CFP NeMLA 2026 Panel Session: The Murder and Its Afterlife: Regenerating the Wicked Witch (9/30/2025; Pittsburgh 3/5-8/2025)

NeMLA 2026 Panel Session: The Murder and Its Afterlife: Regenerating the Wicked Witch

deadline for submissions:
September 30, 2025

full name / name of organization:
Noah Gallego, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

contact email:
noahrgallego@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/06/12/nemla-2026-panel-session-the-murder-and-its-afterlife-regenerating-the-wicked-witch

send submissions to https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21574.

Conference dates: March 5-8, 2026 in Pittsburgh, PA

Deadline for abstracts: September 30, 2025

Contact panel chair for inquiries: Noah Gallego @noahrgallego@gmail.com



Upon the release of his beloved children’s classic, The Wizard of Oz (1900), L. Frank Baum introduced the masses to one of the most enduring villains of American literature: the Wicked Witch of the West. While she played a marginal role in the original book, Victor Fleming’s 1939 movie adaptation rebranded her as the main antagonist who has become an icon in western popular culture, responsible for traumatizing generations of young children. Such was the impact and intrigue of the Wicked Witch that American novelist Gregory Maguire composed a prequel speculating her origin story as the greenified, Dorothy-hating crone. In the spirit of the Broadway musical inspired by Maguire’s novel finally being adapted to the silver screen, this panel seeks to capitalize on “Wicked-mania” and solicit papers that will explore the Witch’s legacy and regeneration throughout film and beyond. Since her debut over a century ago, there have been dozens of under-examined dramatic representations beyond The Wizard of Oz and Wicked that this panel invites scholars to investigate. While on the surface, the Wicked Witch is a horror to behold, this panel seeks to uncover the even more horrific implications of her character. Scholars have claimed her and her Winkie army to be analogs of the Wehrmacht (MacDonnell 1990), a mestiza figure (McCabe 2008), a queer woman (Wolf 2008), and even a monstrous vegan (Sebastian 2022). Interested parties are welcome to expand on these themes as well as initiate new critical discourses as they pertain to the Wicked Witch. Prospective candidates are welcome, but not required, to consider representations of the witch outside of Wicked and The Wizard of Oz and examine other portrayals as in The Wiz (1974), the recovered 1976 Sesame Street episode, season 3 of Once Upon a Time (2013-14), and the film, Oz the Great and Powerful (2013).

In the spirit of the recent cinematic adaptation of the Broadway megamusical Wicked (2024) and its forthcoming companion film Wicked: For Good (2025), this session invites scholars from across the disciplines to submit proposals critically exploring the various iterations of L. Frank Baum’s infamous Wicked Witch of the West throughout the media since the first adaptations of the Oz franchise were released in the early twentieth century. Interested parties are welcome to probe Maguire’s revisionist work on which the musical is based in addition to other under-examined productions featuring the green-skinned menace. Inquiries may consider themes such as: gender, sexuality, queerness, monstrosity, disability, race, ecocriticism, and class.



Last updated June 12, 2025

CFP NEMLA 2023 "The Classics Take Centerstage: Theatrical Adaptations of Ancient Histories and Myths" (9/30/2022)

NEMLA 2023 "The Classics Take Centerstage: Theatrical Adaptations of Ancient Histories and Myths"

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/06/15/nemla-2023-the-classics-take-centerstage-theatrical-adaptations-of-ancient-histories

deadline for submissions:
September 30, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Charles Firestone East, Columbia University

contact email:
cfe2107@columbia.edu



In celebration of the off-Broadway début of The Tyrannicides, the first ever full theatrical adaptation of the story as told in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, this roundtable calls for a discussion of theatrical and cinematic (re)tellings of classical histories and myths. As The Tyrannicides makes its audience confront the tragic events that eventually led to the foundation of democracy in the West, a larger history set against a more personal story of romance that dissects homoeroticism and pederasty in ancient Greece, the works in discussion at this roundtable will highlight the enduring relevance of these classical stories to the contemporary circumstances of our present — be it for their social, historical, cultural, or other significance. With a very open definition of what counts as “classical” and “modern,” this roundtable welcomes proposals from scholars who come from a variety of backgrounds and who work with various canons (i.e. both classicists who work primarily with the original tellings of these stories and modernists whose expertise lies more in their (re)tellings). Preference will be given to proposals that highlight specifically some aspect of enduring relevance that make their proposed history’s retelling and commentaries pertinent in debates ongoing in contemporary society. Nonetheless, proposals might also treat the very act of adaption, focusing on the shift in cultural norms from antiquity to the present and the particular challenges of reframing those stories for a contemporary audience.


Last updated June 16, 2022

CFP Vampires, Zombies, Bodices, and Perps: Genre in Creative Writing (9/30/19; NeMLA 2020)

Vampires, Zombies, Bodices, and Perps: Genre in Creative Writing
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/06/04/vampires-zombies-bodices-and-perps-genre-in-creative-writing

deadline for submissions: September 30, 2019
full name / name of organization: Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
contact email: abbybardi@gmail.com

Genre fiction (such as fantasy, sci-fi, suspense and mystery, thrillers, historical romance) has often been discouraged in creative-writing courses, even outlawed. However, in recent years, the popularity of genre fiction in the marketplace has challenged the boundaries of literary writing. This panel will consider some of the following questions: How do challenges to the traditional boundaries of genre impact the teaching of creative writing? How might fiction, drama, and even poetry address these challenges? How can the conventions and tropes of genre fiction be used fruitfully in literary writing? Both writers who work in or with particular genres and writers who have resisted the lure of genre are encouraged to share their work and ideas.


Last updated June 5, 2019

CFP Brutal Themes in Brutal Times: Teaching Edgar Allan Poe in a Culture of Violence (9/30/2018; NeMLA 2019)

CFP: Brutal Themes in Brutal Times: Teaching Edgar Allan Poe in a Culture of Violence, Northeast Modern Language Association
https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2018/cfp-brutal-themes-in-brutal-times-teaching-edgar-allan-poe-in-a-culture-of-violence-northeast-modern-language-association/
July 24, 2018

Brutal Themes in Brutal Times: Teaching Edgar Allan Poe in a Culture of Violence

deadline for submissions:
September 30, 2018

full name / name of organization:
Northeast Modern Language Association

contact email:
chendricks@goodwin.edu

This panel seeks papers that explore pedagogical strategies for teaching the horror stories of Edgar Allan Poe and his contemporaries. With the looming, true-to-life violence bombarding us every day in the news and in other media outlets, the macabre tales of our favorite authors resonate too well. Teaching the violent and psychologically disturbing short stories of Poe, and others writing in this genre, can be challenging in the current climate of violence in America. Exploring the depths and darkness of humanity through literature can be traumatic for contemporary students who are bombarded with violent words and images every day through social media and news outlets. This panel seeks papers that explore pedagogical strategies devoted to travelling through dark literary themes while maintaining a safe atmosphere in the classroom. How can instructors align class discussions, specifically the ones that take a sociopolitical turn, to heal the contemporary student in an America riddled with nihilism, senseless violence, and psychological desperation? The significance of this panel is to uncover innovative teaching strategies when bringing students classic horror tales for discussion in the milieu of a terrorizing era in American history.

CFP Greco-Roman Myth in Literature and/or the Arts (9/30/2018; NeMLA 2019)

Greco-Roman Myth in Literature and/or the Arts
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/07/03/greco-roman-myth-in-literature-andor-the-arts

deadline for submissions: September 30, 2018

full name / name of organization: Ronnie Ancona

contact email: rancona@hunter.cuny.edu


The Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) has recently added Classics as a secondary area of inquiry under Comparative Literature. Please consider submitting an abstract for a panel on Greco-Roman Myth in Literature and/or the Arts, which I will be chairing, for the 50th anniversary convention to be held in Washington DC March 21-24, 2019.


Since Classics is a new secondary area of inquiry for NeMLA, this session attempts to cast its net quite broadly. The intention is to appeal to classicists or others dealing with Greco-Roman literature, history, archaeology, and culture and its later reception for abstracts that will have wide appeal to the NeMLA audience.

Myth is a central feature of Greco-Roman studies as well as its legacy. We look for papers addressing any aspect of Greco-Roman myth in its original contexts or in its later reworkings. Papers may be theoretical in nature, addressing various ways of defining and interpreting myth, or may focus on one or more specific instantiations of Greco-Roman myth. Papers addressing the permutations of a single myth over time are welcome, as are discussions of pedagogical issues involving the teaching of Greco-Roman myth, in general, or of a specific myth or type of myth.

All abstracts (and eventual papers) should have in mind the general NeMLA audience and should not be aimed solely at classicists. All papers should be presented in English.

The topic of Greco-Roman myth will allow for a panel that deals with Greco-Roman literature and culture as well as its reception. The aim of the panel will be to demonstrate the contribution of Classics to a living tradition.



For further general information, go to the following links:

https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla.html

https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/17374


For submissions (due September 30th), go to the first link above and click on “Submit Your Abstracts.” Then in the search box at the upper right corner, search by “Ancona” or the panel title.



NeMLA membership is not required to submit abstracts but it is required to present at the convention.

CFP Neo-Dickens for a New Audience: Reading, Watching, and Teaching Dickens in the 21st Century (9/30/208; NeMLA 2019)

"Neo-Dickens for a New Audience: Reading, Watching, and Teaching Dickens in the 21st Century" (Dickens Society Sponsored Panel)
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/06/15/neo-dickens-for-a-new-audience-reading-watching-and-teaching-dickens-in-the-21st

deadline for submissions: September 30, 2018

full name / name of organization: Northeast Modern Language Association

contact email: matobin@psu.edu



"Neo-Dickens for a New Audience: Reading, Watching, and Teaching Dickens in the 21st Century" (Dickens Society Sponsored Panel)

Deadline for submissions: September 30, 2018
Name of organization: Northeast Modern Language Association
Contact email: matobin@psu.edu

Call for proposals for the Dickens Society sponsored panel at the Northeast Modern Language Society convention to be held in Washington, DC March 21-24, 2019


"Neo-Dickens for a New Audience: Reading, Watching, and Teaching Dickens in the 21st Century" (Dickens Society Sponsored Panel)

Chair: Mary Ann Tobin, PhD, The Pennsylvania State University

As Jessica Cox defines it, Neo-Victorianism involves "creative works that in some way engage with Victorian literature and culture, and scholarly works that seek to explore the shifting relationship with the Victorian period . . . often through a critical investigation of Neo-Victorian creative works." Charles Dickens's characters, settings, and Boz himself have been re-imagined, appearing in Neo-Vic novels, television shows, films, and videogames, like Lynn Shepherd's "The Solitary House," BBC One's "Dickensian," Ridley Scott's "The Man Who Invented Christmas," and Ubisoft's "Assassin's Creed: Syndicate." This panel will consider what Neo-Dickensian works like these tell us about our current "relationship with the Victorian period" and suggest ways to make productive use of them in the classroom.

The submission deadline is September 30, 2018. All abstracts must be submitted through the NeMLA CFP web site at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/. Search for panel #17234, "Neo-Dickens for a New Audience: Reading, Watching, and Teaching Dickens in the 21st Century." General guidelines for abstracts can be found at https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/callforpapers/submit.html. View the conference web site at https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention.html. Send questions regarding the panel to matobin@psu.edu.

Panelists will be notified of acceptance or rejection by October 15, 2018. NeMLA membership is not required to submit abstracts. However, if your abstract is accepted to a session and you agree to present at the convention, you will be required to pay for membership and convention registration.

CFP Celebrating H.G. Wells: Teaching His Literature in the 21st Century (9/29/2017; NeMLA 4/12-15/2018)

Sorry to have missed this:

Celebrating H.G. Wells: Teaching His Literature in the 21st Century
https://www.navsa.org/2017/09/17/cfp-celebrating-h-g-wells-teaching-his-literature-in-the-21st-century-9292017-412-152018/

Roundtable at the 2018 Annual Northeast Modern Language Association Convention

Pittsburgh, PA
April 12-15, 2018

For 152 years, H.G. Wells has been part of our literary cannon in science fiction, criticism and utopian projections. Fiction writers have the latitude to focus on current issues of their time, often in the guise of fictional places and/or unusual characters. H.G. Wells did exactly that in his science fiction as well as his fiction stories. Wells’ vision of an “open conspiracy of intellectuals and willful people” to build Cosmopolis occurs regularly in most of his fiction, and appears prominently in his major prophetic writings before 1914: in Anticipations, in A Modern Utopia, and elsewhere (W. Warren Wagar 40-42). The focus of this roundtable is to discuss the techniques H.G. Wells utilized, to discuss the interface between Wells’ literature and film adaptations, to assess the possible implications as seen in his literature as well as in the film adaptations, and to share pedagogical skills employed to reveal the genius of Wells.

The NeMLA site to submit your proposal is: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/16658.

Please include your name, position, e-mail address and the title of your proposed submission. If you are an independent scholar, please indicate that information. The deadline to submit an abstract is September 29, 2017.

CFP Session on Portal Fantasy (9/30/17; NeMLA 2018)

Portal Fantasy at NeMLA 2018
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2017/06/05/portal-fantasy-at-nemla-2018

deadline for submissions: September 30, 2017
full name / name of organization: Political Implications of Portal Fantasy at NeMLA 2018
contact email: lauere@sunysuffolk.edu

Portal Fantasies offer a unique way to comment on the current political situation, in their capacity as invented worlds with a permeable link to our own. The portal can act as a funhouse mirror, reflecting our own world back to us in grotesque and illuminating ways, or it can offer stark contrasts to our own world which often take the form of escapist, superior alternatives. This session, a direct thematic response to the NeMLA 2018 conference theme of "Global Spaces, Local Landscapes and Imagined Worlds," invites papers that explore how authors have used the portal fantasy to comment on the politics of our world in various ways. Examinations of portal fantasies in novels, graphic works and on screens are all welcome. NeMLA 2018 will be in Pittsburgh, April 12-15. Learn more about NeMLA here: http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention.html

Submit abstract of 300 words by September 30 here: http://www.cfplist.com//nemla/Home/S/16664

--
Emily Lauer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English
Suffolk County Community College
Islip Arts 2K, Ammerman Campus
533 College Road
Selden, NY 11784

lauere@sunysuffolk.edu

Last updated June 6, 2017

CFP Spaces of Hope and Desperation in Science Fiction (9/30/17; NeMLA 2018)

From H-Film:

Spaces of Hope and Desperation in Science Fiction- NEMLA 2018

April 12-15, 2018 Pittsburgh, PA

If we reflect on Vivian Sobchak’s premise of science fiction’s role of reconciling humans with the unknown along with cyborg spaces of Haraway, we can easily perceive that today one of speculative/science fiction’s roles is imagining what is happening and what may happen to help us come to terms with a dreaded present and unstable future. Amidst the very real and imminent threats of environmental disasters, rise of nationalism and racism and an expanding precarity, it should not be a surprise to see the fast increase in the sales of Orwell’s 1984, re-makes of Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell or appearance of SF works where strangers, aliens, and others are rethought and replaced in our topological frameworks.

Amidst all the wars, deaths, fears, and tremblings, it may be useful to remember Susan Sontag’s now classic essay “Imagination of the Disaster” where speculative or science fiction and especially dystopian fiction operates in a space between “unremitting banality and inconceivable terror." In this liminal space, SF intervenes in two ways: By giving us a language, a discourse, a perspective to think the unthinkable including our own end and our possible resistance. With the same gesture, it also provides us with the means of expressing some of the effects of such terror and precarity to those who may not be open to the same affects, creating a space of communication.

In short, science fiction both imagines a dystopian, lost, dark space signaling what may happen while, with the very same gesture, pinpointing ways to create possibility of other perceptions, other spaces of hope. This double imagination is exactly what Octavia Butler does when she thinks of a merge with Oankali and rebuilding of Earth, Jeff VanderMeer imagines with Area X trilogy and other ways to relate to the nature or what Kabaneri of Iron Fortress presents with a terrain filled with viral humans.

This panel aims to consider speculative/science fiction’s spatial imagination vis-à-vis hope and despair. Topics may include the kinds of dystopian spaces SF proposes, space and its spatial representation, gendered spaces within the SF genre, environment and its future imagined by SF, and the representation of the instability or hope. All forms of SF literature, including short stories, novels, films, anime, manga, and TV shows are welcome.

Please submit an abstract of 300- 500 words along with your brief bio to NEMLA submission website  by September 30, 2017  : https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/16944

CFP Still Laughing: Ancient Comedy and Its Descendants (9/30/2015; NeMLA Hartford 3/17-20/2016)

NeMLA 2016 Panel "Still Laughing: Ancient Comedy and Its Descendants"
full name / name of organization: Claire Sommers (the Graduate Center, CUNY) and Barry Spence (University of Massachusetts)
contact email: csommers@gc.cuny.edu
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63189

Please submit a 300 word abstract to https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15714 by September 30, 2015

Aristotle in his Poetics outlines his theory of tragedy and gives readers a framework for assessing and understanding the genre; his treatise providing the equivalent analysis of comedy has sadly been lost, and as a result, it is difficult to find a unified theory of ancient comedy. Perhaps the closest we have is Democritus’ statement that “Laughter is a complete conception of the world.” Centuries later, Bakhtin would elaborate upon this sentiment by claiming that the carnivalesque comedy allows for dialogue between multiple genres and voices in order to create a world in which societal structures are upended. Though ancient comedy evolved from Aristophanes’ examples to Menander’s New Comedy and finally to the Roman comedies of Plautus and Terence, all of them borrow stylistically from contemporaneous works in order to create a world where traditional hierarchies are suspended and inverted.

This panel will explore the tropes of ancient comedy and their influence on more modern literature, drama, satire, film, and theory. Possible approaches include:

• analyzing comedy’s relationship with other ancient genres
• examining ancient comedy’s influence on post-Classical works
• using modern critical and humor theory to analyze classical comedy
• exploring the comic and satirical treatment of Greco-Roman subject matter in post-Classical literature

The goal of this session will be to understand humor through its Classical antecedents, tracing the evolution of comedy from its ancient origins to the present day. By contemplating the emergence of ancient comedy and its enduring effect on subsequent literature, drama, film, and theory, this panel will synthesize its own theory of ancient comedy and determine why we are still laughing so many centuries later.


By web submission at 07/29/2015 - 01:12

CFP Function and/or Role of the Past in Detective Fiction (9/30/2015; NeMLA Hartford 3/17-20/2016)

Conference Session on Detective Fiction
full name / name of organization: NorthEastern Modern Language Association
contact email: bastet801@att.net
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63212

Recent examinations of the functioning of the past within detective fiction – whether going back in time to reconstruct a crime or examine a larger criminal pattern/ trend in a past period – raise the question of how “dead,” to borrow Faulkner’s famous line, the past is. Whether considered from the standpoint of physics (time as a function of space and the expansion of the universe) or, as may seem more obvious, history, time is clearly neither dead/ finished nor objective, even indifferent, or perceived as such.

Papers are sought which examine the functioning and role of the past/ time perception in works of detective fiction, exploring the perspectives of individuals or whole groups (everyone involved in detection and pertaining to historical events/ memory) as well as more basic reconstruction of crimes. In particular, papers applying various disciplines, such as the sciences, psychology or history, to this question are welcome. For example, to what extent does past trauma, such as of a victim of murder or another crime, persist into the present and motivate the action of detective fiction, as has often been considered the case with fictional detectives? How does the victimization of a larger group, such as through genocide, serve to rationalize future crimes, such as those driven by vengeance? How authentic, and helpful, is going back in time to reconstruct not only criminal acts, but even motives and memories? To what extent do changes, whether in police practices, even entire regimes, serve to bury or even undo or compensate for the past?

Contact me with any questions. as well as passing on this CFP to anyone else who may be interested.

However, abstracts must be submitted here: http://www.cfplist.com//nemla/Home/S/15916 (deadline 30 Sept.)


By web submission at 07/31/2015 - 04:59

CFP Fairy Tales in Society and Culture (9/30/2015; NeMLA Hartford 3/17-20/2016)

Fairy Tales in Society and Culture
full name / name of organization: NEMLA
contact email: padmini.sukumaran@gmail.com
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63276

This panel session will feature the manner in which fairy tales reflect and influence values and ideals of their respective society and culture. In The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, Bruno Bettelheim emphasizes on how the fairy tale that an individual has read or listened to during childhood impacts him/her both consciously and subconsciously throughout life.

In the fairy tale, the reader always encounters an ideal world where all dreams come true and the hero and heroine live happily ever after. This “happily ever after” ending often entails the fulfillment of ideals and falls in line with the values that contemporary society and culture hold dear. For example, in the fairy tale, good and evil is outlined concretely, and physical beauty is given much importance. The “happily ever after” ending most often includes resolutions such as marriage and wealth. The fairy tale, in turn, tends to have the impact of reinforcing those ideals and values in society by spelling out those values and influencing the reader to put in the effort to attaining those ideals. This panel session welcomes papers on fairy tales as well as literature that involves the fairy figure and Fairy Land.

Please submit abstracts by September 30, 2015 through the following link: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp


By web submission at 08/04/2015 - 17:56

CFP Word and Image on Page, Stage, and Screen in the Long Nineteenth Century (9/30/2015; NeMLA Hartford 3/17-20/2016)

Word and Image on Page, Stage, and Screen in the Long Nineteenth Century, NeMLA 2016
full name / name of organization: NeMLA
contact email: kate.holterhoff@gmail.com
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63379

The organizers of this panel session welcome papers that engage with any aspect of the word-image nexus in illustrated novels, stage productions, or film in Anglo-European or North American culture during the long nineteenth century.

The relationship between text and image has an important and suggestive place in the humanities. While in decades past literary scholars have been apt to treat any visual elements accompanying literary texts as supplemental to texts, a growing number of visual and media studies theorists have expressed interest in the important and under-theorized role of paratexts in the form of advertisements, book illustrations, and film and stage adaptations. We have a particular interest in the visual culture of the long nineteenth century. For example, the craze for tableaux vivants, recreations of famous paintings on stage with living actors, infected both the popular stage, early film, and book illustration in the mid-1890s. The visual culture leading to this moment had itself been conditioned by pre-cinematic arts like magic lantern shows and stereoscopic viewers. We are interested in the complex ways that this visual culture not only supplemented but determined the representational conditions of literary texts, films, and stage productions.

Please submit abstracts by September 30, 2015 through the following link: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15947


By web submission at 08/10/2015 - 20:48

CFP Cities of the Future (9/30/2015; NeMLA Hartford, CT 3/17-20/2016)

Cities of the Future - NeMLA Conference 2016 - Hartford, CT
full name / name of organization: Matthew Lambert / Carnegie Mellon University
contact email: mmlamber@andrew.cmu.edu
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63361

This panel seeks to explore representations of futuristic cities from all periods in American literature, film, and other cultural mediums. In particular, it seeks papers responding to one or more of the following questions: In what ways have American writers and filmmakers envisioned future urban landscapes? In what ways have these visions changed over the course of American history and why? How have urban theorists, critics, and reformers as well as particular ideologies (Christian, technocratic, socialist, libertarian, environmentalist, etc.) shaped them? In what ways do the past and present (or the erasure of the past and/or present) affect their depictions? What different cultural modes (the utopian, dystopian, pastoral, etc.) do writers, filmmakers, painters, etc. use to depict future cities and how do they combine these modes to explore social tensions and/or tensions within the cultural modes themselves? How do American writers depict future cities in ways that are different from other cultures? And how does using different cultural mediums change the way artists depict future cities?

Ultimately, I hope papers in this panel will help trace the function and development of futuristic cities in American culture, drawing and building upon work on urban spaces by figures like Mike Davis, David Harvey, and Fredric others. I hope to receive papers from different potentially representative time periods, including our own, that might allow us to create a trajectory from the earliest renditions of future cities to more contemporary ones. Doing so, I think, will help us better understand the general need in American culture to imagine and depict future cities as well as the various intents behind their designs and functions. It will also help us critique the problems and omissions in past and present depictions, perhaps pointing the way towards envisioning (and creating) more inclusive, just, and environmentally safe cities.

NeMLA's 2016 Conference is in Hartford, CT. and runs from March 17th to March 20th. All proposals should be submitted through the NeMLA's online submission page (https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/submit.html) by September 30th, 2015. Notification for acceptance will be made by October 15th. Please contact me by email (mmlamber@andrew.cmu.edu) if you have any questions.


By web submission at 08/09/2015 - 17:54

CFP Philip K. Dick's Short Fiction (9/30/2015; NeMLA 3/17-20/2016)

Philip K. Dick's Short Fiction (Panel) - Hartford, Connecticut, March 17-20, 2016

full name / name of organization:
Brad Congdon / NeMLA 2016
contact email:
brad.congdon@dal.ca

In an unpublished forward to The Preserving Machine, Philip K. Dick lamented that “As a writer builds up a novel-length piece it slowly begins to imprison him, to take away his freedom.” Dick, who has published five volumes of short fiction, argued that short-story writing allows for freedom, crisis, and action, in contrast to the stultifying process of novel writing. “It is in SF stories,” he claimed, “that SF action occurs.”


Dick occupies a unique position in culture: films based on his works (e.g. Bladerunner, Total Recall) have grossed over a billion dollars worldwide, while scholars have made him one of the most widely analyzed writers of the 20th century. Dick criticism is itself something of a cottage industry, with many of the most influential critics of postmodernism (e.g. Baudrillard, Jameson, McHale) focusing on his work. Taken together, there are hundreds of monographs, articles, book chapters, and dissertations dedicated to Dick. However, despite this surfeit of scholarship, Dick’s short stories have been largely overlooked. This oversight is all the more significant, given that many of the ideas of his novels are first tested in his stories (e.g. “Shell Game,” “The Defenders,” “Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday”) and many have been adapted into films (e.g. “The Minority Report,” “Adjustment Team,” “The Golden Man”).


This session aims to bring new critical perspectives to a neglected facet of Dick’s work. Of particular interest are papers that avoid or challenge the standard lines of Dick criticism (e.g. Marxist, Postmodernist) and instead take novel approaches to the author’s short stories, for example: periodical studies, material culture, history of the book; feminist, queer, and masculinity studies; ecocriticism; psychoanalysis; short story theory; etc. We welcome abstracts for papers of between 15 and 20 minutes’ length on any topic related to Dick’s short fiction.


Paper abstracts of 300 words are to be uploaded only at the following web address:
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp


Link to panel:
http://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15820


Deadline: September 30, 2015


cfp categories:
american
popular_culture
twentieth_century_and_beyond

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CFP Impact of War on Science Fiction or Fantasy Literature (9/25/2015; NeMLA 3/17-20/2016)

Also posted initially on SFRA-L:

CFP

Panel: The Impact of War on Science Fiction or Fantasy Literature

Northeast Modern Language Association

March 17-20, 2016

Hartford, CT

Paper Proposal/ Abstract deadline: September 25, 2015

Various wars have had a profound impact on many utopian, dystopian and apocalyptic science fiction and fantasy writers. For example, the repercussions of the Civil War were one of the factors of late nineteenth century society in America reflected in the "non-combative" revolution of Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward: 2000-1887.  In addition, war or the aftermath of war figures strongly in various novels and stories of Philip Dick, Marge Piercy, and Ursula Le Guin, among others. It seems that world events, many tumultuous, are reflected in some of their dystopian tales. Discussing the effect of war and the possibility of annihilation on literature, including early writers such as Lord [George Gordon] Byron who wrote the poem "Darkness" reflecting the end of the world after total annihilating warfare implies the need to perhaps use writing as a catharsis. The focus of this panel is to indicate the effect of war on literature at various periods in history.

Please e-mail your 200-250 word paper proposal/ abstract, subject line: War-SciFi Panel before 9/25/15.  Please send your proposal as an attached MS Word, doc or docx. In the body of your message, please include your proposal title, your name, affiliation, address, phone number and e-mail address and send to: Annette Magid <a_magid@yahoo.com>.

Proposers need not be members of NeMLA to submit, but panelists must be members in order to present.

CFP Roundtable on Metaphors of Detection (9/30/15; NeMLA 2016)

“Metaphors of Detection” (Roundtable)
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74127/%E2%80%9Cmetaphors-detection%E2%80%9D-roundtable
Announcement published by Cecilia Feilla on Sunday, July 5, 2015

Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
September 30, 2015
Location:
Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields:
Literature
CALL FOR PAPERS

Roundtable on “Metaphors of Detection”

Northeast Modern Language Association 47th Annual Convention

Hartford, Connecticut

March 17-20, 2016

Metaphors make the detective. Whether Dupin's "clew," Holmes's game metaphor ("the game's afoot"), Poirot's puzzles and gestalt, or the labyrinths of film noir, the governing metaphors of the great fictional detectives encapsulate the underlying social, hermeneutic, and cultural assumptions that govern their methods. This roundtable aims to bring together a variety of approaches, examples, and interpretations of the guiding metaphors of detective fiction from the genre's origins to the present day. Short presentations on detective narratives in any genre, language, or medium are welcome; talks on a single metaphor, author, or nexus of metaphors and authors are of particular interest.

Deadline for abstracts: Sept. 30, 2015

Please submit an abstract of 250-500 words directly to the specified NeMLA link for the roundtable at

http://www.cfplist.com//nemla/Home/S/15900

Follow the instruction to create a user account. Session ID 15900.

Session organizer: Cecilia Feilla, Department of English and World Literatures, Marymount Manhattan College

Session Format: Roundtable

Area: Anglophone/Comparative Literature

Contact Info:
Cecilia Feilla (Marymount Manhattan College)

Contact Email:
cfeilla@gmail.com
URL:
http://www.cfplist.com//nemla/Home/S/15900

CFP Identity and the Fragmented Self in the Age of Social Media (9/30/15; NeMLA 2016)

Note mention of cyborgs below:

CFP: Body, Voice, and Being: Identity and the Fragmented Self in the Age of Social Media (47th Annual NeMLA)

https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74234/cfp-body-voice-and-being-identity-and-fragmented-self-age-social

Announcement published by Bofang Li on Sunday, July 5, 2015

Type: 

Call for Papers

Date: 

March 17, 2016 to March 20, 2016

Location: 

Connecticut, United States

Subject Fields: 

Digital Humanities, Humanities, Sociology

CALL FOR PAPERS, Northeast MLA Convention, Hartford CT, March 17-20th 2016.

In June 2015, the former Olympic decathlete formerly known as Bruce Jenner unveiled his new trans-identity. Caitlyn Jenner’s first public act was to tweet her Vanity Fair cover, with its headline "Call me Caitlyn," from her new Twitter account. This declarative move allowed her supporters to tweet messages that, in their address to her new username, @Caitlyn_Jenner, at once fulfilled her headline request while reinforcing her new identity. The tweet marks Jenner’s rebirth on social media, signalling her (re)entrance into a mode of identity formation/presentation in which the majority of adult Americans now engage. What renders Jenner’s situation remarkable is the way in which her new identity positions her as an adult digital native, without a digital media history. Where social media accounts are often also repositories of past lives, hosting evidence of a contiguous identity at times in conflict with self-presentation, Jenner’s (so far) lack this archontic function. Caitlyn Jenner is, in many ways, born digital, and her acts of self-definition on social media mark the genesis of a media-inflected existence while highlighting the interplay between lived, performative, and representational identities online and in "real life."

    In our increasingly digitized world, social media is understood as a tool of communication and community as well as a way for users to revel in the potential of self-definition. As the choice of social networking sites proliferates, so too does the possibility of multiple identities, with 75% of online adults managing multiple social networking profiles. This panel calls for papers to explore the implications of multiple identity creation. Potential topics include: the cyborg in the digital age; identity and platform; the unified/diffuse self; identity as performance; the self and the digital other; following, friending, trolling; internality/externality and digital identity. Abstracts of 350 words welcome at the submission URL (http://www.cfplist.com//nemla/Home/S/15944) by 30th September deadline.

Contact Info: 

Bofang Li, Yale University

Contact Email: 

bofang.li@yale.edu

URL: 

http://www.cfplist.com//nemla/Home/S/15944

CFP Representation of Ethnic and Racial Minorities in the 21st-century American Media (9/30/15; NeMLA 2016)

Representation of Ethnic and Racial Minorities in the 21st-century American Media - NeMLA 2016, Hartford (CT) March 17-20
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/74542/representation-ethnic-and-racial-minorities-21st-century-american
Announcement published by Javier Venturi on Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Type:
Call for Papers
Date:
September 30, 2015
Location:
Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields:
Ethnic History / Studies, American History / Studies

One of the problems with representations of racial and ethnic minorities in the 21st-century American media is that there aren't enough main characters, male and female role models, that will fairly represent their social advancement and academic achievements through sitcoms, movies, and mainstream media. Minorities (African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, Pacific Islander, Eskimo, Native Americans, etc.) are, on the whole, proportionately underrepresented in the media relative to their population. For example, in the popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory and recent Divergent film series, the roles of minority characters tend and continue to be secondary to male and female white protagonists. Minority characters are portrayed as sidekicks, best friends, hero’s nemeses, terrorists, funny male/female foreign characters, or represent the “other” who struggles to understand and accept the American way of life. This panel will analyze and discuss the misrepresentation and cultural marginalization of ethnic and racial minorities in the 21st-century American media, asking questions such as why are racial minorities portrayed more often as lower class individuals and what are the latest developments in the representation and reception of media output produced by, for or about ethnic minorities? Please submit 250-word abstracts in English to Javier Venturi.

Contact Info:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

This year, NeMLA (Northeast Modern Language Association) has implemented a user-based system to accept and track abstract submissions. In order to submit an abstract using the button for a CFP entry, you must sign up with NeMLA and log in. Using this new system, you can manage your personal information and review and update your abstract following submission. Signing up is free, and you only have to do it once:

https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15955

Chair: Javier Venturi

URL:
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15955

CFP Footprints of Orpheus: Cult, Topoi, and Character in Medieval and Early Modern Britain (9/30/15; NeMLA 2016)

Footprints of Orpheus: Cult, Topoi, and Character in Medieval and Early Modern Britain--A NeMLA 2016 Panel
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/75274/footprints-orpheus-cult-topoi-and-character-medieval-and-early

Announcement published by David Pecan on Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Type:
Conference
Date:
March 17, 2016 to March 20, 2016
Location:
Connecticut, United States
Subject Fields:
Medieval and Byzantine History / Studies, Modern European History / Studies, Literature


Footprints of Orpheus: Cult, Topoi, and Character in Medieval and Early Modern Britain

As scholars of Medieval and Early Modern culture, what can we learn from considerations of the Orphic presence in the literature of Britain? The idea and image of Orpheus, in folk narrative, cultural analogue, literary motif, emblem, symbol, and foundational myth, has influenced and inspired the British literary tradition since its very beginning, and as such offers opportunities for close readings of influence and innovation of the prototype.  Drawn from Celtic, Classical, Scandinavian, and Continental source material, Orpheus and Orphic analogues have enabled the development and characterization of poetic progenitors, bardic personae, narrative performativity, and tales of the poet as hero, within and without patterns of social cohesion and divergence.  Additionally, manifestations of Orpheus have informed notions of the authoritative “voice” of poetic text, links between creation and ownership of literary artifacts, the idea of the “author” as “tradition,” and the interface of performativity and the literary marketplace.  Hosted by Professor David Pecan of SUNY Nassau, this NeMLA 2016 panel invites papers from interested faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars.

Please submit proposals via the NeMLA website: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp and access Session # 15726 or search term Orpheus.  The deadline for abstract submission is September 30th, 2016.

Northeast Modern Language Association

47th Annual Convention

Hartford, Connecticut

March 17-20, 2016

Hosted by the University of Connecticut

Contact Email:
david.pecan@ncc.edu
URL:
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp