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Aktuelles Call for Papers

CFP Crises and Turns: Continuities and Discontinuities in American Culture

The 27th Biennial NAAS Conference in Uppsala May 25-27, 2023

Deadline: September 1, 2022

While it appears to be perennially tempting to see one’s own time as exceptional and unprecedented, it is nevertheless safe to say that our present time is perceived by many as characterized by crises of different kinds (democratic, humanitarian, environmental) to an unusuallyhigh degree. As a result, the stakes are high when it comes to identifying causes and cures and the political, media and academic communities are all concerned in their different ways with constructing narratives that make sense of what is happening: Backlash, renewal, apocalypse? Whatever their political, ideological, or theoretical underpinnings or agendas, all mobilize tropes of either continuity –understood for instance as progress, degeneration, or intensification– or discontinuity– understood for instance as a break with previous values, a dramatic shifting, or an unprecedented development– or of both at the same time.

In a specifically North American context these narratives draw on a long tradition of speaking of the nation as renewing itself, as becoming again what it was (meant to be). In our academic contexts, a number of “turns,”often framed as oriented away from traditional human-centered or rationalist concerns, can be understood as a response to a sense of crisis and raise new questions for the field of American studies. A focus on continuities and/or discontinuities provide opportunities for discussing both the specificities of American developments and their place in larger cultural, historical, and political contexts. The 27th biennial NAAS conference welcomes panel and paper proposals that engage with continuities or discontinuities in American social, political, historical, or cultural life or within the field of American studies. We seek contributions in a wide array of disciplines, including, but not limited to history, politics, literature, film and media studies, sociology, art history, visual studies, gender studies, critical race and ethnicity studies, the environmental humanities etc. We also welcome papers on any topic related to American studies. The conference will take place at Uppsala University, Sweden’s first university, located some 70 kms north of Stockholm, easily accessible by train or by flight to Stockholm -Arlanda airport. The conference is open to scholars and students from all countries, but we offer lower registration fees to members of NAAS (Nordic Association for American Studies), EAAS (European Association for American Studies), and ASA (American Studies Association in the U.S.)

In order to submit a paper proposal, please provide us with a title, abstract (200-300 words) , a brief bio , and contact information. In order to submit a panel proposal, in addition to the information listed above for each individual presentation, please provide us with a title for the panel, the name, email address and brief bio of the panel convener, and a description of the topic (200 -500 words).

Submissions should be sent to naasinfo2023@gmail.com.

Deadline for proposals: September 1, 202 2. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by the end of November 2022.

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Aktuelles Call for Papers

CFP: NeMLA panel on Contemporary Queer and Feminist Writing in Canada

deadline for submissions:  September 1, 2022

contact email: william.brubacher[at]umontreal.ca

Considering recent literary and critical trends in Canada, this panel aims to provide a space for scholarship on the evolving role of feminist and queer writing in relation to contemporary political and social issues. In a Canadian context where decades of political gains by queer and feminist activists have been accompanied by constant backlash from various conservative political groups, it seems increasingly pressing to emphasize intersections between queer and feminist modes of thinking about identity, sex, sexuality, and binary understandings of gender. From the formative intersectional work of the periodical Tesseraand Sto:lo writer Lee Maracle’s ground-breaking I am Woman, to the contemporary Nishnaabeg perspectives on Indigenous queerness of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Cree writer Billy Ray Belcourt’s poetic work on queer and Indigenous bodies, questions of futurity, agency, aesthetics, and solidarity have animated a wide range of queer and feminist writing within and across cultural and national borders in North America. This panel encourages reflections on how queer thinking informs the work of feminist writers, and, conversely, how feminism informs queer epistemologies. We are especially interested in examining how feminist and queer writers position themselves in relation to their predecessors and contemporaries through interdisciplinary, intersectional, and intertextual approaches. For instance, we aim to trace how previously silenced writers exert resilience through their resistance to erasure despite ongoing and persistent threats to their sexual and political agency.

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Dr Melissa Kelly: International Migration to Small and Mid-Sized Cities: Opportunities, Challenges and a New Agenda for Research (Zoom seminar)

https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/globalmigration/online-seminar-international-migration-to-small-and-mid-sized-cities/

Tuesday 23 August 2022, 12.30-1.30pm (NZST)

Email global.migrations[at]otago.ac.nz for link and info

Dr Melissa Kelly is  Senior Researcher, Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Migration and Integration at Ryerson University, Canada

International migration to Canada is largely an urban phenomenon, with most migrants settling in Canada’s largest centres such as Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. Many smaller communities struggle to attract and even more so retain international migrants. This has caused policy makers, community stakeholders and researchers to consider what more can be done to improve immigration and integration outcomes in smaller centres.

This talk argues for the importance of a comparative place-based approach to further understanding of international migration to small and mid- sized centres. It outlines a new agenda for research being jointly developed by scholars at Ryerson University, the University of Otago, Monash University, and the University of Calgary.

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Aktuelles Call for Papers

CFP The Artist’s studio experience in Canada / L’expérience de l’atelier d’artiste au Québec et au Canada

Onsite and virtual symposium (Montreal, Université du Québec à Montréal – UQAM)
May 3-5, 2023

Deadline: September 15, 2022 October 15, 2022! (New!)

Organizing Committee
Sandra Fraser, Remai Modern; Dominic Hardy, UQAM; Laurier Lacroix, UQAM
Scientific Committee
Sherry Farrell-Racette, U. of Manitoba; Sandra Fraser, Remai Modern; Dominic Hardy, UQAM; Laurier Lacroix, UQAM; Julia Polyck-O’Neill, York University

As Anne Lafont observes: “Who could believe in the existence of an artist without a work, and a work without a place, even reduced to its tiniest situation?” (Perspective 2014: 4). Having undergone many changes over the centuries, the studio remains essential to artistic production. Often described by artists as a place of one’s own, a laboratory, a cave, we could define the studio as a space to observe the condensation of materials, intuitions, ideas that take shape and become works of art. As Françoise Sullivan reminds us: “the world is concentrated in the studio and then the studio is concentrated in the painting” (Cahiers 1986 :11). The studio could be understood as an incubator that crystallizes the many elements that are called on to give life to the work. Studios have taken many forms since the Renaissance. Types of studios include: 1) a space temporarily rented for the realization of a particular work; 2) a residential space; 3) a specialized space designed to accommodate the equipment necessary for the realization of the work; 4) a collective space where artists, while remaining autonomous in their production, share specialized equipment; 5) a community space where everything is pooled in the context of collective
creations that bear the signature of the workshop; and 6) any combination of elements of these different types.
The layout of the studio, temporary or permanent, requires the same operations. In addition to the realization of the work, involve its management, its distribution and its storage. The studio is also a place of transmission of knowledge and sociability. Artists surround themselves with assistants and apprentices. They welcome critics, dealers, curators, fellow artists, friends. The studio becomes a place for study and research where documentation accumulates. It’s also a space for reading and relaxation, for reverie and musing. Artists are often characterized by their activity as collectors and bargain hunters who accumulate the works of other artists or who store material for future projects. The location of the studio is an indicator of artists’ socio-economic standing and of changing relationships with the infrastructures required to make their work.
From 2018 to 2021, a SSHRC-funded research project (Laurier Lacroix, Dominic Hardy, coinvestigators) collected data on the functions and representations of the studio in Quebec (1800-1980). In the abundance of international publications on the artist’s studio, critical approaches have yet to be undertaken; this symposium offers the opportunity to develop just such a framework in order to examine Canadian artists’ studio experiences, both past and present.
The symposium has the following objectives:
– To take stock of the state of research about artists’ studios in Canada, from the 19th century to today
– To develop a theoretical and methodological framework that can be used to analyze the
artist’s studio and its functions
– To encourage the presentation of case studies
– To gather first-hand accounts from practicing artists.
By establishing a dialogue between researchers and practitioners, the symposium welcomes proposals that can touch on but are not limited to the following topics:
– Defining and designing the studio: Where and when does the studio take place?
– Monographic case studies on artists‘ studios
– The studio’s role in building community / communities
– The relationship between the studio and the type of works produced in it
– The functions of the studio: creation, storage, mentorship, administration, post-production and presentation space…
– Production conditions in the studio: solitude/sociability, access to equipment/storage…
– How do post-1970 artistic practices (in situ, performance, etc.) change the role of the
studio?
– Strategies for adapting the studio (disadvantaged background, minority groups)
– The studio of the future
– Representing the studio in exhibitions
– The studio as historical site/museum/exhibition space
– The studio in fiction (literature and cinema)
– The studio in the urban fabric
– Impact of socioeconomic and physical conditions on access to studios

Various forms of presentation are invited:
– 1) 15-minute paper
– 2) 3-minute presentation (Pecha Kucha format)
– 3) Poster presentation to be published on the conference blog
– 4) Visual presentation from artists to be posted on the conference blog
Proposals for papers must be submitted by September 15, 2022, to the following address:
ateliersartistes2023@gmail.com
Each proposal should include:
– A title, followed by a brief statement of the topic (150 words maximum) and the form that this presentation will take.
– A brief biographical summary of the presenter (100 words maximum); please add mailing address and, if applicable, institutional affiliation.

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Aktuelles Call for Papers

CFP (Un-)Making Canada: Fragmentations, Contestations, Reconciliations – NEW DEADLINE !!!

September 29-30, 2022 at Paderborn University & Online

Deadline: August 1, 2022 August 15, 2022

Download the CFP here

Canada has successfully defied definition for centuries. And yet, as a young and most
diverse country relying on immigration to maintain population growth, questions of what
Canada is, was, has, and will become are of utmost importance to many of its inhabitants
and its governmental institutions alike. With the theme „(Un-)Making Canada“, the 19th
annual conference of the Emerging Scholars‘ Forum of the Association for Canadian Studies in German-Speaking Countries will inquire into practices of fragmentation, contestation, and reconciliation that have (in-)formed Canada’s political institutions and systems as well as processes and strategies of identity-building, community formations, and nation-making.
As a country, what is now Canada has been shaped by conflicting and overlapping federal,
provincial, municipal, and Indigenous jurisdictions, its transition from Indigenous
self-government through French and British colonial rule to a confederation of provinces and territories, and it continues to be characterized by increasing transnational mobility and the challenges of an increasing movement/ongoing flow of refugees and migrants. In an era of resurgent conservatism, and growing numbers of physical, social, and political attacks on, for instance, ethnic racial, cultural, linguistic, and religious minorities, this conference is devoted to examining historical perspectives as well as the role of current events and crises (e.g., COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, etc.) in the fragmentation, contestation, reconciliation, or general negotiation of Canadian political, societal, and cultural issues and identities.
In recent years, a wide range of social and protest movements have erupted across Canada
(e.g., Black Lives Matter, Idle No More Indigenous sovereignty, Missing and Murdered
Indigenous Women and Girls, Me Too, or movements surrounding womxn’s and
2SLGBTQIA+ rights). Most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic and the uncovering discovery of unmarked mass grave sites near Canadian residential schools have rendered visible and intensified racial, gender, and socioeconomic inequities/injustices inequalities in urban and rural areas. Uneven responses to COVID-19 across provinces problematized Canadian notions of equality and universal access to healthcare, and, along with the effects of the global economic crisis (e.g., unemployment, bailouts to large corporations, and rising inflation), highlighted the challenge of addressing the needs of all inhabitants of what is now Canada. The discovery of unmarked mass grave sites near Canada’s residential schools brought the intergenerational trauma among Indigenous communities to the fore, exposed the ongoing denial of genocidal policies and their impacts on public memory as well as broached Canada’s continued struggle to reconcile with Indigenous peoples, if reconciliation is even possible.

Canada’s nation-building practices, the formation and sustaining of its communities, and the negotiation of its political, societal, and cultural identities continue to be sculpted by multitudinous processes of contestation and reconciliation. To open and sustain a dialogue about the making and unmaking of Canada across a wide range of disciplinary, theoretical, and methodological approaches, we invite contributions along three thematic axes:

(1) Fragmented, Contested, and Reconciled Identities and Policies,
(2) (Un-)Making Canada in Literature, Art, and Media, and
(3) (Re-)Configuring Settler, Rural, and Urban Space(s).

Contributions from master’s and PhD students, early-career researchers, and
emerging scholars may include, but are not limited to:

● Memory culture(s) of fragmentation, contestation, or reconciliation (e.g.,
cultural amnesia, intergenerational trauma, Canada’s residential school
system, the 60s Scoop, national/public memory, ongoing injustices against
marginalized and vulnerable communities, Canadian exceptionalism),

● Everyday processes and practices of fragmentation, contestations, or
reconciliation within and between different communities (e.g., Indigenous
peoples, racialized communities, disabled people, the 2SLGBTQIA+
community, migrants, or religious groups, different linguistic groups),

● Literary and media (television and film, social media, digital and multimedia
arts) representations and/or negotiations of forms of fragmentation,
contestation, and reconciliation (e.g., misrepresentations/
underrepresentation/appropriations of Indigenous peoples, diversities, and
minorities, representations of national identity, or portrayals of public opinion
on key societal issues),

● Historical perspectives on contested or shifting practices of identity-building,
community formation, and nation-making (e.g., the politics of multiculturalism,
Indigenous self-determination/sovereignty, Canadian nationalism, settler
colonial, and imperial Canada, the post-national state),

● Current events (e.g., COVID-19, the war in Ukraine) and their role in the
fragmentation, contestation, and negotiation of Canadian political, societal,
and cultural issues and identities,

● The role of protest movements (e.g., Idle No More, MMIWG, women,
2SLGBTQIA+ rights, Black Lives Matter, climate justice, migrant rights,
Québec sovereignty, labor, white supremacy/white nationalism,
anti-vaccination, Trucker protest/”Freedom Convoy”) in the (un-) making of
Canada,

● Multi-scalar processes of fragmentation, contestation, and reconciliation
across rural and urban spaces in Canada (e.g., different place-/space-based
identities across ethnic, racial, and gender groups in urban and rural spaces,
Indigenous conceptions of land in urban and rural settings, socioeconomic
and political inequalities in these spaces).

Conference Components and Format
Presentation Panels: Panels include individual 20-minute presentations and
10-minute discussion sessions.
Idea Café: The Idea Café informally combines the presentation of new research
ideas and/or project posters with the opportunity for participants and guests to mingle
and engage in conversations with each other.

Abstract Submission
Panel Presentation: Please submit abstracts of max. 300 words and a short bio note of max. 150 words in English, French, or German to Yvonne K. Jende (ykjende@mail.upb.de), Louise Louw (louisielouw@gmail.com), and Emiliano Castillo Jara (s6emcast@uni-trier.de) by August 1st, 2022. Please outline which of the three main axes above your paper speaks to (if any).

Idea Café: Please submit a short idea/project outline of max. 150 words and a short bio note of max. 150 words in English, French, or German to to Yvonne K. Jende (ykjende@mail.upb.de), Louise Louw (louisielouw@gmail.com), and Emiliano Castillo Jara (s6emcast@uni-trier.de) by August 1st, 2022.