Calls for Papers 

THE IX AHH International Congress (Deadline March 30, 2018)

Library Research Grants: Georgia College (Deadline April 2, 2018)

Georgia College in Milledgeville, Georgia, offers short-term Library Research Grants every year to scholars and students whose work would benefit from access to materials in Ina Dillard Russell Library’s Special Collections. Strengths of the collections include Milledgeville/Baldwin County history and culture, (local/regional) women’s history, and Georgia College history. Special Collections houses the papers of authors Flannery O’Connor and Alice Walker and several political figures, including U.S. Secretary of Labor W. J. Usery, U. S. Senator Paul Coverdell, U. S. Representative Carl Vinson, and Georgia State Senator Floyd L. Griffin, Jr. For more information about Special Collections or the grant, please visit our website (Contact: nancy.davisbray@gcsu.edu).

Beyond Binaries: Trans Identities in Contemporary Culture (Deadline April 30, 2018)

A growing awareness of transgender issues has intensified in recent years, especially after the high-profile media example of Caitlyn Jenner, the career ascension of Laverne Cox, and the cross-media achievements of Jazz Jennings. This rising awareness has caused activism both for and against the transgender community and compels us to question many of the binaries that permeate popular culture. Few issues question borders and transcend boundaries in such an important manner as current transgender concerns, and although there has been scholarly attention on trans communities, there has been little attention given to the intersection of trans identities and broader contemporary culture.

We are seeking 200-400 word abstracts for book chapters (18-20 pages with end notes) exploring the theme of what exists within and beyond the binaries that were, upon a time, never questioned or examined, especially as expressed through a transgender lens and in popular culture.

Any solid methodological approach will be considered. We are particularly interested in projects that question or redefine gender and transgender identities beyond the expectations of binary codes, be it language, media portrayals, and historical considerations, such as but not limited to:

• Transgender presence in cinema
• Transgender identities in music
• Transgender culture and fashion
• International perspectives on transgender visibility and perspectives
• Social media representations of trans identities
• Transgender presences in video games

This collected work will explore numerous aspects of transgender identity from a scholarly perspective while at the same time using transgender as a lens to investigate cultural practices and constructions. It will be multidisciplinary and well researched, but also accessible to a non-scholarly audience. The book would be organized in three major sections roughly corresponding to the past, present, and future of the transgender presence and movement.

By April 30, please submit for consideration a chapter abstract or a completed book chapter and brief bio to Dr. John Lamothe, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, at john.lamothe@erau.edu.

Our current timeframe is:

May 2018 – Put out 2^nd CFP to round out any chapters we’re missing.
September 2018 – Deadline for completed chapters.
November 2018 – Deadline for final chapter revisions.
December 2018 – Submit final manuscript to publisher.
Spring/Sum 2019 – Final book goes to press.

The flâneur figure, originating in texts like the anonymous 1806 pamphlet describing a loitering Monsieur Bonhomme, developed in fiction by Honoré de Balzac, Louis Hart, Charles Baudelaire, and Victor Fournel, reinforced in Walter Benjamin’s momentous project on 19th century French culture, and appropriated by avant-garde groups like the Surrealists, has experienced recent revisiting. Explorations into gender (Susan Buck-Morss 1986, Griselda Pollock 1988, Janet Wolff 1989, Anne Friedberg 1993, Deborah Parsons 2000, Elizabeth Wilson 2000, Mariah Devereux Herbeck 2013, and Lauren Elkin 2017), different forms of city travel (Makiko Minow-Pinkney 1998, José Eduardo González 2012), and urban drifting outside of France (James Werner 2011, Dorde Cuvardic García 2012, Richard Wrigley (ed.) 2014, and Peng Hsiao-Yen 2015), have challenged the traditional definition of the flâneur as a male pedestrian strolling through the French capital. With the aim of contributing to this expanded concept of flânerie, and developing a more comprehensive understanding of the range of urban experiences in the modernist period, we invite submissions for chapter contributions to an edited volume on the relationship between the flâneur/flâneuse and city in modernist literature, film, visual and performing arts, and popular culture. For the purposes of this project, the modernist period will be broadly delineated as ranging from 1860 to 1945 so as to examine the changes and variations in flânerie over more than eight decades.

The overarching theoretical question of this collection is whether the flâneur/flâneuse figure-- broadly conceived--experiences the city and modernity as utopian or dystopian, that is, as paradisiacal or infernal, as sources of pleasure or pain, as places of beauty or ugliness, as canvases for artistic creation or as settings of destruction, death, or ruin, as egalitarian or stratified spaces, as a matrix of liberation or confinement, etc. Contributions should explore how the flâneur/flâneuse figure--whether historical or literary, filmic, artistic--understands and engages with his/her environment. Some possible questions to address are:

• In what ways does flânerie illuminate or complicate the modern experience of the city?
• What roles do gender, class, sexuality, nationality, race or ethnicity play in the practice of flânerie?
• What are the concerns of the “peripheral” flâneur/flâneuse and what “peripheries” ought to be examined?
• How does flânerie intersect with, engage in or evoke diametric notions like town and country, society and nation, high and low art, the artist and the streetwalker, reverie and action, escapism and engagement, aesthetics and politics?
• How have leading artistic, social and political paradigms of the modernist period-- Aestheticism, Surrealism, Marxism, Freudianism, First-Wave Feminism, etc.--affected the genealogy of the flâneur/flâneuse figure and flânerie studies?
• How have later theories like Postmodernism, Situationism, Postwar Feminism, or Mobility Studies shaped more recent understandings of modernist flânerie?
• How have major theoretical contributions such as those of Charles Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin been revisited, revised, or rewritten by later theorists, authors, and practitioners of flânerie?
• In addition to textual and literary definitions or characterizations of flânerie, what kinds of alternative examples exist? What is the significance of the flâneur/flâneuse image in art, film, graphic novels, photography, popular magazines, performance or fashion?

Variations on the Flâneur and Flâneuse in International Modernism thus aims to explore both early manifestations of the flâneur figure in mid- to late-nineteenth century texts as well as later variations in early- to mid-twentieth century treatments of the topic. Chapter contributions will be grouped both chronologically (roughly 1860-1900 and 1900-1945) and theoretically (utopic and/or dystopic). We are open to studies on any geographical region and on any genre or form.  Please email completed chapter submissions of 7,000-9,000 words to Kelly Comfort (kcomfort@gatech.edu) and Marylaura Papalas (papalasm@ecu.edu) by May 1, 2018 for consideration in this volume. Please follow the most recent MLA style guidelines.

• New pedagogies for the new media landscape

Chapter  proposals  of  500  words,  along  with  a  200-­‐word  bio  should  be  sent to southandnewmedia@gmail.com by May 1, 2018. We expect to notify authors by the end of May, and to require chapters to be completed by the October 1, 2018.

• Africana and Indigenous Studies
• Literary studies of all periods, places, and times
• African, Maghrib and Saharan Studies
• Haitian studies
• Filmography
• Afro-Hispanic Studies
• Opposing concepts such as: war/peace; love/hate; local/global; citizens/immigrants; etc.
• Gender and Sexuality Studies
• Imperialism and the Natural Sciences
• Cultural studies
• Migration, immigration and globalization
• Feminism, queer and postcolonial theory
  • Linguistics, language and bilingualism
  • Eco-criticism
  • Memory, memorials, and commemoration
  • Study abroad
  • Anthropology
  • Geography and cartography
  • History, historiography, and historical revisions
  • The visual arts, including film studies, photography and graphic design
  • Environmental Studies and Urban Studies
  • Health and travel concerns     
  • Theatre, scenes and landscapes
  • Philosophy
  • Myths and mythology
  • Music, including musical history and theory
  • Economics, including commerce, marketing and trade

We especially welcome presentations about Haitian Studies to honor Dr. Flore Zephir. Dr. Albert Valdman, Director of the IU Creole Institute, will participate in this important recognition.

For individual proposals please submit a one-page, double-spaced abstract to Dr. Ana Zapata-Calle at azapata@westga.edu.  Include the presenter’s name, institution, email address, phone number, and any audio-visual or technical requirements for the presentation on a separate page. Papers in French, German and Spanish are welcomed as part of a pre-organized panel.

Submissions for panels of 3-4 presenters are especially welcome.  For panel proposals please submit the panel title, abstracts, and contact information for all speakers and for the panel moderator.  Proposals are due by May 15th, 2018.

In cooperation with the UWG Library, the ILL Conference is pleased to offer conference presenters the opportunity to showcase and discuss their recently published books. Certain books may be purchased by the UWG Library. As space may be limited, presenters interested in displaying their published works should contact the organizing committee upon registration. Conference presenters may bring copies of their works to share; however, writers will not have the opportunity to sell their books at the conference. 

• All UWG faculty and All graduate students: $65
• Faculty, scholars, and other participants:  $110

"Bad Boys" and Girls in Sports (Deadline October 1, 2018)

At their most basic level, sporting events are about numbers: wins and losses, percentages and points, shots and saves, clocks and countdowns. However, when it comes to sports narratives—the expert commentary before, during and after, the athlete interviews and press conferences, the fan debates around a television or in online forums, etc.—the stories quickly leave the realm of analytics and enter into mythos. The narratives we tell make sports so compelling. We shape athletes into heroes or scapegoats, Davids or Goliaths. We mold the sporting event into a comeback tale or a fall from grace. In other words, we make sports dramatic.

Just like any great drama, sports imply conflict, not just battles on the field of play, but clashes of personalities, goals, and strategies for accomplishing those objectives. Conflict creates heroes … but it also invites stories of villainy. Sometimes an athlete is villainized for a game or a season, but occasionally a player breaks from social expectations so often or in such a dramatic fashion that (s)he is labeled a “bad boy” in the sport. From John McEnroe and Pete Rose to Tonya Harding and Michael Vick, sporting history is punctuated by these bad boys, and what it takes to be placed in this category varies depending on many factors: the particular sport, social trends, race, gender, relationship with the fans or media, etc.

This collection will explore “bad boys” and girls in sports and their place in both the sporting world and broader culture. Each chapter will focus on a central figure within a specific sport, and it will use that figure as a way to explore larger sporting and social issues. For example, what does it take to be cast as a bad boy in a specific sport? What does that say about the values held in that sport during that time period? How does race, gender, social-media use, media/fan relationships, background, domestic versus international competition, social expectations, etc. play a role in the creation of a bad boy?

We are seeking chapter proposals that explore this topic. Any methodological approach is welcome, but the chapter should be geared toward an audience that could range from sporting enthusiast to critical scholar. Although there is some room for overlap, we would like each chapter to explore a different sport, and no two chapters will explore the same central figure. Proposals have already been accepted that examine John Daly, Collin Kaepernick, Ryan Lochte, and Jameis Winston. We welcome analysis of any sport, but we are particularly interested in chapters on Baseball, Tennis, Cycling, Basketball, Soccer, American Football, Boxing, Hockey, Auto Racing, and Olympic competitions.

Proposals should be between 400-700 words, and they should include a brief author bio. Please email proposals to Dr. John Lamothe at john.lamothe@erau.edu by May 1, 2018. Completed chapters will be expected by October 1, 2018.

Articles, research papers/reports, narratives from people who are working with Rohingyas in refugee camps, first-first narratives from Rohingyas themselves are invited. Submissions should be of roughly 2000-2500 words. Some longer pieces would be considered, if they deserve more space. Submissions will be accepted till 15 October, 2018 and the issue will be published on 1 December, 2018. Please strict to deadline and email your submissions to the issue editor, Chapparban Sajaudeen Nijamodeen: shujaudeen09@gmail.com

About the Magazine

Cafe Dissensus is an alternative magazine dealing in art, culture, literature, and politics. It’s based in New YorkCity, USA. We DISSENT. The magazine also runs a blog, Cafe Dissensus Every day. Our ISSN No: ISSN 2373-177X https://cafedissensus.com/