CALL FOR PAPERS: FRANKENSTEIN: FRIEND OR FOE?(FANTASY, HORROR, AND SCIENCE FICTION)

CALL FOR PAPERS:

 Conference of The Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA)

University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts

27 and 28 October 2017

Proposals by 1 June 2017

Michael A. Torregrossa

Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair

cfp.NEPCAFantastic@gmail.com

Formed in 2008, the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2017, and we seek proposals from scholars of all levels for papers that explore any aspect of the intermedia traditions of the fantastic (including, but not limited to, elements of fairy tale, fantasy, gothic, horror, legend, mythology, and science fiction) and how creative artists have altered our preconceptions of these subtraditions by producing innovative works in diverse countries, media, and time periods and for audiences at all levels.

In anticipation of the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 2018, we are especially hoping for proposals that address aspects of the Frankenstein tradition and the fantastic. Our focus for this year is "Frankenstein: Friend or Foe?". We seek papers that will explore the reception of the creature (and its surrogates) in Shelley's novel and in related texts.

Please see our website NEPCA Fantastic (https://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com) for further details and ideas. Presentations will be limited to 15-20 minutes in length (depending on final panel size).

If you are interested in proposing a paper, please address inquiries and send your biography and paper abstract (each of 250 words) to the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair at cfp.nepcafantastic@gmail.com, noting “Frankenstein Proposal 2017” in your subject line. Do also submit your information into NEPCA’s official Paper Proposal Form accessible from https://nepca.blog/2017-conference/. Be sure to select "The Fantastic" as your designated area.

Please submit inquiries and/or proposals for complete panels directly to the Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair at cfp.nepcafantastic@gmail.com.

The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) was founded in 1974 as a professional organization for scholars living in New England and New York. It is a community of scholars interested in advancing research and promoting interest in the disciplines of popular and/or American culture. NEPCA’s membership consists of university and college faculty members, emeriti faculty, secondary school teachers, museum specialists, graduate students, independent scholars, and interested members of the general public. NEPCA is an independently funded affiliate of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. Membership is open to all interested parties, regardless of profession, rank, or residency. NEPCA holds an annual conference that invites scholars from around the globe to participate. In an effort to keep costs low, it meets on college campuses throughout the region.

Membership in NEPCA is required for participation and annual dues are included in conference registration fees. Further details are available at https://nepca.blog/membership-information/.

Contact Info: 

Michael A Torregrossa

Fantastic (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction) Area Chair

Contact Email: cfp.NEPCAFantastic@gmail.com

URL: https://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com

Memory and the Making of Knowledge in the Early Modern World, September 18-22, 2017--Germany

Call for Papers

Memory and the Making of Knowledge in the Early Modern World, September 18-22, 2017--Germany

Memory is now established as a dynamic and vital field of study in the humanities and social sciences. It is no longer disputed that how, why, and what individuals, communities, and societies remember is essential to under-standing their pasts and presents. A good deal of this work has understandably concentrated on contemporary history: the emergence of social history in the middle decades of the twentieth century shifted the spotlight to focus on ordinary people, and developments in medicine, psychology, and sociology produced a more sophisticated understanding of the functioning of individual and social memory. This has led to new techniques of oral history opening up a wide vista of perspectives on the recent past. But people living before the twentieth century also remembered, and this summer school aims to explore memory in the early modern period, one from which there are obviously no living witnesses, but which nevertheless left numerous traces of the politics and poetics of memory in its art, literature, and history.

Between 1500 and 1800, remembrance of the past was crucial for creating knowledge in a wide range of personal, social, and political projects, and vital contributions were made to the theory and practice of memory. Actors from across the social spectrum used both old and new media to encode, manipulate, transmit, and deploy memories. The development of the Renaissance ars memoria played an important role in new ideas about memory in early modern elite culture; at the same time, the traumas and crises of the period produced what may be termed an ars oblivia, in which legally prescribed ‘forgetting’ played a vital role in social and cultural reconstruction.

Memory and the Making of Knowledge in the Early Modern World will bring together senior scholars and junior researchers whose work addresses memory in early modern literature and history. It aims to consolidate recent advances in these fields and develop new avenues of inquiry through an intensive programme of skills training, collections-oriented excursions, and – above all – productive intellectual exchange on research topics and techniques. The Summer School will also explore how studies of memory and early modernity might shape one another in the future.

Junior (postgraduate and postdoctoral) scholars whose research touches on any aspect of memory in the early modern world are invited to participate in the Summer School. Participants will be expected to give a short (no longer than 20 mins) presentation on their research. Particular topics of interest might include (the following list is by no means exhaustive):

• Collective, individual, communicative, and cultural memory
• Memory in art, sculpture, architecture
• Memory in literature, drama, poetry
• Alternative sources of memory: material culture and cheap print
• Early modern oral history: memoirs, testi-mony, legal sources
• Mnemonic techniques and institutions: ars memoria, museums, libraries
• Places of memory/lieux de mémoire
• Memory and identity formation/elaboration: class/rank, nation, empire, religion, sex/gender, race/ethnicity
• Memory and its function for the formation of knowledge
• Relation of memory, historical knowledge and historiography
• Memory and politics: Reformation, the ‘general crisis’ of the seventeenth century, Enlightenment, war, local/regional/urban politics, imperial expansion and trade
• Memory and (early) modernity: print media, early industrialisation
• Mediating and remediating memory: recycling and reusing memories
• Space/place and memory: town, country, nation, empire, private/public spaces.

The Summer School will be conducted in English. With generous support from the VolkswagenStiftung, we can provide return transport to Göttingen, accommodation, and breakfast/lunches for participants. Child care is available for up to four children and is provided on a first come, first served basis.

Prospective participants are requested to send the following to the organisers, Andrew Wells and Claudia Nickel, at memory2017@uni-goettingen.de by 31 May 2017:

• 1 Page CV
• Brief letter of motivation
• 250-word abstract of your research

We particularly welcome applications from all individuals from under-represented groups or who may have special requirements (including, but not limited to, physical or mental disability). Such applicants are encouraged to specify any such requirements in their letter of motivation.

Further information will be available shortly at the website of the Göttingen Graduate School of the Humanities (Graduiertenschule für Geisteswissenschaften Göttingen): https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/summer-school-memory/562570.html

Contact Info: 

Organization:

Dr. Claudia Nickel, Dr. Andrew Wells

Graduiertenschule für Geisteswissenschaften Göttingen (GSGG), Universität Göttingen, Friedländer Weg 2, 37085 Göttingen, Germany

Contact Email: 

memory2017@uni-goettingen.de

URL: 

https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/summer-school-memory/562570.html