All Calls for Papers

AFRICAN / AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

BLACK SEXUALITY IN THE SOUTH

AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE

In recognition of the 80th anniversary of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, scholars at the University of Kansas hosted a symposium titled, "Black Love." Their gathering represented an emerging trend in Black studies that involves critical studies on the intimate lives of Black people. From Tera Hunter's groundbreaking study on marriage in the nineteenth century to the film adaptation of James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk, attention to love, marriage, and sex among Black people in America has, perhaps, begun to show a kind of wholeness and level of humanity that has been absent in historical representations of Black lives. This is a call for presentations on African American literature and/or film, television, or photography of any era that contributes to this emerging trend. Send abstracts of 150-200 words, a short biography of 50 words, and AV requests to Dr. Tara T. Green [email protected] by June 7, 2019.

COLESON WHITEHEAD, POSSIBLE HISTORIES, AND SPECULATIVE FICTION

AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE

This panel welcomes submissions on any aspect of Coleson Whitehead's fiction, but with particular consideration given to his Pulitzer Prize winning novel on slavery, The Underground Railroad. This panel seeks papers to explore Coleson Whitehead's use of the genres of speculative fiction, magical realism, or sci-fi as a means of telling historical truths. Possible themes include the ways in which Whitehead makes allusions to America's mistreatment of African Americans through laws (from Fugitive Slave laws to anti-literacy laws), biomedical ethics (forced sterilizations of African American women); the treatment of black bodies from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Movement through Slavery to Post-Slavery; the empowerment of women through a female protagonist in The Underground Railroad. Comparisons between Whitehead and other writers who may also be using speculative fiction, magical realism, or sci-fi will also be considered, such as comparisons to Octavia Bulter and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. One may also want to consider current political and social problems that may be relatable to the emotional and historical truths in Whitehead’s fiction, such as current debates on reproductive justice and how those debates overlap with a history of the treatment of the African American female body. Please send an abstract to the panel chair, Dr. Paula Hayes, University of Memphis, to [email protected]. The deadline for submissions of abstracts is June 10. Abstracts should be approximately 200 to 250 words. Traditional papers but also other means of presentations are welcome, such as visual and creative presentations. Any additional themes related to Coleson Whitehead are also welcome.

FOR COLORED GIRLS AND BEYOND: NEW VISIONS OF NTOZAKE SHANGE 

JESMYN WARD

Jesmyn Ward writes with a power that is transformative for all who read her works. Using myths of the near past and ancient past, Ward creates stories of contemporary families struggling to maintain their humanity while trying to stay alive. In Salvage the Bones, motherless, pregnant Esch, and her father and brothers sit directly in the path of Hurricane Katrina, and they sit directly in the path of extreme poverty. Using this little community, Ward presents scene after dramatic scene connecting the ancient mythology of Jason and Medea to the modern reality of impoverished heroes. In her second National Book Award novel, Sing Unburied, Sing, Ward describes vivid and unforgettable characters. Pop, Mam, Jojo, and Leonie struggle with grace and dignity to hold their little family together even as they are confronted with a past so deeply embedded with cruelty and discrimination. Ward uses the dead to haunt the undead and creates characters who need to be heard and, as Ward says, have some agency. Papers that address these issues or other themes in Ward's work are welcome. Please send a 200-word abstract to Mary Willingham, Mercer University, [email protected], by May 15, 2019 along with presenter's academic affiliation, contact information, as well as a short biography and A/V requirements.

THE LANGUAGE OF BLACK WOMEN WRITERS: POWER, IDENTITY, AND RELATIONSHIPS 

AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE

In her 1977 essay “Toward a Black Feminist Criticism,” Barbara Smith says, “The use of Black women’s language and cultural experience in books by Black women about Black women results in a miraculously rich coalescing of form and content and also takes their writing far beyond the confines of white/male literary structures.” Smith uses “black women’s language” to make the case that a black feminist framework would have much in common with a rapidly expanding black women’s literary tradition. An unending source for “cultural manifestations” of black womanhood, literature from black women has a critical value outside of white/male literary structures. To celebrate black women’s language, old and new, this panel seeks papers that examine literary, creative, or theoretical works from Black Women Writers. All papers should address the conference theme: Languages: Power, Identity, and Relationships. Please send a 250-300 word abstract and brief bio, by June 1, 2019, to Dr. Shahara’Tova Dente, Mississippi Valley State University [email protected].

NARRATIVES OF RACE AND MENTAL HEALTH

In her new book, Black Madness :: Mad Blackness(Duke 2019), Therí A. Pickens argues that the “relationships between Blackness and madness (and race and disability more generally) are constituted within the fissures, breaks, and gaps in critical and literary texts” (3). How might we use literary texts as theoretical sources to help excavate or reveal the fissures, breaks, and gaps around the tenuous interstices of race and mental health? This panel welcomes short papers on literary, creative, or theoretical works that tend to, implicitly or explicitly, the complex relationships between notions of racial difference/sameness and mental health, disability, or illness. Potential topics might include, but are not limited to: blackness and madness, whiteness and depression, melancholia, hysteria, the medico-legal parameters of insanity, religious devotion, the Blues. Papers on texts prior to 1900 are especially encouraged as are papers addressing the conference theme on sustainability. Please submit a 250-word abstract, a brief bio, and any access or A/V needs to Justin Shaw, Emory University, [email protected], by 10 June 2019.

NOT ONE WORD FROM THE SOLD: CRITICAL APPROACHES TO ZORA NEALE HURSTON'S BARRACOON

AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE

Originally named Kossola, Cudjo Lewis was illegally brought to America on the last slave ship, the Clotilda. Zora Neale Hurston completed the manuscript about his life story in 1931, but it was not published until 2018 as Barracoon,The Story of the Last Black Cargo. Critics praised this text as evidence of Hurston’s anthropological skills, yet it also serves as a rejoinder to the skewed white-washed history of slavery in the popular imagination.

This panel solicits papers on Hurston’s groundbreaking text. Kossola’s story is not only important because his is the sole and last voice from the Middle Passage, but he also offers a new and different take on history. Given the conservative and monolithic views of enslavement highlighted in history books, Kossola’s narrative offers a new and provocative take on enslavement, freedom and surviving the Middle Passage.  

Individual papers can focus on any aspect of the book, including but not limited to, its publication history, how it fits within Hurston’s oeuvre and/or African American Literature, pedagogical approaches to the text, and close readings/theoretical approaches to the work.

Since the conference theme is Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships, papers that demonstrate the ways in which Kossola’s language helps to expand narratives of slavery, Africa, literature, and/or early Black settlement are especially welcome. Please submit a 250-word abstract, with a short biography and A/V requirements, to Donavan Ramon, Kentucky State University, ([email protected]) by May 24, 2019.

NUANCING THE LANGUAGE DEBATE IN AFRICAN LITERATURE

The language debate between Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Chinua Achebe has long defined the discourse about language use in African literature. Achebe’s argument that the writer can “Africanize” the English he or she is using (by infusing words, phrases, idioms, songs, proverbs, stories, dialogue, etc. into the writing) is very compelling because it offers writers a practical means of reaching a wider audience and it ensures African literature a prominent space in the global literary landscape. Ngugi’s position, introduced in Decolonizing the Mind and reinforced more recently in Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance, laments the devastating losses that resulted and are still resulting from the dismantling of indigenous languages under colonialism, as evidenced by the persistent dominance of colonial language across the continent, even sixty plus years after the beginning of the independence movements that ushered in the official liberation from European control. While many complain that Ngugi’s uncompromising insistence on mother tongue is too restrictive, his ideas about language, identity, and culture are extremely compelling, as is his optimism that Africans can recover their lost selves by reengaging with their mother tongues and employing translation as an essential tool to access literary works produced across the continent. This panel welcomes papers that examine the work of African writers who attempt to break down this “master language”/ mother tongue divide by nuancing the language debate in one manner or another. Theoretical discussions are also welcome. Please send abstracts of 250 – 300 words to [email protected] by June 10th.

POWER, IDENTITY, AND RELATIONSHIPS IN THE WORK OF AUGUST WILSON

AUGUST WILSON SOCIETY

August Wilson’s plays are powerful in their ability to center marginalized histories through performance and language. With the recent release of Denzel Washington’s award-winning film production of Fences (2016), and the award-winning Broadway production of Jitney (2016-2017), there has been renewed focus and interest in not only Wilson’s work, but also the Hill District, where Wilson lived and where all but one of his plays are set. 

The August Wilson Society seeks conference papers for our SAMLA panel that focus on how Wilson’s work defines power, relationships, and identity, both communally and individually. Topics that deal with August Wilson’s personal legacy in regard to the Hill District and his work are also welcome. All accepted presenters must be members of the August Wilson Society to participate. To become a member, please visit http://library.howard.edu/augustwilsonsociety/. 

Please submit a 250 word abstract and a brief bio to Chelsea Adams, University of Nevada Las Vegas, [email protected], by May 25, 2019.

"THE TASK OF THE NEGRO WRITER AS AN ARTIST": LANGUAGE AS THE VEHICLE OF POWER AND IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN THE WORK OF LANGSTON HUGHES AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

LANGSTON HUGHES SOCIETY

WRITING IN THE BREAKS: BLACK RHETORICS AND RUPTURE

AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE

In theorizing the break in black radical aesthetics, Fred Moten suggests, "Words don't go there [in Cecil Taylor's Chinampas]. Is it only music, only sound that goes there? Perhaps these notes and phrases will have mapped the terrain and traversed (at least some of) the space between here and there" (In the Break, 42). Moten claims that black radical aesthetics enact a generative rupture, break, or cut that create space for black aesthetic practices. This panel will consider any theorization of rupture or the break in black expressive practices with a special consideration of papers that address the break between black musical and literary practices. Proposal addressing the conference theme of the interaction of language and power, identity, and relationships are particularly welcome. Potential topics include but are certainly not limited to:

By June 1, 2019 please submit an abstract of 250 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Tyler Bunzey (UNC-CH) at [email protected]. 

AMERICAN STUDIES

CRITICAL UNIVERSITY STUDIES

This roundtable welcomes submissions on any aspect of Critical University Studies. Topics that examine the relationship between higher education and society could include specific institutional histories, critical pedagogy, the public/private divide, student debt, academic labor, and legitimation crises in the humanities. By 27 May 2019, please submit an abstract of 250 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Robert Azzarello, Southern University at New Orleans, at [email protected].

ELIZABETH MADOX ROBERTS: INSIGHT AND REFLECTION 

ELIZABETH MADOX ROBERTS SOCIETY

Papers for this session may deal with all aspects of Roberts’ work and life. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, the following: Roberts and new work; Roberts and manuscripts; Roberts in the context of Southern literature; Roberts and Southern Agrarianism; Roberts’ literary and stylistic influences; Roberts and religion; Roberts and Modernism; Roberts and Regionalism; Roberts and the politics of literary reputation; Roberts and feminism; and, Roberts and Kentucky. Papers engaging directly with the conference theme are also strongly encouraged. Abstracts should be 250 words and sent, by May 27th, to Jamie Stamant, Agnes Scott College, at [email protected].

FLANNERY O'CONNOR: LANGUAGES AND POWER, IDENTITY, AND RELATIONSHIPS

FLANNERY O'CONOR SOCIETY

The Flannery O’Connor Society invites papers on topics relevant to the SAMLA 91 conference theme: Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships, especially those that examine the ideas of political, religious, or spiritual power, race and/or dialect, irony and parody, the grotesque, low and high art, disability, or language and religion in the life and works of Flannery O’Connor. Please, send 300-word abstracts by May 15, 2019, to Cameron Lee Winter, University of Georgia, at [email protected]. Please also include a brief bio and any A/V requirements in your abstract.

FLANNERY O'CONNOR: OPEN TOPIC

FLANNERY O'CONNOR SOCIETY

The Flannery O’Connor Society invites papers on any topic in the life and works of Flannery O’Connor. Please send 300-word abstracts by May 15, 2019, to Cameron Lee Winter, University of Georgia, at [email protected]. Please also include a brief bio and any A/V requirements in your abstract. 

GET UP, STAND UP: THEMES OF PROTEST IN LITERATURE, FILM, AND MUSIC

Elie Wiesel believes that “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” With these words in mind, this panel invites abstracts for papers that consider themes of protest in literature, film, and music. Prospective panelists may consider, but are not limited to, texts from authors such as W. E. B. Du Bois and James Baldwin, the impact of larger movements such as the Beats, and/or films like Fahrenheit 451 and V for Vendetta. Speakers may also examine lyrics and music from musicians and groups such as the Ramones, Bob Marley, The Beach Boys, and the Geto Boys. What is the continued relevance of these voices? Who has picked up these ideas and continues to speak in opposition to our oppressors? Please submit a 150-word abstract to William Nesbitt at [email protected] along with a brief biographical statement and any A/V requirements.

HEMINGWAY SOCIETY: HEMINGWAY, LOVE, AND MARRIAGE

THE HEMINGWAY SOCIETY

The Hemingway Society Session for the 2019 SAMLA Convention in Atlanta solicits papers on "Hemingway, Love, and Marriage." In contrast to the recent proliferation of biographical and fictional accounts of the author's love life, the panel is instead seeking papers focused on how love and marriage are presented and developed in Hemingway's various works of fiction.

Please send a 500 word abstract with a brief CV by May 25, 2019, to Scott Yarbrough, Charleston Southern University, [email protected]. 

THE MANY LANGUAGES OF AMERICAN HUMOR

AMERICAN HUMOR STUDIES 

In Reinventing Comics: The Evolution of an Art Form (2000), Scott McCloud, speaking specifically of comics art, wrote, “Comics is a language. Its vocabulary is comprised of the full range of visual symbols [alphabetic, typographic, and pictorial] … both apart and in startling combinations” (1). Thinking broadly, for the purposes of this panel, we will consider languages as including those expressed verbally, visually, gesturally, or in any “startling combination.” This panel welcomes papers on any aspect of the many languages of American humor during different time periods, across different genres, as produced by varying cultures, as conveyed through any media or format, and as speaking to questions of power, identity and relationships … or not! By May 15, 2019, please submit a 250-word abstract, brief biographical statement (including academic affiliation and contact information), and A/V requirements to Anne Anderson, University of South Florida, at [email protected].

NORTH CAROLINA EXPATRIATE WRITERS

NORTH CAROLINA LITERARY REVIEW

The 2020 issues of the North Carolina Literary Review (NCLR) will feature the literature of expatriate North Carolina writers. In anticipation of this special feature topic, the editors are proposing a panel (or panels) at SAMLA of papers devoted to expatriate writers of North Carolina, which will also be considered for publication in NCLR. Please send 300-word abstracts to George Hovis at [email protected] by May 15. Papers are welcome on contemporary and earlier writers. A partial list of expatriate North Carolina writers includes the following: Charles W. Chesnutt, Allison Hedge Coke, Hannah Crafts, Moira Crone, Tony Earley, Ben Fountain, Matthew Griffin, Jim Grimsley, Garth Risk Hallberg, Tony Hoagland, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Gary Copeland Lilley, Kelly Link, Armistead Maupin, Kat Meads, Robert Morgan, Gwendolyn Parker, Dale Ray Phillips, David Sedaris, Monique Truong, Stephanie Powell Watts, and Marly Youmans.

POWER: ELEMENTS, ASPECTS, AND INSTANCES, IN MARK TWAIN STUDIES

THE MARK TWAIN CIRCLE OF AMERICA

The Mark Twain Circle invites papers for a panel at the SAMLA 2019 convention that analyze elements, aspects, and instances of power in Mark Twain’s works, including but not limited to his fiction, essays, or autobiography. This panel seeks papers that explore how power is presented in Twain’s works, who holds power, how it is maintained, how power is reinforced, challenged, subverted, or undermined. Other areas of interest include how power is determined or denied based on wealth, occupation, political advantages or disadvantages, gender, race, social status, or other factors, and how characters who lack power navigate within, around, or under powerful characters or institutions. Additional inquires might explore questions regarding the extent to which power contributes to a sense of personal, regional, or national identity, or whether language functions as an indication of power or powerlessness? Other inquiries regarding power are welcome as well. Please send a 150-250 word-abstract, short bio, and A/V requirements, by June 15, 2019, to Gretchen Martin, The University of Virginia’s College at Wise, [email protected].

POWER, IDENTITY, AND RELATIONSHIPS IN PRE-1900 AMERICAN LITERATURE

AMERICAN LITERATURE (PRE-1900)

This panel welcomes paper proposals on any aspect of Pre-1900 American Literature, although proposals addressing the SAMLA 91 conference theme of Languages: Power, Identity, and Relationships are especially welcome. The SAMLA 91 conference will take place in Atlanta, Georgia, November 15–17, 2019. By June 1, 2019, please submit an abstract of 250 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Caitlan Sumner, University of Alabama, at [email protected].

POWER, IDENTITY, AND RELATIONSHIPS IN THE WORKS OF CARSON MCCULLERS

THE CARSON MCCULLERS SOCIETY

The Carson McCullers Society is pleased to invite paper proposals for SAMLA 2019 on the conference theme of Language: Power, Identity, and Relationships. Proposals addressing any aspect of McCullers' life and works are welcome, especially those that contribute new understandings of how McCullers deploys language to institute, reify, challenge, and/or reconfigure power relations at the individual, communal, societal, national, or geopolitical levels. If interested, please submit a 300-word abstract and brief bio to Amber P. Hodges, Carson McCullers Society Secretary, at [email protected] by Monday, May 20, 2019.

PUBLISHING POWER: COLONIAL PUBLICATION AND AMERICAN IDENTITY

AMERICAN LITERATURE (PRE-1900)

In keeping with the SAMLA conference theme, Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships, this proposed panel welcomes proposals that explore constructions of, challenges to, and anxieties surrounding power in early America, before 1900, as well as the ways in which publication reinforced an iteration of an American identity or played a role in defining interpersonal or societal relationships.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

• Cultural work of sentimental novels, poems, pamphlets, tracts, periodicals, etc.
• Construction and maintenance of an “American” identity through print 
• Publication and inclusion/exclusion
• Access and gatekeeping surrounding publication
• Acts of reading
• Propaganda
• Bestsellers
• Banned books
• Material qualities of buying or selling printed texts 

Although we particularly encourage papers about the role of publication in colonial America, we welcome papers about any aspect of early American literature or culture before 1900.

Please submit a 250-work abstract and a short 3-5 sentence biography within a Microsoft Word document to Sam Campbell at [email protected]by the deadline for May 10^th, 2019.

SHIRLEY JACKSON: POWER, IDENTITY, RELATIONSHIPS

 With the recent film and television adaptations of The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, as well as the 2010 Library of America edition of her work, there is renewed popular and scholarly interest in Shirley Jackson and her Gothic feminist treatment of power (often expressed through control of language), identity (usually unstable or enforced by violence), and relationships (among family members and between outcasts and the communities than shun them) in mid-twentieth-century American culture. This panel welcomes submissions on any aspect of the work of Shirley Jackson, especially those in line with the conference theme.

By May 1, 2019, please submit an abstract of up to 250 words, a brief biography, and any A/V requests to Dr. Hugh Davis, Piedmont College, at [email protected].

A SOUTH CHRIST-HAUNTED: FAITH AND DOUBT IN SOUTHERN LITERATURE

One need only look back to H.L. Mencken’s infamous 1917 description of the American South as “a cesspool of Baptists, a miasma of Methodists, snake-charmers, phony real estate operators, and syphilitic evangelists” to note how the region’s proclivity towards religiosity has been perceived and reported. It remains nearly impossible, even in the 21^stcentury, to disassociate the American South from its religious underpinnings. As Lee Ramsey points out in his book Preachers and Misfits, Prophets and Thieves, “When you read just about any piece of Southern fiction written over the past one hundred years, there is at least half a chance that you will find a minister tucked somewhere within its pages.” The impact of faith and religion upon Southern literature cannot be overstated, leading to Flannery O’Connor’s famous (and perhaps overused) proclamation that the South remains “Christ-haunted.”

This panel seeks topics that explore religion and the character of the preacher in Southern literature, focusing on the role the minister plays in his community, as well as the corrupting influence of power and the everlasting beliefs that drive these characters toward their respective ends. This panel specifically welcomes proposals which directly or indirectly address the role of the preacher figure in particular, though any paper topic revolving around faith and doubt in Southern literature will be considered. 

Please send 300-word abstracts to Joe Seale, University of Georgia, at [email protected]by June 14, 2019. Please also include a brief bio and any A/V requirements along with your abstract.

SPEAKING TO POWER IN AMERICAN LYRICS

AMERICAN LYRICISTS

"Speaking to Power in American Lyrics” invites paper proposals that demonstrate how American song punches up through protest, through argument, or through assertion of value. A panel that focuses on songwriters instead of performance, “American Lyricists” asks for analysis of the lyrical and social influence of the song, with a focus on either a work or works of a single writer (or songwriting team) or the thematic treatment of a theme by numerous songwriters (mere reviews of work do not suit the purpose of this panel). This panel defines “American” beyond the United States borders. When making a submission, bear in mind that the songwriter-centered focus of this panel makes performance relevant only when the songwriters perform their own work. Please send your 250-word proposal by May 15, 2019, to Thomas Alan Holmes, [email protected].

STORIES OF INDIANNESS: "GOOD" INDIANS, "BAD" INDIANS

This panel welcomes submissions on any aspect of narrative bodies that challenge Native and Eurowestern notions of indigeneity, to include genre conventions and misconceptions of authenticity exploring the subversive power of problem(atic) representation on issues both personal and political.

Please submit an up to 250-words abstract, brief bio (to include academic affiliation and contact information), and A/V requests to Dr. Maria Orban, Fayetteville State University, at [email protected] by June 15th, 2019.

STUDIES IN THE WORKS AND LIFE OF TRUMAN CAPOTE

TRUMAN CAPOTE LITERARY SOCIETY

This panel welcomes abstracts on the works and life of Truman Capote. By June 1, 2019, please submit a 250-word abstract, brief biographical statement (inclusive of academic affiliation and contact information), and A/V requirements to Stuart Noel, Georgia State University, at [email protected].

WALKER PERCY

Papers for this session may focus on any aspect of Walker Percy’s life and works, either fiction or non-fiction. Especially welcome are topics relevant to the SAMLA 91 conference theme: Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships. For Percy, the human capacity for language and for naming gives us our identity and is only possible through relationships of intersubjectivity. Percy wrote extensively on language, creating his “radical anthropology” based on his unique semiotic, with these themes pervasive in his novels. Please send 300-word abstracts by May 15, 2019, to Dr. Karey Perkins, Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism, [email protected]. Please also include a brief bio and any A/V requirements in your abstract.

WALKER PERCY AND WENDELL BERRY: PATTERNS OF IDENTITY AND RELATIONSHIP

This panel welcomes abstracts on the works of Walker Percy, novels and essays, and Wendell Berry, novels, essays, or poetry. Proposals may address the SAMLA 91 theme, Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships, but all topics are considered. By May 15, 2019, please submit a 250-word abstract, brief biographical statement (inclusive of academic affiliation and contact information), and A/V requirements to Stephen Whited, Piedmont College, at  [email protected].

"YOU MARK MY WORDS": EUDORA WELTY, DIALECT, AND RELATIONSHIPS

EUDORA WELTY SOCIETY

Eudora Welty used dialect in her stories to reproduce the full performance of power and identity associated with language. Of her early stories, Welty herself said in 1982, "I love to write dialogue but it’s very hard to prune it and make it sharp and make it advance the plot and reveal the characters—both characters—the one listening and the one talking. You can use it to do all kinds of things. I like to do it because it’s hard, I guess. I really like it. I laugh when I write those things."

Today, the southern dialect invokes a region that is notorious for slavery, Jim Crow, the struggle for equality, poverty, and resistance to social progress. Thus, listeners (or here, readers) often have negative connotations influencing their impressions of a southern speaker’s ethics, politics, socio-economic status, and intellect. However, within the south, native southerners can hear the differences in dialects that signal much more specific markers of identity. The delta dialect is noticeably different than the Appalachian dialect that is different from the southern coastal dialect. Likewise, southerners of the upper classes carry their own “monied sounds” that melodiously tell listeners that the speaker comes from the wealthy, ruling class. Thus, one’s dialect and grammar structures place speakers regionally as well as in such ready-made identity markers as race and class. Perhaps because of these ready-made identities built into dialects, Eudora Welty uses dialogue and dialect to capture the power dynamics at play in the South, even as she layers her characters with the assumed identities that dialects carry.

In Welty's short stories and novels, her use of dialogue is key to interpreting her characters as fully-rounded people. For example, in Delta Wedding and Losing Battles, a great proportion of the text is dialogue, and that dialogue works to show interpersonal relationships between and among more- and less-established members of the Fairchild or Vaughn family. In the story "Petrified Man," dialogue establishes rank within the social hierarchy of a women's beauty salon.

To explore the loaded assumptions of identity that language carries, this panel seeks papers that focus on Welty and her masterful work in the context of languages, power, identity, and relationships. Papers may focus on this constellation of themes in any of Welty's works. This panel also welcomes papers focusing on the nonverbal "language" of Welty's photography.

Send abstracts of around 300 words to Susan Wood ([email protected]) or Ren Denton ([email protected]).

ASIAN / ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES

ASIAN / ASIAN AMERICAN VOICES OF THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

This panel welcomes research papers on any aspect of studies in literature, language, rhetoric, and arts within the realm of Asian / Asian American Studies, with a special focus on how language shapes constructions of power, identity, and/or relationships. Comparative or interdisciplinary studies, transnational, multiethnic, and cross-cultural research that are related to the SAMLA 91 theme, Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships, are especially welcome. Please submit a 250-300-word abstract/proposal, a brief bio or CV, and any A/V requirements to Shannon I-Hsien Lee, Georgia State University, at [email protected], by May 30, 2019.

CARIBBEAN STUDIES

THE KINGDOM OF THIS WORLD: HEGEMONY AND THE CARIBBEAN

Given its history of violence, transitions in ownership, and economic exploitation, the Caribbean has become a fertile, discursive construction that is rich in the separation of the “Self” and the “Other.” Ironically enough, however, the Caribbean is a multicultural entity in which the identity of the “Self” and the “Other” continually becomes exceedingly unclear. This panel will explore dialogues engendered through hegemonic and counter-hegemonic representations of the Caribbean. 

We invite submissions in Spanish, French, and English. By June 1, 2019, please send a 250-word abstract, brief bio, and any A/V requirements to Forrest Blackbourn, Dalton StateCollege, at [email protected].

CREATIVE WRITING

EXPLORING POWER, IDENTITY, AND RELATIONSHIPS IN HYBRID FORMS

CREATIVE WRITING

This Regular Session seeks submissions of hybrid forms, such as micro/flash fiction, lyric essay, prose poem, etc. that explore the themes of power, identity, and relationships. Particularly welcome are submissions that explore the intersection of one or more of these themes, particularly in relation to gender. Please send a proposal, including description and genre(s) of the work to be read with brief bio to Candace Nadon, Fort Lewis College, at [email protected] by May 15, 2019.

SAMLA POETS ON POWER, IDENTITY, AND RELATIONSHIPS

SAMLA POETS

This Regular Session welcomes poetry submissions on any aspect of Power, Identity, and/or Relationships. Proposals addressing the conference theme are especially welcome. By May 10, 2019, please submit an abstract or letter of interest of no more than 250 words, a brief bio, 3 to 5 poems, and any A/V requests to Sara Pirkle Hughes, University of Alabama, at [email protected].

WORLD POETRY IN TRANSLATION

The special focus for SAMLA 91 is Languages: Power, Identity, and Relationships, an exploration of how language shapes our lives, selves, and communities. We anticipate having guest poets from Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Central America. Please send presentations that will fit within the framework of this theme. Presentations that relate poetry to electronic publishing, the visual arts, music and social media will receive special consideration; however, the program will be crafted from the submissions received. The number of presenters will determine the length of the presentations; they are usually 15-20 minutes.

Please send proposals and representative selections to: Dr. Gordon E. McNeer at [email protected].

ENGLISH STUDIES - UK & IRELAND

ANIMALS IN THE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN IMAGINATION

This session responds to the conference theme of Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships by asking participants to consider how texts from the Medieval and Early Modern periods used language to negotiate human/animal relationships. Papers of particular interest may consider how language is imagined to blur the line between human and animal, whether that be in early medieval grammar textbooks, the Early Modern stage, or a time and place in between the two.By June 7, 2019, please send a 250-word abstract, brief bio, and any A/V requirements to Brian Cook, Auburn University, at [email protected].

CONRAD AND POWER

THE JOSEPH CONRAD SOCIETY

The panel organizers are especially interested in 15-20 minute papers on power in any aspect of Joseph Conrad’s life and works. Proposals addressing the broader elements of the conference theme or on any Conradian theme in multimedia contexts are also welcome. By May 25, please submit an abstract of 350 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Professor Lissa Schneider-Rebozo, University of Wisconsin-River Falls, at [email protected].

EROTICISM, POWER, AND IDENTITY IN THE EARLY MODERN DRAMA OF JOHN WEBSTER

This panel concerns the circulation of power, identity, and eroticism in John Webster's drama. By May 1, 2019, please submit a 250-word abstract, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to William Rampone, South Carolina State University, [email protected].

JAMES BOND AS POPULAR ICON: GOLDFINGER AT 60 (AND 55)

Goldfinger—the seventh James Bond novel by Ian Fleming published in 1959—has achieved an iconic status in the series. The novel brings together many of Fleming’s chief strengths as a writer—such as his vivid creation of larger-than-life-villains, suspenseful description of competitive games, and evocation of the power of precious metals and stones. The novel also introduces key “gadgets” such as the Aston Martin DBIII, and explores key Fleming themes such as organized crime, homosexuality, and American culture. Equally, if one film can claim to have established the identity of Bond as a global cinematic icon, that film is Goldfinger. Guy Hamilton’s 1964 adaptation set the formula of the Bond movie for decades, complete with thrilling pre-title sequence, dazzling opening credits and powerful theme song (sung here by Shirley Bassey), deadly henchman (Oddjob) and the gadget-laden car (the Aston Martin DBV). This panel will use the 60^thand 55^thanniversaries of novel and film in 2019 as an opportunity to examine the enduring power of various elements of the Bond “formula” created by Fleming and the filmmakers, and to reevaluate the continuing popularity of Bond in popular culture. Paper proposals are invited on any aspect of Fleming’s novel, Hamilton’s film, and the relationship between the novel and its adaptation. Given the conference theme of Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships, papers that explore the language of Fleming, and/or issues of power, identity, and relationships in Goldfinger are especially welcome.  Please send 250-word proposals, brief bios, and A/V requirements to Oliver Buckton ([email protected]) and Matt Sherman ([email protected]) by May 15^th, 2019.

JAMES BOND'S IDENTITY CRISIS: ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE AT 50

In 1969, the world of film was presented with an almost unthinkable breach of protocol: in the new James Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (OHMSS) the familiar face of Sean Connery was no longer James Bond, instead; the global icon 007 was represented by an unknown Australian actor/model, George Lazenby. As Lazenby’s only Bond film, OHMSS has been neglected—and maligned—as a “misfit” in the James Bond series. Not only does the film begin with Bond attempting to resign from the Secret Intelligence Service, but it is the only film in which Bond—the permanent bachelor--does the unthinkable and gets married to Tracy di Vicenzo (powerfully played by Diana Rigg). The tragic conclusion of the film and escape of Ernst Stavro Blofeld also makes it an anomaly, a radical departure from the “Bond defeats the villain and gets the girl” formula. The time has come, at this 50^th anniversary of the film, to reevaluate it and examine the “identity crisis”—both that of James Bond himself and of the Eon Bond film series—it represented. This panel welcomes papers on any aspect of the 1969 film of OHMSS, directed by Peter Hunt, and/or the novel by Ian Fleming, published in 1963, of which it is a surprisingly close adaptation. Please send 250-word proposals, brief bios, and A/V requirements to Oliver Buckton ([email protected]) and Matt Sherman ([email protected]) by May 15^th, 2019.

JOHN MILTON: IDENTITY, RELATIONSHIPS, POWER

MILTON

This session invites submissions for twenty-minute, scholarly presentations on any aspect of John Milton. Especially welcome are proposals addressing the conference theme, “Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships.” From Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost to Satan and Jesus in Paradise Regain’d to the Lady and Comus in A Masque, Milton encouraged readers to think power, identity, and relationships in many forms and in many contexts. What might these intersections of power, identity, and relationship reveal to us about Milton as a poet and political activist? By Friday, May 25, please submit an abstract of 200 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Dr. Christopher Koester at [email protected] and Geoffrey Emerson at [email protected].

THE LANGUAGE OF TRUTH ON THE EARLY MODERN STAGE 

This session will respond to the conference theme of “languages” by addressing the language of truth on the early modern stage. How do characters identify and categorize “truth”? What is “truth,” how does one identify it, and what value is ascribed to it? The panel welcomes a variety of approaches to the topic. Please send title, abstract (350 words max), and abbreviated cv by April 19, 2019 to Dr. Katie Smith at: [email protected]. 

LAWRENCE'S LANGUAGE

D. H. LAWRENCE SOCIETY OF AMERICA

This panel welcomes abstracts on any aspect of D.H. Lawrence. By May 1, 2019, please submit 200-word abstract, brief biographical statement (inclusive of academic affiliation and contact information), and A/V requirements to Adam Parkes, University of Georgia, at [email protected].

MEDIEVAL TEXTS UTILIZING LANGUAGE IN POWER, IDENTITY, AND RELATIONSHIPS

ENGLISH I (MEDIEVAL)

SAMLA 91’s English I (Medieval) panel invites papers addressing the works of any Medieval text (500-1500 CE) related to the conference theme of Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships. Reflections on the power of language are welcome from any perspective, including comparative literature, English literature, history, religion, etc. By June 1, 2019, please submit a 250-word abstract, brief biographical statement (including academic affiliation and contact information), and A/V requirements to Drew Craver, University of Georgia, at [email protected]. 

POWER, IDENTITY, RELATIONSHIPS, AND T.S. ELIOT

T. S. ELIOT SOCIETY 

This special panel sponsored by the International T. S. Eliot Society invites papers on Eliot’s life and work. The SAMLA 91 theme–Languages: Power, Identity, and Relationships–invites us to examine in particular Eliot’s work in the context of questions of power and identity, but also where and how those questions intersect with relationships–with other people (individual and group), other cultural contexts, various ideas or disciplines, etc.  

The recent watershed of previously unpublished material from Eliot offers rich ground for exploring these “relationships,” and gives particular promise to this year’s topic. It is an exciting time for Eliot scholarship, and we want to continue to build momentum. 

By June 1, 2018, please submit, please submit a 300-word abstract, brief bio, and A/V requirements to Craig Woelfel, at Flagler College ([email protected]).

THE RHETORIC OF INNOCENCE

ENGLISH II (1500-1600)

In Songs of Innocence and Experience, William Blake displays parallel stories through the dichotomy of innocence and experience. Similarly, this panel invites proposals that analyze the rhetoric of authors and characters in displays of innocence in medieval and early modern literature. Papers of particular interest might demonstrate the difference between the rhetoric of innocent and experienced characters. Please submit a 250 word abstract and brief bio by June 9, 2019 to [email protected].

TOLKIEN: "TELL ME A STORY IN ANY LANGUAGE YOU WANT"

In the new biopic film, Tolkien, starring Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins, young Tolkien tells Edith Bratt that he has always been fascinated in language and that he created his own. His future wife encourages him: “Tell me a story in any language you want.” It is well known among Tolkien Studies scholars and casual readers alike how invested Tolkien was in his languages. For him, the language and the history of the world came before the story. The Elvish language, for instance, is actually made up of over 15 different languages and dialects, which he began working on when he was just a teenager. Within his lore, there are dozens of runes and scripts and grammatical rules for races like Hobbits, Dwarves, Ents, Orcs, and so many more that make each dialect unique. His love of language was not just limited to fiction—he knew over 35 languages, and among his favorite were Finnish and Welsh and Old Norse. His translation work for his favorite work, Beowulf, is noted among his other interests in Old English. To that end, this panel seeks work that explores the lasting impressions of Tolkien’s projects, whether it covers classic Tolkien texts like The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, more obscure texts like The Silmarillion and The Children of Hurin, or more miscellaneous projects like his interpretations, histories, art, short stories, and poetry. Work that analyzes Tolkien’s effect on pop culture, politics, and sociology is also welcome, as is work that incorporates the personal influence and/or texts of his close friend, C.S. Lewis.

By May 25, 2019, please submit a 200-300 word abstract to Bryana Fern with the University of Southern Mississippi at [email protected]. Within your abstract, please include a short bio, along with any A/V requirements.

FILM STUDIES

THE AMERICAN WESTERN: COWBOYS VS. INDIANS: IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS IMAGE?

During a debate with William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1965, James Baldwin observed that it came as a great shock to realize, as he did, that when you were watching an American Western and were rooting for Gary Cooper killing the Indians, you were, in fact, one of the Indians. Baldwin went on to question how it is possible for one civilization to justify its subjugation of another, citing, of course, the treatment of both Native Americans and African Americans not simply in films, but in reality. Baldwin’s observations were not original at the time and in fact echo an ongoing debate about the role of the American Western in popular culture, specifically in the genre’s representation of Native Americans. Directors of classics in the genre such as John Ford have been frequently criticized for the way they either demean or patronize Native Americans in their often larger than life and even romanticized versions of the west and its supposed “winning.” The Western film has thus become a site where broader issues of power, authority, legitimacy, and the function of popular culture in both creating and communicating cultural values have been studied and debated. Papers discussing, exploring and/or defending/countering these claims are welcome. Please send 250-300-word abstract, a brief biographical sketch, and any audio/visual needs by 31 May 2019 to [email protected].

THE CULTURAL LEGACY OF BURT REYNOLDS

In light of his recent passing, this roundtable discussion seeks participants to discuss any aspect of the status of Burt Reynolds as a film and pop-culture icon. Participants addressing Burt Reynolds and his place in the media landscape within the context of the conference theme regarding language and its relation to power, identity, and relationships are especially welcome. Please submit a 250–300-word pitch, brief bio, andA/V requirements to Kristopher Mecholsky (Louisiana State University) and Jerod Ra’Del Hollyfield Carson - Newman University) at [email protected] and [email protected].

FRENCH STUDIES

ALONE! MARGINALITY OF WOMEN'S VOICES TODAY

WOMEN IN FRENCH

Since the emergence of Femen or the #Me Too campaign, the collective feminist movements have taken over new ways and forms of expression. While these discussions are now even more accessible to people and often appear universal, this panel will investigate the special case of intentionally marginalized feminine speaking, in its form and content, in the contemporary French and francophone literature. Examining singular identities revealed by such writings, the papers will consider the strength of the words, expressed not in the interest of a group but for the sake of an individual. What is characteristic of the language of these women, authors and characters, when they state isolated claims? What is the nature of their complaints and accusations? How do the deeds become words and what are their consequences? Do these women’s voices find in their marginality, assumed or endured, a positive source of power or, on the contrary, does this power play out in a negative way? Finally, do these writings echo (maybe despite themselves) the collective feminist movements or, on the contrary, do they find a legitimacy asserting their unique story? These are some questions this panel proposes to consider. Please send a 250-word abstract in English or French to Julie Crohas Commans, Auburn University, [email protected] by May 15, 2019 along with presenter's academic affiliation, contact information, as well as a short biography and A/V requirements.

BITING BACK: EMPOWERMENT IN THE WORKS OF FRANCOPHONE WOMEN WRITERS

WOMEN IN FRENCH

In keeping with the purpose of SAMLA 91 to “celebrate languages, the ways we use them, the ways they use us, the ways they shape our realities,” this Women in French panel welcomes papers that investigate how Francophone writers employ French—the language of the oppressor but also a language of liberation—in order to reclaim their own cannibal(ized) language, identity, and power. As Valérie Loichot contends in The Tropics Bite Back, “While cannibalism is one of the main controlling images forced onto the Caribbean and its inhabitants, Caribbean writers have also reclaimed it as a privileged mode of cultural resistance, or eating back” (xxvi). Of particular interest in this panel are papers that examine how Francophone women writers have cannibalized French language, history, and literature to rewrite and reimagine the lives of their predecessors and give them the personal voices and subjectivities History denies them. How have they used the power of language to rewrite history and re`affirm a tradition of resistance? How is writing in French, refusing to write in French, or crafting a unique language a means to chart new territories for Francophone women writers? Please send a 250-word abstract in French or English to Delphine Gras ([email protected]) by May 15, 2019.

CONFRONTING LANGUAGE FACE-TO-FACE: PEDAGOGICAL ROUNDTABLE ON CRITICAL REFLECTION

WOMEN IN FRENCH

“Reflection makes all of us self-aware. It challenges us to think deeply about how we learn and why and why not. [It] deepens ownership [and] helps us get comfortable with uncomfortable. Perhaps most importantly, reflection helps us advocate for ourselves and support others.”–Angela Stockman

The language classroom is a site of multiple encounters where successes and failures emerge when instructor, student, and language come face-to-face with each other. At their best, the outcomes can be sweet and inspirational, but at their worst, they can be discouraging and even disheartening. Critical reflection can be an effective tool to help both instructor and student navigate the waters of language learning and process their encounters. It can guide students to better understand the transformations within themselves, as well as others, so that they become more responsible, more open-minded, and more compassionate citizens of the world.

In this session, participants will present the ways that they implement critical reflection in French language classes, as well as the results that ensue. Questions to be considered can include, but are not limited to, the following: How is critical reflection implemented in language courses? What methods are used, and why? What challenges arise when students confront their experience with language face-to-face? What constitutes a successful confrontation? When is this practice unsuccessful?

Please send a 250-word abstract in English or French by 15 May 2019 along with the presenter’s academic affiliation and contact information to Jodie Barker: [email protected].

FLAUBERT IN TRANSLATION: MADAME BOVARY AS A PALIMPSEST

FRENCH III (NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES)

FRANCOPHONE CINEMA: RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE

FRENCH III (NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES)

African cinema is relatively very young. The first productions began in the 1950s with directors like Oumarou Ganda, Soumanou Vieyra and Ousmane Sembène, who are today considered as the Francophone pioneers of the African Cinema in the southern part of the Sahara.

The Panafrican Festival of Cinema and Television of Ouagadougou (Fespaco) is celebrating this year, its 50^th anniversary with the theme titled: “Memories and Futures of African Cinema’’. 

This panel aims to take the opportunity of this International event to discuss topics pertaining to the past and the aesthetic aspects of the Francophone African cinema. The panel will also examine how the future of cinema can be foreseen in the francophone world.

Please send a 300-word abstract in French or English to Karim Simpore ([email protected]) by May 15, 2019.

GIVING VOICE TO THE VOICELESS

WOMEN IN FRENCH

This session aims to interrogate how French and Francophone women’s narrative (texts or films) portrays the marginalized, the repressed, and/or the underrepresented. Presentations will investigate works of authors/filmmakers who made themselves a spokesperson for the voiceless, casting light on stories that otherwise would have remained unheard within their own communities as well as globally. What does it mean to be “voiceless,” and how do these authors/filmmakers give value to the experiences of these people who, for lack of authority, education, or economic means, are not able to convey them on their own? Topics may include but are not limited to life-writing, translation, postcolonial and gender studies. Please send a 250-word abstract in English or French to Viviana Pezzullo, [email protected] by May 15, 2019, along with presenter’s academic affiliation, contact information, and A/V requirements.

FRANCOPHONE TRANSNATIONAL CINEMA

Including but not limited to the French language alone, Francophone is broadly defined here as pertaining to the voices and perspectives of people who have some association with Frenchness, whether through a shared colonial past or some other cultural connection.  Transnational Cinema encompasses a multifaceted approach to film theory and criticism that involves a rigorous, nuanced analysis of all aspects of film production and consumption: auteur and audience, cast and crew, space and place, and themes and ideologies.  “Francophone Transnational Cinema” invites an array of submissions that will offer a comprehensive examination of any facet of this richly diverse cinema: individual films; filmmakers; technical aspects of filmmaking, including funding and distribution; theoretical considerations, frameworks or perspectives; social categorizations and/or their intersectionality. Please submit an abstract of approximately 300 words, a brief bio, and any AV requests to Leah Tolbert Lyons (Middle Tennessee State University) at [email protected] by July 1, 2019.

LANGUAGE AND LIFE WRITING: WOMEN'S WORDS TO SAY IT IN CONTEMPORARY FRENCH AND FRANCOPHONE LITERATURE

WOMEN IN FRENCH

Marie Cardinal’s 1975 autobiographical novel, Les Mots pour le dire, marked a turning point in the landscape of women’s life-writing projects within French culture. By employing a first-person voice to document the narrator’s analysis while at the same time to re-create or re-imagine her memories, this narrative broke the silence, shame, and guilt of a complicated mother-daughter relationship and, in so doing, allowed the author/narrator insight into her corporeal and subjective truths. Les Mots pour le dire also tied the personal to the political. All of these narrative pathways have since been explored to different ends by contemporary women writers who turn to life-writing projects to speak their truths about their identities, their families, their bodies, and their culture(s). This panel will consider the legacy of Cardinal’s text—the power of language in/and life-writing endeavors—in the domain of contemporary French and Francophone literature. How do contemporary women authors articulate “it” and in what words? What other types of voices (or languages) are woven into these stories of selfhood? Whom do these self-narratives address? To what extent do these literary examples offer catharsis? What can be said about women’s life writing and resistance as it pertains to language? Can the language of curative writing serve as a form of resistance? Please send 250-word proposals, in English or French, to Adrienne Angelo [email protected] by May 15, 2019.

LANGUAGE, GENRE, FORM, AND THE POETICS OF FRANCOPHONE FEMININE POWER

WOMEN IN FRENCH

How do published books or studio-funded films, YouTube videos or online blogs, engage with existing power structures, fail to engage with them, or deliberately sidestep them? How do these issues become even more complicated for female storytellers? Language has long been accepted in French and Francophone studies as tied to questions of power, identity, relationships and politics: French vs. English in Quebec, French vs. local languages in former colonies, the role of French as adopted tongue of immigrant writers, the creolization of languages in the Caribbean, the gendering of mother tongues and learned French. However, if one also understands language as a way of expressing oneself, of communicating ideas and feelings, then one must recognize that the form that language takes, through genre or media, is as meaningful as the word choices themselves. How do authors or storytellers follow or subvert generic conventions of poetry, novel, autobiography, essay, BD, oral folktale, etc? Whose generic conventions? How do these choices express identity, political opinions, or relationships between individuals or groups? How do female authors or storytellers in particular use language to disrupt or reify genre and/or form? How do they demonstrate their choices and what are the implications of those decisions? What does it mean to think about genre and form or media as kinds of language? This panel will explore how female authors of French expression use language–tongue, genre and/or form–to communicate and navigate these complicated questions of power, identity, and politics. Submissions from any time period and any part of the French-speaking world are welcome. Please send a 250-word proposal, in English or French, to Bethany Schiffman ([email protected]) by May 15, 2019.

LANGUAGE IN THE FRANCOPHONE SPACE

Sentez-vous cette souffrance

Et ce désespoir à nul autre égal

D’apprivoiser, avec des mots de France,

Ce cœur qui m’est venu du Sénégal? (L. Laleau)

Language is a crucial aspect of the Francophone world, on the threshold between French and Creole, or other indigenous languages. The decision to write in a certain language can be simply dictated by the author’s feelings, or it can become a true political statement. As well, choosing one does not always mean that the other will remain silent: whether such process is carefully crafted, or on the contrary happens on a subconscious level, languages influence one another, and such influx tend to surface in poems, novels, songs, and other forms of expression. 

This panel proposes to analyze the relationship between the Francophone author and the language he/she uses, how the language shapes identity and vice versa, how the message of literature and other forms of expression is vehiculated through the use of a certain language, and how the production of multilingual spaces such as the Francophone countries is conceived. We welcome proposals dealing with Francophone, Creolophone, and other literatures and arts produced in the Caribbean, Africa, Canada, Louisiana, French Polynesia, and other regions directly influenced by France and the French language. 

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Language and Francophone literature
• Language and identity
• Language and politics
• Language and minorities
• Representations of indigenous languages in France or other French-speaking countries
• Relationship between French and Creole
• Language and art in Francophone countries
• Language and Francophone music
• Creole influence in literature
• Language and Colonialism/Postcolonialism
• Creole and indigenous languages in the society 

Please send a 200-word abstract in English or French to Giorgia Cristiani, Tulane University, [email protected], by May 31, 2019 along with presenter's academic affiliation, contact information, as well as a short biography and A/V requirements.

SPACE, PLACE, AND TIME IN FRENCH AND FRANCOPHONE WOMEN'S NARRATIVES

WOMEN IN FRENCH

Power, identity, and relationships often relate to place and, arguably, space. For example, questions of family and / or immigration seemingly involve not only these but the notion of time. This session proposes to investigate space, place, and time, and how these concepts play out in women’s narrative (texts or films). In what ways do women’s narratives create new understandings of space, place and time? In what ways might these spaces and places be gendered? And, in what way are they an experience of identity? Does women’s experience create a new space, place, or concept of time, and if so, in what ways? Please send a 250 word abstract in English or French to E. Nicole Meyer, Augusta University, [email protected] by May 15, 2019 along with presenter’s academic affiliation, contact information, and A/V requirements.

GENDER & SEXUALITY STUDIES

CHOSEN ONCE, TWICE BLESSED: A DISCUSSION OF GAY AND LESBIAN JEWISH LITERATURE

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon, Light Fell by Evan Fallenberg, Dictation: A Quartet by Cynthia Ozick, Angels in America by Tony Kushner, Beyond the Pale by Elana Dykewomon, and the critically acclaimed Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman – among others – are titles prominent in the realm of gay and lesbian Jewish Literature, yet how do these novels, and these authors, utilize that combination in the production of narrative, and what does this combination even mean, if anything?

This panel seeks papers and presentations that address this question and others similar or parallel to the topic that is the unique intersection of being gay and lesbian and Jewish and the impact these coupled origins of identity have on concepts inherently recurrent to Jewish Literature from the ancient Biblical era until modern times and today. Papers and/or presentations with an additional focus on gay and lesbian literature from Israel and other Jewish communities beyond the United States and North America are especially encouraged. 

Please submit a 300-500 word abstract, a brief bio and/or resume or CV, as well as A/V requirements by June 1^st, 2019, to Dr. David C. Muller at Georgia Southern University: [email protected].

CONSIDERING POWER AND IDENTITY THROUGH THE LANGUAGE OF WOMEN'S WORK

FEMINIST LITERATURE AND THEORY

Katie Tosum, a writer, activist, and lawyer, writes in a recent article for Everyday Feminism, “In the legal field, one of the worst things you can do as a woman is to cry in court. However, being able to empathize with others is actually a huge strength in most industries. Yet it is often devalued and almost never taught, aside from fields that are already gendered ‘feminine.’”This panel seeks proposals that examine the language used to describe women at work. How does language shape perceptions of women at work and women’s relationships with work?  How does language affect what is perceived as work, what work is compensated, and what work is most valued?  This panel welcomes submissions from a range of perspectives, including proposals that focus on depictions of women in the workplace in popular culture and literature, women in politics, women as mothers, women in the context of social justice movements, and the divisions of domestic and emotional labor. Proposals for creative works that address this topic and proposals focused on pedagogy are also welcome. Please submit an abstract of no longer than 250 words, AV requirements, and a brief bio by May 25th, 2019 to Laura Beasley at [email protected].

ON THE ROAD WITH THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL

In the first season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the Amazon Prime series followed Midge Maisel’s struggle to discover and develop her comedic voice while navigating the rules (written and unwritten) of her gender, her marriage, her class, and her family. The series also explored voice and power through the show’s other characters (both major and minor, fictional and historical), who must locate their voices within rapidly changing social and relational contexts. In its second season, the series expands this exploration of voice, as the characters move into unfamiliar physical and social spaces (Paris, the Catskills, the Rockaways, the telethon, the comedy circuit, the New York art scene). These new spaces inspire or illuminate complexity in the characters’ voice and language. This panel welcomes submissions on any aspect of voice in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Possibilities include, but are not limited to, feminist or activist voices, women’s comedic voice, subversive humor, obscenity, the expression of masculinity, the relationship between voice and physical or social space, voice and nostalgia, voice and ethnicity, Jewish humor, queer voice/voicing, or the relationship between voice and technology. Proposals addressing the interplay between language and power/identity/relationships are especially welcome. By May 31, please submit an abstract of not more than 300 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Angela Ridinger-Dotterman, Queensborough Community College, CUNY, at [email protected].

QUEERING LANGUAGE: CODES, COMMUNITIES, AND (NON)CONFORMITY

GENDER & SEXUALITY STUDIES

This panel invites participants to consider how language is used in literature, film, music, video games, graphic novels, politics, and/or performance art to create, challenge, and codify queer identity.

From the queer codes used in the works of William Shakespeare, Margaret Cavendish, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Oscar Wilde, Willa Cather, and Langston Hughes to the confrontational language of ACT UP protests to the poetic portrayal of sexuality and gender identity in the works of post-Stonewall authors such as Leslie Feinberg, Reinaldo Arenas, André Aciman, Jeffrey Eugenides, Justin Torres, and Tommy Pico, how are words used to explore and create queer identities and cultures? How has the language of coming out narratives shifted over the years? How did Karl-Maria Kertbeny’s coining of the terms “homosexual” and “heterosexual” set the ground for other labels and linguistic markers of sexuality and community? How did the Kinsey Scale influence the cultural, medical, and political language used to discuss sexuality? How do acronyms (LGBT, LGBTQ, LBTQIA, LGBTQIA+) and organization names (Human Rights Campaign, Gays Against Guns, PFLAG, Sylvia Rivera Law Project) enhance and limit queer identity and activism?

Please email a 200-word abstract, CV, and A/V needs to [email protected] by May 31, 2019.

SILENCED MASCULINITIES

This panel welcomes submissions on any aspect of masculinities that have been left on the margins of mainstream literary narratives, pop culture, and scholarship, including but not limited to: race, class, and/or privilege; body integrity, aesthetics, age, and/or health; masculine relationships and roles; and sexuality. Proposals addressing the conference theme are especially welcome. By Thursday, May 9, 2019, please submit an abstract of up to 250 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Dr. Catherine Mainland, NC State University, at [email protected], and Dr. Gene Melton, NC State University, at [email protected]. Please use the subject line “Silenced Masculinities.”

GERMAN STUDIES

GERMAN LANGUAGE AS A SOURCE OF POWER, IDENTITY AND RELATIONSHIPS: WHERE DO WE STAND?

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF GERMAN (AATG)

The AATG hosts a panel for the SAMLA 91 conference on “German Language as a Source of Power, Identity and Relationships: Where do we stand?” Writing, speaking, studying, teaching and translating German is connected to a multitude of questions concerning power, identity and relationships. Speakers, writers, translators, teachers and students of German must continuously reflect upon and negotiate these matters when engaging with the German language inside and outside of the classroom. What is the influence of power, identity and relationships in the German language and culture context? We want to look at a variety of examples. 

Please submit a 200-word abstract, brief bio and A/V requirements by June 2, 2019, to Angela Jakeway, [email protected] with “SAMLA 91: “German Language as a Source of Power, Identity and Relationships: Where do we stand?” in the subject line.

HISPANIC STUDIES

THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH IN SPANISH SL INSTRUCTION IN USA

The Communicative Approach, which is based on the idea that learning a language successfully comes through having to communicate real meaning, is officially the main Spanish language teaching methodology used in the United States of America.

However, according to Manel Lacorte and Jesús García (2014), its implementation educational institutions, and its reflection on American textbooks seem less rigorous than how this approach has been adopted in Europe. VanPatten, president of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, has recognized the discrepancy between the official version of this approach and its actual implementation in the classrooms in the United States due to “certain sociopolitical control of our profession and the Traditional Approach inertia” (2009).

This panel welcomes papers that address the problems of Communicative Approach in the Spanish SL Instruction in USA. By June 15, please submit a 200-words abstract both to [email protected] and to [email protected].

IDEOLOGIES OF EMPIRE IN SPANISH CULTURE (19TH THROUGH 21ST CENTURIES)

Through the current electoral processes, the political discourse practiced in present-day Spain evidences the relevance of a lingering--and, at times, embarrassing--imperialist ideology as an integral part of Spain’s nationalism(s). While the resurgence of this ideology may have surprised some observers, its traces are not difficult to identify in modern Spanish culture. The purpose of this panel is to explore the imprint of imperialism in literary and visual works (including paintings, film and TV) from the 19th-century (the time when the Spanish empire supposedly comes to an end) to the current times, in order to examine the production, justification or rejection of such ideology within the ongoing construction of Spain’s national identities. Please submit a 200-word abstract in English or Spanish, a short bio, and A/V requests by June 10 to Luis Alvarez-Castro at [email protected].

LATINX LITERATURES AND ARTS: POWER, IDENTITY, RELATIONSHIPS

Echoing the words of Jacques Derrida, "What cannot be said above all must not be silenced but written," as well as those of Chicana thinker Gloria Anzaldúa, “Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity-I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself," the diverse Latinx literary and artistic traditions seek to give voice, empower, and provide a platform for Latinx subjects to assert and showcase their identity.

Nowadays, one can safely affirm that Latinx cultural expressions (whether through letters or other arts) are consolidated in the US cultural milieu, albeit they still are regarded as the voice of a minority vis-à-vis the US dominant culture. In some cases, Latinx are also regarded as minority/outsiders with regards to the cultural discourses of their Latin American cultures of origin.So, while Latinx ‘have arrived,’ there is still a persisting contestation of the different mainstreams in their pursuit of a topos of enunciation.

This panel welcomes papers that address the notion and/or praxis of Latinx Literatures and Arts as cultural and socio-political activism of empowerment and affirmation of identity that foster a betterment of Latinx relationships with the rest of US cultures and literary and artistic traditions, as well as with those traditions in their Latin American cultures of origin.

Presentations should be a maximum of 20 minutes long, in English or Spanish. Please submit a 250-word abstract, current CV, and A/V requirements as an attachment by May 10, 2019 to Ignacio F. Rodeño, The University of Alabama, at [email protected].

LITERATURE AND GEOGRAPHY IN LATIN AMERICA

SPANISH-AMERICAN LITERATURE OF THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES

This panel welcomes papers that study the role of physical spaces and related geographical concepts in the political, social, and cultural structures and processes of Latin American countries and its literary traditions in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Please submit a 200-words abstract through the SAMLA website until June 3, 2019. Questions? Email Cinthya Torres at [email protected].

MEXICAN LITERATURE, CULTURE, AND FILM

MEXICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE 

You are invited to present an aspect of Mexican literature, film and culture, for example, you can compare and contrast a specific literary work, which has been taken to cinema. You can also choose a Mexican film and make a presentation on its importance on various aspects of literature, history and culture. By May 15, please send a 200 word-abstract to Jose A. Cortes-Caballero, Georgia State University – Perimeter College, [email protected].

THE POWER OF LANGUAGE TO CREATE IDENTITIES AND RELATIONSHIPS IN SPANISH, LATIN AMERICAN AND LATINX LITERATURE AND CULTURE

We would like to receive works that analyze relationships between the power of languages and the possibility / reality of creating identities through this power, as well as the possibility / reality of creating relationships. We accept papers in English and Spanish. Please send your abstract of 300 words to [email protected].

THE POWER OF PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTWORKS IN AFRO-HISPANOPHONE/LUSOPHONE CULTURE

African dance, theater, music as well as photography, paintings, handcrafts and so on are powerful tools of expression of African(s) culture(s) within its continent and in the continuous movement through past and present diaspora and/or migration. With a specific focus on performing and visual arts, as a form of knowledge and narration of local and global realities, this session seeks to explore how Afro-Hispanophone/Lusophone artists in Europe, Latin America, USA and Africa express the essence of their traditions and their identity. An interdisciplinary or comparative approach is also encouraged. 

Please send a 200-word abstract in English, Spanish or Portuguese by May 31, 2019 along with a short bio and A/V requirements to Stefania Licata: [email protected].

THE POWER OF THE IMAGE: SPANISH HISTORY THROUGH FILM

Many critics have written about the role of memory in the definition or construction of identities. This panel will explore the reconstruction of the Spanish past as depicted in film and TV series. Papers will address the relationship between history, memory, gender, fiction and identity in Spain. Papers might also consider how films and TV series redefine historical, cultural, or personal memory or how they might utilize filmic discourse to present a more powerful reconstruction of the past. This panel will discuss the sociological, cultural and political forces that have inspired recent audiovisual productions.

Presentations should be in English or Spanish. Please submit a 250-word abstract, current bio, and A/V requests by May 15, 2019 to Ana Corbalán at [email protected].edu.

THE POWER OF THE WRITTEN WORD IN COLONIAL SPANISH AMERICA

SPANISH III (COLONIAL SPANISH AMERICAN LITERATURE)

This Regular Session Panel welcomes submissions on any aspect of Colonial Spanish American literature. Proposals addressing the role of written texts as mediators of power relationships within colonial societies are especially welcome. Possible topics within this broad purview include texts that address conflicts or discord between local and metropolitan officials, Church-State relations, race relations, issues relating to gender or sexuality, relations between competing European colonial powers, indigenous societies and languages, slavery, familial relationships and structures.  If sufficient proposals are received, two sessions may be organized.

Please submit an abstract of between 200-250 words (in Spanish or English) by May 24, 2019, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Dr. Eric Vaccarella, Associate Professor of Spanish, University of Montevallo at [email protected]. Please do not hesitate to send inquires or requests for additional information.

READING THE SILENCE IN LATIN AMERICAN TEXTS

SPANISH-AMERICAN LITERATURE OF THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES 

This panel welcomes submissions that study the cultural, political and social spaces of the silenced or silent vis à vis the voiced in Latin American texts of the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Presentations should be a maximum of 20 minutes long. Please send a 200-word abstract in Spanish or English, a brief bio, and any A/V requirements by May 15, 2019 to Kerri A. Muñoz, Auburn University, at [email protected].

SPANISH I PENINSULAR: RENAISSANCE TO 1700

Spanish I Peninsular: Renaissance to 1700 welcomes submissions on any aspect of the topic of “The Conundrum of Language in Spanish Golden Age Literature." Proposals addressing the conference theme are especially welcome. By June 3, 2019, please submit an abstract of 200-250 words (in Spanish or English), a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Linda Marie Sariego, Neumann University at [email protected].

SPANISH II - A, B, C, AND D PENINSULAR LITERATURE QUADRUPLE SESSION: 1700 TO PRESENT

SPANISH II (PENINSULAR: 1700 TO PRESENT)

Abstracts for sessions A, B, and C will reflect any theme related to Peninsular Literature from 1700 to the present. It is expected that there will be a wide range of topics from different periods. In keeping with the 2019 conference theme, abstracts for session D should focus on Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships. Please bear in mind the following: This is a quadruple session with a maximum of four participants per session. It also involves SAMLA business, such as elections. Papers should not exceed twenty minutes. Potential presenters are urged to send one-page abstracts, short academic bios, and contact information as early as possible. (Send abstracts and bios by e-mail attachment only, please.) Presenters may read only one paper at the convention. Papers must be unpublished and not previously presented at a professional meeting. Deadline for abstracts: May 24, 2019. Please send abstracts via e-mail to Lisa Nalbone, University of Central Florida,  [email protected].

SPANISH-AMERICAN LITERATURE OF THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES (OPEN TOPIC)

This panel welcomes abstracts on any aspect of Spanish America and the United States. By May 31, 2019, please submit a 250-word abstract, brief biographical statement (inclusive of academic affiliation and contact information), and A/V requirements to Rudyard Alcocer, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, at [email protected].

THEMES OF POWER, IDENTITY, AND RELATIONSHIPS IN THE WORKS OF MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

CERVANTES SOCIETY

Cervantes’s life and works inspire a wide variety of theoretical approximations, some of which focus on themes such as power, identity, and relationships. Within these approximations, more specific analyses investigate the powerful vs. the powerless, subjective vs. objective identities, hegemonic vs. subaltern or marginalized figures, and the complexities of interpersonal, cultural, class, race, professional, and other relationships. These are very timely topics for today’s societies, and when thematically framed by the blurring of reality and fantasy, particularly poignant Cervantine themes begin to resonate.

Considering how these and other academic and popular culture resonances have manifested over the past four hundred years, how did Cervantes approach power thematically within his work and how has his work been classified as powerful? How did he utilize, manipulate, hide, or define identities and how have Cervantine narrative identities been manipulated or changed, especially in imagery and cultural production? How did he render relationships within his works and how has the concept of relationships—as defined by present-day theories—been interpreted within Cervantine works?

The Cervantes Society of America at SAMLA 91 welcomes papers that examine ways in which Miguel de Cervantes’s works can be explored through the themes of power, identity and relationships. 

Please submit, by e-mail, a 200-word abstract, brief bio, and A/V requirements by May 31, 2019 to the chair, Daniel Holcombe ([email protected]).

WORLD POETRY IN TRANSLATION

The special focus for SAMLA 91 is Languages: Power, Identity, and Relationships, an exploration of how language shapes our lives, selves, and communities. We anticipate having guest poets from Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Central America. Please send presentations that will fit within the framework of this theme. Presentations that relate poetry to electronic publishing, the visual arts, music and social media will receive special consideration; however, the program will be crafted from the submissions received. The number of presenters will determine the length of the presentations; they are usually 15-20 minutes.

Please send proposals and representative selections to: Dr. Gordon E. McNeer at [email protected].

INTERDISCIPLINARY SESSIONS

ADAPTATION STUDIES

ASSOCIATION OF ADAPTATION STUDIES

This session welcomes submissions on any aspect of adaptation studies. This year's SAMLA theme is Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships, which seems wonderfully in harmony with adaptation studies. Certainly, a text and another text that adapts it are part of a linguistic relationship of power and identity, reveals new dimensions, meanings, nuances, and revelations among texts. Proposals addressing the conference theme are especially welcome, but by no means required. By May 25, 2019, please submit an abstract of 75 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Dennis R. Perry, Adaptation Studies, at [email protected].

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

This Regular Session welcomes submissions on any aspect of Comparative Literature. Proposals addressing the SAMLA 91 conference theme, Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships, are especially welcome. By June 13, 2019, please submit an abstract of 250-words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Kelly Walter Carney, Methodist University, [email protected].  

CONTEMPORARY ANGLOPHONE LITERARY FICTION (2009-2019)

This panel welcomes presentations on literary fiction produced in the last decade (2009-2019). As we come to the end of the 2010s, what do different works of literary fiction represent, problematize, and critique? How has contemporary literary fiction continued to shift political, social, and cultural questions? As the SAMLA 91 conference description notes, "we believe in the power of language to change lives and make our world a better place for all.” How has literary fiction of the 2010s produced such language and power? Arising in contemporary studies is the phrase “literary activism.” How is this playing out in pieces of literary fiction produced in the last decade? Abstracts (100-250 words) may be submitted to Preston Taylor Stone (Univ of Miami) at [email protected] with the subject “SAMLA 91” on or before May 15, 2019.

DARWINIAN LITERARY THEORY

Proposals for papers exploring any aspect of Darwinian Literary Studies, theoretical or applied, are invited. Textual analyses should be grounded in contemporary research from relevant areas of evolutionary biology and/or evolutionary psychology. Submit 250-word abstract and brief bio by May 25 to [email protected], with cc. to [email protected]

ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM: ADDRESSING RACE AND RACISM IN MEDIEVAL STUDIES AND STUDIES OF THE U.S. SOUTH

SSSL'S EMERGING SCHOLARS ORGANIZATION (ESO)

In the wake of Christchurch and Charlottesville, it has become apparent that white supremacists are using the language, power, and identity of medieval Europe and the Southern United States to justify violence. In the interest of exploring the role of teachers and researchers of spatial and chronological geographies such as Medieval and southern studies, Medieval and Renaissance Interdisciplinary Studies (MARIS) at Louisiana State University and the Emerging Scholars Organization (ESO) of the Society for the Study of Southern Literature invite proposals from scholars and teachers that answer the following questions: 

To include a broad range of perspectives, we plan a roundtable with 6-8 scholars offering 5-7 minute presentations. Please submit a 250-word abstract, brief bio, and AV requirements by June 1st, 2019, to Joshua Ryan Jackson ([email protected]), Gayle Fallon ([email protected]), and Kelly Vines ([email protected]).

THE HOLOCAUST AND LANGUAGE, POWER, AND IDENTITY

HOLOCAUST LITERATURE AND FILM

This panel invites papers on representations of the Holocaust in 20^th and 21^st-century texts or films. Topics might include but are not limited to power dynamics between marginalized groups in camps and ghettos, relationships of survivors to their children and grandchildren, and language as a means of sustaining connection to one’s identity. Paper proposals addressing the SAMLA 91 theme, Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships, are especially welcome. By May 31, please submit an abstract of 200-300 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requirements to Courtney Ferriter, University of North Georgia, [email protected] and Luke Wilson, Florida Atlantic University, [email protected].

LANGUAGE AS AN INFLUENCE ON ATTITUDES, VALUES, AND SELF IN FILM, LITERATURE, DRAMA, AND POPULAR CULTURE

Language can be a powerful force: it has the ability to gain power over others, be it political or personal; it can be manipulated to show how we want others to view and evaluate ourselves and how others perceive us; and it can demonstrate how a reader or viewer evaluates a character. Factors exerting such influence include diction, accent, and dialect. This panel will explore how language choice, spoken or written, is used by authors, playwrights, or screenwriters, with special emphasis on how language can influence readers’ or viewers’ perceptions and evaluations of characters. This session welcomes submissions on any aspect of language including considerations of reification, discourse analysis, accent perception, conversational analysis, and sociolinguistics. Please submit an abstract of 200-350 words, a brief bio, and any AV requests by May 30^th to [email protected].

THE LANGUAGE OF FLÂNERIE: FORGING POWER, IDENTITY, AND RELATIONSHIPS ON THE CITY STREETS

FLÂNERIE IN LITERATURE & POPULAR CULTURE

Celebrating its fifth consecutive year at SAMLA, this regular session on flânerie will continue to explore the topic of urban walking in literature, art, and popular culture. As a concept that emerged in 19th-century accounts of the modern European metropolis, flânerie is a practice rooted in the effort to enjoy, better understand, and improve the city experience. Walking and moving through urban spaces are also techniques that facilitate self-knowledge, reflection, and awareness. This panel seeks papers that examine how flânerie intersects with one or more of the SAMLA 2019 conference themes—language, power, identity, and relationships. Possible questions to address are: 

Language

• What is the particular language of flânerie?
• How is flânerie narrated or captured in words and texts?
• What is the relationship between walking and words?

Power

• How is flânerie an exercise in power?
• What is the power-relation between the flâneur/flâneuse and the city?
• What is the power-relation between the flâneur/flâneuse and the crowd?

Identity

• How does the flâneur/flâneuse figure define his/her identity vis-à-vis the city, the crowd, commodity culture, etc.?
• What is the flâneur/flâneuse ́s identity in terms of gender, class, age, nationality, sexual orientation, political orientation, etc.
• When and how is flânerie an act of self-creation, self-erasure, or self-transformation?

Relationships

• How do alternative forms of flânerie (running, cycling, locomotion, driving) produce different kinds of relationships between the flâneur/flâneuse and the city or the crowd?
• What forms of art (literature, graphic, digital, media, dance, fashion) express flânerie as a means of transforming the world, on a global or local level?
• What is the relationship between the flâneur/flâneuse and the marketplace? Does flânerie require a productive or consumptive relationship to the marketplace or the multitude?

DEADLINE JUNE 1, 2019. By this date, please send abstracts of 250-500 words along with AV requests and a short bio to Kelly Comfort, Georgia Tech, [email protected] and Marylaura Papalas, East Carolina University, [email protected].

THE LANGUAGES OF FASHION: STYLE, EXPRESSION, AND IDENTITY

This panel explores fashion as a system of language, expression, production and consumption. Examining both textual and graphic representations of fashion, we seek papers that engage with the 2019 SAMLA conference themes of language, power, identity and relationships. Approaches that examine how fashion, dress, design and style are a means of exercising and maintaining power, forging identity, and affecting relationships are welcome. Papers on gendered dressing, (un)fashionable identities, anti-fashion, and various kinds of fashion (or fashionable) relationships during the Victorian, Modern, or contemporary eras are welcome. We also encourage submissions that examine sartorial themes in literature, theater, art, film, photography, design, periodicals, digital media, and other aesthetic modes of expression. Questions that might be addressed include: 

• What are the languages of fashion, and what do they communicate? In addition to textual and visual, what other expressions of fashion exist?  
• How effective is fashion as a form of power? What are the movements and social formations showing meaningful connections between aesthetics and politics, particularly as related to dress and style? 
• How have artists and writers incorporated fashion and dress in their work as a means to express identity, both on a personal and on a collective level?
• How has fashion shaped relationships or emerged as an important component of relationships? 

By May 24, 2019, please send abstracts of 250-500 words along with AV requests and short bio to both Loretta Clayton, Middle Georgia State University, at [email protected] and Marylaura Papalas, East Carolina University, at [email protected].

LIFE WRITING

If “our language is our identity,” as the SAMLA 91 conference call for panels notes, then considering how we narrate our lives is of the utmost importance. In the decades since the “memoir boom” around the turn of the millennium, it has become commonplace to consider the production of identities and subjectivities across narrative spheres and histories: from genres like captivity narratives, slave narratives, and commonplace books, to contemporary iterations in memoir, blogs, social media, and reality television, it is obvious that life writing matters. Life narratives demand that readers attend to histories, lives, languages, and experiences that are often unfamiliar or different from their own. This panel welcomes presentations on any aspect of life writing, and those projects that are related to the conference theme, Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships, are especially welcome. Please submit a 250-word abstract, brief bio, and A/V requests to Nicole Stamant, Agnes Scott College, [email protected] by May 30, 2019.

LITERARY MONSTERS

MONSTERS

In today's culture, it's almost impossible to avoid "monsters."  Straight from mythology and legend, these fantastic creatures traipse across our television screens and the pages of our books. Over centuries and across cultures, the inhuman have represented numerous cultural fears and, in more recent times, desires. They are Other. They are Us. This panel will explore the literal monsters--whether they be mythological, extraterrestrial, or man-made--that populate fiction and film, delving into the cultural, psychological and/or theoretical implications. 

Please submit a 250-300 word abstract, a brief bio, and any A/V needs by May 20, 2019 to Kelly Saderholm at [email protected]. SAMLA will be held at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Atlanta, Georgia this year from November 15-17. Those accepted must be members of SAMLA to present.

METAMODERNISM

In 2010, Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker published their "Notes on Metamodernism," which outlined the phase of literature and society following Postmodernism. This session invites papers exploring metamodern readings of literary and social movements and metamodern identity creation. Being a movement with a "self" at the heart, the conference theme lends itself particularly well to metamodern interpretations, and proposals addressing that theme are especially welcome. By June1st, please submit an abstract of 250 words to Rachel Perry, Auburn University, at [email protected].

THE MODERN INDIGENOUS NOVEL: WHAT'S THIS ABOUT, WHO WROTE IT, AND WHY?

This panel seeks papers and presentations about novels written by Indigenous authors that focus on any aspect of Indigeneity related to modern or recent times. Scholars with an interest in literature written by Indigenous authors writing about indigenous issues exceptional and unique to Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Latin America and Asia, along with Canada, Mexico, the United States and other parts of North America are especially encouraged to submit abstracts.

Please submit a 300-500 word abstract, a brief bio and/or resume or CV, as well as A/V requirements by June 1, 2019, to Dr. David C. Muller at Georgia Southern University: [email protected].

MUSLIMS IN AMERICA

This panel intends to examine the works of Muslim American poets, novelists, playwrights, jazz musicians, punks, hip hop artists, mipsters, filmmakers, and visual artists, through the lens of polylingualism. Papers are invited that explore the diverse compositions of Muslim American identities in cultural texts as they engage with the multiple vocabularies of national, theoretical, literary, and aesthetic spaces. With the theme of SAMLA 91, Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships, panelists are asked to consider how these writers and artists employ different languages in their articulation of assimilation, alterity, dissent, and transgression as Muslim Americans in high or low art forms. Please submit a 300-word abstract, with a short biography and A/V requirements, to Mahwash Shoaib ([email protected]) by July 7.

NEOLIBERALISM IN LITERATURE AND MEDIA STUDIES

Once considered a fringe movement, neoliberalism has steadily become a central tenet of American life. Neoliberal thought subsequently spread across the globe in a variety of forms (via channels including Hollywood and regulatory bodies such as the International Monetary Fund). Promises of privatization today trump collective action in virtually every aspect of life. This epistemic shift can be felt far and wide, from politicians to postmodern theorists. This panel will investigate symptoms of – and responses to – this shift in the areas of literature and media studies. Given the conference theme, papers of particular interest might address the intersection of neoliberalism and issues of language, identity, power, and/or relationships. By June 1, please send a 250-word abstract, brief bio, and A/V requirements to Michael Blouin, Milligan College, [email protected].

ON ENDS AND ENDINGS

This panel aims to explore the rhetoric of ends and endings, whether they be concrete and material (the end of a book) or more contentious and conceptual (the end of an era). How do we talk about endings when they arrive? And how can language claim power over events by pronouncing them finished? Potential paper topics might include periodization and historiography, "late" style, life-writing and reflections on mortality, apocalyptic fiction and the anthropocene, or simply the famous last words to a novel. Ideally, the ends and endings we discuss will not be presumed and treated simply as content, but will instead help us think about our desire for (and fear of) the sense of an ending.

Abstracts, limited to 300 words, should be sent along with a CV to Ian Afflerbach at [email protected]. 

SPEAKING OF GOD: POWER, IDENTITY, RELATIONSHIPS

SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE ON CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE

The nature of language has been an ongoing debate in philosophy and literary studies for decades. “Language speaks . . . . Mortals speak insofar as they listen,” said Heidegger in 1950. Fifteen years later, Oedipa Maas (in Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49) found herself haunted by the prospect of “having lost the direct, epileptic Word, the cry that might abolish the night.” The issue of language is nothing new for Christians, who have long (at least since Pseudo-Dionysius) wrestled with the relationship between words and the Word. “In the beginning was the Word,” our life and light, and yet our access to it remains constrained by our languages, conditioned and fluid as they are.

This year’s SECCL-affiliated SAMLA panel will focus on the role of language in the divine-human relationship. Papers might focus on the following: the power and/or limits of language to speak about or commune with the divine; literary engagements with divine revelation; the relation between language and sacrament; language and idolatry; or other relevant topics. The panel welcomes papers from any theoretical approach. Creative writing submissions addressing the panel theme are also welcome.

Please send a 250-word proposal, a CV, and any A/V requests to Jordan Carson, Baylor University, [email protected]. (For creative writing submissions, please submit the full work to be read and not an abstract.) All abstracts or creative writing submissions are due May 31.

SPECULATIVE FICTION

Speculative fiction covers a broad range of narrative styles and genres. The cohesive element that pulls works together under the category is that there is some “unrealistic” element, whether it’s magical, supernatural, or a futuristic/technological development: works that fall into the category stray from conventional realism in some way.  For this reason, speculative fiction can be quite broad, including everything from fantasy and magical realism to horror and science fiction—from China Miévilleto Margaret Atwood to Philip K. Dick. This panel aims to explore those unrealistic elements and all their varied implications about society, politics, economics, and more.

Please submit a 250-300 word abstract, a brief bio, and any A/V needs by May 20, 2019 to Lisa Wenger Bro, Middle Georgia State University, at [email protected].

THE UNCERTAINTY SOCIETY

The Uncertainty Society is a reflection of our times. The poets involved in the Uncertainty movement first made themselves know in the USA in the anthology Poetry Facing Uncertainty, published in 2012. This year, we anticipate having guest poets from Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Central America. Presentations that deal with the poetry of uncertainty as it relates to societal issues, social media, electronic publishing, the visual arts and music will receive special consideration.

The special focus for SAMLA 91 is Languages: Power, Identity, and Relationships, an exploration of how language shapes our lives, selves, and communities. Please send presentations that will fit within the framework of this theme. The program will be crafted from the submissions received. The number of presenters will determine the length of the presentations; they are usually 15-20 minutes.

Please send proposals and representative selections to: Dr. Gordon E. McNeer at [email protected]. 

Considering the conference theme “Language: Power, Identity, Relationships,” our session welcomes submissions on the topics of Relational Aesthetics, the alter-modern, or on any art/text interface involving “meaning-making” through the contextual exploration and perception of texts and symbols. This might include looking at the way texts encourage, among other things, certain unveiling processes which potentially lie in back of subjective perceptions of “other.” Any considerations of how a text can have multiple simultaneous meanings or any consideration of how visual art interfaces with textual intentions or receptions are especially welcome as are any submissions touching on aspects of power, identity or relationships in the intersection, broadly construed, of visual and textual art.  Please send abstracts of about 150 words by June 11^th to [email protected].

VOICES AND NARRATIVES OF MIGRATION: MOVEMENTS AND CROSSINGS FROM LATIN AMERICA TO UNITED STATES

UNDERGRADUATE PANEL

WHAT IF HILARY HAD WON? A UCHRONIC EXPLORATION OF THE ALTERNATE HISTORY GENRE

What if Islam dominated the globe? What if Japan conquered Australia? What if the Martin Luther King, Jr. had survived assassination? What if the South won the American Civil War? What if the Nazis had won World War Two? Indeed: what if Hillary had won?

This panel will discuss the Uchronic genre as it pertains to alternate history narratives, particularly those focused on Asia, Australia, India, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America . This panel invites papers that address issues such as what is an alternate history narrative? What is meant by the term “Uchronic”? How are alternate history novels different from dystopian/utopian novels, fantasy or science fiction? How do prominent examples of the genre such as Lion’s Blood and Zulu Heart by Stephen Barnes, Abdourahman Waberi’s French novel In the United States of Africa,It Can’t Happen Hereby Sinclair Lewis, Philip Roth’s The Plot Against Americaor Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Unionrelate to and intersect with the modern political climate and/or inform our understanding of the Uchronic alternate history genre.

Papers that address the titular question – What if Hillary had won? – or any others issues or themes related to Uchronic alternate history narratives and counterfactual essays are sought after, as well as critiques and analysis of page-to-screen adaptations of alternate history narratives such as Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, Len Deighton’s SS-GBand Robert Harris’ Fatherland. Of particular interest are papers that address alternate history Uchronic narratives focused on Africa, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and/or Latin America, and/or on Muslim-centric worlds. Papers and presentations that discuss issues beyond alternate histories of the American Civil War and World War Two are especially encouraged.

Please submit a 300-500 word abstract, a brief bio and/or resume or CV, as well as A/V requirements by June 1, 2019, to Dr. David C. Muller at Georgia Southern University: [email protected].

ITALIAN STUDIES

ITALIAN IDENTITY: POWER AND RELATIONSHIPS

Considering the nation as an “imagined community” this interdisciplinary panel seeks to investigate how Italianess is represented within and beyond the Italian borders. Specifically, we seek to investigate how through any sort of cultural production an Italian identity is expressed and how this differs in its interpretation. What relationships this identity creates across the different social realities and geographies? We look at possible answer to this and other questions from any possible perspective and realities.

This session welcomes any cultural production included but not limited to literature, poetry, films and media, artifacts, photography, plays and more. An interdisciplinary approach is also encouraged. This panel accepts presentations of any time period related to the Italian Identity, power and relationships and a comparative approach is also welcome especially with other nationalities/cultures involved with Italy. The presentations may include but are not limited to the following topics through any theoretical approach: 

• Italian Migrants abroad (e.g. USA, Canada and so on) Immigrants in Italy
• Italian Postcolonial Legacies
• Italian/Italophone Jews communities 
• Globalization, Glocalization and Transculturalism Italy and its Borders
• Italy and Mediterranean studies 

Please submit via email a 200-250 words abstract of the presentation along with, a brief bio, and requests for audio-visual equipment to Rosario Pollicino: [email protected] by May 31, 2019. 

TRANSLATING ITALIAN DIALECTS: ISSUES, STRATEGIES, AND SOLUTIONS ACROSS LANGUAGES

Dialects are a major component of Italian linguistic richness, which depict a specific community with its own history, customs and habits, and which profoundly varies from the North to the South. The peculiarity of Italian linguistic history is its resistance towards its linguistic uniformity, imposed after the unification of the Country in the second half of the 19th century, which however is still far from being a reality today. In fact, the relationship between dialects and Standard Italian results into a form of bilingualism and diglossia. These phenomena happen when the use of dialect in an informal context takes place opposed to the use of Standard Italian in a formal one within the same community of speakers. 

The already challenging relationship between dialects and Standard Italian gets complicated even more when it comes to translate these into other languages. Dialects represent the way to express the cultural roots of a community and for this reason they must be preserved over the years. 

Dialects are a sort of linguistic identity card and it is not so easy to find an equivalent linguistic expedient in order to portray a different community who speaks a diverse dialect. Some important traits of the target culture could be lost in translation exactly because of the lack of words in the target language. 

Indeed, there are many translation techniques and theories exploring the various strategies to translate dialects into other languages, including the use of dialects familiar to the target language, omission, or the invention of a sort of “new language.” 

This panel aims to investigate the role that dialects play in the linguistic panorama of Italian literature and cinema, with a special emphasis on their translation into other languages. 

Please, send a 250-words abstract, along with academic affiliation and A/V requirements to Federico Tiberini ([email protected]) by June 12, 2019.

LUSO-PORTUGUESE STUDIES

A ESCRITORA AFRO-BRASILEIRA: ATIVISMO E ARTE LITERRIA / THE AFRO-BRAZILIAN WRITER: ACTIVISM AND LITERARY ART

This is a question-and-answer session based on the publication, A Escritora Afro-Brasileira: Ativismo e Arte Literária [The Afro-Brazilian Writer: Activism and Literary Art], Editor: Dawn Duke. Belo Horizonte: Nandyala, 2016. 

This text features six leading Afro-Brazilian writers, Mel Adún, Cristiane Sobral, Conceição Evaristo, Débora Almeida, Esmeralda Ribeiro, and Miriam Alves, with each writer presenting an interview, an essay, and a sample of their literary production. Dawn Duke is editor of the work and presents an introductory essay explaining the direction and purpose behind such publication. 

The session will be comprised of 4 speakers – Sarah Ohmer, Dawn Duke, Rhonda Collier, and Mel Adun. 

The session’s moderator will be Sarah Ohmer. Mel Adun will be present as author. We would be very happy to include Cristiane Sobral, also as author if she is available. Dawn Duke will be present as editor and researcher of these women writers. Rhonda Collier will be present as researcher and discussant. Session moderator, Sarah Ohmer, time permitting, will raise 6 to 10 questions designed to stimulate dialogue. The session will allow audience participation. 

The purpose is to bring together writers and their critics in an open forum that allows writers to describe the intentions behind their artistry and gives their critics a chance to engage and debate with them. The main objective of this discussion is to come to a deeper understanding of the aesthetic elements and expressions that appear in their works. These seasoned writers have over time designed their own artistic techniques and approaches that they continue to use to offer interpretations of reality on their own terms. This session is interested in understanding what is unique about their literary versions as well as the reasons behind the directions they propose.

CLAIMING CENTER STAGE: LUSOPHONE WOMEN WRITERS

LUSO-AFRO-BRAZILIAN STUDIES

This panel welcomes papers on topics relevant to the SAMLA 91 conference theme, Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships, that examine the work of women writers from the Portuguese speaking world. Please send 250-word abstracts by May 15, 2019 to Cecília Rodrigues, University of Georgia, at [email protected]. Please also include a brief bio, academic affiliation, and any A/V requirements in your abstract.

GENERAL MEETING OF MULHERIO DAS LETRAS - USA CHAPTER

LUSO-AFRO-BRAZILIAN STUDIES

The recently created Mulherio das Letras - USA Chapter invites Lusophone women writers and female scholars to a general meeting where topics such as future events, collaborations, and publications will be discussed. Please send a short paragraph describing your work and your interest in this Lusophone women's collective to Cecília Rodrigues, University of Georgia, at [email protected] by May 15, 2019. Please also include a brief bio.

WHEN REALITY AND FICTION OVERLAP: READINGS FROM LUSOPHONE WOMEN WRITERS

LUSO-AFRO-BRAZILIAN STUDIES

This panel invites Lusophone female writers to read from their own published or unpublished creative work (all genres are welcome). By May 15, 2019, please submit the piece, brief biographical statement, contact information, and A/V requirements to Cecília Rodrigues, University of Georgia, at [email protected] or Cris Lira, University of Iowa, at [email protected].

OTHER LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

BIG BOOKS: WHY BOTHER?

In an age of overstimulation, “information overload,” and (allegedly) shrinking attention spans, a genre of fiction that appeared to peak in the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s—that is, the big, postmodern novel—has made a comeback. Whether one calls it the maximalist novel, the Mega-Novel, the encyclopedic narrative, or “hysterical realism,” it has become clear that the strange, sprawling novel has become increasingly popular and, with postcolonial and global authors such as Salman Rushdie, Roberto Bolaño, Zadie Smith, Vikram Chandra, Marlon James, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie contributing to the genre in the last few decades, increasingly diverse. The obvious question is why: why do authors continue to write—and why do people continue to read—erudite and encyclopedic novels? What are some of the imaginative, intellectual, ethical, and political consequences of spending weeks, and even months, reading a single text?  Why, as our session title indicates, do people continue to “bother” with “big books”?

This panel seeks papers that analyze the maximalist novel, broadly defined. Possible topics include:

• the challenges and benefits of reading big books.
• maximalism and ethics, politics, history, etc.
• the gender, class, racial, and/or sexual politics of big books
• genre conventions and terminology
• the maximalist novel: a global or American genre?
• maximalism and globalization
• close readings of individual texts
• analysis of the oeuvre of one or more maximalist novelists 
• the history and/or future of the genre
• maximalism and modernism, postmodernism, etc.

If these or other questions excite you, please send a 250-word abstract/proposal, a brief bio, and A/V requirements to Benjamin Bergholtz, Georgia Institute of Technology, [email protected], by May 27.

REPRESENTING HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN LITERARY LANGUAGE 

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

This panel welcomes papers analyzing representations of human rights violations in literary language, to be presented at the 2019 SAMLA Conference (Westin Peachtree Plaza, Atlanta, Georgia, November 15-17, 2019). Paper proposals addressing human rights violations in postcolonial or transnational fiction are especially welcome. By May 27th, please submit a 300-word abstract, brief bio, and A/V requirements to Laura Barberan Reinares, Bronx CC (CUNY), at [email protected].

SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE 

This panel welcomes abstracts on all aspects of Scandinavian literature and culture. By May 15, 2019, please submit a 250-word abstract, brief biographical statement (inclusive of academic affiliation and contact information), and A/V requirements to Jay Lutz, Oglethorpe University, at [email protected].

PEDAGOGY

BURSTING THE BUBBLE OF STUDY ABROAD: INTEGRATING STUDY ABROAD INTO BROADER EDUCATIONAL GOALS

PEDAGOGY POTPOURRI

In this roundtable discussion, we will address diverse ways in which institutions and departments can help students prepare for, go through and process study abroad experiences. We will discuss the possibilities of designing pre, during and post study abroad experiences with the intention to a) prepare students to study abroad and help them process the experience when abroad and as they return to their home country and b) help students develop intercultural competence through this process. During the discussion, we will be using the course sequence designed at our university as a point of departure to discuss different ways in which we would like to see the study abroad experiences integrated into departmental (disciplinary), as well as wider, institutional curricular goals. How can we help students integrate their study abroad experiences into their broader intellectual trajectories, as well as department and university’s broader educational goals of increasing their gains in intercultural competence and cultural self-awareness?

Attendees will be encouraged to share specific activities they have used successfully to help students reflect on home and/or host cultures. We hope attendees will leave the session with concrete ideas for fostering student reflection before, during, and after their study abroad experiences, helping students to understand how their experiences and knowledge gained abroad connect to the rest of their college experience and education. By May 30, please submit a 150-word abstract and brief bio to Ketevan Kupatadaze, Elon University, [email protected].

CEA AT SAMLA

COLLEGE ENGLISH ASSOCIATION (CEA)

The College English Association solicits abstracts from its members on the special focus of the 91st SAMLA conference from November 15-17 in Atlanta: Languages: Power, Identity and Relationships. Presentations that celebrate “the power of language to change lives and make our world a better place for all” are particularly welcome.

Proposals can be pedagogical in nature or relate to any aspect of English studies. Scholars may also submit papers that are beyond this scope and/or unrelated to the SAMLA theme. 

Please send abstracts and any A/V requirements to Marissa Glover McLargin, Secretary, Florida CEA, at [email protected] by May 17, 2019. More information on the SAMLA conference may be found at https://samla.memberclicks.net/.

Steve Brahlek, CEA Director of Technology, is also soliciting original works of fiction, poetry, or non-fiction for a second panel. Kindly send proposals directly to him at [email protected] by May 17.

THE CREATIVE WRITING CLASSROOM'S CROSS-CURRICULAR BENEFITS

The practice and skill gleaned in the creative writing classroom has benefits that ripple outward from the practice of one genre benefiting another to students benefiting in the composition classroom to second-language students approaching ESL in more graspable ways and beyond. The attention to details of craft in a space that allows for creative work benefits the student’s ability to think critically, analyze, and use language in rhetorically without having to conform to standard composition forms. In this panel, we will discuss the concrete ways that creative writing courses and programs build language and investigative skills that prepare them to communicate more clearly when working toward other goals. By June 15, 2019, please submit via attachment an abstract, bio, and any A/V requests to Dr. Emily Schulten Weekley, at [email protected]

INNOVATIVE PEDAGOGIES AND APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE ACQUSITION IN THE ITALIAN CLASSROOM WITH AUTHENTIC AND/OR TECHNOLOGICAL MATERIAL

PEDAGOGY POTPOURRI / AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF ITALIAN (AATI)

This panel welcomes submissions on any aspect of innovative pedagogies and approaches to language acquisition in the Italian classroom. Projects and activities that utilize authentic and/or technological are welcome as well as new approaches and best practice to any aspects of teaching language, culture and literature. Proposals addressing the conference theme are especially welcome. By May 31, 2019 please submit an abstract of 250 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Angela Margherita Bozano, Victory, Milwaukee Italian Immersion School, at [email protected], and Silvia Giovanardi Byer, Park University, at [email protected].

LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING

PEDAGOGY POTPOURRI

This traditional session welcomes submissions from all aspects of language teaching and research, including, but not limited to, the integration of culture and literature into language teaching, first and second language acquisition, second language pedagogy, and linguistics or literature studies with application to language teaching or learning. We welcome submissions from the study of all languages, but the abstract must be in English. By May 15, 2019, please submit an abstract of 350 words (excluding references), a brief biro, and any A/V requests to Dr. Jing Z. Paul, Agnes Scott College, at [email protected] and Dr. Hong Li, Emory University, at [email protected]. Please attach a Word document that includes your abstract, a brief bio and any A/V requests.

PEDAGOGY OF THE LITERATURE CLASSROOM: THE POWER OF LANGUAGE

PEDAGOGY OF THE LITERATURE CLASSROOM

SAMLA’s conference theme Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships calls for us to explore the power and impact of language. This panel looks to examine language, specifically considering pedagogical approaches to teaching various aspects of language and the power of language in literature classes, from introductory survey classes to comprehensive seminars.

Topics include, but are not limited, to the following: 

• Teaching how language forms identity in literature
• Examining the role of literature and language to form personal relationships
• Considering literature as an avenue for the study of language’s power 
• Identifying literature that uses language to build and limit relationships 
• Exploring the impact of current pedagogical trends on the teaching of language and literature (i.e. the flipped classroom, distance learning)
• Creating identity through various critical lenses, such as Marxist criticism, psychoanalysis, and poetics 
• Incorporating interdisciplinary approaches to teach the connection of literature and language
• Applying the language of literary works to current political rhetoric 

Submit 200-250 word abstracts to [email protected]by April 10. Please include any A/V requests. SAMLA 91 will be Nov 15-17, 2019 in Atlanta. All panelists must be SAMLA members before the registration deadline. Presentations should be in English but work on language traditions is welcome.

POWER, IDENTITY, AND RELATIONSHIPS IN GROUPWORK

ENGLISH IN THE TWO-YEAR COLLEGE

Programs that foster support networks among students, such as “freshman learning communities” and peer mentorships, are increasingly popular at colleges because they reportedly improve retention and graduation rates—which is especially important for two-year institutions. Do these programs’ abilities to develop students’ power, identity, and relationships translate into cooperative learning in the college classroom? If so, then groupwork should lead students to perform better in core courses, including English composition and literature. Nevertheless, groupwork is often difficult for, and disliked by, students and faculty. This panel welcomes submissions on successes, drawbacks, and best practices of assigning collaborative projects in English in the Two-Year College. By June 3, 2019, please submit an abstract of about 150 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Lauren Curtright, Georgia State University’s Perimeter College, at [email protected].

THE PROFESSION OF ARTS & HUMANITIES: THE VIEW FROM "BOTH SIDES OF THE DESK"

The metaphor of “Both Sides of the Desk” is an image of looking at something from two different vantage points – in this case, the vantage point of the candidate who is applying for a faculty position and “sitting on” one side of a job search conversation.  On “the other side of the desk,” the search committee member or department chair is seated, evaluating the candidate, and, later, interviewing the hopeful applicant.  

Whether you are conducting a job search, serving on a departmental search committee, or chairing a department, and whether you are a student, instructor, professor, or administrator in Arts & Humanities, this panel is designed to support your professional development.   Potential panelists are invited to share strategies on topics such as how professionals in Arts & Humanities fields can enhance their job prospects, prepare for campus visits, construct meaningful CV’s, and strengthen tenure and promotion applications.  This panel also invites presentations related to the process of chairing search committees, the hiring process within academia, and, equally important, strategies related to determining which candidates will not only be exceptional scholars and teachers but exceptional community members and colleagues.    

Please submit abstracts for papers or posters (250 words) related to the profession of Arts and Humanities to [email protected].  Abstracts are due by July 15, 2019.

RE-INVENTING GREAT BOOKS

RE-INVENTING GREAT BOOKS

This regular session welcomes submissions on any aspect of teaching "Great Books." Proposals addressing the conference theme, "Languages: Power, Identity, Relationships" are especially welcome, but others are welcome too. By June 10, please submit an abstract of 250 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Robert M. West, Mississippi State University, at [email protected].

TEACHING DIFFERENCE

As educators, we have a unique privilege and responsibility to teach our students skills beyond our course content, including empathy, tolerance, and curiosity. As world language educators, we are perfectly suited to teach our students about the incredible variation in the world, and the validity of all kinds of expression. This roundtable session welcomes submission on any aspect of teaching difference through the language classroom. By June 1, 2019, please submit an abstract of 250 words and any A/V requirements to Rachel Perry, Auburn University, at [email protected].

TEACHING DIFFERENCE

PEDAGOGY POTPOURRI

Educating our students includes exposing them to literature and writing that develops curiosity of the world around them, including the sometimes shocking stories of Americans and their lack of education in our midst in the twenty-first century. The contrasts of educational practices, styles, and beliefs are discussed in the teaching of the memoir Educated by Tara Westover. Westover experienced extreme bigotry and prejudice growing up with a radical survivalist father and midwife mother and their Mormon practices. What is the pedagogical approach when a teenager has missed the opportunity of being educated in developed and undeveloped countries? By June 1, please submit a 250-word abstract, brief bio, and A/V requirements to Lyn Froehlich, University of North Georgia, [email protected].

TEACHING SPANISH THROUGH COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

PEDAGOGY POTPOURRI

This regular session welcomes submissions on any aspect of community engagement for teaching Spanish language and culture. By May 1, 2019, please submit an abstract of 150 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Rosario Vickery, Clayton State University, at [email protected].

WAC: PRIMARY RESEARCH AND INVENTION

RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION

This roundtable discussion welcomes submissions relating to Writing Across the Curriculum pedagogy including but not limited to rhetorics of invention, primary research, and critical thinking. We welcome submissions from writing program administrators as well as other fields relating to or benefitting from WAC pedagogy. By April 30, 2019, please submit an abstract of 300 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to J.A. Gunn, Georgia State University, at [email protected].

RHETORIC & COMPOSITION

THE AGENCY OF LANGUAGE IN CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL DISCOURSE

Language appears in various aspects and many facets of communication. However, the growing concern of encountering a language characterized by and constructed around an inherent ferocity highlights the strong interface between language and cultural, political, and sociological objectives and ideologies. The linguistic compositions that produce strategically vicious discourses communicated via digital media emphasize the heterogeneity within this conceptual framework. Apart from the consequences of what such strong rhetoric can invoke, such as crimes or suicides, the questions arise: To what extent is it possible to counteract such violent rhetoric in the articulation of humanitarian voices? How can language be used to advance new collaborative discourses? 

In an interview with Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), Julia Kristeva questions him on the notion of ‘meaning.’ Derrida responds: “It is true that at first the phenomenological extension of the concept of ‘meaning,’ appears much wider, much less determined. All experience is experience of meaning. Everything that appears to consciousness, everything that is for consciousness in general is meaning. Ednie Kaeh Garrison likewise notes:“[L] anguage has the power to shape consciousness.” Therefore, language provides a conceptual frame that embeds underlying power structures and ideologies.

This session is dedicated to exploring language that counteracts the linguistic construction of a violent rhetoric in all of its iterations. We invite papers that look at the agency of language in a humanitarian sense as it emerges in diverse cultural, political, or linguistic forms. What role does consciousness take in the structure of language?

Possible topics might include, but are not limited to: 

• Gender, identity, and Intersectionality 
• Contemporary political dialogues and debates 
• Language theory 
• Responses to acts of violence 
• Psychology and psychoanalysis

Please send abstracts (250 words) and a short biography to Dr. Petra M. Schweitzer ([email protected]) and Dr. Casey R. Eriksen ([email protected]) by July 15, 2019.

BEYOND THE TOEFL: STRATEGIES TO SERVE ELL STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

ACADEMIC ENGLISH FOR ADULT NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS

This panel will explore innovative strategies for teaching English to ELL populations in higher education, utilizing all aspects of popular culture, including film, television, social media, music, art, and composition. How can we best use all media possible to assist students in acquiring maximum knowledge in a comfortable atmosphere?  The purpose and goal is to be able to create an environment conducive to each student's optimal success. We are seeking innovative ways to assist in the educational and cultural life style of adult non-native speakers striving to achieve their maximum potential.  This panel welcomes all areas of strategy relating to this topic.  Please email your 250-word abstract/proposal to Myrna Santos at [email protected] by June 15th. 

TEACHING WRITING IN THE FYC CLASSROOM

Teaching writing has always existed in the intersection of language and activism. Writing instructors encourage their students to attend to style, voice, and other aesthetic elements of their text. Writing instructors also encourage their students to think of their work as socially situated and able to effect change in the “real world” outside of the classroom. The Teaching Writing in College section welcomes all submissions but is particularly interested in those that consider writing instruction in relation to language, identity, power and relationships in and outside the writing classroom. Possible topics include but are not limited:

• Presentations that draw on student texts or amplify student voices
• Pedagogies using a civic engagement/service learning approach
• Pedagogies foregrounding the role of social justice in writing
• Writing projects and/or assignments which address creative uses of language, voice, and identity 
• Projects examining the creativity and/or voices of student writing
• Examinations of language difference
• Activist/alternative approaches to writing assessment

This session encourages presentations that draw on student work as a primary text as well as interactive presentations that engage audience members. Please send a 500-word abstract to Lisa Diehl, University of North Georgia, [email protected], by March 15, 2019, along with presenter's academic affiliation, contact information, as well as a short biography and A/V requirements. 

VOICE, IDENTITY AND CONFIDENCE IN WRITING: WAC STRATEGIES THAT WORK

This panel welcomes presentations that examine effective strategies for building writing confidence, voice, and identity in writing intensive courses or Writing Across Discipline courses. The panel is particularly interested in strategies used by teachers of courses other than first year composition itself but that are possibly transferable to the FY composition classroom. Interactive presentations are a plus!

Please submit a 300-word abstract, by March 29, 2019 along with presenter's academic affiliation, contact information, as well as a short biography and A/V requirements to Josef Vice of Purdue University Global at [email protected].

VOICES FROM THE 21^st CENTURY COLLEGE COMPOSITION CLASSROOM

RHETORIC & COMPOSITION

This panel welcomes presentations about any aspect of 21^st Century College Composition. By May 15, 2019, please submit a 200-300 word abstract, brief bio, and A/V requirements to Deborah Coxwell-Teague, Florida State University, at [email protected].

SLAVIC STUDIES

SLAVIC STUDIES

Papers are welcome on any Slavic language, literature or culture, and from any theoretical perspective, including film, linguistic and comparative literature topics. By June 1, 2019, please send an abstract of 350 words, a brief bio, and any A/V request to Karen Rosneck, University of Wisconsin-Madison, at [email protected].