SAMLA's 92^nd Annual Conference

Scandal! Literature & Provocation: Breaking Rules, Making Texts

November 13–15, 2020  |  Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Rivertfront  |  Jacksonville, Florida

The South Atlantic Modern Language Association takes pride in its long-standing commitment to fostering scholarly discussions across literatures, languages, pedagogy, and the intermedial spaces of our diverse academic fields and backgrounds. Our members—scholars, educators, and students—advance the reading and understanding of numerous textual modes of representation and the ways in which linguistic and textual coding may be understood as a polyvalent tool leading to social change and interdisciplinary progress.

The theme of SAMLA 92, Scandal! Literature and Provocation: Breaking Rules, Making Texts, invites us to think through the optics of scandal, transgression, and rebellion, as these themes apply to literary, historical, political, and interdisciplinary inquiries, reading practices, and pedagogical innovation. What defines scandal? In what ways do texts (literary, theoretical, and linguistic) break with canonical codes and traditions to challenge societal norms and to offer alternate readings of experience? In what ways and to what ends have scandals served as the springboard for creation? How do scandals elevate the visibility of individuals and communities? To what degree does creation depend on getting out of one’s comfort zone—as an artist, as a reader, as a spectator, or as an educator or student? 

Scholars interested in chairing a session for SAMLA 92 should visit our Calls for Papers page for further instructions and links to the appropriate forms.