Calls for Papers (CFPs)

SAMLA welcomes broad participation in planning, chairing, and presenting as part of sessions for its next conference, SAMLA 95, taking place on November 9-11, 2023, in Atlanta, GA.

Each Session Chair writes their own Call for Papers (CFP) and submits it to SAMLA for approval and posting. Presentation abstracts are then directed to the individual Chair, who selects and notifies their panelists accordingly. The Chair then submits information about the panel they have selected to SAMLA for inclusion in the conference program. 

Please read the instructions below for further details and links to the appropriate forms.

Instructions for Prospective Chairs

Prospective Chairs should begin by deciding on the session's type and format:

• Session Types include Regular Sessions, Affiliated Group Sessions, and Special Sessions. For your convenience, we have defined these session types here. Unless you are representing an existing Affiliated Group or Regular Session, your CFP will be classified as a Special Session. If you represent an organization looking to become an Affiliated Group, or if you are unsure if your session is a recurring Regular Session, please email Dan Abitz at [email protected].
• Session Formats include Traditional Sessions, Roundtables, Workshops, Readings, and more. We have described the most common formats here. SAMLA welcomes other session formats when applicable.

Next, prospective session chairs should prepare their CFP language and submit a CFP form for SAMLA's approval. A CFP form should be submitted for each session, even if the session already has a full list of presenters. SAMLA will post all approved CFPs below to encourage scholars to submit abstracts to Session Chairs for approval and, ultimately, inclusion in the conference program.

When selecting panelists, Chairs are asked to take note of the eligibility guidelines posted in the "Instructions for Prospective Presenters" section below. Chairs may choose to widen their selection process by posting their CFPs to other databases.  

To have your CFP included in SAMLA News, please submit it by February 28. The final deadline to submit a CFP is June 20, 2023.

Instructions for Prospective Presenters

Scholars interested in presenting at SAMLA 95 should review the approved Calls for Papers (CFPs) below and follow any submission instructions set by the individual Session Chairs. 

SAMLA asks that you abide by certain eligibility guidelines when planning your participation in our conference:

• All conference participants will need to become SAMLA members AND will need to register for the conference. There are two separate forms to fill out and two separate payments to be rendered to meet these requirements.
• See our Membership Rates & Forms page here. The Membership forms will be updated soon.
• See our Conference Registration page here. The SAMLA 95 Conference Registration form will be available in Spring 2023.
• A member may present only one traditional paper per SAMLA conference. A member may participate in other forms as long as the nature of each panel or presentation differs significantly. This may include, but is not limited to: serving as both Chair and Panelist in one’s own panel; serving as Chair in one session and Panelist in another session; serving as Panelist both in a traditional panel and on a roundtable, reading, or workshop discussion; serving as Panelist while also presenting on our Poster Session. If a member is presenting in multiple formats, it is expected and required that the content of the presentations will also be different. Additionally, members are welcome to serve as Chairs, Co-Chairs, and/or Secretaries for multiple panels.
• SAMLA is proud to provide ample space for undergraduate research at its annual conference. We invite undergraduate students to participate in Undergraduate Research Forum (URF) panels or our annual Friday-night Poster Session. According to SAMLA guidelines, however, undergraduate students are not permitted to participate in non-URF sessions.

CFPs by Category

NOTE: You can jump to a specific subject by selecting a category from the list below, or you can hit Control-F or Command-F to enter a search term (Chair name, keyword, etc).

African / African American Studies

American Studies

Asian / Asian American Studies

Caribbean Studies

Creative Writing

English Studies (UK & Ireland)

Film Studies

French Studies

Gender & Sexuality Studies

German Studies

Hispanic Studies

Interdisciplinary Studies

Italian Studies

Luso-Portuguese Studies

Other Languages & Literatures

Pedagogy

Rhetoric & Composition

Slavic Studies

African / African American Studies 

Rituals of (In)Security in Black Speculative Fiction

American life is steeped in ritual: the ritual of waking up, our daily routines, honoring our dead, or praying to the powers we believe in. Rituals provide us with a sense of safety, security, and comfort from the uncertainties of daily life. For various communities, especially those which live under the constant threat of racism, such as the Black community, rituals take on an even greater significance. In what might be called the Age of Insecurity, rituals have taken on even greater significance to combat feelings of entrapment and paranoia, particularly for marginalized communities. Rituals portrayed by authors of Black speculative fiction help to envision new sorts of security that resist complacency and complicity. We welcome papers on ritual as either a form of oppression and surveillance or of resistance, especially in Black speculative fiction. Please submit a 200-300 word abstract, a 50-100 word bio, and any A/V requests to Ruth Myers, University of Georgia, at  [email protected] by July 1st, 2023.

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American Studies

Addressing Colonial Insecurities Through Radical Forms

Expanding upon SAMLA’s phrase “age of insecurity,” this panel will interrogate subjectivities that exceed the settler/Indigenous binary. What if we consider the moment of Euro-Indigenous encounter as its own age of insecurity? What does it mean to live through multiple moments of insecurity? How are the tools that we have to express or reflect insecurity actually beholden to the too-naturalized architecture of colonial regimes? Interrogating settler and Indigenous texts, this panel will consider transgressive art and literary forms. We are especially interested in genre play that manipulates or reassesses established, colonial mediums of representation, including but not limited to the novel, found text and other poetic forms, photography, film, etc. How do settler and Indigenous subjects interact with each other through mediums? How does genre play make naturalized phenomenon like colonialism visible and interactive even within a larger discourse of insecurity and paranoia? Please submit a 200-300 word abstract, a 50-100 word bio, and any A/V requests to Anthony Gottlich and Stacey Balkun via the following Google Form (https://forms.gle/6np8d8RMptcSaUcZ7) by May 26, 2023.

Edith Wharton Society

The Edith Wharton Society invites papers for the South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference (SAMLA 95) to be held at the Atlanta Marriott Buckhead Hotel & Conference Center, Atlanta, Georgia, November 9-11, 2023. We encourage papers that explore the conference theme for this year (In)Security: The Future of Literature and Language Studies. Contributions may address any of the wide range of ways that Wharton’s work speaks to the 2020s with its pandemics, human migration, environmental challenges, increased surveillance, and (geo)political conflicts. How does reading Wharton’s literature through the lens of in/security shape our insights? We also welcome papers beyond this topic that contribute to our understanding Edith Wharton and her contexts. Please submit a 300-500 word abstract and one page CV by to Mary Carney, University of Georgia, [email protected]

Emily Dickinson's (In)Security
Emily Dickinson International Society 

The Emily Dickinson International Society panel welcomes submissions on any aspect of Dickinson studies. Abstracts addressing the conference theme are especially welcome. By July 15, 2023, please submit an abstract, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Dr. Trisha Kannan at [email protected].

Ethnic Self-Representation Post-Identity

This panel invites submissions on any aspect concerning contradictions in the self-representation of embodied subjects resisting assimilation and asserting their heritage in twentieth and twenty-first century American literature.

Please submit a 250-word abstract, a brief bio or CV, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Maria Orban (Fayetteville State University) at [email protected] by July 1, 2023.

The Future of Indigenous Futurism

This roundtable seeks participants to consider some basic definitions: what are the differences among Indigenous science fiction, Indigenous speculative fiction, and Indigenous Futurism? The table members (and the audience) also will consider other fundamental questions, such as: How did Indigenous Futurism arise from Native Nationalism and what is its relationship to Tribalography? Indigenous Futurism was imagined as a critical category before there were many examples to place within it; have recent works fulfilled the potential for Indigenous Futurism, and what does the future of Indigenous Futurism look like? Interested participants should propose a response or perspective on some of these questions (or pose their own) in 250 words. Please send that response, along with a brief bio and any A/V or scheduling requests to Miriam Brown Spiers, Kennesaw State University, at [email protected] The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2023.

Indigenous Pathways in Critical Latine/x Studies - Transborder Poetics and Remapping Home
Latinx Studies

Drawing on the recent formulation of "Critical Latina/o Indigeneity" (Maylei Blackwell, Floridalma Boj Lopez & Luis Urrieta Jr. 2017), this conference proceedings invites essays in various formats and stages of development that interrogate Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous border and transnational narratives, whether in Latin America and the United States and Africa and Europe, further inviting questions as to the analytic boundaries of Afro-Indigeneity and Indigeneity within these spaces, thereby questioning the geopolitical implications of English-language terminologies where they override and obviate endonyms. Drawing on historiography, literature, and other disciplines, this panel will unpack "settler time," "settler space," and gender norms and formalisms expressed in European languages but necessarily expressed through dense articulations in Indigenous cultures, whether among the Binnizá or Mayas. Please submit abstracts by July 25, 2023.

Media-Chaos in Late Modern and Post Modern World in the Don DeLillo's Work

How does the media, chaos, and particularly the chaos in the media work in Don DeLillo’s fiction? How can we understand his fiction as an index of this particular form of chaos in both the modern culture and post-modern world? Does the chaotic media environment replace our religiosity, foment identity crises, and create a lack of focus through a mindless feedback loop of entertainment? This panel invites submissions that examine how these topics and others related to media, chaos, and post-modern American culture are approached in DeLillo’s novels and shorter fiction. Please send abstracts of 250 words, along with AV requirements, scheduling requests, and brief bios, to Maria Nazir, Georgia State University, at [email protected].

Muslims in America

This panel intends to examine the works of Muslim American poets, novelists, playwrights, jazz musicians, punks, hip hop artists, filmmakers, and visual artists. Papers are invited that explore the diverse compositions of Muslim American identities in cultural texts as they challenge and engage with the canonical codes and sociopolitical norms of national, theoretical, literary, and aesthetic spaces.  

With the theme of SAMLA 95 - (In)Security: The Future of Literature and Language Studies - panelists are asked to consider how these Muslim American writers and artists employ different media in their contrapuntal articulations of assimilation, alterity, dissent, and transgression in high and low art forms to the following: economic inequities, environmental insecurity, and state and corporate surveillance.  

Please submit a 300-word abstract, with a short biography and A/V requirements, to Mahwash Shoaib ([email protected]) by June 15. 

The Souths and Science Fiction

Society for the Study of Southern Literature (SSSL)

The Society for the Study of Southern Literature invites papers on the South and science fiction for a panel at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association’s 95th Annual Conference from November 9-11, 2023 in Atlanta, GA. This conference’s theme of “(In)Security: The Future of Literature and Language Studies” presents a unique opportunity to consider the imagined futures offered within SF works, including their representation of social inequalities and the possibilities of the SF genre to raise awareness to the value of Literature and Language studies. Papers may discuss any of the sub-genres of science fiction, including Afrofuturism, post-apocalyptic, or alternate history and may focus on any media including video games, novels, poetry, movies, television, or comics. The chosen texts should share the South, “Southern-ness,” or Global Souths as a concern. We welcome presentations that offer to 'expand' the canon of Southern literature and science fiction itself, especially papers that focus on works by BIPOC, AAPI, or LGBTQ+ writers. Please direct any questions to Cameron Winter and Zita Hüsing at [email protected] and [email protected] Submit 200-500 word abstracts, 50 word bio notes, and A/V requirements via the following link by June 1, 2023: https://forms.gle/9MNUyz2GNCwKf7B1A

Speculative Mapping
SSSL's Emerging Scholars Organization (ESO)

The Emerging Scholars Organization (ESO), an affiliate of the Society of the Study of Southern Literature, invites current students and/or beginning faculty to submit abstracts for an upcoming guaranteed panel on (re/un)mapping the South. There has been an increased interest in relationships between speculative mapping, spaces of resistance, and hierarchies of place. Some examples include: interactive visualizations of networks of enslaved and freed Black communities in the South (Mapping Marronage, Black Craftspeople Digital Archive), research around Faulkner's maps of Yoknapatawpha, and seminal work by scholars such as Thadious Davis, Gina Caison, Dolores Flores-Silva and Keith Cartwright. ESO invites papers that discuss topics related to (re/un)mapping the South, including, but not limited to:

• Speculative Futures and Remapping Souths
• Mapping through language and/or literature
• The relationship between material geographies, resistance, and speculative narratives
• Literal Mappings versus Material Mappings of space
• Alternative Mappings (Black Atlantic, Gulf South, Global South, Circa-Caribbean., etc.)
• Other ways of engaging spatial/geographic epistemological

Please submit 200-250 word abstracts and a 50 word bio via the following link by July 15th: https://forms.gle/QkJBp6pWpDzxzTvY7

Studies in the works and life of Truman Capote

Truman Capote Literary Society

This session welcomes submissions on any aspect of studies in the works and life of Truman Capote.  Abstracts addressing the conference theme are especially welcome.  By June 30, 2023, please submit an abstract of 200 words or less, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Dr. Stuart Noel, Georgia State University at [email protected].

What Does the Future Look Like for Single-Author Societies and What Will Their Place Be in the Study of Literature?Elizabeth Madox Roberts Society

The Elizabeth Madox Roberts Society welcomes submissions from scholars who are interested in discussing the future of single-author societies at a roundtable discussion at SAMLA 95 in 2023.The Elizabeth Madox Roberts Society celebrated its 25th anniversary conference in the summer of 2023, but with the continued decrease in stable faculty positions in academia, the society has observed real challenges to membership and participation. Given this changing climate, what does the future look like for single-author societies? Where might societies draw new membership and encourage participation if traditional pathways in academia are no longer available?  What will be lost if single-author societies are unable to sustain themselves in the future?  What is the role for such societies as both the humanities and, even more specifically, literary studies continue to be maligned within and without higher education?  These are the kinds of questions this roundtable discussion hopes to consider and explore.

Please submit abstracts of no longer than 250 words to James Stamant at [email protected] by June 16, 2023.

Writing Beyond Identity

This special session will examine textual representations in which authors explore positionalities outside their own (with respect to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, class, nationality, ability status, religion, et cetera). Submissions are welcome that consider the limitations, liabilities and/or opportunities of crossing such boundaries. Or, just as climate scientists take core samples of glaciers to collect climate data, panelists may investigate how such boundary crossings provide data on the cultural climates of periods past or present.  Representations in any genre and inclusive of popular culture are welcome. Please submit by May 30 an abstract of 100-500 words, along with a brief bio and/or c.v., and any A/V or scheduling requests to George Hovis, SUNY Oneonta, at [email protected] Please include in the email’s subject line “SAMLA Writing Beyond Identity.” 

The Writings of Lillian E. Smith

This traditional session welcomes submissions on any aspect of Lillian E. Smith's writings. Abstracts addressing the conference theme are especially welcome. By June 1, 2023, please submit an abstract of 250-300 words, along with a brief bio, to [email protected]

Writing with Security and Insecurity in Early America
American Literature (Pre-1900)

How might the ideas of security and insecurity, broadly conceived, apply to pre-1900 American writers? From the colonial era to the early Republic, through the rise of abolition and the Civil War, and through the Reconstruction era, Americans from diverse backgrounds experienced security and insecurity in a wide variety of ways that both challenged and changed American society and literature. How were these challenges faced through literature? How were cultural changes made through people’s writings? How did authors depict the precariousness of being (in)secure? What lessons can we learn from pre-1900 Americans about security and insecurity that speak to contemporary society? This panel invites proposals for 3-4 presentations of not more than 20 minutes each to address the above questions, or other ideas related to the South Atlantic Modern Language Association’s 95th Conference theme of “(In) Security: The Future of Language and Literary Studies.” Presenters are required to become members of SAMLA and to register for the conference which is scheduled to be held in-person in Atlanta, GA, from November 9-11, 2023.Please submit an abstract of not more than 250 words, along with a CV, and any audio/visual requirements to Benjamin Crawford ([email protected]) by July 4, 2023, for consideration.

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Asian / Asian American Studies

(In)security: Envisioning the Future of Asian / Asian American Literature and Studies

Historically in the United States of America, immigrants of Asian origin have been the subject of extremely violent legal measures—one need only recall the 1882 “Chinese Exclusion Act” or the other major laws against the naturalization of Asians voted in 1924 and 1934. These acts aimed at excluding or limiting their presence on racial grounds—that lasted until the 1965 “Immigration and Nationality Act”—which enact and signify political and social rejection, were accompanied by cultural exclusion, denial, and marginalization, through powerful operating racist and Orientalist stereotypes such as “inferior race,” “yellow peril,” “unassimilable,” “perpetual foreigners,” and even “model minority” —all of which are rife in Anglo-American literature since the 19th century.

As Lisa Lowe had rightfully formulated it in her groundbreaking study Immigrant Acts (1996), the conception of the “Asian American” is “haunted” by a national memory that has consistently envisioned them as the “foreigner-within”—even when “born in the United States and the descendant of generations born here before” (5-6). Lowe’s analysis has unfortunately been confirmed anew in the current pandemic and post-pandemic times—most recently through the back-to-back shootings in California in January 2023. It is also no wonder that the myriad forms of symbolic and physical violence and antagonism manifested against Asian Americans have led to an exasperation of their sense of unbelonging, illegitimacy, misfitness and (in)security.

While these aspects have been continuously brought to the forefront and confronted by academics and writers of different fields, genres and affiliations, our panel aims to prolong some of the examinations and expand the epistemological and aesthetic possibilities of reconnecting the text and the world. We thus welcome presentations on any aspect of studies and/or teaching in literature, language, history, culture, and arts within the realms of Asian/Asian American Studies that will address the following question: How do Asian American studies and literature not only chronicle conditions and realities of (in)security, but also engage with them? What acts and manners of writing could be identified as meaningful and pertinent ways of not only dealing with these conditions and realities, but also confronting them whilst further providing solutions and venues for change? Comparative or interdisciplinary studies, multiethnic, transnational, and cross-cultural research related to the SAMLA 95 theme, (In)security, are especially welcome. Please submit a 250-300 word abstract/proposal, a brief academic bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to both I-Hsien Shannon Lee ([email protected]), and Nicoleta Alexoae-Zagni ([email protected]) by July 15, 2023.

International Fan Culture in the Age of In/Security: Language, Literature, Music and Technology Across Borders

This session invites submissions on all aspects of Fan Culture and Cross-Cultural interaction. Topics include (but are not limited to) K-pop, J-pop, fan-celebrity relationships, forms of fan intimacy, and online communities. We will ask how fan culture builds identity and community beyond geographical, cultural, and language boundaries. All approaches are welcome. Please send 300-word abstracts, a brief bio, and CV by June 30 to Catherine Roh, Georgetown University, at [email protected].

Pandemic and the (De)formation of the "other"

This special session will examine contemporary Asian American authors who have published during the pandemic. These textual representations will be focused on the idea of fear, its propagation in society, and how it contributes to the forming/deforming/unforming/informing of the identity of the other.  This session welcomes submissions that focus on the analysis of such texts including their commentary upon the perpetual otherization, the fear attached to certain identities, and how these identities are represented through literature written during the pandemic. How has the government/religion/social media treated the “other” during the pandemic? Has the precarity of these marginalized identities changed or have we landed ourselves in sympathizing with the “other” post-pandemic? For those interested, please submit an abstract of 100-500 words by May 30, along with a brief bio and any A/V or scheduling requests to Swati Gilotra, University of Georgia, at [email protected].

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Caribbean Studies

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Creative Writing 

Deciphering the "I" in First Person Writing

When we write in first-person, there are, of course, a plethora of “I”s--the imagined self, the narrator self, the authentic self, and/or the public-presented self. Considering this, how should creative writers best approach first-person writing? Can we even distinguish among the different “I”s we put on the page? Should we try? Should the reader know and/or care about what version of ourselves we are using? This Special Session welcomes creative work of any genre that uses first-person writing: e.g., memoir, poetry, creative nonfiction, or autofiction. Contributors will be asked to read from their work (maximum of eight pages) as well as discuss their thoughts and ideas behind the persona of “I” in their writing. By July 25, please submit the first two pages of your work, an abstract of your piece, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Julie Boutwell-Peterson, University of Kentucky, at [email protected].

Fragmented Writing in the 21st Century

What is it about fragmented writing that seems so appropriate to the rendering of today's world? Answers abound: the short attention spans created by the Information Age, the ubiquitous mental assault of clickbait and advertising, and the calamitous news cycle that keeps any of us from thinking straight. But are there other reasons that writers such as Maggie Nelson and Jenny Offill have found so much success with their works of fragmentation? How does fragmented writing (that often blends fact, fiction, and memoir) speak to the philosophical issues and human longings of the 21st century? Does the form have a unique way of meeting the ideas of our century? This Special Session welcomes creative work (of any genre) that employs a fragmented writing style. Work that pulls from science, psychology, philosophy, literature, and/or memoir is especially welcome. By July 28, please submit the first three pages of your work, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Julie Boutwell-Peterson, University of Kentucky, at [email protected]. Contributors will be asked to read from their work (maximum of 8 pages) as well as discuss the purpose and merits (and perhaps drawbacks) of fragmentation in creative work.

(In)security: Poets for SAMLA 95
SAMLA Poets

This regular session welcomes poetry submissions that draw on interpretations of the SAMLA 95 conference theme: (In)Security: The Future of Literature and Language Studies. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines security in part as “freedom from danger” and “freedom from fear or anxiety.” It defines insecurity in part as “a feeling of anxiety, fear, or self-doubt”; “lack of dependability or certainty”; “lack of a reliable means of meeting one's basic needs”; and “lack of safety or protection.” This session aims to feature poets whose poems thoughtfully address these and other definitions of security and insecurity. All poetic interpretations of the conference theme are welcome. By June 30, 2023, please submit a sample of original poetry that fits the conference theme (3-5 poems, 10 pages max), a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Valerie A. Smith, Kennesaw State University, at [email protected].

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English Studies (UK & Ireland)

"delicious security and freedom”: The Lives of Children in D.H. Lawrence’s Work
D. H. Lawrence Society of North America

Late in the lengthy, posthumously published essay, “The Education of the People,” D.H. Lawrence associates the continuation of the infant’s early education into “physical motion” with “the keen, fierce, unremitting swiftness of the parent, whose warm love opens the valves of glad motion in the child, so that the child plays in delicious security and freedom.” In this polemical essay as well as in his critical writings on psychoanalysis, his fiction, his poetry, his drama, his literary criticism, his letters, and beyond Lawrence’s oeuvre is populated with discussions of childhood education, scenes that catch children at moments of developmental crisis or confusion, and children placed at the margins of fictional worlds—as in The Woman Who Rode Away (1924), where the only appearance of a child agitates the protagonist who is the middle of her flight. “‘Why are you going alone, Mother?’ asked her son, as she made up parcels of food. / ‘Am I never to be alone? Not one moment of my life?’ [s]he cried, with sudden explosion of energy. And the child . . . shrank into silence.” This brief scene raises many questions—as does Lawrence’s entire oeuvre—about security, freedom, and children’s precarity and resilience.

The D.H. Lawrence Society of North America invites papers that study Lawrence’s elaboration on the lives of children in his life and work. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

●      Lawrence’s challenge(s) to Freudian theories of childhood
●      Sibling relationships
●      Childhood/adolescent friendships
●      Pregnancy/maternity
●      Childhood affects
●      Parent-child or guardian-child relationships
●      Parental substitutes
●      Attachment theories
●      Theories of play
●      Lawrence’s pedagogy
●      Lawrence’s views and portrayals of elementary schools and education
●      Children of working-class parents
●      Children and class difference
●      Children and gender difference
●      Children and poverty
●      Children in/as nature
●      Children in Lawrence’s poetry
●      Children at the nexus of human-animal difference
●      Childhood precarity and/or trauma

Please send an abstract (200-300 words), a short bio, and any A/V requirements or scheduling requests by June 30, 2023 to Benjamin Hagen ([email protected]).

English IV: 19th Century Insecurities
English IV (Romantic & Victorian)

Essays and/or presentations are welcome that discuss responses in 19th Century British literature to insecurities of the period. Some topics scholars might consider include:

• Poverty
• Prostitution
• Gender roles and/or fluidity
• Workplace conditions
• Crime and/or crime fiction
• Slum fiction
• Class struggles and emerging Marxist groups
• Women’s struggles and suffragists or the New Woman movement
• Gothic or horror fiction as reflective of anxiety and insecurity

Conversely, essays might address how to teach Romantic or Victorian literature in a political and social climate wherein the Humanities are increasingly suspect, de-emphasized, or rejected. How do scholars of this time period respond to current insecurities in our field? Please submit a 500-word abstract and a brief bio by July 30 to [email protected], Dr. Anita Turlington, Associate Professor, English University of North Georgia

 (In)Security in the World(s) of James Bond

2023 is a banner year for Bond studies, the 70th anniversary of the publication of Ian Fleming’s first novel, Casino Royale. 2023’s other significant Bond anniversaries include Fleming’s novel On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1963) and the films From Russia with Love (1963), Live and Let Die (1973), Octopussy (1983), and Never Say Never Again (1983). Yet this is also a time of insecurity regarding Bond’s future in print and on screen. Censored versions of Fleming’s books, released by Ian Fleming Publications, have raised a storm of controversy, and James Bond’s death in the film No Time to Die (2021) has cast doubt on the future of Eon’s film franchise. We invite papers reflecting on the threats Bond (as a character and/or a franchise) has faced, past or future, and/or Bond’s insecurities in fiction, film, or other media. Please send 300-word abstracts by July 1, 2023 to Oliver Buckton ([email protected]) and Matthew Sherman ([email protected]). Please include a brief bio statement and any AV needs.

"One of US:" Joseph Conrad in The Age of Insecurity
The Joseph Conrad Society

Ninety-nine years since his passing, nothing makes Conrad's place among us more secure than his and our shared insecurities:  our many different ways -- for better and/or worse -- of being firmly unfixed.  Conrad's precarity and opportunity are ethical conditions we share:  states of mind, heart, and soul emblematic of the ongoing age he saw before us and which mark him out as "one of us" today.The Joseph Conrad Society of America invites proposals for presentations on any aspect of Conrad's work as it relates to this year's SAMLA conference theme of "(In)Security." Abstracts and inquiries may be sent to the panel Chair: Dr. John B. Murphy Assistant Professor of  English Middle Georgia State University [email protected]

Ushering in a New Era: How David Lowery's The Green Knight Exposes (In)Security
Film Studies

When it comes to (In)Security, David Lowery sets the bar high in The Green Knight, a subversive adaptation of the medieval romance that has captured readers’ attention for nearly seven hundred years—Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Those familiar with the poem know all too well that Gawain displays moments of insecurity when faced with a beheading from the Green Knight, but Lowery’s vision of the titular character, played by Dev Patel, radiates insecurity with every decision he makes. His weaknesses become even more apparent when paired with the empowering characters that pose a threat to his masculinity—both those original to the poem, and additions Lowery makes to his version of the tale. Last year’s SAMLA call for papers, “Out With the Old, In With the New: Changing Trajectories in David Lowery’s Green Knight,” was so popular that we were able to form two panels, and we look forward to continuing our lively discussion of the film, with the hope of welcoming new participants.

Please submit a 250-word abstract, a brief bio, and any A/V requirements by July 30, 2023 to Melissa Crofton at [email protected].

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Film Studies

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French Studies

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Gender & Sexuality Studies

Global South Feminisms and Cultural Production: Exploring Intersectionality, Resistance, and Representation

This panel aims to critically examine the multifaceted intersections of feminism, cultural production, and the Global South, exploring diverse perspectives and practices that challenge dominant narratives and offer alternative discourses. We seek to foster a deeper understanding of how Global South Feminisms intersect with cultural production, encompassing various forms of expression such as literature, film, art, media, performance, and digital platforms. By examining these intersections, we aim to shed light on the complex relationships between gender, race, class, sexuality, and nationality while considering the impact of globalization, colonial legacies, and transnational networks. We welcome proposals from scholars at all career stages, including undergraduate/graduate students and independent researchers, and encourage interdisciplinary approaches. Please submit an abstract of 250-300 words, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Lidiana de Moraes (Vanderbilt University), at [email protected], by July 15, 2023. We look forward to receiving your submissions and fostering a rich dialogue on Global South Feminisms and cultural production. If you have any questions or require further information, do not hesitate to contact Lidiana de Moraes at the provided email address.

Grumpy Women in Fiction

Much of the appeal of some of our best-loved literature is their depiction of grumpy women: Jane Eyre. Elizabeth Bennett. Joy-Hulga Hopewell in “Good Country People.” For this special session, we invite proposals for traditional conference papers on the broad topic of the depiction of “grumpy women” in fiction. Presenters may choose to reflect on the concept of grumpiness through a variety of theoretical frameworks, such as affect theory or Sara Ahmed’s Feminist Killjoys framework, though all papers should have some connection to a literary work or works. Please send abstracts of 200-250 words, along with AV requirements, scheduling requests, and brief bios, to Monica Carol Miller at Middle Georgia State University at [email protected] by June 1, 2023.

Overcoming Insecurity: Empathy in Literature, Film, and Television

The psychology of intolerance--racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of prejudice--is grounded in both ignorance and insecurity. When groups are Othered, they are dehumanized and treated as a threat. Empathy--the ability to see through another’s eyes--is one way to overcome those dangerous feelings of insecurity. People who have never had any real interaction with those that they consider to be Others may end up encountering characters in fictional works who challenge their views. Literature, film, and television programs can help audiences relate to other people who have had similar experiences or introduce them to new ways of seeing the world. This traditional session will explore attempts in literature, film, and television to create empathy. Which characters have provoked empathy in unexpected audiences? Why have some works or projects succeeded in creating empathy where others have not? What makes a work more likely to create empathy? There are many possible approaches to the topic using works from the past and/or the present; approaches that include some discussion of the reception of the work and/or reception theory are especially welcome. Please send an abstract (200-300 words), a short bio, and any A/V requirements or scheduling requests by June 30, 2023, to Dr. Laura Getty, University of North Georgia ([email protected]).

Securing Feminisms in the Digital Age: Community, Discourse, and Activism

This session will investigate the impact of digital media on feminist discourse, community, and activism. Papers are welcome on all aspects of feminism in the digital age, including its manifestation in online communities and fora, online displays of popular culture, and digital media forms (such as video, film, television, and online comics). Topics may include (but are not limited to) cross-cultural feminism, sexist stereotypes, body image, political discourse, and fan culture. Please send a 300-word abstract, a brief bio, and a CV to Ye LI, Georgetown University, at [email protected] by June 25th.

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German Studies

Changes to the German Public Sphere: Insecurities and Opportunities

This session welcomes submissions on any aspect of developments in or changes to the public sphere in Germany. The session will consider traditional media, urban sites and hubs of transportation, digital realms, and other public forums and discuss the insecurities as well as opportunities that these spaces provide for public interaction. Papers on topics dealing with public discussions, shared experiences, public opinion, global public spheres, as well as the opposite, the private sphere, in all its manifestations, are welcome. By July 3, 2023, please submit an abstract of 250-400 words, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Margit Grieb, University of South Florida, at [email protected].

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Hispanic Studies

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Interdisciplinary Studies

Big Bad Future: Scale and Speculation in Environmental Literature
Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE)

From Thoreau’s description of “vast, Titanic, inhuman nature” to Timothy Morton’s hyperobjects, scale has long been an epistemological tool for theorizing the relationship between nature and humanity. This tool has taken on special significance in the age of global anthropogenic climate change as artists and scholars struggle to give form to such enormous, widely dispersed upheaval as it slowly but persistently creeps into view. In the light of drowning major cities and intensifying weather events, we are left with the evergreen question: “what is to be done?” What role, if any, can literature play in the comprehension of and adaptation to such a brave new world? What interdisciplinary connections can be adopted to make art a more transformative force? What part can literature and language studies play in such a world where potential destruction may make the university as an institution altogether obsolete? Potential presenters are welcome to consider these among other questions in constructing their proposals. Presentations from all fields of literature and language studies and all time periods are welcome. Interdisciplinary links are encouraged but not required. Presentations may address any of the following:

• How to represent climate change in art
• The scale of movements for climate justice
• Climate fiction and speculative depictions of drastically different futures
• Speculative theories of climate adaptation (degrowth, international agreements, etc.)
• Mass extinction
• Climate disaster
• Mass migration/climate refugees
• Nascent climate fascism and/or climate populism
• Environmental radicalism and/or the utility of violence
• Extractive capitalism, its ghosts and its futures
• Any other topic related to the theme

By June 1st, please send proposals of 300 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Dr. Matthew Spencer ([email protected]).

Childhood (In)Security

This special session welcomes submissions on any aspect of childhood insecurity. Abstracts addressing film and image studies are especially welcome. By July 1st, 2023, please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Meghan Hodges, Louisiana State University, at [email protected]

Enhancing Literature and Language Study through Interdisciplinary Research in the Humanities

In recent years, more and more scholars in the humanities have increasingly engaged in interdisciplinary research, where their expertise in narratives, languages, and culture constitutes a rare and necessary contribution to teams from STEM fields and beyond. This panel seeks to explore the benefits that such interdisciplinary work can contribute to the development of the humanities. We invite scholars to submit proposals for presentations on current interdisciplinary projects in the humanities, as well as reflections on the value of interdisciplinary research and pedagogy for literature and language study. Please submit a 250-300 word abstract, a brief bio, and any A/V needs by June 30, 2023 to Victoria Lagrange, Kennesaw State University, at [email protected] or Ludovic Mompelat, Indiana University Bloomington, at [email protected].

The Entanglement(s) Leading to Insecurity: Studies of Literary Representations of the Entangled Characters

An individual's interests are usually constructed by his society that results in contradiction with one's own desires, and thereby entangles the individual into the web of societal impositions making him insecure within his own breathing space. Such entanglement consequently leads to indecisiveness, depression, anxiety and other psychological factors. This session welcomes the submissions that contemplate, theorize, and critically analyze such characters of communities across the globe that are or have been insecure within the state where they are born. The papers may feature study of any of the characters or communities that find themselves entangled either because of rigid gender roles, society's demand of consistent identities, or suffering with the trauma resulting from their societies' performative expectations. The interested scholars are invited to send 250-300 word abstracts, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Saud Hanif ([email protected]) by July 20, 2023.

Evolutionary and Cognitive Approaches to Literature: New Developments in Interdisciplinary Study

Major media are replete with essays on the demise of the English major. However, this panel will argue that literary studies are rhizomic, perhaps diminished in the academic garden, but growing underground to emerge and flourish in other fields.  New knowledge in evolutionary psychology and biology, neuroscience, and the cognitive sciences has transformed our understanding of the role of stories in the emergence, perpetuation, and identity of our species. A major purpose of this regular SAMLA session is to provide a forum for the presentation and exchange of ideas flowing from this emergent body of knowledge, as it bears upon the interpretation of literature. Proposals are invited for papers that explore literary texts (of any genre, nationality, or historical period) from a well-defined evolutionary or cognitive perspective, including the following:----Exploration of evolutionary concepts, including evolved adaptations, in literary texts, e.g., kin selection, parental investment, sibling rivalry, inter- and intra-sexual competition, reciprocal altruism, sexual selection.----Investigations of inter-relationships between literary art and the human mind, e.g., Machiavellian intelligence, self-deception, theory of mind, personal narrative, status, reputation.----Theoretical approaches, e.g., the adaptive functions of storytelling‚ how do fictions help us interact with our world and our species?----Evolutionary ecology, e.g., inter-relationships between humans and their physical environments, including biophilia and biophobia. Proposals from scholars in the sciences and social sciences are welcome. Send proposals (200-250 words) and condensed CV to Session Chair Jeff Turpin ([email protected]) and session secretary Judith Saunders ([email protected]).

Fashion & (In)Security

Insecurity, danger, and lack of support can redirect human efforts to focus on survival. But uncertainty can also be an impetus for innovative rebellion and imaginative solutions. Even under the worst circumstances, humans create, sometimes in order to survive, sometimes as an act of revolt—including in regard to one of the most distinctly human forms of creativity and expression: fashion. Further, as the psychoanalyst John Carl Flügel has observed, humans have historically used clothing as a means of protection against physical danger, but also as psychological protection and comfort. This panel explores the ways that fashion, dress, and style emerge during times of uncertainty, insecurity, and stress. What changes happen to fashion during shifts from security to insecurity? What roles does fashion take on as we seek to find stability in the surrounding world, or recover confidence within ourselves? We welcome papers devoted to fashion during times of insecurity and security in contemporary society as well as papers focused on the earlier Victorian and Modern periods. We seek papers on both textual and graphic representations of fashion, and we encourage submissions that examine sartorial themes in literature, theater, art, film, photography, design, periodicals, digital media, and other aesthetic modes of expression. Topics that might be considered include:

• Fashion in times of crisis.
• Fashion as resistance.
• Fashioning selves/characters through dress.
• Fashion changes as empowerment.
• Individual and/vs. group expression through dress.
• How modern cyclical fashion has changed over time.
• Fashion and social/political survival.
• Fashion and the environment
• Clothing as “protection” from psychological, emotional, physical, and other threats.

 By July 1, 2023, 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]

Graphic Psychiatry--Exploring Visual Narratives of Mental Health

The "Age of Insecurity," as attested by the general call, made mental health a public health concern. From barriers to access to a provider shortage, from soaring suicide rates to supply chain issues that affect the availabilty of ADHD drugs, mental healthcare has become a pervasive topic that affects higher education as well. In this context, the special session sets out to rethink our approaches to ubiquitous cultural visual narratives and iconographies of mental health. For this purpose, this session will focus on “Graphic Psychiatry" which here describes a prolific subsection of Graphic Medicine: The term denotes the role that comics/graphic novels can play in healthcare; it is also a shorthand for this area of study and practice. Graphic “Medicine” (“as in the bottled panacea rather than the profession,” I. Williams) is meant to suggest therapeutic potential, both for makers and readers. Comics have been discussed in connection to the history of psychiatry, their graphic pathography or their demonization of psychiatrists, etc. By contrast, graphic novels offer additional types of knowledge. They are book-length narratives, often autobiographical “quest narratives” (A.W. Frank), that depict mental illness, suffering, trauma in their own right. Often, they provide critical insights into treatment, practices, systems and institutions. The first was a wordless novel, Lynd Ward's The Madman’s Drum, published in 1930, but there has been a proliferation of graphic novels on mental health in the past decade, including Marbles, Rx, Tangles, Lighter Than My Shadow, to name but a few. This special interdisciplinary session invites papers that explores “Graphic Psychiatry” and how it goes beyond showing psychiatry as a spectacle by discussing the illness narratives, systemic criticism, and pathologies. Additionally, we welcome pedagogy papers on teaching visual narratives of mental health. By June 15, 2023, please submit an abstract of 500 words or less, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Ronja Tripp-Bodola, LSUHSC New Orleans, at [email protected].

Happy Endings are Here Again: Fostering Hope through Texts

The happy ending in literature and screen stories has usually been devalued, seen as superficial, unrealistic, and unworthy of serious study. So much of what are deemed as “quality” stories seem to necessarily involve sorrow, anxiety, and tragedy, the portrayal of human experience seen as inevitably imbued with suffering, often without redemption. In a post-pandemic world, what kind of value can be found in stories that provide rays of hope, peaceful resolution, and unmitigated joy? Are such stories idealistic anachronisms or direly needed antidotes? This panel invites exploration of narratives that evoke such happiness and satisfaction, without sacrificing meaningful journeys of discovery and realization. Papers on literature, film, television, and related pedagogy are welcome. 

This traditional panel welcomes submissions on any aspect of narratives that evoke happiness and satisfaction Abstracts addressing the conference theme are especially welcome. By June 15, please submit an abstract of 250-300 words, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Sean Dugan, Mercy College, at [email protected]. 

The Holocaust in Literature and Film
Holocaust Literature and Film

This panel invites papers on representations of the Holocaust in texts or films. Paper proposals addressing the SAMLA 95 theme are especially welcome. By June 15, please submit an abstract of approximately 250 words, a brief bio, and A/V requirements to Mike Rice at [email protected].

Hope for Humanistic Study: Contemporary Views 

What reason(s) do the humanities have to be hopeful about its continued existence and value in contemporary society? How, if it is indeed possible, can it survive in view of recent trends in higher education declining numbers of humanities majors, declining numbers of faculty positions, wholesale eliminations of departments in the humanities, and the rising tides of STEM- and strictly career-focused programs? Do language and literature studies still have something meaningful to offer contemporary culture? This special session invites papers that explore these issues on practical, institutional, ethical, and political grounds, but also invites those that reflect on the perennial tangible-intangibles that humanistic study bring to the table--both for the modern individual and for broader modern society. For those interested, please submit queries, suggestions, or abstracts of up to 300 words, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Elliot Shaw, University of Georgia, at [email protected] by June 30, 2023. 

Insecure Ecologies: Resource Exploitation in Postcolonial Ecospheres

The climate crisis posits a major threat to the anthropocene regardless of geopolitical boundaries. However, Eurocentric discourses seldom acknowledge the resource exploitation that fuels climate change. This panel seeks to explore works of literature that highlight such instances of resource exploitation in the postcolony vis-a-vis the ideas of security and insecurity in the times of an emergent climate crisis. With a special focus on the specters of neocolonialism that threaten the security of postcolonial ecospheres, this panel seeks to decolonize the discourses of climate change that refuse to address the role played by Western ideology and capital in the rendering insecure of ecologies in the postcolony.  This panel invites proposals for presentations of not more than 20 minutes to address the topic stated above, or other ideas related to the South Atlantic Modern Language Association’s 95th Conference theme of “(In) Security: The Future of Language and Literary Studies.” Presenters are required to become members of SAMLA and to register for the conference which is scheduled to be held in-person in Atlanta, GA, from November 9-11, 2023. Please submit an abstract of not more than 250 words, along with a brief bio, and any audio/visual requirements to Paushali Bhattacharya ([email protected]) by May 31, 2023, for consideration.

Life Writing

The production of identities and subjectivities across narrative spheres and histories, from narratives of captivity or enslavement, autobiographies, biographies, and commonplace books, to contemporary iterations in memoir, blogs, social media, and reality television, challenge expectations for how lives can be documented and shared. Life writing crucially expands the bounds of what lives and literatures can look like, demanding 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, "(In)Security: The Future of Literature and Language Studies," are especially welcome. By June 1, please submit an abstract of 250 words, along with presenter’s academic affiliation, contact information, and A/V requirements, to Nicole Stamant, Agnes Scott College, at [email protected].

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 31, 2023 to Tracie Provost, Middle Georgia State University, at [email protected].

Saving the Discipline: What Adaptation Studies Has to Offer Literary Studies
Association of Adaptation Studies

As this year’s conference theme, “(In)Security: The Future of Literature and Language Studies,” acknowledges, both the demand and the rationale for literary studies have reached moments of crisis. At this inflection point, adaptation studies offers distinctly different approaches to reading and writing that have the power to regenerate the field in new and exciting ways. This series of panels, sponsored by the Association of Adaptation Studies, welcomes submissions on any aspect of adaptation studies, but especially on its power to rejuvenate the field that has historically marginalized it. Please send queries, suggestions, or abstracts of 250-500 words, along with A/V requirements, scheduling requests, and brief bios, to Thomas Leitch (University of Delaware) at [email protected] by 15 July 2023.

Special Session on Applied and Theoretical Linguistics

Languages simultaneously have the power to reflect the reality that one perceives and also the ability to impact, positively or negatively, the ways in which we understand, conceptualize, and constitute that reality. With this in mind, Thomas Payne (2010) remarked that languages are like rivers: "Every river rises and falls with the seasons, and its path changes from year to year. Sometimes it may be calm and gentle, while other times ranging and violent" (p. 2). As a result, this special session welcomes submissions on any aspect of applied or theoretical linguistics from non-literary perspectives. To this end, abstracts addressing the issue of linguistic (in)security, which is the theme for this year's conference, are especially welcome, though submissions on other topics within linguistics more broadly will also be considered. By July 28, 2023, please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words, a brief biographical blurb, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Troy E. Spier, Florida A&M University, at [email protected]

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 Mièville to 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 31, 2023 to Lisa Bro, Middle Georgia State University, at [email protected].

What is Humanities Leadership?

“Leadership” is often viewed as an extension of business or the job of academic administrators, but what if leadership is claimed and reimagined by the humanities to create the conditions for positive change in our discipline? There is no fixed definition of humanities leadership; instead, this panel asks participants, what does humanities leadership mean to you? How can different types of leadership build resilience in our field and the communities we serve? What does leadership look like in the humanities classroom, or in humanities scholarship? How can leadership be repurposed for the collective wellbeing of humanities scholars, teaching staff, and students--and how can it serve as a foundation upon which we secure our discipline? This panel aims to explore different approaches to leadership that are distinct from the neoliberal emphasis on individual excellence. Specifically, the goal of this panel is to generate discussion around the topic of leadership in the humanities, which can manifest in the classroom, in course design, and in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. This panel welcomes a broad definition of leadership and invites a wide range of topics on humanities leadership, specifically with regards to the ways small changes to teaching, learning, and scholarship can create systemic change in our discipline--and in the communities we occupy outside of the university. What does leadership look like in the humanities? How can the humanities forge its own path to recovery through small acts of leadership? How can humanities scholars practice leadership in the classroom? Please send a 200-300 word abstract, brief bio, and request for A/V to Sheena Jary, McMaster University, [email protected] by June 30, 2023.

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Italian Studies

Literature, Media, and Culture Studies
Italian II (1600-Present)

This panel is open to contributions on Italian literature, cinema and media studies from the 1600 to the present. Please send a 200- 300- word abstract, brief bio, and request for A/V to the session organizer by June 30th, 2023. Chair: Annachiara Mariani, The University of Tennessee, [email protected]
. Co-Chair: Silvia Tiboni-Craft, Wake Forest University, [email protected]

Literature and Culture Studies
Italian I (Medieval and Renaissance Literature)

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Luso-Portuguese Studies

The Literatures of Luso-Afro-Descendants

This session welcomes submissions focusing on literary and artistic works by Afro-descendants in the Portuguese-speaking world. We welcome presentations that reflect on the production of black and/or afro-descendant authorship in Portugal and Brazil, that address themes such as, but not limited to: literature and social life, literature and history, literature and social transformation, literature and resistance to light characteristics of the Portuguese and Brazilian contexts. The aim of the session is to expand critical inquiry on the history, literature, and culture of Luso-afro-descendants around the world. By May 15, please submit an abstract of 250 words, along with presenter’s academic affiliation, contact information, and A/V requirements, to Sandra Sousa, at [email protected]

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Other Languages & Literatures

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Pedagogy

Archival Pedagogy: Connecting Past and Future through Literature & Language Studies

Since archivist Ken Osborne’s 1980s call to integrate archival sources in the classroom, educators have sought to connect how we research and how we teach. Archival research and pedagogy have the potential to reshape narrative, while connecting conversations between scholar-educators across disciplines, institutions, and academic spaces. This roundtable welcomes submissions on any aspect of archival integrations in literature and language studies classrooms. Some questions to consider include: How can we integrate archival research practices into English studies classrooms? How do archival sources illumine historically marginalized voices? To what extent does archival research and teaching support inclusive approaches to pedagogy and/or augment accessibility and equity disparities across digital and non-digital sources? How might the collaborations produced in archival research and teaching--across disciplines, libraries, educators, students, and communities--address (in)securities?

By April 1, 2023, please submit an abstract of 250-300 words, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Heather Fox, Eastern Kentucky University at [email protected] and Amanda Stuckey, Central Penn College at [email protected]

The Future of Literature Programs at Comprehensive Regional Institutions

Humanities programs across the country continue to confront declining enrollments for a number of reasons, including the emphasis on STEM disciplines; lack of adequate funding; the removal of programs and faculty; the politicization of topics surrounding gender, race, sexuality, social class, etc.; and the perceived disconnect between program objectives and transferable skills. This roundtable is open specifically to faculty who teach in comprehensive regional institutions to address challenges to and suggestions for bolstering security in the future of literature and language studies. We welcome submissions treating any aspect of the possibilities for innovation and adaptation with a view towards re-centralizing language and literature studies as an essential part of a liberal arts education. By June 30, 2023, please submit an abstract of 300 words, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Kimberly Jackson, Florida Gulf Coast University at [email protected]

Insecure Classrooms: Place-Based Pedagogy and Identity Construction

This traditional session format welcomes papers that consider practices that immerse students in experiential learning outside of the classroom. By turning to the local environment, place-based learning troubles the “secure” space of the classroom, causing students to reflect more deeply about the ways in which communities are imagined and imbued/disavowed of cultural value. Our panel considers pedagogical strategies that cause a reckoning of which stories are accepted without question. By June 5, 2023, please submit an abstract of 150-200 words, a brief bio, and any A/V scheduling requests to Lisa Van Zwoll or Jeanette Vigliotti, Flagler College, St. Augustine, Florida, at [email protected] and [email protected]

Pedagogical Practices for Networked Narratives: Incorporating Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Public Space(s) into a Student’s Publication Process

This workshop welcomes submissions on the pedagogy of disseminating and publishing narratives inside and outside of academia in the 21st century, specifically with regard to amplifying marginalized voices during a time where academic and public/social freedom(s) are threatened.

 Some major topics might include:

• Mobilities of language and narrative(s) in and outside of the classroom
• Utilizing geographic information systems (GIS) and other software to mobilize, map/counter-map, and amplify voices and personal/spatial narratives
• Public humanities projects that empower voices and narratives
• K-12 and higher education pedagogies to mobilize narratives
• Sharing student works in public space(s) as a form of publishing in a public-facing scenario

 By July 1, 2023, please submit an abstract of 300 words, a brief bio (including affiliation and contact information), and any A/V or scheduling requests to Emma Stanley (North Carolina State University) at [email protected] 

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Rhetoric & Composition

Digital Multimodal Genres in Academic Communication 

The prevalent use of digital technologies in academic contexts give birth to a wide variety of digital (and inherently multimodal) genres, which enable scholars to produce and exchange knowledge in innovative ways. This traditional session welcomes submission on any aspect of digital multimodal genres in academic communication. This session seeks to discuss how academic writers construct, promote, disseminate scholarly arguments through emerging digital genres (e.g., video essays), and how these genres, together with traditional text-based writing, form a new landscape of academic communication. Proposed presentations may include but are not limited to research that

•  analyzes the textual and multimodal features of a particular digital genre (e.g., video method)
• explore academic writers’ perspectives of and experiences with digital genres
• designs pedagogical activities based on digital multimodal genres in academic communication
• addresses the issues of linguistic and digital injustice involves in the creation of these genres

Abstracts addressing the conference theme are especially welcome. By May 31, 2023, please submit an abstract of 300 words, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Xiao Tan, Arizona State University at [email protected].

The Emergence of ChatGPT and (In)securities in the Classroom
Critical Thinking in the Rhet/Comp Classroom

Composition classrooms have traditionally been places for innovative pedagogy. The emergence of ChatGPT has generated interest and some trepidation among composition scholars and faculty. But whatever the implications and consequences may be, AI-generated texts are now a reality. This session seeks proposals that explore the challenges and opportunities of this change in our relationship with the production of texts and the implications for writing instruction in higher education. 

Proposals might address some of the following questions:  

• How does ChatGPT force us to rethink our approach to assignment prompts? 
• How might we use ChatGPT as a pedagogical tool to model rhetorical inventions, to demonstrate and compare various organizational strategies, and to address the constraints of a given assignment? 
• How might we help students understand the benefits and shortcomings of ChatGPT as an aid to textual production?  
• What are the larger implications of AI (Artificial Intelligence) textual production for pedagogy and scholarship and the future of academic writing? 
• What are the implications for composition students when innovative technology is being banned from the classroom?  

This panel encourages presentations that theorize the changing realities of the rhetoric and composition classroom while also discussing student writing. The panel aims to offer a space for open discussion among participants.  

We invite proposals of 250 words along with a brief, one-paragraph bio, any A/V or scheduling needs to the co-chairs David Brauer [email protected] and Steffen Guenzel [email protected] by June 1, 2023.  

The Future of Literature and Language Studies is Secure

English in the Two-Year College

In an article entitled “The End of the English Major” by Nathan Heller in the March 6, 2023, edition of The New Yorker, startling statistics about the decline in enrollment in the humanities are presented. Amanda Claybaugh, Harvard’s dean of undergraduate education and an English professor stated, “Young people are very, very concerned about the ethics of representation, cultural interaction--all these kinds of things that, actually, we think about a lot!” Ostensibly, the humanities teach one how to think; “the goal of such an education isn’t direct career training but cultivation of the mind.” The article goes on to state that “Humanities enrollment is down among bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral students, but it is increasing among students seeking two-year associate degrees.” This panel is open to faculty who teach in associate degree-granting institutions to address challenges to and suggestions for reinforcing the trend and bolstering security in the future of literature and language studies. Abstracts presenting innovative methods of underscoring the study of language and literature as foundational to a college education amidst the trend toward STEM studies are especially welcome. Please submit an abstract of 150-200 words by 31 May 2023, to Karen Holley, Perimeter College of Georgia State University, at [email protected].

The Language of Fear: Pathos, Insecurity, and Disinformation in the Twenty-First Century
Rhetoric and Composition

This traditional session welcomes submissions on any aspect of rhetoric, rhetorical theory, and related areas. The precarious nature of our post-COVID world coincides with a longer history of disinformation in the twenty-first century and an even longer history of anti-intellectualism in the United States. Although the 2020s might very well be called the Age of Insecurity, the insecurity of the past two decades has still not been fully appreciated. This panel seeks to draw connections among fear mongering discourse from a variety of outlets: news media, entertainment, digital media outlets, etc. From “the smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud” to “too big to fail” to “liberty over lockdowns,” US consumers of dis/information have been bombarded with messages of insecurity. Proposed presentations may include but are not limited to analyses of these messages’ attempts to move audiences. This panel is not limited to US-centric discourse but welcomes comparative rhetorical analyses of fear mongering. Additionally, this panel is not limited to non-fiction texts: many popular culture texts have dealt with precariousness in life that appears “ripped from the headlines” or foreshadows a potential dystopian future. Abstracts addressing the conference theme are especially welcome. By June 30th, 2023, please submit an abstract of 200-300 words, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Aaron A. Toscano, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, at [email protected].

Navigating the security in the future of digital writing among technological transformation
Rhetoric and Composition 

Navigating the security in the future of digital writing among technological transformation Living in this post-pandemic age, the insecurity from fear, suffering, and spacial constraint is now extended by technology to a new setting: academia, particularly the writing classroom. The latest technological transformation, like AI-powered writing assistants and tools, are challenging traditional writing pedagogy and practice, challenging us to work with such a “technological problematic” (Sundvall 5). In the past, technological transformations, such as personal computing and the advent of the internet, have established the field of digital writing. The evolving and complex nature of Web 2.0 further enables scholars and practitioners to explore the potential of digital writing with its affordance of interactivity and media coverage. Traditional digital writing is primarily characterized as using multimodality to compose and deliver on digital devices. Facing the last wave of technological advancements like Web 3.0, artificial intelligence, algorithm, Internet of Things, and Blockchain, will these technological transformations consolidate and bring more security to the digital writing field with its affordance and functionality? This panel examines “how rhetoric and writing might appropriate emergent technologies before they have already after-the-fact arrived” (Sundvall 6) and focuses on the future of digital writing amid the rapidly changing technology landscape that redefines and contextualizes writing practice. Proposals might address but are not limited to the following questions:

•  How does the technological transformation challenge the traditional digital writing class? How might digital writing pedagogy and practice adopt and strategize some of the non-traditional technological advancements besides multimodality and hypertext?
• How does the technological transformation force us to rethink the potential of human and digital machine collaboration and contentedness in the digital writing context?
• How does the shift from digital writing using technological tools to communication to collaboration between humans and machines (web, computer, robots, etc.) change the writing process, form, and agency?
• Regarding the nature of digitality and social-technical assemblages, how might we further explore the potential of digital writing research agenda?
• How might we cultivate a digitally sensitive and inclusive mindset among our students in daily writing practice?

This roundtable panel welcomes submissions on any aspect of connectedness between digital writing and technological transformation. Abstracts addressing the conference theme are especially welcome. By July 1, 2023, please submit an abstract of 250 words, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Liping Yang, Georgia State University, at [email protected] and Dr. Baotong Gu, Georgia State University, at [email protected]. References:Sundvall, S. (Ed.). (2019). Rhetorical speculations: The future of rhetoric, writing, and technology. University Press of Colorado, Utah State University Press.

#SuffrageSyllabus Project: Securing the Future of Intersectional Citizenship

This roundtable focuses on the research of emerging scholars and welcomes submissions addressing 100 years of Women’s Suffrage. Building upon the Long 19th Amendment Project (shepherded by the Schlesinger Library and Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study), presenters are invited to explore archival holdings, pedagogical approaches, historical turning points, and the present cultural moment to locate “American women’s still-unfinished struggle for full and equal citizenship in a broad intersectional context” (https://long19.radcliffe.harvard.edu/teaching/suffrage-syllabus/about-syllabus/).

Submit 250 word abstracts, a brief bio, and a CV to Lynée Lewis Gaillet, by June 1, [email protected].

Teaching Writing in College: Navigating (In)Security and Change
Rhetoric and Composition

The Teaching Writing in College section welcomes all submissions but is particularly interested in those that consider writing instruction in relation to the conference theme of “(In)Security.” The teaching of writing in college—from first-year composition to writing centers and intensive writing courses in the disciplines—provides a case study of the insecurities and sweeping structural changes impacting language and literature studies over the past two decades. Consider, for example, the demise of developmental reading and writing programs (with the rise of corequisite support courses), changes in placement metrics, precarious contracts for contingent writing faculty, increased class sizes/teaching loads, and new technologies like ChatGPT. College writing instructors have also seen growth in the number of high school, linguistically diverse, non-traditional, and neurodiverse students sitting in our classrooms. All of our students—like us—have lived the upheaval and uncertainty of Covid. In the midst of upheaval, writing instruction and support remain critical for students across disciplines and programs. Students need rich opportunities to write, receive feedback, and revise; they need encouragement to approach writing critically and build a repertoire of transferable concepts, skills, and strategies to succeed across the range of writing tasks they will encounter in their majors and careers.We seek papers that engage the issues of insecurities and/or possibilities inherent in writing instruction across contexts. Possible topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Pedagogies that cultivate and amplify student voices in the writing classroom
• Translingual pedagogies for writing development
• Explorations of reading/writing connections in composition pedagogy
• Alternative grading: labor or engagement-based grades, ungrading, portfolios, hybrid models
• Pedagogies foregrounding civic engagement, service-learning, or social justice
• Writing about writing pedagogy
• Writing across the curriculum or writing in the disciplines
• Collaborations with support structures: writing centers, writing fellows programs, supplemental instruction, or corequisite courses
• Valorizing the contributions and pedagogy of NTT and adjunct faculty in writing instruction
• Online, hybrid, and traditional classroom pedagogies for writing instruction
• Feedback practices or feedback literacy
• Incorporating multimodality in composition courses
• Successful strategies for teaching writing students in the 21st century classroom
• Conducting writing-focused research
• Strategic use of new technologies and tools in writing courses

The section encourages presentations that foreground student writing as well as interaction and collaboration with engage audience members.By June 1, please submit an abstract of 300-500 words, a brief bio, and any A/V or scheduling requests to Miriam Moore, Co-Chair, at [email protected]? Please contact one of our co-chairs:Miriam Moore, [email protected], Paige Green, [email protected]

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Slavic Studies

Slavic Studies

Papers may treat the literary works of Slavic writers in any genre and from any literary period, tradition or theoretical perspective. Comparative literary approaches are also welcome, as are papers on grammar, film, or language teaching methodology. Please send abstracts of approximately 350 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests by May 31 to Karen Rosneck, University of Wisconsin-Madison, at [email protected]

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