Kategorie: Call for Papers

The Department of Philology, University of Łódź, Poland, April 7, 2018

In her well-known poem “Questions of Travel,” Elizabeth Bishop wonders about the value of physical travel as opposed to one undertaken only in the imagination. This is a question equally popular among writers and travelers. Is physical travelling, as Emerson put it, a „fool’s paradise“? Is it chiefly motivated by a desire to escape the confinements of one’s self, or does it allow for acquiring genuinely new experiences and knowledge? Does it constitute an opportunity for an encounter with the Other, or does it serve as a vehicle for imposing one’s own categories on the people and places one sees?
Questions of Travel: Journey in North American Literature and Culture is the seventh conference organized by the United Students Society, an extracurricular reading group under the auspices of the Department of American Literature, University of Łódź. It seeks to investigate all aspects of travel (physical as well as metaphorical) in North American literature and culture. We invite undergraduate and graduate students (including doctoral candidates) to submit abstracts on subjects related to US American and Canadian literature and culture.

Deadline for Proposals: Feb. 15, 2018.

Hosted by the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies, the 29^th Canadian Military History Colloquium will be held at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, from 4-5 May, 2018.

Conference organizers invite submissions on all periods of Canadian military history and war and society, but especially on 1918, the last year of fighting on the Western Front. Proposals are welcome from all scholars including students, faculty and independent researchers.

Keynote Speaker will be Elizabeth Greenhalgh, University of New South Wales, Canberra, author of The French Army and the First World (2014), Foch in Command: The Forging of a First World War General (2011), and Victory Through Coalition: Britain and France during the First World War (2005).

For further information, please click here.

Deadline for Proposals: Feb. 5, 2018.

Hosted by the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies, the 29^th Canadian Military History Colloquium will be held at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, from 4-5 May, 2018.

L’Association canadienne de linguistique tiendra son congrès de 2018 lors du Congrès des sciences humaines à l’Université de Regina (Saskatchewan, Canada), du mercredi 30 mai au vendredi 1er juin 2018. Les membres sont invités à soumettre des propositions de communication (résumés) portant sur tous les domaines de la discipline.

For the full CfP in French and English, please click here.

Deadline for Proposals: Feb. 4, 2018.

PARTIE I: Banff Centre, Alberta (Canada)
11-14 octobre 2018

PARTIE II:  Université norvégienne des sciences et de technologie, Trondheim (Norvège)
Automne 2019

Des événements historiques et politiques tels que la Commission et le Rapport de la vérité et de la réconciliation du Canada, les mouvements Idle No More et Black Lives Matter , le décret anti-immigration de Donald Trump, les crises de réfugiées qui sont en cours, les récentes controverses entourant l’appropriation culturelle, les catastrophes environnementales, ainsi que la persistance systémique de la violence sexualisée et racisée soulignent les constantes inégalités perpétuées par les espaces coloniaux dans un monde global isé, en plus des difficiles confrontations entre les différentes perspectives et visions du monde. Ce sont des préoccupations cruciales qui ont été largement discutées par des théoricien.ne.s et praticien.ne.s culturel.le.s autochtones, féministes et anti-racistes, et diverses formes d’intervention de justice sociale ont été faitesdans les milieux scientifiques, publics, et culturels populaires afin d’exposer encore davantage la persistance de motifs historiques d’oppression, de domination et de complicité. Les explorations éthiques et poétiques du «vivre avec» pourraient aider à revisiter, comprendre, dénoncer et résister à ces violences lentes et accélérées.

S’appuyant sur le caractère chargé et interpelant du verbe prépositionnel “vivre avec,” cette conférence internationale bilingue se concentre sur les notions de corporéité, de reconnaissance et d’agentivité qui ont historiquement nourri les écritures féministes tout en prenant de nouvelles formes au tournant du nouveau millénaire. Parmi ces formes nouvelles ou renouvelées se trouvent les éthiques féministes du care mises de l’avant par le travail de la psychologue Carol Gilligan et amplifiées par les expertises de Joan Tronto et María Puig de la Bellacasa. D’autres manifestations incluent les performances et productions d’artistes autochtones telles que KC Adams et Dana Claxton, le féminisme matériel de Stacy Alaimo et de Karen Barad, la pensée posthumaniste de Rosi Braidotti et de Kristen Lillvis, et l’essor des affects féministes avec la «felt theory» de Dian Million et les travaux de Sara Ahmed et de Lauren Berlant. Ayant ces cadres conceptuels, certainement vastes mais aussi interreliés, en tête, nous nous intéressons au tissage complexe qui rassemble les notions de vivreavec, d’alliance, de cohabitation, de résistance, de responsabilité (response-ability), d’inter-dépendance, et de communauté. Notre but est de mieux comprendre les structures, les circonstances et les dynamiques sociales, affectives et matérielles de la relationalité, que nous souhaitons aborderen termes humains, nonhumains, écologiques et technologiques et au travers de productions culturelles autochtones, canadiennes et québécoises d’expressions française et anglaise, incluant la littérature, le cinéma, les arts visuels, la musique, etc.

L’objectif principal de la conférence est l’étude de représentations du «vivre avec» en tant que formes radicales de rencontre, d’engagement et de care entre le soi et l’autre. Nous empruntons l’analogie du toucher de Karen Barad pour situer notre conception de l’éthique en tant que «matter of response»: «each of ‘us’ is constituted in response-ability. Each of ‘us’ is constituted as responsible for the other, as the other» (2012). En plaçant fermement l’éthique au cœur du projet critique, nous cherchons à réfléchir de manière soucieuse aux expressions, potentialités, et limites possibles de cette relation. De plus, par l’étude de productions littéraires et artistiques, nous espérons réagir aux instabilités et aux asymétries qui façonnent les expériences du «vivre avec» en questionnant les notions clés de fragilité, de vulnérabilité, d’intersubjectivité et d’appartenance dans une variété de contextes et d’espaces où les expériences d’empowerment et d’assujettissement interagissent et «intra-agissent» (Barad).

See the full CfP in French and English, here.

Deadline for Proposals: Feb. 2, 2018.

Winnipeg, Manitoba, May 9 to 11, 2019

The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 was a landmark moment in North American working-class history.  In May and June of that year, over 30,000 workers ceased work for six weeks, Reflecting the frustrations and anger rooted in a city deeply divided by class and ethnicity and inspired by the hopes of building something better in the wake of World War, Winnipeg workers displayed an inspiring unity, facing hunger, threats of permanent dismissal and blacklisting, and violence at the hands of authorities.  It was a defining moment in the city’s, and the country’s, history.

A century later, as we seek to understand and commemorate these events, we can’t help but be struck by continuities – so many of the themes of 1919 continue to confront us today:

1. The Fight for a Better Life: Just as workers in 1919 sought to lift themselves and their communities out of poverty and win a fairer share of the fruits of economic growth, 21st century workers are facing worsening material condition, stagnating wages, and increasingly precarous employment
2. Solidarity Across Boundaries:  A century ago, Winnipeg was a divided city – not only along the lines of class, but workers were, themselves, divided along lines of race and ethnicity.  Amazingly, attempts by employers to use bigotry to divide the city’s strikers failed.  The lessons of overcoming these divisions and fighting for common, expanded rights, are as central today as they were then, and inculde a growing understanding of the rights of Indigenous people as First Nations and as workers.
3. Building a Working-Class Alternative: The Winnipeg General Strike was part of a continent-wide, even international, revolt.  This was an era in which labour was the voice of the dispossessed; if there was a solution to the problems that capitalism brought, it was represented by labour.  To what extent are current social struggles class issues that labour needs to centrally address? Can labour lead in building a better future in which all forms of oppression and exploitation are fought?

These are broad themes, but the Winnipeg General strike, although provoked by specific issues of collective bargaining, exploded into a broader revolt because it spoke to these broader issues.  This conference will bring together a range of historians, labour studies scholars, trade unionists, and social activists to share their knowledge and experiences.  We envisage presentations and discussions about the General Strike and the subsequent history of labour’s attempts to address these three themes, as well as current struggles.  We invite proposals for individual papers, panels, and roundtables.

Further details: http://1919-2019.com/

Deadline for Proposals: Feb. 1, 2018.