International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts

Call for Proposals: NeMLA 2021 Creative Session

“Speculative Figures and Speculative Futures: Our Uncanny Postapocalypse”

Mary Shelley, in her classic piece of speculative fiction and of speculative visual culture, Frankenstein (1818), sparked life into a body that started an unending conversation around being alive and our own identities as living. And in the intersecting centuries from Shelley to today, Freud has established the uncanny, Kristeva has ignited notions of abjection and of horror, and a plethora of creative agents (writers, artists, musicians, etc.) have continued to stoke these flames. Visual artist David Altmejd, for example, explores themes of science fiction and gothic romanticism to create postapocalyptic visions in his work that embraces decay in balance with regeneration to specifically “provoke that shiver of the uncanny.”[1] And in a research-creation project that she calls “scholarly vidding,” Alexis Lothian merges “[v]idding and multimodal writing [as] a space to explore scholarly ideas in diverse registers” as she positions in her work “utopia as a vision of perfection that is also an end, and dystopia as a negative imaginary that participates in the creation of worlds.”[2] This Creative Session, carrying forth Shelley’s torch, seeks creative contributions of all kinds that participate in and continue to spark, stoke, and ignite these conversations with speculative figures, speculative futures, and uncanny—and even otherworldly—postapocalyptic creativity.

We are specifically interested in artworks and creative contributions that are assessments of posthuman bodies and that embody abject and uncanny ideology through their written, oral, aural, and/or visual aesthetic. Poetry, fiction, nonfiction, sound and video work, digital animation, photography, performance, sculpture, and any and all hybrids in-between. In addition to being a creative showcase, this session also seeks to push the boundaries not only of Cultural Studies, Media Studies, and Interdisciplinary Humanities but of traditional conference panels, too, to include innovative uses of technology and of participation in its dissemination and conversation.

[1] “David Altmejd,” White Cube, accessed March 31, 2020, https://whitecube.com/artists/artist/david_altmejd.

[2] Lothian, Alexis. 2018. Old Futures: Speculative Fiction and Queer Possibility. New York: New York University Press. 251; 248; 25.

Abstracts/Proposals (300 words max.) are due online by September 30th, 2020.

Please submit abstracts/proposals online at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18782.

For inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact either Tommy Mayberry (tommy.mayberry@uwaterloo.ca) or Tommy Bourque (tbourqu2@uwo.ca).

NOTE ON COVID AND NeMLA 2021 CONVENTION:

NeMLA has secured a digital event platform for their 52nd Annual Convention in March 2021 – and this means that prospective presenters will be able to participate virtually! (Not only does this mean the conference should be more physically accessible, but it also means it should be financially more accessible and give creative artists and scholars formal exhibition opportunities that might otherwise be difficult to come by due to institutional closures, physical distancing, and other health and safety protocols that make gallery exhibitions and public opening receptions and live performances near-impossible this year.) If you or anyone you know – including grad students! – are interested, we hope you will put forward an abstract.

The submission deadline for abstract is September 30th, but given both the now-digital nature of the entire convention and the creative showcase angle to our session, the most important thing for prospective presenters on our panel will be to submit an abstract to ensure we get to read about their proposed work. Other details can and will be ironed out later with us throughout the Fall, so abstracts don’t need to be “perfect” right now – we’re all in this wonky situation together!

Thank you so much, and looking forward to reading about your work!

The Tommies

CFP: Living in the End Times: Utopian and Dystopian Representations of Pandemics, Cappadocia University, Thu, Jan 14, 2021 – Fri, Jan 15, 2021

Join us for an interdisciplinary conference examining utopian and dystopian representations of pandemics in fiction, film and culture!

“The abandoned towers in the distance are like the coral of an ancient reef- bleached and colourless, devoid of life. There still is life, however. Birds chirp; sparrows, they must be…Do they notice that quietness, the absence of motors? If so, are they happier?” (Atwood, 2009, pg. 3).

The outbreak of COVID-19 has wrought spatial, socioeconomic and political upheavals of a severity and scale often only imagined in eco-dystopian fiction works such as Margaret Atwood’s increasingly prescient MaddAddam trilogy (2003-2013). The pandemic has laid bare existing structural inequalities within global capitalist systems. While multitudes face the economic hardships of a looming global recession, the planet’s wealthy elite have found refuge in their exclusive ‘utopias’ of private medical and security staff, escape mansions and luxury doomsday bunkers. Moreover, the pandemic serves as an augur of further socio-ecological perturbations to come should global capitalism’s relentless exploitation of species and ecosystems continue unabated. Perhaps most importantly, pandemics bring to light the intricate and inextricable entanglements between humans and myriad Earth others, and the realization that we are far from the only actors with the agency to engender world-shattering transformations.

Such times of widespread upheaval render the perennial utopian (and dystopian) imaginary especially valuable. While utopias offer imaginative projections of better worlds and ways of being, dystopias extrapolate from the deficient ‘present’ and offer projections of potentially nightmarish futures. Yet the critique, imagination and desire for the ‘better’ inherent within both are essential for building beyond the current ‘eco-dystopian’ era of pandemics, extinctions and ecological collapse. Pandemics and the spectre of eco-apocalypse don’t signal the end of all worlds or times but merely of the world as presently constituted; there is always the vital question of what comes after. Thus, we are thrilled to present this interdisciplinary conference for exploring literary, film, cultural and ethico-political representations of ‘living in the end times’. For instance, how do pandemics impact upon hope and utopian imaginaries? How do we co-construct more ethical and liveable worlds after ‘the end’, and what might these worlds look like?

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We invite abstracts of up to 300 words for paper presentations of 15 minutes sharp (+5 minutes Q&A) to be delivered live on the days of the conference. Panel submissions are also welcome. Paper/panel topics might include but need not be limited to:

• Plague, pandemic & epidemic representations in fiction & films

• Apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic/pandemic fiction

• Pandemic politics & praxis

• Capitalism and biopolitics

• Constructions of post-pandemic worlds/environments

• Post-humanism/post-anthropocentrism and multispecies interactions

• Theorizations of apocalypse or ‘end times’ (Ziźek 2011; Latour 2017)

• Anthropocene, capitalocene, chthulucene, plantationocene

• Boundaries- ‘Self/other’, national, geographic

• Utopia and hope during times of crisis

• Eco-utopias & dystopias

• Cli-fi

• Technology and the future

Please send your abstracts (300 words) and a short bio of up to 150 words to pandemicimaginaries@gmail.com

The deadline for submissions is November 6, 2020. Participants will be notified of acceptance or rejection by November 20, 2020.

The selected papers presented at the conference will be considered for publication by a reputable international publisher (TBA).

Submission Deadline: May 14, 2021

Conference Fee

There is no fee to attend the conference. The conference will be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams, which will be provided by Cappadocia University. The conference language will be English.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/living-in-the-end-times-utopian-and-dystopian-representations-of-pandemics-tickets-117170820077?fbclid=IwAR2dqRcdePi4Bh-BC9PnOHYJjW8IKTmSAjoQMZIR-fq3UyMNwas3D30_o-8

Warm Regards,

Heather Alberro (Nottingham Trent University, UK)

Emrah Atasoy (Cappadocia University, Turkey)

Rhiannon Firth (University of Essex, UK)

Burcu Kayışcı Akkoyun (Boğaziçi University, Turkey)

Pelin Kıvrak (Harvard University, USA)

Conrad Scott (University of Alberta, Canada)

Conference Convening Team

We invite you to submit a scholarly contributed paper to the SCIENCE FICTIONS, POPULAR CULTURES Academic Conference, September 24-27, 2020, broadcasting from the sunny western coast of the Big Island of Hawai’i. This year’s conference will be virtual, so you can participate from nearly anywhere on the planet! Now, in its fourth year, the SCIENCE FICTIONS, POPULAR CULTURES Academic Conference is a highly unique conference held in conjunction with a larger, well-established, highly popular science fiction and fantasy convention known as HawaiiCon.

We are seeking 20-25 minute presentations — to be presented virtually through zoom — and 1500-500 word manuscripts for the peer-reviewed proceedings to be published later this year. You have the choice of presenting “live” via Zoom or you can play a pre-recorded video of yourself at the appointed time of your presentation.

The SFPC Organizing Committee is open to a wide-array of scholarly papers exploring the intersections among science, science fiction, fantasy, technology, and culture. Unique to SFPC, there will be additional opportunities for SFPC scholars to sit on virtual discussion panels with other HawaiiCon guest speakers. Your expertise and enthusiasm is valued!

We kindly invite you to visit our conference website at http://www.caperteam.com/sfpc for detailed registration and proposal submission information. Registration is open and presentation proposals are being considered at this time on a rolling basis from now until August 20. Sent on behalf of the Conference Organizing Committee:

-Dr. Jason T. Eberl, St. Louis University, bioethics scholar and co-editor of ‘Star Trek & Philosophy’
-Dr. Carrie J. Cole, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, science fiction performance theatre scholar
-Dr. Greg Littman, Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville, philosophy and fandom studies scholar
-Dr. Stephanie J. Slater, CAPER Center for Astronomy & Physics Education Research, socio-cultural education scholar

Registration & Submission Website: http://www.caperteam.com/sfpc – due August 20! email: scifipopcon@caperteam.com .

Les mondes de H.R. Giger : entre littératures et arts
The Worlds of Giger : between literature and the arts

Colloque international
Organisé par l’Université de Lausanne (UNIL) et la Maison d’Ailleurs (Yverdon-les-Bains)
25-27 novembre 2020, Université de Lausanne

Appel à contributions / Call for papers

Hans Ruedi Giger (1940-2014) est sans nul doute l’un des artistes suisses les plus célèbres au monde, depuis qu’il a conçu les décors et les créatures, notamment des films Alien et Dune. Mais il y a un Giger d’avant Alien également. Son œuvre comprend des peintures, des dessins, des sculptures, des objets de design ou encore des bandes dessinées, sans compter les multiples déclinaisons de son univers sur le plan mondial. C’est aussi un artiste pétri de littérature fantastique et de science-fiction, qui a souvent rendu hommage à l’un des maîtres du genre, H.P. Lovecraft. C’est la première fois que son œuvre est proposée comme enseignement à l’Université en Suisse et qu’un colloque international lui est consacré dans une université. En effet, parmi les nombreuses publications consacrées à l’artistes, les études scientifiques font figure d’exception. Ce colloque se propose de commencer à combler cette lacune.

Hans Ruedi Giger (1940-2014) is no doubt the most famous Swiss artist since he has designed te worlds and/or creatures of films such asAlien or Dune. But there is a Giger before Alien too. His work includes paintings, drawings, sculptures, objects and furniture or comics, not to mention the multiple uses of his universe in other fields (tattoe, etc). He is also fascinated by fantastic literature, and especially by H. P. Lovecraft. This is the first scientific conference devoted to his work.

Some possible topics
Literary inspidations : Lovecraft etc
Dreams : from surrealism to psychedelism
Satire and caricature
Giger in films : Dune /Alien / Species …
Design
Technical inventions (aerograph…)
Erotism / Pornography
Biomecanics
Religion and esoterism
Passages and trains (ghosts)
Visionary architectures
Comics
Video games
The Museum as Gesamtkunstwerk
Derivatives : tattoe…
Etc.

Les propositions de communication sont à adresser à Marc Atallah (marc.atallah@unil.ch) et Philippe Kaenel (philippe.kaenel@unil.ch), en anglais ou en français, jusqu’au 26 avril 2020. Elles comprendront une courte biobibliographie et un abstract de la communication (1500-2000 signes).

The proposals are to be sent to Marc Atallah (marc.atallah@unil.ch) and Philippe Kaenel (philippe.kaenel@unil.ch), in english or in french until 26 april 2020.

Le colloque est soutenu par l’Université de Lausanne (Centre des Sciences historiques de la culture – SHC, et la Section de français).

SFRA 2020

Wednesday, July 8th – Saturday July 11th

Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Conference Theme: Forms of Fabulation

Keynote Speakers:

Tavia Nyong’o

Kate Marshall

Special Guest: John Crowley (author of Little, Big)

The Science Fiction Research Association invites proposals for its 2020 annual conference, to be held on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

The SFRA is the oldest scholarly association for the study of science fiction and related genres. It brings together important writers of speculative fiction with premiere scholars of speculative fiction to discuss and debate timely and relevant themes. The annual conference also recognizes important contributions to the field through the Pioneer and Pilgrim Awards for excellence in scholarship.

This year we take FABULATION as our key term. Fabulation is a potent political force as well as an emerging genre convention. Ranging from fantasy fiction and the New Weird to fictional sciences and prefigurative politics, fabulation centers the importance of imagining otherwise in the construction of reality as a scholarly as well as a fictional action.

Fabulation is a future-oriented practice that draws from the energies of the past and the perspectives of the oppressed. Keynote speaker Tavia Nyong’o writes that Afro-fabulation resurfaces from the historical archive those untimely ideas that were “never meant to appear” (3) in majoratian culture and so could only be articulated by way of minor genres and obscure gestures—in performance art, speculative fiction, gossip and legend. Building on the critique of imperial sciences by Indigenous scholars and imaginative writers that were the focus of the 2019 conference, this year’s conference asks what subjugated knowledges can be found in the speculative fiction archives and how they might be surfaced in the present toward multispecies thriving and antiracist worlding. At the same time, reality-production as a form of fictionality has become the principle characteristic of politics in the 21st-century. In addition to asking how we can make fabulations, the conference theme also asks participants to consider the ethics of fiction in the post-truth era.

Topics related to the conference theme include:

● prefigurative politics, visionary fiction, & speculative futurisms

● the weird and the New Weird

● fantasy fiction, fairy stories, magic

● Afro-futurism, indigenous futurisms, and related genres

● post-truth politics and fabulation

● fabulation and Afro-fabulation

● insurgent research, fictional sciences, and related methods

● decolonial speculative fiction

● fabulation and the occult

● aesthetic warfare, feminist witchcraft, meme magic

● aesthetics as a technology of resistance

● European mythology and the problem of white supremacism

● fabulation, environmental ethics, and eco-eroticism

● fabulation and the nonhuman

● fabulation in games, videos, and other non-print media

● fabulation, cosplay, cons, and fan cultures

● science fiction, fantasy and the Midwest

● African, Afro-caribbean, and Indigenous cosmologies

● technology and magic

● children’s literature and magic

● Posthumanism, speculative realism, and fabulation

We also welcome papers on topics relevant to science fiction research broadly conceived that are not specifically related to the conference theme, including proposals for preconstituted panels & roundtables.

300-500 word abstracts should be sent to SFRA2020IU@gmail.com by March 15 2020. Acceptance notices will be returned by April 1.

Questions concerning this call for papers, preconstituted panels, & roundtables can be directed to SFRA2020IU@gmail.com with the subject line “CFP QUESTION,” or to the conference’s local organizers, Rebekah Sheldon (rsheldon@indiana.edu) and De Witt Douglas Kilgore (dkilgore@indiana.edu).

Graduate students are encouraged to submit abstracts & to attend, regardless of whether they plan to present.

Some conference travel grants will be made available. Applications will be posted soon and due on 15 April 2020.

You will also need to join SFRA (or renew your membership) in order to register for the conference. Conference Registration information will be posted soon.

http://www.sfra.org/

Transmediality and interactivity in the fantastic, monographic issue coordinated for Brumal by Miguel Carrera Garrido (CIESE-Comillas, University of Cantabria)

Deadline: June 15, 2020

One of the characteristics that define fictional production in the 21st century is its ten-dency to distribute itself among numerous media of expression: television, cinema, lit-erature, comic-books, theater, video games, role-playing games, etc. Far from leading to dispersion or to the proliferation of watertight compartments, such inclination – also present in other communicative practices – has led to the convergence of all these areas. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult, even inappropriate, to limit the focus of attention to a single medium and ignore the rest: stories expand to two, three or more of these environments, aspiring to preserve the unity of sense in heterogeneity. Thus, to get to a thorough and complete understanding of the message, the recipient – and, there-fore, the critic – has to consider different creative domains and apply several reading codes. This agent is simultaneously endowed, in contemporary creation, with a much more active and decisive role than he/she used to possess. Expected to interact with fictional products, as a member of a participatory and empowered culture, his/her inter-vention – often essential – oscillates between the interpellation and analysis from vari-ous discussion forums – especially the Internet and social networks – and direct partici-pation in the imaginary universes, either expanding them in media different from than the one where they originated, or immersing themselves effectively in those worlds and influencing – either as an avatar, or playing a character – the course of the action.

These two complementary trends point to the terms on which the proposed monograph is based: transmedia(lity) and interactivity. Its goal: to trace the importance of these realities in the fantastic genre or mode, both in theoretical formulations and practical realizations.
Widely addressed in akin modalities such as science fiction or medieval fantasy (think, for example, of successful franchises, and recurring objects of analysis, such as Star Wars, A Song of Ice and Fire or Lord of the Rings, which transcended their original medium long ago, and where the interference of fans has become the norm), the concept of transmedial, or transmedia, has not had, to date, much repercussion in studies on the fantastic, at least as Brumal conceives it (that is, as the irruption of the impossible into a world in appearance similar to ours, in tune with Caillois’s and Roas’s theories). As for interactivity, it also has not received the due attention yet, despite the interest raised in recent years by expressions rarely considered artistic in the past, like video games, haunted attractions, fan fiction, “choose your own adventure” novels, etc. That is why it is urgent to undertake a project like the current one, in which we analyze, among other things, how speeches and stories have migrated from one medium to another – if that was not designed like that from the beginning –, to what extent inter-dependence be-tween the different media has been promoted, and how, in this process, the community of readers, spectators, players or, in general, fans has played an increasingly active and crucial role. It is at this junction, or convergence, between the transmedia(l) and the interactive towards which we want the participants of the issue to look.

Some of the proposed thematic axes, with which we want to cover both extremes, are:

• Originally, or strategic, transmedia(l) narratives of the fantastic.
• Expanded universes of the fantastic (or tactical transmedia).
• Appropriation, reworking and expansion of figures, motives and other references of the fantastic at the hands of fans.
• Theoretical relations between the concepts of transmedia(lity), intermedia(lity) and multimedia(lity) in the fantastic.
• Reflections on the concept of authorship in the fantastic transmedia(lity).
• New interactive modes of the fantastic (video games, haunted attractions, role-playing games, escape rooms, etc.) and their relationship with other media.
• Interactions, in social networks and in other forums, between fictional productions and fans of the fantastic.

For more information on submissions, format, length and so on, please visit the journal’s webpage or contact the coordinator on mcarreragarrido@gmail.com.

PopMeC Conference
Instituto Franklin–UAH (Alcalá de Henares) on May 27–28, 2020

Thanks to the pervasiveness of popular culture in everyday life, its products embody a fundamental driving force in forging the collective imaginary of both national and foreign publics. The timely construction, consolidation, and intrinsic political potential of popular representations—myths, symbols, images, and signs—has undeniably facilitated the shaping of identities, discourses, and communities. The diversity and peculiarities of the American society can therefore be traced through the analysis of popular culture and multimodal cultural expressions, conveyed by means such as film, comics and graphic novels, TV and web series, videogames, music, books, and whatnot.

PopMeC aims at providing a collaborative, engaging, and fair environment for any interested scholar, promoting the sharing of knowledge, experience, and ideas across disciplines and thematic fields. We’re also working to foster a stimulating space for early career researchers and postgraduate students in North American studies, thus we’ll warmly welcome their proposals.

The conference will approach popular media and culture products—as well as their publics and reception—from an intersectional, multidisciplinary standpoint and a diverse range of perspec¬tives. We’re looking for engaging, fresh, interesting papers acknowledging and exploring a variety of images and narratives, their configurations and aims, as well as examining the intersectional connections between identities, politics, and history, traceable in and across cultural products.

We welcome proposals for 20 min individual papers or panels constituted of three papers, on topics including (but not limited to):

> the representation of specific ethnic / religious / gender / etc. groups in the US popular media and culture (including mainstream, alternative, and self-representations)
> the articulation of American national ethos, myths, symbols and heroes
> public history and the representation of US history for the non-specialized public
> the reception of popular culture products and their publics
> comparative studies of contrasting / similar representations
> the US society as represented through humor, caricature, and satire
> deconstruction of national storytelling and stereotyped narratives

Please, send your proposal by April 5, 2020 to popmec.call@gmail.com attaching your abstract (200-250 words), inclusive of a short bio (100-120 words), name, affiliation, and email contact in a single file. All proposals (unless differently specified by the author) will be considered for both presentation in the conference and publication on the academic blog. Feel free to check our author guidelines page and to contact us for further information.

The languages of the conference will be English and Spanish. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend limiting the use of Spanish coherently with your chosen topic.

Registration fee:

> Full 45€ for waged scholars
> Reduced 15€ for unwaged scholars (e.g. postgraduate students, independent researchers)
[Coffee breaks and light lunch will be provided]

Key dates:

> April 5 deadline for proposals
> April 14 notification of acceptation and opening of registration
[We plan on doing a first round of evaluations by March 8 so that if your proposal needs a little retouching, we let you know and you can still resubmit it!]

Further details on keynote speakers, venue and registration will be provided shortly.

Organizing committee @ Instituto Franklin–UAH:
> Daniel Bustillo
> Carlos Herrero
> Anna Marta Marini
> Joaquín Saravia

Download the full CFP here: CFP_popmec

https://popmec.hypotheses.org/

Mythmoot VII: Defying and Defining the Darkness

“Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.”
— attributed to Anne Frank

When: June 25–28, 2020
Where: The National Conference Center
Leesburg, VA
USA

What is Mythmoot VII?

Mythmoot VII, with the theme of “Defying and Defining Darkness,” combines an academic conference, creative writing meet-up, and fan convention for a unique experience. Here at Mythmoot, we have room for serious scholarship in fields such as science fiction, high fantasy, horror, gothic, mythology, children’s literature, folklore.. .the list goes on. We also appreciate less academic, but no less enthusiastic, pursuits of all the above—such as demonstrations of how to knit the best fake candle ever, presentations theorizing the exact recipe for Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, or papers dissecting the cultural background of Baron Harkonnen!

Call for Proposals:

Where there is light there is darkness—the two play off of each other. This concept appears throughout literature all over the world in yin and yang, good and evil, two sides of the same coin, and even in the literal sun rising and setting. How does one define the darkness? Can darkness only be defied once it is known? Should darkness even be defined or defied? We want to hear how you believe defining and defying the darkness interacts with the stories you love and how you would approach the topic.

We are accepting proposals for Papers, Panels, Workshops, and Creative Presentations about defying or defining the darkness (or tangential topics) in the following areas of study:
● Imaginative Literature (ex: Harry Potter, Dune, The Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Dresden Files, etc.)
● Tolkien and Inklings Studies
● Classic Literature from ancient times to the present
● Philology

If you are unsure whether your topic fits, send your proposal or a description of your idea to the listed submissions email, and we will let you know.

Individual presentations, whether creative or critical, will have 30 minutes—20 minutes for presentation and 10 for Q&A. (N.B. The “creative” category is not limited to original works but could include presenting or performing art, music, drama, or dance. If you have any questions about what you can present, please contact the submissions email.)

Panels must contain at least 3 papers and/or presenters and will be allocated 90 minutes total for presentations and Q&A.

Workshops must identify their own length (either 30 min, 60 min, or 90 min) and include justification for the requested time. Workshops may be run individually, but it is recommended that a workshop have at least two leaders. (Workshop examples: the knitting of Smaug hats, an interactive discussion on dragon species, etc.)

Papers will be presented in 90-minute sessions of 1 – 3 presenters. Each presenter will have 30 minutes (20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for questions) to present their paper.

Proposal Submittal:

Your submission to events@signumu.org must contain the following in the email: the type of submission, a title, a 300-word abstract or description, the name(s) of the presenter(s), and a two-sentence biography for each presenter. Title your email “Mythmoot VII Proposal”. All submissions must be received by 11:59 pm EST on March 13th, 2020.

No presentations will be given in absentia, and your submission to Mythmoot VII is considered an agreement to attend and present should your proposal be accepted. Each room will have a projector for presenter use.

University of Toronto’s Graduate Students’ Association of Italian Studies is pleased to announce that our conference, entitled Memory and Imagination in Italian Fiction and Non-Fiction, will be held on Friday May 8th and Saturday May 9th, 2020 in the Father Madden Hall, St. Michael’s College (University of Toronto). This year, we have the pleasure to host two guests as keynote speakers, Prof. Millicent Marcus (Yale University) and Prof. Arielle Saiber (Bowdoin College).

Our conference seeks to analyze the different functions held over the centuries by memory and imagination, either in relation to each other or as distinct categories, in both works of Italian fiction and non-fiction. Thanks to the interdisciplinary nature of the conference theme, we also look forward to papers that demonstrate the intersection between science, psychology and literature.

The GSAIS 2020 conference accepts submissions in English and Italian. Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words to the following address: gsaisconference2020@gmail.com. Deadline for submissions is February 21st, 2020. Presentations are not to exceed 20 minutes and may be given in either Italian or English.

Sincerely,

The Organizing Committee:
Elisabetta Carraro
Sylvia Gaspari
Benedetta Lamanna
Nattapol Ruangsri

Dept. of Italian Studies, University of Toronto
gsaisconference2020@gmail.com
http://gsais.sa.utoronto.ca/

Download the CFP here: GSAIS-2020-CFP_HEADERFinal-ENGL

15th April Conference
Krakow, 23-25 April 2020
English and American Studies in the Age of Post-Truth and Alternative Reality

April Conference is a large international conference which has been organized by the Institute of English Studies at the Jagiellonian University since 1978. This triennial event provides an opportunity to bring together scholars working in various fields of English and American Studies, especially:

· British and American Literature,
· General and Applied Linguistics,
· Translation and Cultural Studies,
· Teaching English as a Second Language.

Plenary lectures at AC 15 will be delivered by the following speakers:
Susan Hunston (University of Birmingham)
Kenneth P. Minkema (Yale University)
Virginia Pulcini (Università degli studi di Torino)
Nancy Lusignan Schultz (Salem State University)
Tiffany Stern (The Shakespeare Institute)

For this anniversary edition of April Conference, the organizing committee will be pleased to accept proposals of papers on a wide variety of topics. Preference will be given to presentations which fit into the thematic sessions listed below, but other papers will also be considered. We also welcome session proposals with three or six papers connected thematically.

Thematic Sessions:
· Colonial America and Religious History
· Digital Humanities and Literary History
· Gender Studies, Masculinities Studies and Feminist Perspectives in Literature and Culture
· Southern Studies
· Medieval Studies and Medievalism
· Milton Studies in Central and Eastern Europe: The State of the Art
· Alternative Romanticisms
· Transfusions of Joyce
· Language Contact
· Contemporary Trends in Sociolinguistics
· Stance and Evaluation in Discourse
· Foreign Language Education: Tradition and New Perspectives
· Translating Worldviews and Alternative Realities

Papers are scheduled to take 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion. Speakers are invited to submit an abstract of ca. 200 words via the on-line system under PAPER PROPOSALS on the conference website https://april.confer.uj.edu.pl. If you would like to submit a session proposal, please send an email to april-conference@uj.edu.pl. Paper proposals will be reviewed anonymously and the authors will be notified about their acceptance via email. The deadline for paper proposals is January 15, 2020. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by February 15, 2020.

Early conference registration fee (available until March 1, 2020): 700 PLN.
Regular conference fee (after March 2, 2020): 800 PLN.
Doctoral students are eligible for a 150 PLN discount. For more information, please see the conference website.

Organizing Committee
dr hab. Zygmunt Mazur (Head)
prof. dr hab. Elżbieta Chrzanowska-Kluczewska
dr hab. Bożena Kucała
prof. dr hab. Elżbieta Mańczak-Wohlfeld
dr hab. Andrzej Pawelec
dr hab. Władysław Witalisz
Conference Secretary
dr Małgorzata Cierpisz
Jagiellonian University
Institute of English Studies
Collegium Paderevianum
al. Mickiewicza 9A, 31-120 Kraków
april-conference@uj.edu.pl ​