Rather than seeing this shift as a smooth transition, how can we examine the conflicts between the one-sex model and its successor model during the long period of transition?

How do histories of sexuality, psychoanalytic theory, and/or feminist studies fit with--or cause us to revise--Laqueur's narrative?

1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; David W. Toise, Dept. of
English, CSU-Sacramento, 6000 J Street, Sacramento,CA,
95819-6075 (dwtoise@yahoo.com).

American Protest Literature

Deadline: March 15, 2002

Modern Language Association, New York
December 27-30, 2002

This panel will feature papers addressing social protest in American poetry, fiction, film primarily from the 20th century (pre-20th century texts will be considered). Possible topics include identity politics in protest literature; naturalism and socialist realism; the evolution of the African American protest novel; Communist influences; social determinism; the Civil Rights movement; gender and sexuality issues in texts protesting racial/class oppression; the influences of modernism and postmodernism; the canon and the critical establishment; art v. politics; anti-war protests; contemporary protest literature (is there such a thing?).

Abstract (500 words) and brief c.v. by March 15.  E-mail submissions okay.

All participants in MLA programs must be members of the MLA by April 1, 2002. Please note your membership status in your cover letter.

Send to:

Kimberly Drake (kdrake@vwc.edu)
Virginia Wesleyan College
1584 Wesleyan Drive
Norfolk, VA 23502

Women Writing Short Fiction

Deadline: March 15, 2002

South Central Modern Language Association (SCMLA)
59th Annual Meeting
Austin, Texas
31 October - 2 November 2002

Short Fiction:  Theory and Criticism (a Regular SCMLA session)
"Women Writing Short Fiction"

This session will focus on women authors of short fiction in any language with papers to be presented in English.  Besides these basic boundaries, papers on any aspect of short fiction by women are welcome.

Please send 500-word abstracts or completed papers (no more than 15- 20 minutes presentation time) to:

Prof. Julie Chappell
Department of English
Humanities 306
Tarleton State University
Stephenville, Texas  76402

no later than 15 March 2002.  Abstracts may be sent as e-mail messages but not as attachments to e-mail messages. 

Queries may be sent to:  chappell@tarleton.edu
Dr. Julie Chappell
Department of English & Languages
Humanities 306
Tarleton State University
Stephenville, Texas  76402 USA
Tel 254.968.9324
Fax 254.968.9393
chappell@tarleton.edu

Montana Literature

Deadline: March 31, 2002

Contributions are invited for West of Here: Critical Perspectives on  Montana Literature, a volume of scholarly essays on the writers and literature of Montana.  In pioneering works such as The Last Best Place (1988) and Ten Tough Trips (1990), scholars and writers such as William Kittredge, Annick Smith, and William Bevis not only called into being a canon of Montana literature, but also explored the tensions between the myths of the West and the sometimes austere realities of Montana.  This volume builds upon these seminal texts, and seeks to expand not only the canon of Inland Northwest writers, but also the critical and theoretical approaches to the poems, plays, essays, personal narratives, stories, and novels of Montana. 

Essays may explore the work of such well-known writers as Mary Clearman Blew, James Lee Burke, James Crumley, Ivan Doig, Leslie Fiedler, Richard Ford, Patricia Goedicke, A.B. Guthrie, Richard Hugo, Dorothy Johnson, Norman MacLean, D' Arcy McNickle, Mourning Dove, James Welch, and others, or the work of contemporary and emerging poets, novelists, playwrights, and essayists such as Sandra Alcosser, Judy Blunt, Kevin Canty, David James Duncan, Debra Earling, Dan Flores, Pete Fromm, Deirdre McNamer, Greg Pape, Jenny Siler, Bill Yellow Robe, and others. 

Contributors may explore the work of a single author and/or address such possible topics as: Montana as colonial/postcolonial space, historical fiction, the "rez," nature, the land, Montana noir or detective fiction, the New Western, and others.  Of particular interest are essays that draw upon recent developments in Native American, Postcolonial, and American Studies and that complicate and extend our understanding of race, place, identity, history, gender, and genre in Montana writing. 

Send 500-word abstracts or completed papers (20+ pages in length) by March 31, 2002 to Brady Harrison or David L. Moore, Department of English, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, 59812; abstracts may also be sent as e- ail attachments to harrison@selway.umt.edu or dlmoore@selway.umt.edu

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