EAAS 2016 Conference
Call for Contributions:
MappingTransnational America
In his opening remarks at the 2016 EAAS conference held at Ovidius University, Constanta, Romania, HE Hans Klemm, U.S. Ambassador to Romania expressed his wish that the event will “bring fresh ideas to the transatlantic dialogue in American Studies”. In Transnationalism (2009), Steven Vervotec considers that since the 1990s the transnational has become increasingly important in many domains: communities, identities, cultures, spaces, capital, networks, societies, organizations, services, politics, trade. Equally, Rosendahl Thomsen in Mapping World Literatures: International Canonization and Transnational Literatures (2008) claims that binary oppositions, such as minor and major literature and national and international literature are no longer of use; instead, he focuses on the reciprocal nature of literary and cultural interconnections and relies on mapping constellations in world literature. Thus, in today’s globalized society, the transnational mode, as a source of inspiration and an intensely debated topic of the papers and panels presented during the 2016 EAAS conference, held at Ovidius University, will be dedicated a volume. Looking at the United States from different angles of transnationalism, the essays in this collection will contribute to fresh and stimulating perspectives on American Studies.
Download the call for contributions (pdf)
The articles to be submitted should be around 4,500-5,000 words long.
Submission deadline: March 31, 2017. Please send your material or further inquiries to:
[email protected]
[email protected]
| Call for Presentations (dowload as pdf document here) | To highlight the range and diversity of American Studies in Europe the EAAS is issuing an open call for proposals for the 2016 conference.Proposers may wish to identify and explore long-standing, current and emerging intellectual debates in American Studies; to explore critically the varying practices and methodologies in American Studies; to bring to life current discussions and to posit potential paradigms in American Studies.The various anniversaries of 2016 provide a variety of potential foundations for proposals. It will be 150 years since the start of the post-Civil War era of Reconstruction. That was also the era of the dime novel, and Seeley Regester’s The Dead Letter, credited by some as the first full-length American crime novel, appeared in 1866. 125 years will have passed since Thomas Edison patented the motion camera and 100 since the creation of the US National Parks Service.1916 also saw the opening of the nation’s first birth control clinic, the election from Montana of Jeanette Rankin, the first woman to sit in the US House of Representatives, the release of D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance and the publication of Carl Sandburg’s Chicago Poems. It was also the birth year of Shirley Jackson, Walker Percy, and Walter Cronkite. The National Organization for Women celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2016, as does Star Trek. |
| Contemporary American Studies topics could include, for example, discussion of the USA’s strong, diverse and expanding literary canon; the multi-dimensional character and seemingly endless inventiveness of America’s cultural output; the inventiveness of American culture in an age of new social media; the heritage that might be left after the nation’s first African-American presidency.The EAAS conference encompasses topics across the disciplinary spectrum in American Studies, as well as interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches to the subject. The themes mentioned here are not intended to be a definitive list, and the conference committee looks forward to receiving many different and stimulating proposals. | |
| Format | The EAAS is moving away from its former Workshop format. Proposals are now invited that may use a variety of presentation styles. The conference structure is expected mainly to consist of traditional panels sessions with papers, and proposals targeted at this format are very welcome indeed, but submissions may also be proposed as roundtables, workshops, shop-talks, dialogues, interviews, performances, individual lecture presentations, readings or in other innovative formats. All proposals are expected to include the opportunity for discussion. |
| Session chairs | Volunteers are invited to fill the role of chairs or facilitators for sessions where these positions are vacant. Volunteers to chair sessions should include their name and affiliation, and a brief statement of their areas of expertise. The conference committee will gratefully call on volunteers to add them to appropriate sessions where possible. |
| Selection | The EAAS is committed to a conference that reflects the broadest disciplinary range within American Studies, the multinational membership of the EAAS, and the international participation that its biennial meetings attract.The conference committee will take these aims into account in reviewing proposals and in constructing the conference programme. |
| Deadline | The deadline for Proposals will be 15 June 2015. The Proposals process will be managed by the Secretary General of the EAAS and full details of the submission process will appear soon on the EAAS website.Meanwhile – note the dates in your diary, and take this opportunity to begin drafting your proposal for the 2016 conference. |
| Travel Grants | EAAS and the Constanța conference organisers have established a fund to support broad participation at the Constanta conference by offering a number of small conference travel grants. |