June 2006 (PDF) - NeMLA

NewsNews June 2006Board of Directors 2006-2007PresidentCarine MardorossianState University of New York-BuffaloPast PresidentMatthew Wilson, Penn State-HarrisburgFirst Vice PresidentMatt Lessig, SUNY-CortlandSecond Vice PresidentRita Bode, Trent UniversityAmerican/British Literature DirectorRobert Lougy, Pennsylvania State UniversityAmerican/British Literature DirectorJason Haslam, Dalhousie UniversityFrench Language & Literature DirectorNoelle Carruggi, New School UniversityGerman Language & Literature DirectorHelga Druxes, Williams CollegeSpanish Language & Literature DirectorLaureano Corces,Fairleigh Dickinson UniversityItalian Language & Literature DirectorSimona Wright, College of New JerseyComparative Literature DirectorMartha Kuhlman. Bryant UniversityPopular Culture DirectorLisa DeTora, Lafayette CollegeWomen’s Caucus DirectorLisa Perdigao, Florida Institute of TechnologyGraduate Caucus DirectorVanessa Raney, Michigan State UniversityGay/Lesbian Caucus DirectorDonald Gagnon, Western ConnecticutState UniversityTwo-Year College Caucus DirectorDaniel Schultz, Cayuga CommunityCollegeEditor of Modern Language StudiesLaurence Roth, Susquehanna UnversityWeb MastersVincent Guihan, Carleton UniversityAndrew Schopp, Nassau Community CollegeExecutive DirectorElizabeth Abele, Nassau Community CollegePresident’s Letter:Off to Baltimore!After being a member of NEMLA since1998 and an active part of the Women’s Caucus,it is a joy to write to you as President of theNortheast Modern Language Association for2006-07. I am delighted to report that plans forthe 38 th Convention in Baltimore, Maryland onMarch 1-4, 2007 are well underway. We received185 proposals for panels, with majorincreases in Italian, German and Spanish languagepanels. In addition, the Board has sponsored 20 additional panels,to fill in gaps left by the individual panels as well as to highlight thecultural strengths of our host city. We are anticipating our largest conventionin five years.The keynote speaker for 2007 will be Professor Amanda Anderson,Caroline Donovan Professor of English Literature and Department Chairat Johns Hopkins University. Professor Anderson specializes in Victorianliterature and contemporary literary, cultural,and political theory. She is the author of TheWay We Argue Now: A Study in the Cultures ofTheory (Princeton, 2006); The Powers ofDistance: Cosmopolitanism and the Cultivation ofDetachment (Princeton, 2001); and TaintedSouls and Painted Faces: The Rhetoric ofFallenness in Victorian Culture (Cornell, 1993).She has also co-edited, with Joseph Valente,Disciplinarity at he Fin de Siecle (Princeton,2002). We are delighted to feature as keynotespeaker a scholar whose work so consistentlyDr. Amanda Andersonand powerfully demonstrates the importance of debate, argument, anddemocratic practices.We will kick-off the Convention on Thursday March 1 with afree welcoming reception and reading, featuring the works of novelistMadison Smartt Bell and poet Elizabeth Spire. Madison Smartt Bell isthe author of eight novels, including Soldier’s Joy, which received theLillian Smith Award in 1989.His eighth novel, All Soul’sRising, was nominated for aNational Book Award. ElizabethSpires is the author of fivecollections of poetry as well asseveral books for children. Shehas been the recipient of aWhiting Award, a GuggenheimFellowship, and two fellowshipsfrom the National EndowmentRuth Anolik and Joel Faflak at “Gothic for the Arts. She is a ProfessorConfinement” Photo: Nicole Burkart

2 N e M L A News June 2006President’s Letter (continued)of English at Goucher College where she holds aChair for Distinguished Achievement. Please planto join us for this special event Thursday night,before the start of 2007 sessions Friday morning.After the success of 2006 Sunday sessions,we are looking at presenting a limited number ofspecial sessions on Sunday morning, with localexcursions Sunday afternoon. With additionalspeakers and events being planned by the LanguageDirectors, MLS editor Laurence Roth, andour host institution Johns Hopkins University,NEMLA’s 38 th Convention promises to offer astimulating conference to regular NEMLA membersand new friends.Believe it or not, we are also already atwork for the 39 th Convention in Buffalo 2008.Local liaison Annette Magid (Erie CommunityCollege), Matthew Lessig (2008 NEMLA President;SUNY-Cortland) and I already have a number ofacademic and fun events planned.This is a great time to be a part of theNortheast Modern Language Association. Ourconvention is membership-created, so let meconclude by thanking you for your contribution andwelcoming you to what promises to be an enrichingconvention in Baltimore.Carine M. MardorossianNEMLA President 2006-07Department of English, SUNY BuffaloBaltimore’s Inner Harbor and city skyline at night.Inside this Issue . . .President’s Letter 1-2Executive Director’s Report 2-3Volunteer Opportunities 3Call for Papers 4-21NEMLA Awards 23Key Dates 24Executive Director’s ’s ReportFor its 37 th Annual Convention held inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania March 2-5, the NortheastModern Language Association took over thehistoric Radisson Plaza-Warwick Hotel just offRittenhouse Square. Among the highlights thatJosephine McQuail, outgoing Executive Director,and Matthew Wilson, Past President, arranged withthe Board were: Opening reception at theDiamond Club on the TempleUniversity Campus; Keynote address by NancyBentley (University of Pennsylvania)on the complex sexualpolitics of 19 th centurypolygamy novels; Roundtable led by notedcomposition scholar KennethA. Bruffee (Brooklyn College); Reading by leading African writer BinyavangaWainaina, followed by the roundtable “Sunsets and Starvation”on contemporary African literature; Women’s Caucus sponsorship of poet and feministscholar Rachel Blau Duplessis (Temple University), whoread from her upcoming book Blue Studios: Poetry and ItsCultural Work; The Spanish Caucus special panel “El Mundo TeatralDe Jose Ramon Fernandez,” honoring the work of theleading Spanish playwright.All in all, NEMLA’s 37 th Conventionpresented 150 sessions that represented currentscholarship and issues across the modern languages.This convention provided a brilliant capstone toJosephine McQuail’s term as Executive Director,during which term she put NEMLA back on strongfinancial ground and strengthened the fellowshipprogram.In addition to our ongoing sponsorships offellowships, book awards and paper prizes, NEMLAhas also established a new relationship with theNewberry Library to sponsor two fellowships inforeign language research. This sponsored fellowshipcomplements NEMLA’s continuing fellowshipwith the American Antiquarian Association.Also at the spring Board meeting, NEMLA createdtwo new board positions: Comparative LiteratureDirector and Popular Culture and Media Director.The Board felt these two positions would examineand address issues that cut across or lay outsideNEMLA’s current language areas. The Boardappointed two interim directors, with full electionfor these positions to be held Fall 2006.Nancy BentleyPhoto: NicoleBurkart

June 2006 N e M L ANews 3Executive Director’s Report (continued)(The Board also appointed two newwebmasters: Vincent Guighan (Carleton University)and Andrew Schopp (Nassau CommunityCollege). They have launched a new websitedesign (www.nemla.org) to increase service andease of participation for NEMLA members.In addition to working closely with CarineMardorossian on events for the conference, I willalso be examining our current procedures to makeyour NEMLA membership and conference experienceeasier and more satisfying. Please feel free tocontact me at Northeast.MLA@gmail.com withany concerns or suggestions.Nassau Community College and theDepartment of English were very supportive of myapplication for Executive Director for the NortheastModern Language Association and havecommitted to technical, clerical and personalsupport to NEMLA for my term 2006-09. Afterpreviously serving as Graduate Caucus Directorand Co-Webmaster, I feel proud and fortunate tosee NEMLA through its 40 th Anniversary in Bostonin 2009.Elizabeth Abele, Ph.D.Executive Director, 2006-09Department of EnglishNassau Community College (SUNY)Long time membersTed Price andVincenzo Bollettinowelcome a graduatestudent to NEMLAat the KeynoteReception.Photo: NicoleBurkartCall for Board NominationsYour Board creates the annual convention and setsmembership policies. As a NEMLA member, youare eligible to be nominated for the Board. TheBoard reviews the nominations and presents aqualified slate to be voted on by the membership inNovember. These positions are open immediatelyfollowing the 2007 convention:Second Vice President: This is a 4-yearcommitment, as this position progresses to FirstVice President, President and Past President.Preference this year for Executive Board balance isfor male candidates whose specialization is in alanguage other than English.Spanish/Portugese Languages and Literatures:This 3-year position represents on the Boardthe concerns of Spanish/Portuguese scholars,reviews and promotes Spanish/Portuguese proposedpanels, and plans appropriate speakers and socialevents for the Convention.Popular Culture/Media Director: This 2-year position represents on the Board scholarsworking in Popular Culture and Film, reviews andpromotes proposed panels in these areas, andorganizes media needs for the Convention.Comparative Literatures Director: This 2-year position represents on the Board the concernsof interdisciplinary scholars working in ComparativeLiteratures and/or languages not currently representedon the Board as well as reviewing andpromoting proposed panels.For further description of Board responsibilities,the By-Laws are available online atwww.nemla.org If you are interested in any of thesepositions, please submit a brief bio and statement ofpurpose and goals as a NEMLA Board member (500words maximum total) by Sept. 15 to:Northeast.MLA@gmail.comSupporting Graduate StudentsAt the convention, a new slate of officers for the Graduate Student Caucus were selected:Director: Vanessa Raney, Michigan State University; Vice President: Gabi Eichmanns, University ofWashington-Seattle; and Secretary: Julie Flynn, Drew University. Building on the work of outgoingPresident Darcie Rives, the Graduate Caucus is committed to providing support and opportunities forgraduate students at NEMLA. They will be refining the new travel grant program and posting applicationinformation in September.Executive Director Elizabeth Abele has also created a Graduate Fellowship program that providesfinancial support for graduate students as well as professional experience. She is currently seekingGraduate Fellows to assist with the following responsibilities: Special Events, coordinating the needs ofspeakers and guests; Convention Design, production of program and ancillary materials; Membership/Program Associate, assistance with tracking membership and setting schedule (NYC preferred). To applyfor any of these positions, please send a cover letter and resume to Northeast.MLA@gmail.com.

4 N e M L ANews June 2006Call for Papers38 th Annual Convention March 1-4, 2007Baltimore, , MarylandThe NeMLA Board of Directors is delighted to offer this range and quality of proposed panels forour 2007 Convention. With the speakers and special events that are being arranged, this conventionpromises to be an invigorating exchange.Deadline for abstracts: September 15, 2006 (unless otherwise noted).Please include with your abstract: name and affiliation / email address / postal address / telephonenumber / A/V requirements (if any).Panelists renew/join and register no later than Nov. 30, 2006 for the 2007 membership year or riskbeing dropped from the convention program. You need not be a NEMLA member in order to submit apaper for consideration and you may submit to more than one session. However for the Convention,members may present at only ONE panel, though members may participate in a panel and a roundtable orother alternative session.AmericanSee also panels listed under:English/British: Ghosts of the Nineteenth Century / NegotiatingHomeplace in the Nineteenth Century / Weird Science inNineteenth-Century LiteratureComparative Literature: Plantation AmericaGay/Lesbian: What Can You Do With a “Handsome Sailor”? :(Re)Reading Beautiful Young Men in American LiteratureItalian: Revisiting the Past. Re-conceptualizing the PresentPopular Culture: Baltimore as Backdrop / Fairy Tale Visions and(Re)Visions / H.L. Mencken: The Sage of Baltimore / Literature,Narrative and Medicine / Medicine and Poetry: The Poultice andthe Pen / Food for Thought: Culinary, Literary and Cultural Viewsof Food in Literature, Film, TheaterSpanish/Portuguese: Hispanic and Latino Literature and Art ofthe East Coast / Spatial Metaphors and Writing in Latin Americanand Latino/a Works / Writing HungerWomen’s Studies: The Politics of Humor: Women and Satire in the20 th -Century / The Transatlantic New Woman19th-Century African-American AutobiographyBoard-Sponsored. In honor of NeMLA’s return to Maryland, thestate of Frederick Douglass’ birth, this board-sponsored panelinvites papers on any aspect of nineteenth-century AfricanAmerican literature. Papers that focus on autobiography and/oron the position of Baltimore and Maryland within AfricanAmerican cultural history are especially welcome. Send abstractsto Jason Haslam, Dalhousie University: Jason.Haslam@dal.ca.American Literature, Literary Theory, and ConstitutionalLaw This panel will provide an opportunity for us to thinkabout the relationships between literature and law and invitessubmissions that specifically explore the intersections betweenU.S. Constitutional Law, Literary Theory, and AmericanLiterature. Authors should build their presentations around thefollowing topics: judging and choice; the ethical act and ethicalresponsibility; law, norms, and power; paradoxes of equity;identity, subjectivity, and conformity; interpretation, authority,and legitimacy; and punishment, retribution, and redemption.Please send inquiries or 250-500 word abstracts (MSWordattachments only) to Trisha Brady: tmbrady@buffalo.edu.American Poetry in the 1950s: At the Boundary ofthe Postmodern? American poetry in the 1950s included LateModernism, Olson’s announcement that “we are now ‘post’ themodern,” a renewed interest in strict forms (like the villanelle),and the beginnings of such innovative “schools” as BlackMountain, Beat, New York, confessional, and Deep Image. Papersthat explore the interactions, rivalries, and influences of thepoetics of that decade will be considered. Gary Grieve-Carlson,Lebanon Valley College: grieveca@lvc.edu.American Working-Class Literature Papers areinvited that explore questions of definition, intersection of classand other identities, working-class stylistics, studies of specificauthors. Michelle M. Tokarczyk, Goucher College:M_Tokarczyk@comcast.net.The Anti-Hero: Because Good Doesn’t Have to BeNice Roundtable. Please submit abstracts or papers consideringthe role of the “anti-hero” in popular fiction. Work in all genreswill be accepted, but examinations of the high fantasy anti-hero(e.g. Elric of Melnibone, Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever) areespecially appreciated. Email submissions to Elric M. Kline,Rutgers University: elric.kline@gmail.com.Belles, Bitches, and Everything in Between:Constructing Women in Literature of the American SouthScarlett O’Hara, the spoiled plantation daughter surviving by herwits and sexuality during the Civil War, is the best-knownfictional Southern woman in America. However, male and femaleauthors of twentieth century Southern literature constructmothers, daughters, sisters, wives, lovers, leaders, and activistsand endow them with everything from saintly goodness tooutright insanity. This panel seeks papers that address fictionaland non-fictional portrayals of Southern women in terms of race,place, and economics as well as age and societal position.Abstracts of 250-500 words including affiliation and contact infoshould be emailed to Monica F. Jacobe: 09jacobe@cua.edu.Cultural Exchange in Native and EuropeanAmerican Literatures How have Native and EuropeanAmerican writers negotiated the contact zone? Papers from allperiods and genres in American literature are invited. Possibletopics might include transculturation, assimilation, hybridity andcultural difference; accounts of captivity, colonization andsovereignty; examples of performing identity and “playing Indian;”sites of translation and cultural (mis)representation; issues ofredaction, voice, authority and textual mediation. John Kucich,Bridgewater State College: jkucich@bridgew.edu.E.L. Doctorow’s The March In 2006, E. L. Doctorowpublished The March, a historical novel whose action followsGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman’s 1864-65 campaign throughGeorgia and the Carolinas. This novel earned Doctorow hissecond PEN/Faulkner award (his first was in 1990 for BillyBathgate), and is earning both critical and popular success. Thispanel would be devoted to early attempts at scholarship on thisrecent work by one of America’s most respected novelists.Panelists may discuss the importance of this work in relation toDoctorow’s other historical fictions, contemporary re-evaluations

June 2006 N e M L ANews 5of history, or Doctorow’s developing political and historicalagenda. James J. Donahue, University of Connecticut:jadonahu@flash.net.Edgar Allan Poe Board-Sponsored. In honor of theonly Super Bowl champions named after a nineteenth-centurypoem—but more importantly in honor of NeMLA’s return toBaltimore—this board-sponsored panel invites papers on anyaspect of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Send abstracts to JasonHaslam, Dalhousie University: Jason.Haslam@dal.ca.Emerson as Language Theorist This panel willexamine the implications of Emerson’s theory of languagearticulated in his many essays, including Nature, as it stands at thecenter of his philosophical, aesthetic and political thought. Weencourage papers that explore specific intersections involving theproblems, possibilities, and paradoxes of language in Emerson’swork. Paper topics might include: Allegory and violence;language, limit and transcendence; selfhood and the rhetoric ofself-reliance; the poetics of metamorphosis; political symbolism;representations of the body; dualisms; sexual symbolism. Pleasesend inquiries or 250-500 word abstracts to Sean Kelly:sjkelly@buffalo.edu.Frances E.W. Harper in Context Board -Sponsored.Baltimore-born writer Francis Ellen Watkins Harper published heronly novel, Iola Leroy, when she was 67, at the end of Harper’slong and successful writing career as a poet and journalist. Thispanel seeks submissions on any aspect of Harper’s work. Of specialinterest would be papers that seek to contextualize her writings ina variety of ways: in terms of her work in different genres; in termsof her activism; in terms of her contemporaries; her influence onlater writers, etc. Please address inquiries and submissions to RitaBode, email: rbode@trentu.ca.Ladies, I Address You Privately: Sentimentality andthe 20th Century Novel The sentimental was viewed duringmost of the 20th century as incompatible with the vision of theserious writer. Female authors had to be particularly careful tostay away from romance novels—and, more generally, fromwriting for a specifically female and/or mass audience—if theywanted to be considered writers of literature. This panel welcomespapers that look in different ways at the foreclosed sentimental intexts by both male and female American writers of the 20thcentury, and also invites theoretical explications of sntimentalityand related terms and concepts. Please send paper proposals toAlexa Weik: aweik@ucsd.edu.and related terms and concepts.Please send paper proposals to Alexa Weik: aweik@ucsd.edu.Literature, Readers and Democracy How arecontemporary writers, to use Rosa Eberly’s term, engaged increating readers who are citizen critics—readers involved inproducing “discourses about issues of common concern from anethos of citizen first and foremost—not as expert or spokespersonfor a workplace or as a member of a club or organization”? Panelseeks 500-word proposals that explore diverse ways in whichcontemporary American writers call upon readers to engageactively with the worlds around them and to see themselves asnecessary participants in building and sustaining democracy. Emailproposals as Word attachment to Jen Riley: j1riley@umassd.edu.The Madwoman in the (American) Attic : TheoreticalApproaches to Mental Illness This panel focuses on themental state and treatment of female characters in Americanliterature. Is mental illness a reflection of the society and thechanges occurring within its structure? Is it a means tomarginalize? Does it reflect unwanted change and the fears thatresult? Does its represent an effort to control and to silence thosewho threaten the status quo? The panel calls for papers that applyvarious theoretical approaches in their analysis of mental illnessand the effort to place the American woman in the figurativeattic. Panel proposals should be sent to Beth Jensen:bjensen@gpc.edu.Men at Home: Masculine Domesticity in Nineteenth-CenturyAmerica In Rural Studies (1867), Donald GrantMitchell describes ways of appealing to “a man’s sense ofdomesticity” in the architecture and decoration of homes. Thispanel will focus on connections between men and the home innineteenth-century America. What signals a “masculine” domesticspace in mid-century literature and culture? In what ways domen’s domestic priorities differ from those of women, and howmight new considerations of a masculine domesticity change ourunderstanding of nineteenth-century home life? Send 300-500word abstracts to Maura D’Amore: mauradamore@unc.edu.The Narrative Past: Historical Fiction from Past toPresent In the last couple of decades, historical fiction has againgarnered the interest of critics as well as of contemporary novelistsand filmmakers creating postmodern historical metafiction andfilm. This panel explores the multiple and multivalent connectionsbetween historical novels of the past and historical fictionand film of the present. It seeks to provoke discussion of freshcritical approaches to historical narratives of the nineteenth,twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Tara McGann, AmericanUniversity: mcgann@american.edu.Narratives of Old Age “Narratives of old age” refers toworks of fiction depicting an ageing protagonist engaged in apurgative act of remembering. The panel will explore the ways inwhich the self is constructed through the interplay of memory andfantasy. It will ponder the effects of trauma on the ageing narratorand reflect on the role of storytelling as a means of engaging withmelancholia. Dr Cathia Jenainati, The University of Warwick:C.Jenainati@warwick.ac.ukNative North American Literature This sessionwelcomes submissions on any aspect of Native American Studies,including literature, literary separatism, film, culture, spirituality,language, gender, tribal politics, race, and ethnicity. Papersaddressing the recent critical works by writers such as RobertWarrior and Thomas King are especially welcome. Please send250 word abstracts to: Benjamin D. Carson:benjamin.carson@gmail.com.Negotiating Marriage in the Fiction of John UpdikeEven when John Updike’s fiction most centers on self-involved,indecisive men, Updike still shows an interest in the womenmarried to these passive-aggressive men. While these femalecharacters are largely supporting or background figures, in novelslike Witches of Eastwick and Gertrude and Claudius Updikeexamines directly female characters’ attempt to recover fromunsatisfying marriages. This panel invites papers on the dynamicsof marriage in the fiction of John Updike, with a particularinterest in portrayals of wives and ex-wives. Send 250-500 wordabstracts to Elizabeth Abele: abelee@ncc.edu.The New American Poetry: (Almost) Fifty YearsLater (Almost) fifty years later, we seek to trace the influence ofDonald Allen’s seminal anthology, The New American Poetry, togain new understanding of how to (re)define postmodernism,while examining the past, present, and future of the avant-garde inAmerican poetry. Possible considerations: Has a particular groupof New American poets emerged as more influential than others?How current is the influence of Pound and Williams by way of thisanthology? What might have Allen’s “arbitrary” division into itsfive sections have to do with the way poetry is taught today? Howit is published? Critical reception of current poets? 250-300 wordabstracts to be submitted via email attachment (MS Word) toJohn R. Woznicki: woznicki@georgian.edu.

6 N e M L ANews June 2006New Trends in American Jewish Fiction Over thelast decade, a spate of new Jewish writers have appeared inAmerican fiction. Some, like Gary Shteyngart and Laura Vapnyar,are read as examples of a new Jewish immigrant fiction, whileothers, like Jonathan Safran Foer and Myla Goldberg, are lumpedin with post-postmodern writers. And then there’s Dara Hornwho, in her desire to write like I.L. Peretz and S.Y. Agnon, but inEnglish, escapes all categories. This panel seeks papers that offerfresh analyses of the shape and direction of contemporaryAmerican Jewish fiction. Send abstracts toMatthew Wilson, PennState Harrisburg: mtw1@psu.edu.Octavia Butler’s Legacy in the Classroom InFebruary 2006, Octavia Butler unexpectedly passed away at theage of 58. This panel seeks to honor her impact on the literatureclassroom. Presentations should focus on pedagogical approachesto Butler’s works. Presentations welcome on teaching selectedworks; teaching Butler in a comparative context (“Butler AND____”); reading groups; and many other subjects. Submit coverletter and 1-2 page proposals to Dr. Eva Tettenborn, Penn StateWorthington Scranton, 120 Ridge View Dr., Dunmore, PA18512, or email cover letter/message and abstract (up to 500words) to nemla06@cfp.tettenborn.org. NO attachments please.Race and American Literature Board-Sponsored.Papers are invited that examine representations of race by writersof any ethnicity in any period of American literature. Sendabstracts to Matthew Wilson, Penn State Harrisburg:mtw1@psu.edu.Racial Passing Since 1990 This panel seeks papersthat explore literary and/or television/filmic representations ofracial passing since 1990. Papers should contextualize a reading ofcontemporary racial passing within the historical tradition ofpassing. They might ask how the purpose or means of passing haschanged or highlight continuities (or both). Ideally, the papers willlead to a discussion of the exclusionary boundaries that continueto demarcate racial identity, the potential means of deconstructingthose boundaries, and the consequences of such deconstruction.Email 300-word abstracts (in text) to Julie Cary Nerad,juliecarynerad@racescholar.net. Please provide a brief bio(including academic affiliation and contact information).Reading in Yoruba Between Henry Louis Gates Jr.’sSignifying Monkey, Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark, andValerie Lee’s Granny Midwives and Black Women Writers,literary criticism has arisen that acknowledges occluded “Africanistpresence” and offers theoretical approaches grounded in alternativeschemata. A body of work is building in Yoruba schemata; forexample, Gates’ reading through the figure Eshu and Teresa N.Washington’s Our Mothers, Our Powers, Our Text: Manifestationsof Aje in Africana Literature, which reads through Aje, the‘powerful mothers’. This proposal calls for Yoruba readings ofliterary texts and conversations about theories and methodologiessuggested by this trajectory in criticism. Menoukha Case,University at Albany, menoukha@yahoo.com.Revisiting/Reframing Nella Larsen The recentpublication of a new biography on Nella Larsen invites us torecast her work from a variety of critical and disciplinaryperspectives. For this panel, I seek papers offering fresh readings ofLarsen’s texts—casting or further developing lines of inquiry intoher work. I am particularly interested in analyses that areattentive to questions of racial ‘authenticity,’ gender and sexuality,cosmopolitanism, and aesthetics. Please send 300-500 wordabstracts and brief biographical statements (via snail-mail oremail) to Erika Williams, erika_williams@emerson.edu: ErikaWilliams, Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies,Emerson College, Boston, MA 02116.Shaping the Future of Octavia Butler: TowardsUnderstanding Her Legacy The recent, tragic death of OctaviaButler occasions comments about her legacy. This panel seeks toidentify and trace Butler’s characteristic concerns: the individualand the community, the mobility of identity, the semi-permeablebarrier between self and Other, the voice of the liminal, and thenebulous and changing loci of race, gender and sexuality. Wewelcome papers that examine characteristic themes in any work orher opus as a whole. Submit 250-500 word abstracts to ShariEvans, either as a word attachment to sevans@umassd.edu, or inhard copy to Shari Evans, Assistant Professor of English,University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Road,North Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300.Spy Narratives and Security In the name of homelandsecurity, universities have been ordered to upgrade theirnetwork systems against “criminals, terrorists and spies.” What isliterary studies’ particular relation to a national project of security,spying, surveillance? How does an atmosphere of secrecy andspying change how we read? Possible paper topics include: literaryor film representations or theorizations of the spy; global or post-9/11 spies; reading as spying (textual encryption, reader asdecoder, breaching narrative codes); institutional status of secretsand security (authorizing or classifying secrets, conductingsurveillance, leaks). 250-word abstracts to Karen Steigman,stei0303@umn.edu.Transatlantic Modernism and the Task of NegroWomanhood This panel invites participants to look at resonancesamong the work of modernist women artists and writerswho explore what it meant to be doubly denigrated (and doublyconscious) as a black woman in the 1920 and ‘30s. Allowing acultural studies approach to the Harlem Renaissance, what arethe various narratives in dialogue with modern artwork bywomen? Can these artistic creations offer feminist representationsof fragmented, displaced, or tormented female identity within amodernist cosmopolitan context? Please send (via e-mail) a 250word abstract, contact information, and a short CV as Wordattachments to: Dr. Emily M. Hinnov, BGSU Firelands College;ehinnov@bgsu.edu.Traumatic Haunting in Asian American LiteratureThis panel session will address how historical, cultural, andpersonal traumas haunt Asian American authors, characters, andnarrative structures. Furthermore, how do historical traumasmanifest themselves through Asian American female bodies inliterature? Why are historical traumas and personal/sexual/bodilytraumas so often simultaneously narrated in Asian Americanliterature? Is this phenomenon of trauma ‘haunting’ the presentexperienced differently by male and female Asian Americancharacters? How would/does this focus on trauma in contemporaryAsian American literature contribute to the study oftrauma?Abstracts of 250-500 words should be sent by email toAmy Lillian Manning: amy.manning2@verizon.net.Whitman and Race Walt Whitman’s celebration of ahumanity without boundaries has been credited for itsmulticultural potential in some quarters, and criticized for itsoppressive disregard for difference, in other quarters. Any papersthat examine Whitman’s treatment of race as an issue, as well asracial bodies as human subjects, are welcome. Papers examininginterpretations of Whitman by people of color are especiallywelcome. Robert Lopez, Canisius College:robertoscarlopez@gmail.com.Williams Carlos Williams and the American Avant-Garde Scholars are invited to submit papers that examineWilliam Carlos Williams’s involvement in the formation of the

June 2006 N e M L ANews 7early avant-garde movement in America, as well as papers thatexplore his influence on later poets and trends in Americanpoetry. Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. Abstractsshould be no longer than 250 words. Please submit as anattachment to Paul R. Cappucci: cappuccip@georgian.edu.Women’s Poetry and the Firesides This panel seekspapers that explore the relationship between nineteenth-centurywomen poets and the Fireside poets. The premise of this panel isthat one very profitable way of understanding the Fireside poetsand how they functioned in the nineteenth century is through therecent scholarship on women’s poetry, since many of the conventionsand features of women’s poetry – the sentimental aesthetic,traditional poetic forms, the prevalence of occasional verse, theview of poetry as a form of political rhetoric – can also be foundin the Firesides. Please send a 300-word abstract to Andrew C.Higgins: higgins_andrew@yahoo.com.Writing the Wilderness The panel invites papers thatexamine how Early American authors like Benjamin Franklin,Hector de Crevecouer and Charles Brockden Brown wrote thewilderness as part of nation building. Send abstracts to TimothyStode, Nassau Community College: strodet@ncc.edu.CanadianSee also panels listed under:American: Narratives of Old Age / Native North AmericanLiteratureFrench: Francophonie and Rebel Writers / Representations ofHome in Francophone Women’s AutobiographyPopular Culture: Fairy Tale Visions and (Re)VisionsHistory in Canadian and Quebec Literatures Howdo recent texts published in English Canada and Quebeccorrespond or diverge in their treatments of the past? Proposalsare invited that draw on any aspect of history (traditional orunderrepresented; local or international) and its treatment inCanadian and Quebec literatures and/or literary criticism. Becausethis panel aims in part to increase the profiles of Canadian andQuebec Studies at NEMLA, a broad spectrum of topics iswelcome. Individual papers need not be comparative as the panelitself will be. Please send 500-word abstracts to Andrea Cabajskyat cabajsa@umoncton.ca.A Stirring Vision: Transnationalism in the ContemporaryCanadian Novel Pico Iyer has claimed that “MichaelOndaatje’s The English Patient could be called the defining workof modern Canadian fiction, not only because it won so manyreaders world wide, but because itpresents us with a stirring vision ofwhat Canada [...] might offer to a worldin which more and more people are onthe move and motion itself has becomea kind of nation”. My panel calls forpapers that examine representations ofnomadism, diaspora and exile incontemporary Canadian literaturecontextualized within the politicaleconomic background underlying ‘postnational’discourses of globalization,post-colonialism, ecocriticism andtransnationalism. Send abstracts toCatherine E. Wall presenting at“Latin America and Beyond”Photo: Nicole BurkartVincent Guihan, Carleton University:vjguihan@connect.carleton.caCaribbeanSee also panels listed under:Comparative Literature: Plantation America / Reading Brathwaiteand Walcott / Rejection and Acceptance in Literatures of Africaand the CaribbeanFrench: From Negritude to CreolizationSpanish/Portuguese: Masculinities in Cuban and Puerto RicanFiction / Subversive Texts in Latin AmericaWomen’s Studies: Representation of Sex and Sexuality in RecentCaribbean Women’s WritingCreative WritingSee also panels listed under:Comparative Literature: Multicultural Poetry ReadingPedagogy: Poetry and Pedagogy: Techniques to Tantalize Studentswith the Genre of PoetryPopular Culture: Breaking the Line: The Art of the Lyric Essay/ False Memoirs: The Intersection of Fiction and Memory inContemporary Short FictionComparative LiteratureSee also panels listed under:American: Reading in Yoruba / The Narrative Past: HistoricalFiction from Past to PresentFrench: Post-Colonial Cannibalism in Literature and the ArtsGerman: Generational Conflicts in Fiction and Memoir: Postwarto Present / Leaving Narrow Boundaries: Travel Narratives bySwiss Authors / Switzerland as Viewed from Without: GlobalTravel Narratives to SwitzerlandItalian: Sicilia and the Literature of Travel / The Long ItalianEighteenth Century (1700-1815) and the Grand TourPedagogy: Creative Writing in the Foreign Language Classroom /Let’s Start at the Beginning: What Is Literature? / On-lineLearning in Foreign LanguagesPopular Culture: Medicine and Poetry: The Poultice and the PenWomen’s Studies: Feminist Witchcraft in Literature, Film, and/orSocial MovementsThe Art of the Manifesto Many of the earlytwentieth-centurymodernist movements in literature and thevisual arts propelled themselves through a series of manifestos.Because an array of manifestos exploded on the modernist scenesimultaneously, we need to look at how these forms interacteddynamically. How did the manifesto cross national barriers and,most importantly, how did it “manifest” itself in works of art?Papers should be submitted in English. Interdisciplinary approachesare encouraged. Please submit your paper proposal by e-mail to Dr. Monica Duchnowski: Duchnowmon@msn.comThe City in the Text: Setting as Signifier This panelwill explore the representation of cities in an individual textandthe way each presentation shapes a particular literary text. Theappearance of a particular city, an urban setting, in a literary textsignifies more its use to provide a geographical and historiccontext. This panel asks presenters to raise the question, “Howcan we theorize about the presence of the city as a signifier in thetext?” Texts may be from any time period and genre and from anyliterary tradition. Abstracts of 250 words (no papers) andquestions should be addressed to Marilyn Rye at: mrye@fdu.eduCharacter and Characterization in NarrativeLiterature This panel will re-examine the status of characteracross a wide range of genres and time periods in narrativeliterature; it specifically proposes to explore the many meanings ofcharacter (formal, moral, psychological, historical, etc.) by

8 N e M L ANews June 2006soliciting papers that consider and/or utilize character as aconceptual focus. Papers may present theoretical models ofcharacter, or they may analyze the construction of character and/ormethods of characterization in particular narrative texts. Pleaseemail 300-word abstracts to Caroline Giordano:cbgiorda@umich.edu.Culture Shock: Consumerism in Post-CommunistCulture Board-Sponsored Panel. The irony of the Europeanrevolutions of 1989 is that the expansion of Western consumerculture, formerly deemed “immoral” or “decadent” by communistregimes, now appears as a rather ambiguous victory given thatboth dissents and former official artists must struggle to survive inthe free market. A sufficient amount of time has elapsed for bodyof work that addresses the paradoxical impact of consumer cultureon former communist states is beginning to emerge. This panelinvites papers that analyze how post-communist writers, filmmakersand artists represent consumer culture (either positively ornegatively). Submit abstracts to Martha Kuhlman:mkuhlman@bryant.edu.The Dynamics of Governance and Poverty in Fourth WorldLiteratures This panel explores issues of Governance, Economics,Racial Attitudes / Cultural Authenticity in Fourth Worldwritings. This exploration anchors itself on Colonial / Postcolonialwritings from Africa, Asia and Western countries by Achebe,Wole Soyinka, Spivak, Edward Said, Salmon Rushdie, Fanon,Buchi Emecheta, Ousmane Sembene, Ngugi wa Thiong’o,Nurruddin Farah, among others. This panel expands the term,Fourth World, to include all marginalized poor living in thecapitalist West. Discussions will juxtapose Western norms and thetraditional modes of the Other with respect to governance,religion, family and gender questions. Send abstracts to Dr. RoseUre Mezu. Morgan State University: Roseyure@aol.com.Earth, Air, Water, Fire: Twentieth Century Poetics ofSimplicity Much of the best known and most widely admiredpoetry of the last hundred years flaunts its bookishness, itselaborate and often thrilling systems of allusion and symbology, itstheoretical sophistication. This session aims at description,investigation, assessment—at appreciation, in all its senses—ofstrains of modern and contemporary poetry built significantly onmore direct and basic experience of life on our planet. The ancientversion of the elements in the title serves as a kind of shorthandfor such a perspective, but the panel is not only open to, butactively encourages other constellations of “simplicity.” Sendproposals, e-mail preferred, to William Waddell, St. John FisherCollege, bwaddell@sjfc.edu.Ecocriticism and The Animal Other Co-sponsored bythe Association of the Study of Literature and the Environment.Theorist Cary Wolfe claims the question of the animal is “perhapsthe central problematic for contemporary culture and theory.”This panel seeks papers that address the presence of the animal inliterary, filmic, and other cultural forms. Proposals energized byinterdisciplinary and cultural studies methodologiesare especially welcome. Also welcomeare proposals that use the location of theanimal to theorize new modes of ecocriticalpractice. Proposals should be 500-750 words.Send proposal by email to Nicole Merola:nmerola@risd.edu.Exile and the Narrative ImaginationThe session will examine texts by anyexiled writer from any country, dealing withthe literary representation of exile. Electronicsubmissions to Agnieszka Gutthy, SoutheasternLouisiana University: agutthy@selu.edu.Exit Strategy and Narrative Construction This panelwill explore the concept of exit strategy, not as a business ormilitary term, but as played out in literature. Insofar as narrativespresuppose a beginning and an end, applying this concept tonarratives can provide insight into their rhetorical implementation.Panelists may address any of the following: How writers de/construct their plot based on the outcome? What narrative orrhetorical devices are used? How narrators map their own exit? Towhat extent an exit strategy is a form of fallacy and creates theillusion of control? Please send proposals to Abbes Maazaoui:maazaoui@lincoln.edu.The “Garden of Memory”—The Narrative, the Cityand the Past in Orhan Pamuk The panelists should addressdifferent aspects of Orhan Pamuk’s narrative style, transcendenceof city, memoirs and the self. Nilgun Anadolu Okur, TempleUniversity: anadolu@temple.eduThe Global Turn in Literary Studies This panelinvites papers that theorize and/or examine the global turn inliterary studies, particularly in the wake of postcolonial studies.Papers might address both how globalization studies has re-shapedthe literary and what the literary contributes to our understandingsof the global. Please send 300-500 word paper abstracts,preferably by e-mail attachment, to: Omaar Hena,omaarhena@virginia.eduModernism and the Scene of Writing This panel, byfocusing on representations of writing, suggests that modernistdramatizations of writing, of “being text,” signal moments of“becoming modern,” of a particular character or persona engageddirectly in a modernist project—and their successes, failures, and/or refusals reflect the possibilities, limits, and consternations ofthe attempt. The “writing scene” is a particularly generativeanalytical site for thinking about literary modernism acrossnational, racial, political, and other boundaries because itconfronts directly the problems of applying literary technique tothe chaos of ‘modern’ life. Please email 250-500 word abstracts toJeff O’Neal, jso18@columbia.edu by September 1.Multicultural Poetry Reading Creative Session.Poets writing in English, French, Italian and Spanish are invited tosubmit sample of their work for this multicultural reading.Noelle Carruggi, New School University:noelle_carruggi@yahoo.com.Plantation America This panel invites papersconcerned with any aspect of plantation and post-plantationliteratures from South America to the American South. Sendabstracts in body of email to Matthew Lessig, SUNY Cortland:lessigm@cortland.edu.Postcolonialism and Physics While postcolonialreadings of modernity seem to expose classical physics as acolonial discourse, parallel developments in modern physics havealso denaturalized classical concepts of space, time, matter, andenergy, prompting interpretations of the physical universecongruent with pre-colonial cosmologies. Whatmight be gained by mutually situating postcolonialtheory and physics? This interdisciplinary panelinvites papers exploring the intersections ofpostcolonialism and physics and their impact onknowledge and culture. Send 250-word abstractsto Justin Hayes, Quinnipiac University/ YaleUniversity: justin.hayes@quinnipiac.edu.Sandra L. Staton-Taiwa at “Navigating the FictionalWorld of Toni Morrison” Photo: Nicole Burkart

June 2006 N e M L ANews 9Psycho-Traumatology and 19th-Century AuthorshipThis panel proposes to examine the connection betweenthe real-life trauma of nineteenth century authors and their bodyof work. In what ways did their childhood and/or adolescenttraumas inform and shape 19th century writings? How muchnarrative distance is there between the traumatized author andhis/her work? What are the various traumas that serve toinfluence writers of the nineteenth century? Possible traumatopics include: Death and/or Suicide and/or Murder; Poverty;Incest; Physical and/or Emotional Abuse; Parental Insanity;Personal Insanity; Abandonment; Addiction; Other. JillmarieMurphy, Schenectady College: murphyj@gw.sunysccc.edu.Reading Brathwaite and Walcott This panel onBrathwaite and Walcott offers an opportunity to analyze andevaluate critical trends and positions on both of these majorpoets, including the persistent tendency to represent them asmanifesting opposing cultural, political and aesthetic positions.Papers should be conversant with at least some of the importanttrends in criticism of one or both poets,and might address themin the context of criticism of anglophone Caribbean literatureand of anglophone world poetry. Please contact Dr ElaineSavory, savorye@newschool.edu with paper proposals of 500words.Rejection and Acceptance in Literatures of Africaand the Caribbean A session panel on Literature of Africa andthe Caribbean proposes evaluations of themes of rejection andacceptance in the most expansive sense. Thematic conceptionsmight include, but are certainly not limited to, the following:examinations of literary text(s) in connection with Bhabha’sconcept of ambivalence; examples of filiation/affiliation inAfrican and Caribbean literary texts; notions of literary selfdevelopmentand/or selfhood; cultural/linguistic appropriation inliterature; Négritude movement; Bhabha’s concept of hybridityin literature. Please send proposal abstracts or completed papersfor this session to Dr. Walter Collins, University of SouthCarolina, Lancaster: collinsw@sc.edu.Tropes in the Gender Discourse of Modern EastAsian Literature, Film and Other Cultural Works Exploringmodernity in modern East Asia from a gender discourseperspective involves understanding construction of selfconsciousnessfrom the newly-emerged community of womenwriters, filmmakers and artists. Proposals might address issuessuch as: How was urbanization / capitalization incorporated intothe construction of female identity through visual culture? Howwere the national cultural legacies at once preserved andsubverted in the re-definition of femininity? How did femalewriters and artists assert their roles in the gender reconstructionand cultural renovation in this period? Jing Huang & HaihongYang; University of Iowa; haihong-yang@uiowa.edu, jing-huang-1@uiowa.edu.English/BritishSee also panels listed under:American: Literature, Readers and DemocracyGay/Lesbian: Joe Orton and the New Queer HistoricismPopular Culture: Fairy Tale Visions and (Re)Visions / Food forThought: Culinary, Literary and Cultural Views of Food inLiterature, Film, Theater / Literature, Narrative and MedicineWomen’s Studies: The Politics of Humor: Women and Satire inthe 20 th -Century / The Transatlantic New WomanContemporary Scottish Fiction and Film ContemporaryScottish Fiction and Film. Proposals and completedpapers are solicited for any aspect of Scottish fiction and filmsince 1990. Particularly welcome are papers that deal with thefollowing: film adaptations, the continuing viability of a distinctiveScottish fiction and/or cinema, the persistence of old concerns andthe emergence of new voices and forms. Send abstracts or papers toRobert Morace at rmorace@daemen.edu.The Creative Trance in Nineteenth-Century BritishLiterature This panel will examine the discourse of spontaneousliterary creation in nineteenth-century British poetry and fiction.Paper proposals are invited on topics including but not limited tomesmerism/animal magnetism/artificial somnambulism, opium use,improvisational poetics, and automatic writing. Papers exploringthe relationships between these themes and issues of authorialagency, voice, gender, and reputation are particularly welcome.Suggested authors include but are not limited to Coleridge, MaryRobinson, Mary Shelley, Letitia E. Landon (LEL), DeQuincey,Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Sheridan LeFanu, Yeats, and GeorgieHyde-Lees. Please submit 250-500 word abstracts to AnneDeLong at amdb@lehigh.edu.The False God “Favourable Chance” or “LadyLuck?”: The Discourse on Gambling in England Gambling hasexisted in British literature since Chaucer and before, yet thediscourse on gambling exploded in Victorian England. Why wasgambling such a divisive topic in the 19th century? High church,low church, secular elite, middle class: each faction opposed gamesof chance, but for widely disparate reasons. Where did the conflictbegin? Why did the debate erupt in the Victorian age? Where hasit led since? Papers could approach gambling from literary,historical, cultural, social, and/or philosophical perspectives.Submit abstracts to Chad Cripe: cripec@student.gvsu.edu.Ghosts of the Nineteenth Century Papers sought thattake nineteenth-century ghost stories as their major focus. Possibletopics include the ghost story’s engagement with religious andscientific movements such as Spiritualism, the popularity of theséance, the formation of the Society for Psychical Research, or anyaspect of the science/religion debate. Papers could also address theplace of the ghost story in a canonized writer’s oeuvre (how doghost stories by Dickens or James, for example, help shape orcomplicate our perception of these writers?), or the reception ofghost stories in popular culture (why, for example, did the ghoststory become an integral part of Christmas celebrations?). Email300-500 word abstracts to Jen Cadwallader at cadwall@unc.edu.Intersections of Text and Image in William BlakeExplorations of the combination of text and image in the oeuvre ofWilliam Blake, whether in illuminated poem, book illustrations,commercial work or unpublished manuscripts by Blake. Proposalsby e-mail preferred, to Josephine A. McQuail, Box 5053, TennesseeTechnological University, Cookeville TN 38505 ph. (931) 372-6207; FAX (931) 372-3484; jmcquail@tntech.edu.J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis The J.R.R. Tolkien/C.S.Lewis panel addresses all aspects of the works and lives of bothauthors. Recent interest in them invites examination of theirimpact as men and writers on twentieth-century literature andthought. Papers are welcome that take as their subject filmadaptations of their fictions. William J. Mistichelli, Penn StateAbington: wxm3@psu.eduJohn Milton Board-Sponsored. This panel invitespapers on any aspect of the works of John Milton. Send abstractsto William Moeck, Nassau Community College:moeckw@ncc.edu.Mary Shelley and Her Contemporaries This panel willfocus on the works of Mary Shelley and encourage participants toidentify the ways in which Shelley makes evident her ownideological position-as “proper lady” and/or confident womanwriter-as she engages with the writings of her contemporaries,

10 N e M L ANews June 2006hopefully discussing both her better known and her lesser knownworks, and exploring the complex relationship between her worksand the writings of her contemporaries. Papers examining herwritings in modes other than the novel and short story areparticularly encouraged. Proposals should be submitted as MSWord attachments to L. Adam Mekler,lmekler@jewel.morgan.edu.Modernism and the Death of Consciousness Duringthe first part of the twentieth century, the emerging fields ofpsychology and neuroscience altered traditional philosophicalconceptions of mind. However, as the mind became increasinglyembodied in the brain and fragmented nervous system, manyprominent thinkers began to debate the existence of a unifyingconsciousness. This panel will explore how the “death ofconsciousness” affects important Modernist themes. Please e-mail300 word abstacts to Deric Corlew: djcorlew@email.unc.edu.Negotiating Homeplace in the Nineteenth CenturyDuring the English and American industrial eras (1840-1910),homelessness often implied a lack of opportunity, a lack ofidentity, a lack of acceptance. How did these individuals negotiatetheir space (or lack thereof)? How did their lack of housing aid orhinder their own development and position in society? Whatspaces did they transform, and in what ways did they manage tomaintain, create, or reconstitute their homes? Papers for thissession should address representations of home and homelessnessin literature written between 1840 and 1910. Send abstracts toGrace Wetzel, English Dept., University of South Carolina,Columbia, SC 29208.The Novels of Jane Austen Board-Sponsored. Thispanel solicits papers that examines the novels of Jane Austen.Send abstracts to Robert Lougy, Pennsylvania State University:rxl1@psu.edu.Odd Women Out: Spinsters in 20th Century BritishNovels George Gissing’s 1893 novel The Odd Women dramatizedthe plight of women of modest means rendered “superfluous” by adearth of men. This panel seeks to explore the evolution of thespinster in British novels beyond the turn of the century. Possibletopics: Noncanonical spinsters; Traditions of spinsterhood (thelegacies of Austen, Gissing and others); Alternative “families” andcommunities; Lesbianism; The spinster novel’s relationship torealism or modernism; The costs and consolations of spinsterhood;Spinsterhood and feminism; Spinsterhood and thepostcolonial British novel Please send 300-500 word abstracts toDana Shiller at dshiller@washjeff.edu.Radical Concepts/Radicalized Subjectivities: Re-Reading Reality in British Fiction from 1969 Beyond the crisesof the death of the author and the text, from 1969 the Britishnovel has developed innovative practices, radicalizing ourlinguistic and fictional renditions of reality itself. An underlyingreality principle recurs, a legacy from modernist fiction and itsambiguous relationship with the literary past. Formal andconceptual ideas related fiction to reality producing a plethora ofmeanings, especially in terms of marginalized subjectivities, issuesof gender, class concerns, and various social and aestheticideologies. The panel reconsiders how a residuum of mimesis andtruth underpins this evolving narrative practice. Send abstracts toPhilip Tew: philip.tew@brunel.ac.uk.Restoration Drama Board-Sponsored. From thecomedy of manners to the heroic drama, theatre in the latter partof the 17th century revived with a flourish. This panel seekssubmissions on new critical and theoretical approaches toRestoration and early 18th-century drama. Please addressinquiries and submissions to Rita Bode: rbode@trentu.ca.Reverse Colonization in Victorian Fiction This panelwill examine the colonial adventure setting within the very streetsof London, including fiction that describes London in the samemanner in which the colonies are described and addresses the fearof the colonies “coming home” and taking over London. A varietyof approaches is welcome in discussing the Victorian concerns ofprogress and decline. Please send 250-word abstracts via email toJaime Jordan: jlj048000@utdallas.edu.Romantic Landscapes Proposals are sought forpapers dealing with the relation between landscape and literaryworks during the Romantic era (1789-1832). Of particularinterest are papers that examine literary works in relation to otheraccounts of landscapes, such as maps, tour guides, surveys,travelogues, court documents, other poems, etc. Please send 250-300 word abstracts to Frank Duba by e-mail toFrank.Duba@millersville.edu.Shakespeare and His Contemporaries Board-Sponsored. This panel solicits papers that examine Elizabethanand Jacobean writing. Send abstracts to Robert Lougy, PennsylvaniaState University: rxl1@psu.edu.Subversive Masochisms The panel “SubversiveMasochisms” invites papers that challenge normative andpathologizing readings of masochism. Papers should addressliterary and/or cultural works from 1800 to the present day.Inquiries aper proposals of between 200 and 300 words should besubmitted by email, to Robin Chamberlain, atgotta.be.adored@gmail.com.Taking Sides: Reassessing the Great VictorianDebates This panel seeks to reassess Victorian intellectualdebates as they are embodied in the conflicts of specific individuals.Presenters are encouraged to address this question: doescurrent understanding of a host of a variety of social and theoreticalissues confirm or militate against the conventional wisdomthat has traditionally declared specific parties in these nineteenthcenturydisputes the “winners?” Where our contemporary views ofwho emerged victorious from these intellectual battles differ fromthose prevalent in previous generations, what influences havehelped to shape both our present perspectives and those of ourcritical predecessors? Abstracts of 250-500 words should besubmitted via e-mail to Michael DiMassa(michael.dimassa@yale.edu).Teaching Medieval Women This panel solicits papersthat address the use of works about the lives of medieval womenin modern classrooms, considering issues of literacy and women’seducation. Susannah Chewning, Union County College:Chewning@ucc.eduVictorian Landscape Descriptions The VictorianLandscape Descriptions panel invites abstracts of papers whichdiscuss landscape descriptions of the Victorian period, fictional oractual, in prose or verse. Papers should address one or more of theperiod’s cultural issues and concerns: aesthetics/ethics/exploration/psychology/religion/science/social and political theory. Emailabstracts to Christie Harner: c-harner@northwestern.edu.Weird Science in Nineteenth-Century LiteratureWeird Science in Nineteenth-Century Literature will explore thesignificance of unconventional or non-traditional science(including medicine) in texts of the period. Examples mightinclude, but are not limited to: phrenology, mesmerism, alchemyand homeopathy. Send abstracts of no more than 250 words byemail to: Dr. Kristin Sanner, Dept. of English, Mansfield University,ksanner@mansfield.edu.

June 2006 N e M L ANews 11FilmSee also panels listed under:English/British: Contemporary Scottish Fiction and FilmFrench: French Cinéma Today; Post-Colonial Cannibalism inLiterature and the ArtsGerman: Representations of Travel in Post-1989 GermanLiterature and FilmItalian: Paper to Screen and Back Again in Italian Film / RobertoBenigni’s Cinema and the Blend of Comedy and Tragedy /Somatizing the Regime: Fascism as Sickness in the Films of the 70sPopular Culture: Violence, Technology, and the Cold WarDomesticSpanish/Portuguese: Globalization and Its Discontents in ContemporarySpanish Film / Latin American/Latino Cinema:(Re)presentations of IdentityCritically Reading the Films of Todd SolondzBeginning with the release of Welcome to the Dollhouse andcontinuing through Palindromes, Todd Solondz has produced someof the most provocative representations of contemporary, andmostly suburban, life—often concerning the marginal and/orcontroversial sites of the adolescent loser, the pedophile, sex andrace, and abortion. Looking beyond the responses that Solondz’sfilms either represent provocative representations of contemporary,and mostly suburban, life—often concerning the marginaland/or controversial sites of the adolescent loser, the pedophile,sex and race, and abortion. Looking beyond the responses thatSolondz’s films either represent “truth” or are simply “hipposturing,” this panel seeks theoretically informed papers thatexplore any aspect of Solondz’s work. All theoretical perspectivesare welcome. Please submit 250-word abstracts via emailattachment (preferably Word) to Tyler Kessel:kessetyl@hvcc.edu.The Disintegration of Imagination: ExaminingRichard Kelly’s Donnie Darko - Director’s Cut Roundtable.Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko (2001) was a thought-provokingtriumph for this first-time director. In 2004, Kelly unveiled hisdirector’s cut. Bloated with an excess of information, Kellystripped Darko of its previous “magic.” Why did Kelly elect torelease this uninspired vision to his fans? Can the film recoverfrom the damage caused by the director’s cut? Moreover, whilethis release reveals much about the director, it is also revealsmuch about modern audiences. This panel will address both theuncanny success of the original film and the grotesque director’scut. What do they reveal about the current state of film-art?About society? Please send proposals for this roundtablediscussion to Erica Joan Dymond, ejd3@lehigh.edu.Feminist Film and Theory Board-Sponsored. Thispanels solicits papers on feminist film and/or feminist film theory.Send abstracts to Lisa DeTora, Lafayette College:detoral@lafayette.eduThe Image of Women in the Films of Hitchcock &Fellini: Comparison and Contrast Explore the images ofwomen in the films of Hitchcock and Fellini: Rebecca, Notorious,Psycho, The Birds, Marnie, Frenzy; La Strada, La Dolce Vita,Nights Of Cabiria, Juliet Of Spirits, City of Women. All approacheswelcome: gender, class, design, comparative, religious,societal,psycho-analytical, biographic, or other — includingpersonal response. While Papers are expected to be of a professionalnature, a true spirit of informality is a mainstay of thispanel. Must adhere strictly to a 12 minute reading, leaving timefor audience discussion. eMail abstract of 250 words, plus CV, toco-chairs Vincenzo Bollettino and Theodore Price:pricet@mail.montclair.edu & bollettinov@mail.montclair.eduThe Postcolonial Youth Film This panel will investigatethe ways the emerging media of postcolonial cinema focuseson the notion of the adolescent, and how these depictions of theyouthful body, within the genre of the postcolonial film, can beseen as developing a dialogue which runs against the grain of boththe American/European youth film and diasporic film in Britain,as well presenting the adolescent body as a mode of mediationwith the concepts of nationalization and globalization, workingwithin and against the already constructed images of youthproduced in the West. Send 300-word abstracts to Rebecca FineRomanow at rfexile@aol.comFrenchSee also panels listed under:Canadian: History in Canadian and Quebec Literatures20th-Century French Theatre Board-Sponsored.French theatre at the mid-twentieth century—from playwrights asdiverse as Anouilh, Sartre and Ionesco—provided provocative,innovative and poetic responses to major cultural and politicalshifts. Papers are invited that explore any aspect of these worksand their legacy to the the world stage. Send abstracts in body ofemail to Northeast.MLA@gmail.com, with “French Theatre” insubject line.Francophonie and Rebel Writers Does“Francophonie” still exist? Some young African writers seem toanswer “no.” While Nimrod, a Chadian-born writer says: “aFrancophone writer does not exist” the Franco-Djiboutian,speaking in the name of the new generation of Africans writing inFrench states: “We are from no Francophone chapel.” Are thesestatements symptomatic of identity crisis or is it an act ofrebellion of the former colonized? Either way, they introduce afresh look at the African literary landscape. This panel exploresthese interrogations focusing on the opportunities and challengesof such rebellion. Send abstracts to Moussa Sow: sow@tcnj.eduFrench and Francophone Women Writers of theEighteenth Century French and Francophone women writersplayed a very important role in the Eighteenth century. In theirnovels they express their resistance to arranged marriage and tothe silence with which women were supposed to accept theirroles. The goal of this panel is to review the work of these Frenchwomen writers and the role their books played creating a political,social consciousness and stirring of new ideas. Send abstracts to:Dr. Zoe Petropoulou, St. John’s University, Dept. of Languagesand Literatures, 8000 Utopia Parkway, Jamaica, NY 11439;petropoz@stjohns.edu.French Cinéma Today Papers are invited that explorethe work of contemporary French filmmakers, with a particularinterest in new female directors. Lisa DeTora, Lafayette College:detoral@lafayette.eduFrom Negritude to Creolization Board-SponsoredPanel. This panel invites papers that explore theories of identityin the French Caribbean. Send abstracts to CarinneMardorossian, SUNY-Buffalo: cm27@buffalo.edu.The Legacy of Victor Hugo. Board-Sponsored. Thispanel invites papers (in French or in English) on any aspect of theworks or influence of Victor Hugo. Send abstracts (250-500words) to Kitty C. Dean, Nassau Community College:kittydean@earthlink.net.

12 N e M L ANews June 2006Marguerite Duras: “Je suis créole” dit-elle Board-Sponsored. Duras’ oeuvre made a legend of the author’sIndochinese childhood and the Durasian aesthetics is oftenreminiscent of calligraphy. Papers are invited that will addressaspects of creolity in Duras’ poetics (space, rythms, paradox) andexploration of “being in the world.” Noelle Carruggi, NewSchool University: noelle_Carruggi@yahoo.com.A Paradox of Identities: Reading Difference inFrench Fiction and Film If French identity is founded on theprinciples of Republican universalism, what place does “difference”have in contemporary French society? What are therepresentations of difference in recent French fiction and film?How does cinematic and literary fiction wrestle with the seemingincompatibility between French identity and the expression ofgendered, cultural, ethnic, sexual identities? Send 1-page abstractsto Marjorie Salvodon: msalvodo@suffolk.edu.Poètes du Maghreb et du Moyen-Orient War andpolitical conflict have led many poets from the Arabic World tolive in exile in France - among others, Andrée Chédid and VenusKhoury-Ghata (Lebanon), Abdellatif Laâbi (Morocco), and manymore. Papers are invited that explore the work of poets from theMiddle East and Northern Africa. Noelle Carruggi, New SchoolUniversity: noelle_Carruggi@yahoo.com.Post-Colonial Cannibalism in Literature and theArts The term ‘cannibalism’ has repeatedly been used by imperialEurope in an effort to distinguish itself from the subjects of itscolonial expansion and justify the colonization of territories.Although this term was in the past used to construct differencesbetween colonizers and colonized it is now used to deconstructthese differences. This panel will explore the construction of sucha concept and how it has been used in literature and the arts todraw new boundaries between “us” and “other” and renegotiateidentities. Please send abstract to Magali Compan(mxcomp@wm.edu)Rébellion, passion et transgression dans les romansde Maryse Condé For this roundtable we are looking forpresentations in French or English leading to a discussion of thethemes and poetics of rebellion, passion and transgression in thenovels of Maryse Condé..Noelle Carruggi, New School University:noelle_Carruggi@yahoo.comRepresentations of Home in Francophone Women’sAutobiography How have Francophone women writersrepresented ‘home’ in their autobiographical writing? Is home anidealized entity, or something to conceal or reject, and how is thisconcept articulated? This panel welcomes any approach to both‘home’ and autobiography. Please send abstracts to NatalieEdwards at natalie.edwards@wagner.eduGay/LesbianSee also panels listed under:American: Whitman and RaceGerman: Contemporary Queer German CultureBefore the Foucaultian Divide: Queer Cultures,1780-1870 Despite the increasing acceptance of LBGT/Q studieswithin academia, much of the research within this field centers onlate Victorian society and post-Wildean articulations of genderand sexuality. However, scholars in earlier periods (Bray, Halperin,Trumbach, Haggerty, Elfenbein, Lacqueur) have begun to identifyalternative sexual communities before what may be loosely termedthe Foucaultian divide. In an effort to stimulate scholarship onpre-Foucaultian queer cultures and the history of sexuality, thispanel welcomes papers exploring queer genders, bodies, andsexualities during the period preceding the genesis of the term“homosexuality” (roughly 1780-1870). Email proposals to NowellMarshall: Nowell.Marshall@email.ucr.edu.Joe Orton and the New Queer Historicism Thepanel welcomes investigations into the life and plays of Britishdramatist Joe Orton, with a particular emphasis on historicistapproaches. Inspired by recent contributions to GLBT studies,from critical theory — Michael Lucey’s translation of Eribon’sInsult and the Making of the Gay Self —to literary biography withNeil McKenna’s The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde — to culturalhistory in Matt Houlbrook’s Queer London, the panel hopesspecifically to reassess and expand on Orton’s legacy in light ofnew research into the experience of the homosexual male from thefin de siècle to 1967. Dan Burns, Greensboro College:dburns@gborocollege.edu.Post-Millennial Queer Pop Culture and the Constructionof Community This panel seeks papers that explorerecent queer pop culture (including tv, film, art, comics, porn,music, theater, the internet) and how this pop culture cultivatesand/or constructs community. To what extent do these popculture products make and/or perpetuate assumptions about queercommunity? To what extent do they reflect the evolution of aqueer community? Papers may examine representations of queerlife in mainstream popular culture as long as the papers focus onthe depiction of queer community. Please email 250-300 wordabstracts to Andrew Schopp: schoppa@ncc.edu.What Can You Do With a “Handsome Sailor”?:(Re)Reading Beautiful Young Men in American LiteratureThe concept of “the handsome sailor” is probably most easilyrecognized in Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd.” The archtypepervades the canon of American literature, problematizing,challenging and queering heteronormative paradigms of literaryrepresentation. This panel seeks to explore iterations of thearchtype and how it informs a broader contextual understandingof other American literary concepts such as R.W.B. Lewis’ TheAmerican Adam. Sponsored by the LGBT Caucus. Submissionsand questions may be sent as electronic attachments in MS Wordto Donald P. Gagnon: DonnEng@aol.com.Writing the Queer Self: Sex, Gender, and theCreation of Space in Queer Life Writing This panel seeks toexamine the roles that the inclusion of queer sex and gender nonconformityin LGBT autobiographies, diaries, and memoirs play increating a unique rhetorical space for queer bodies. Additionally,this panel will look at the ways that specifically queer life writingalters the landscapes of literary biographies of LGBT authors, andthe interpretations of their works. Possible topics might include,among other authors, a reading of place that queer sex holds inJoe Orton’s diaries, his creation of a hyper-masculine and hypersexualpersona, and how that influences John Lahr’s biography,and current interpretations of Orton’s plays. Send 300 wordabstract with a short C.V. to Damion Clark at drclark@umd.edu.German18th-Century Ghosts: The Spirit of the Past inModern German Culture The panel invites contributions on anyand all aspects of “eighteenth-century ghosts” and/or their modernrepercussions in 20th century culture. Ghosts can be understoodin the most literal or most figurative sense. Examples may include,but are not restricted to: reprsentation of ghosts as anticipation ofmodern anxieties/technologies/ethical issues; the lasting impact ofeighteenth-century ideas (nation, community, Europe) and theirperceived or real crisis in contemporary culture; the “abuse” of the

June 2006 N e M L ANews 13eighteenth-century (i.e. between 1933-45; East Germany; WestGermany).Interdisciplinary and comparative aspects; literatureand film; multiple panels possible. Birgit Tautz, Bowdoin College,btautz@bowdoin.edu.Bridging the Gap: Integrating the Teaching ofLanguage and Literature Many undergraduate foreign languageprograms maintain a divide between their lower-level “languagecourses” and their advanced “literature” courses. This divide ispremised on the assumption that before students can approachliterary texts they have to “master” the language. This argumentignores students’ cognitive and linguistic needs and thus preventsthem to perform at a linguistically and cognitively sophisticatedlevel by failing to provide students with the advanced linguistictools necessary to explore and discuss literary texts. This panelseeks papers that investigate theoretical, methodological, andpractical approaches to the integration of literature and languagein upper-level content-driven courses. Please send paper proposalsto Peter Weise, Boston University (weisep@bu.edu).Contemporary Queer German Culture Thisinterdisciplinary GLBT panel proposes to explore queer relationsto history, memory, im/migrant subjectivity, East and WestGerman identity, and self-representation, as well as other thematicinterests pertaining to contemporary queer culture. Questionsmight include: What defines trans self-representation? What roledo political and historical contexts play in identity formation?How do cultural clashes play out in the queer scene? In what wayis sexual difference undermined by staged cultural manifestations?We welcome abstracts that address any aspects of queer cultureboth in the German-speaking context and by internationallyengaged German-speaking artists. Submit one-page abstracts toChristina Wegel: wegel@email.unc.edu.Down and Out in the New Germany: Social Classand the Marginal in Fiction, Film and Nonfiction This panelseeks to address issues of material and symbolic marginality asdescribed in recent films and /or fiction. Groups like immigrants,gays, the old, or teenagers were ostracized or placed in marginalcategories before the fall of the wall, but this process has becomemore evident in a globalized economy. How does recent fiction orfilm describe their living spaces, everyday practices, consciousnessand tactics? Which world views are criticized, presented orreinscribed, also looking at nonfiction sources like politicaljournalism or sociological studies ? Which cultural practices mightbe said to emerge as resistant or transformative? Send abstract toHelga Druxes, Williams College: hdruxes@williams.edu.Generational Conflicts in Fiction and Memoir:Postwar to Present This panel examines works, fictional andautobiographical, that depart from the model of the 1970s/1980sas illustrated by such texts as Christoph’s Meckel’s Suchbild:Ueber meinen Vater (1980), which proto-typically is directed bythe son at the father and his Nazi past. Later works extend thatintergenerational inquiry into the past to other relations. Thispanel would aim to illuminate the ongoing intersection of theprivate and the public among generations, from different familialperspectives, in the postwar period to the present. Send proposalsto: Neil H. Donahue; Dept. of Comparative Literature; CalkinsHall 322, 107 Hofstra University; Hempstead, NY 11549.A Global Sense of Place? Homelessness and Travelin the Age of Globalization This panel wants to explore thealleged feeling of homelessness prevalent in recent Germanliterature, in particular of the younger generation, in connectionto the ever growing impact globalization has on the Germannation. Thus, the question arises whether homelessness and theconstant urge to travel are indicative of an occurring change in theperception of the German idea of Heimat—a concept so dearlycherished by Germans throughout the ages—as well as in theGerman identity formation. Please submit a one page abstract(300 words) as a Microsoft Word document to:eichegabi@hotmail.com.Housing and Dwelling in 19th Century GermanLiterature Papers related to dwelling, housing, and architecture in19th-century German literature welcome. Possible topics includedomesticity, haunted houses, architecture and philosophy,homelessness, transient figures, the uncanny, and the private homeas replication of the patriarchal state. Please e-mail abstracts inEnglish or German to Len Cagle: cagle@lycoming.edu.Leaving Narrow Boundaries: Travel Narratives bySwiss Authors This panel explores travel narratives by SwissAuthors. “Why do we leave the loveliest country in the World?What urges us to go east and west?” asked AnnemarieSchwarzenbach, an adventurous and troubled writer who traveledto Afghanistan and India by car in the 1930s and 1950s. – “It’sthe longing for the absolute, yes, this wish must be the impetus ofevery traveler,” she wrote. What are then the textual and intertextualresults by Swiss writers who have traveled the world formany centuries? Margrit Zinggeler, Eastern Michigan University:mzinggele@emich.edu.Memory and Nation: Remembering the Past in Post-Unified Germany Paper submissions are invited for a session on“Memory and Nation: Remembering the Past in Post-UnifiedGermany.” This panel addresses literary and filmic responses toquestions of remembering the past in the period of post-unification.Topics include the representation and reevaluation of WorldWar II, public and personal memories, generational differences,and collective and transnational mourning processes. Please sendsubmissions as a Word document in an e-mail attachment toLaurel Cohen-Pfister: lcpfiste@gettysburg.edu.Problems of the Globalized World as Reflected inGerman Literature in the New Millennium This topic may beapproached from various perspectives such as the influx of thirdworld refugees, poverty, terrorism, religious conflicts within themulticultural society, anti-war sentiment, and anti-Americanism.Send abstracts as word attachments in e-mails, fax, or snail mail.Barbara Mabee; 418 Wilson Hall; Dept. of Mod. Langs. & Lits.;Oakland University; Rochester, MI 48309; mabee@oakland.edu.Representations of Travel in Post-1989 GermanLiterature and Film This panel will explore travel as a trope andas allegorical and figurative representations in German-languageliterature and film since 1989. How do literature and film figuretravel as a response to and critical engagement with theories ofmovement across space and time? What is the relationshipbetween economic globalization, transnational mobility and dis/continuities in aesthetic representations of travel? Themes mightinclude migration/immigration/emigration, exile, travel inreunified Germany, the traveler’s gaze, travel and imprisonment/freedom, travel and memory, travel and ironic distance, and travelas a figure for experience and estrangement. 1-page abstracts toMaria Grewe, Columbia University (msg52@columbia.edu).Switzerland as Viewed from Without: Global TravelNarratives to Switzerland This panel welcomes proposals abouttravel narratives and reflections on Switzerland and Swiss culturewritten by international (non-Swiss born) authors. Comparativestudies are most welcome. Richard R. Ruppel, University ofWisconsin - Stevens Point: rruppel@uwsp.edu.Talking about a Revolution This panel seeks toexplore how German literature, film, and art represent dissent,protest, or revolutions throughout the centuries. It is alsointerested in investigating aesthetic and creative developments

14 N e M L A News June 2006that in themselves represent revolutions or that inspired revolutionarychange. In particular, this panel is interested in papers thatdiscuss the theoretical and the practical implications of theintersections of the cultural and the political realm or thatconnect historical revolutionary moments with contemporaryprotests against globalization. Please submit one page abstracts toSusanne Rinner: rinners@georgetown.edu.Weimar Remakes Papers sought that examineremakes, adaptations and citations of Weimar textual and visualculture in postwar German film. How do images of Weimar – asutopian or dystopian moments in modern German history – getrecycled after WWII, and what sort of memory work do suchintertextual dialogues perform? How do changes in both themedium and industry of film shape postwar approaches to Weimarmaterial? Michael Cowan: michael.cowan@mcgill.ca.Writing Before and After the Fall of the Wall Thispanel explores how authors’ writing strategies changed after thefall of the Berlin Wall. What topics and narrative devices wereprominent in their pre-Wende texts? How are the “Wende” andthe process of unification portrayed? Are they still major topics inthe second decade after unification or is there a tendency to leaveEast Germany behind? Send abstracts to Axel Hildebrandt andKarolin Machtans: ahildebr@german.umass.edu,machtans@sas.upenn.edu.ItalianAnna Maria Ortese: L’anima e l’esilio La sessione sipropone di esplorare i diversi aspetti della poetica di Anna MariaOrtese: la prosa, la poesia, la scrittura giornalistica. Particolareattenzione verrà dedicata al tema dell’Esilio nelle sue moltepliciimplicazioni e connotazioni (esilio dalla patria, esilio dalla lingua)che informa l’opera intera di questa grande scrittrice delNovecento. Please send abstracts in English or Italian to CosettaSeno Reed, cr68@georgetown.edu.Dante and the Middle Ages We invite papersubmissions focused on works by Dante or other medieval Italianauthors. Papers can be in Italian or English, with a maximumlength at presentation of 15-20 minutes. Send abstracts by e-mailto: jcozzarelli@ithaca.edu or by standard mail to: Julia Cozzarelli,414 Muller Faculty Center, Ithaca College, Ithaca NY 14850.Food and Eating: Ecofeminist Perspectives in 19th-Century Italian & European Literature This panel examinesthe role of food, eating, and hunger in 19th-century Italian andEuropean literature from an Ecofeminist perspective and asks howthese motifs, for example, in Collodi’s Pinocchio or Shelley’sFrankenstein, elide gender or species constructs and reflect theconstruction of nation. How do food paradigms reinforce orchallenge the androcentric and anthropocentric thinking ofdominant culture during industrialization and unification? Varioustheoretical approaches are welcome; Ecofeminist interpretationsare preferred. David Del Principe, Montclair State University.Send one-page abstract via e-mail:delprinciped@mail.montclair.edu.Food in 20th-Century Italian Literature Roundtable.This roundtable will facilitate the discussion and analysis of thepresence of food in 20th Century Italian Literature withinhistorical, social and mythological structures. Daniela BiselloAntonucci: dantonuc@princeton.edu.The Interplay of Literature, Music and the VisualArts during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance The panelwelcomes interdisciplinary papers (in both Italian and English)that consider the interplay between Italian literature, music and/orvisual arts. Papers should examine closely the factors and theircause-effect dynamics that influenced society’s conceptions of thedivine and the secular over the course of the centuries. The panelis also meant to contemplate how artistic theories and production,as witnessed by contemporary literature, express new trends ofcivilization within the Italian culture. Marco Cerocchi; PrincetonUniversity; Dept. of French and Italian; 303 East Pyne;Princeton, NJ 08544-5264; (609) 258-4511;cerocchi@princeton.edu.Italian Feminisms in (Trans)National Context At atime of national and global cultural, socio-political and economicpolarization like the present, does feminism as a theory and apractice of difference still matter? This panel welcomes contributionsaddressing this question by focusing on past and currentcultural and political practices of Italian women, engaged in adialogue with Western and non-Western civilizations. Papersshould discuss Italian perspectives on women, gender, race andpopular culture, literary studies and education, religion and theChurch, ecofeminism, politics and globalization, regional andtransnational feminism, or concentrate on Italian women’spolitical activism and artistic experiences from a cross-cultural orinterdisciplinary standpoint. Send one page abstract to FrancescoParmeggiani: parmeggiani@fordham.edu.Italian Literature and Migration The phenomenon ofmigration to Italy and the multiculturalism that is its result haveproduced a new wave of writers who deserve careful study. Thispanel seeks to determine whether these new writers attempt toassimilate to the established Italian literary scene or to subvert itsEurocentrism. Proposals for papers should be emailed to VincenzoBolletino: bollettinov@mail.montclair.edu.Italian Literature and Translation This panel intendsto explore the various facets of translation in Italian literaturefrom all time periods. Topics can include, but not be limited to,the exploration of the demand for translations into English ofItalian works, the representation of Italian culture and civilizationthrough translation, mis-translations and re-translations, specificissues in translating Italian literature, and the examination ofselected representative works of Italian literature in translation.E-mail 250-word abstracts to Marella Feltrin-Morris, IthacaCollege, mfeltrinmorris@ithaca.edu.Italian Literature: From the Twentieth Century tothe New Millennium The panel invites papers delving into theItalian literary production of the Twentieth century, includingboth major and minor authors and the literary movements thathave shaped the Italian cultural and artistic scene. Particularattention will be given to proposals that discuss authors andmovements from a philosophical or historical perspective, or thatdelve into the latest cultural debates ongoing in Italy, where manyyoung and talented authors have recently emerged. Papers arewelcome in Italian and English. Please e-mail 250-word abstractsto Giovanni Migliara, James Madison University,migliagx@jmu.edu.Italian Literature: Renaissance and Humanism Thepanel seeks to explore major and minor authors of the Renaissance.Papers on any aspect of Italian literature of the Renaissanceand Humanism are eligible. All theoretical perspectives areinvited. Submit abstracts to Maryann Tebben, Simon’s RockCollege of Bard; via email: mtebben@simons-rock.edu; or viamail at Division of Language and Literature, 84 Alford Road,Great Barrington, MA 01230.Italian Theater Exploration and analysis of mainItalian playwrights, trends and movements in Italian Theater from“Commedia dell’Arte” to present. Daniela Bisello Antonucci:dantonuc@princeton.edu.

June 2006 N e M L ANews 15La Natura nella letteratura europea dall’Ottocentoal Novecento The panel invites papers that explore the role ofnature in the literary and cinematic works of European authors inthe Nineteenth and Twentieth century. The panel seeks on theone side to continue the exploration of the philosophicalimplications that have sustained the elaboration of Nature in theaesthetic endeavor and have contributed to shape modernliterature, and on the other to explore the literary production thatis a result of this fertile process of pollination. Please sendabstracts to Simona Wright, Modern Languages Department,The College of New Jersey, 2000 Pennington Road, Ewing, NJ08628-0718, Phone: 609 771 2996; e-mail: simona@tcnj.edu.Literary Relations between Italy and the HispanicWorld: From 1927 –Present Around 1930 a Spanish authordeclared Madrid the “Meridiano Intelectual de Hispano-América”. Writers from the other side of the ocean respondedwith fierce refutation asserting their own cultural and artisticautonomy. The result created conflict between specific literarycircles in Spain and Hispano-American countries such asArgentina, Chile and Perù, which had enjoyed a fertile literaryinter-relation with Italy. The panel will focus on papers thatanalyze the search for a specific and autonomous cultural identityvis-à-vis linguistic issues, imperialism, politics, and agency. Pleasesend abstracts as an attachment to: Antonella Calarota:antonellacalarota@libero.it.The Long Italian EighteenthCentury (1700-1815)and the GrandTour This panel seeks papers on anyaspect of Italy as viewed by otherstraveling through, or Italy’s changingperceptions of itself due to interactionwith visitors from the rest of Europe.Please send proposals by e-mail toClorinda Donato: donato@csulb.edu.Mediterranean Moods inContemporary Italian Culture At atime when Italy and other Westernnations endure a dramatic process ofSimona Wright proudly displays re-negotiation of identity within aNEMLA Italian Studies at the globalized and transnational world,Italianist Reception. Photo: Nicoleregional entities and cultures becomeBurkartrelevant frames of reference. The liquid space of the Mediterraneanparadigm has emerged as a precious conceptual tool to reexaminethe intellectual fluidity of the interactions among variouscultures, begging for a reassessment of the copious Mediterraneanimagery inherited from the Italian cultural tradition. The purposeof this panel is to investigate the evolution and the repositioningof the Mediterranean framework in contemporary Italianliterature and cinema. Send abstracts tofulvio.orsitto@uconn.edu.Modern Italian Poetry This panel welcomes papersthat examine the rich and deeply engaging work of Modern ItalianPoets and many of the dominant literary movements of the period,such as Symbolism, Crepuscolarism, Futurism, Hermeticism andthe New Avant-garde. Contributors may send abstracts by e-mailto laura.baffoni-licata@tufts.edu or by regular mail to: LauraBaffoni-Licata, Dept. of Romance Languages, Olin Center, 180Packard Ave, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155.Noir Italian Style from the 1990s to the Present Thispanel discusses the redefinition(s) of the noir in contemporaryItalian literature (from the 1990s to the present), focusing on: thedefinition of the genre as described within the novels (or shortstories); the characterization of the detective; the setting of thenovels (or short stories) linked to the phenomenon ofregionalismo; the seriality of the genre; the impact of the studiesand events on the revival of the noir; and the cinematographicinterpretation(s) of the noir. Please send a 300 words abstract toInge Lanslots: inge.lanslots@lessius-ho.be.Paper to Screen and Back Again in Italian Film Thissession invites contributions on the study of the relationshipbetween literature and cinema, from a variety of perspectives.Welcomed topics may include: cinematic adaptations of modernand contemporary Italian literary works, from both a theoreticaland practical approach; reciprocal influences between the twoforms, intended, for instance, as a dialogue between a book and amovie on a specific subject or as personal encounters between theauthor and the filmmaker; influences of cinematographic themeson literary works; and the success of literary works in relation toadaptations in different historical, national and social contexts.Please send one page abstract paper by email to Dr. Daniela DePau, Drexel University: dd62@drexel.edu.Religion in Nineteenth and Twentieth CenturyItalian Literature Papers dealing with authors or works innineteenth or twentieth Italian literature that develop religiousthemes or reveal, more or less openly, a fundamentally religiousoutlook. Umberto Mariani, Rutgers University:mariani@rci.rutgers.edu.Resistence Is Futile!” … or Is It: The Role of theIntellectual in Contemporary Italy. This session invites paperson the role of the intellectual in contemporary Italy. All approachesare welcome. However, of special interest are discussionsfocusing on novel forms of participation by intellectuals incultural, social and political practice. Proposals (maximum 250words) should be sent to: Prof. Eugenio Bolongaro, Departmentof Italian Studies, McGill University. E-mail:eugenio.bolongaro@mcgill.ca Fax: 514.398-1748.Revisiting the Past. Re-conceptualizing the PresentItalian-American Women Writing in the eighties departs from itsearlier models, mainly concerned with the articulation and thevalidation of the immigrant experience, to engage with feminism,gender, sexuality and identity issues in a more oblique manner.This panel aims at investigating critical inquiries surroundingthose works that show a strong commitment for style and form(the memoir being a case in point) thus proposing a reconceptualizationof what it means to be an ethnic writer and tocreate ethnic literature. Papers are welcome in Italian or inEnglish. Please send proposed paper titles and abstracts of 200words to Dora Labate, Rutgers University:alabate@rci.rutgers.edu.The Risorgimento And The Novel: Historical Noveland “Bildungsroman” The purpose of this session is to discussthe evolution of the Italian novel during the process of Italianunification. The relation of “form” to “function”, and of novel,opera and the press, in the diffusion of Risorgimento ideals andideas; the “canonization” of novelists at the time and since; thenew Italian and European literary “geography” and the rise of the“Southern” question: these are major areas of focus for the panel,but are not intended to exclude logically related issues. Questionsand abstract to Mark Epstein, email: mwepstein@verizon.net.The Role of Intellectuals in the Second RepublicRoundtable. It is renown that the “Clean Hands” affair constituteda watershed for Italy: Italian politics was swept awaytogether with a socio-economic system that had been in place eversince the end of World War 2. Such major changes have obviously

16 N e M L A News June 2006affected all sectors of society and cultural life of the country andcould but prompt an intellectual reflection that has led to arethinking of the role of intellectuals in today’s Italy. Thisroundtable aims at situating contemporary Italian intellectualsaddressing issues related to these changes. To participate in theroundtable contact Simona Barello:simona.barello@fastwebnet.it.Roberto Benigni’s Cinema and the Blend of Comedyand Tragedy We are looking for papers that include (but are notlimited to) the examination of the following topics: theoverarching themes existing in Benigni’s earlier films that arebrought to full development in Life is Beautiful; the interplay ofcomedy and tragedy in his films prior to Life is Beautiful; Some ofthe influences, literary or cinematic, on Benigni’s artisticproduction; Life is Beautiful and the controversies rooted in itsrepresentation of the Holocaust. Please submit a 300-500 wordabstract via email to: gracerbullaro@msn.com.Scrittrici di razza The purpose of this panel is toexplore the elaboration of Nature, the sense and colors of land, ofcommunity, of tradition and archaic characters in Italian women’swriting in Ninetheenth and Twentieth Century. The papers shouldattempt to answer the following questions: Is their engagementpurely related to the feminine world or can women writers be seenas a voice, a spokeswoman of the cultural heritage of thecommunity they belong to? Lucy Delogu, John Cabot University:lucydelogu@libero.it.Sicilia and the Literature of Travel This panel willexplore representations of the image of Sicily (both past andpresent)in travelogues, diaries, novels, historical analysis andjournalism through the lense of literary conventions, declared andundeclared goals, fiction vs non-fiction, crime and punishment (orthe lack thereof), prejudices and biases, history, politics, andreligion. Please send abstracts to Maria Enrico, Borough ofManhattan Community College/CUNY:menrico@bmcc.cuny.edu.Somatizing the Regime: Fascism as Sickness in theFilms of the 70s This panel focuses on those films produced inthe tumultuous 1970s whose clear intent is to open a dialoguewith the present inspiring significant questions not only aboutFascism, but more specifically about its moral and psychologicaleffects on the individual. This new post-neorealist perspectivecontributes to a complex and consistent film universe of arrestingillustrations, visual metaphors and narrative synthesis that addressthe cultural challenges and political transformations of 1970sItaly. Fascism thus becomes a powerful trope through which eachfilmmaker attempts a recognizable and stylized interpretation of aradically changing nation. Rita Gagliano, Temple University:r_gagliano@earthlink.net.Teaching Italian and Italian Culture Papers (inItalian and English) should focus on the influence of the Italiancultural identity. Proposals for courses on Italianculture,interdisciplinary approaches and/or the teaching of Italianwith new methodologies are welcome. Possible publication of thepapers in a volume I am editing. Send proposals to EmanueleOcchipinti: eocchipi@drew.edu.PedagogySee also panels listed under:American: Octavia Butler’s Legacy in the ClassroomEnglish/British: Teaching Medieval WomenGerman: Bridging the Gap: Integrating the Teaching of Languageand LiteratureItalian: Teaching Italian and Italian CultureSpanish/Portuguese: Synchronous and Asynchronous On-lineCommunication in the Foreign Language ClassroomCreative Writingin the ForeignLanguageClassroomIntended to putvarious approachesandpoints of view intodialogue, thispanel will askwhether activitiesused in creativewriting programs Jane Sokolsky at “Student-Centered Learning in Foreignand writing Classrooms” Photo: Nicole Burkartworkshops (both in and outside academia) can be productivelyincorporated into the foreign language classroom in order toprovide written activities suitable for both a general audience andstudents particularly interested in literature. Papers sought thatadress related questions from theoretical and practical perspectives.Send 1 page proposal by deadline to Dr. Phillip John Usher.Email: pusher@barnard.edu, or: Dr. Phillip John Usher, FrenchDepartment, Barnard College (Columbia University), 3009Broadway, New York, NY 10027.English Abroad: Teaching English in Non-EnglishSpeaking Countries English Abroad will explore the difficulties,adventures, and rewards of teaching English (language, writing,literature) in non-English speaking cultures. The goal of this panelwill be to present the experiences of various teacher-scholars,whether Americans or foreign nationals, teaching English in non-English speaking countries. Gordon Reynolds, Ferris StateUniversity: gordonreynolds@ferris.edu.Honors Programs at Two-Year Colleges Roundtable.Sponsored by the Two-Year College Caucus. More than one thirdof community colleges now have honors programs which attractand cultivate the talents of high-achieving students, providingboth an alternative and bridge to the high cost of selectivecolleges and universities. This roundtable will explore honorsprograms in community colleges. What is your two-year collegedoing to provide challenging experiences for your best andbrightest? Abstracts and/or papers should be sent to Dan Schultz:Schultz@cayuga-cc.edu.Incorporating Visual Culture in Writing andLiterature Classrooms How does the introduction of visualculture into writing and literature classrooms (at any level) changewhat we teach and how we teach it? Some topics for considerationinclude: the use and study of multimedia texts (such as films,advertisements, graphic novels, hyptertexts, etc.); the study ofcontemporary visual culture; creating alternative assignmentsrelated to visual texts; and theorizing and teaching the intersectionbetween visual culture and issues of race, class, gender, andnation. Graduate students are encouraged to submit. Please send1-page abstracts to Angela Laflen, Department of English, MaristCollege, alaflen@hotmail.com.Let’s Start at the Beginning: What Is Literature?Did the Canon Wars actually expand our notions of what types ofwriting should be termed literature, or have we simply allowedthose works that are the non-Western/non-male versions of whatwe already define as literature to join? How do we decide what isincluded and what is excluded? Are our courses and publicationssupporting that decision? How is the academy treating writingthat represents a unique style or voice? What about entire genresthat are currently marginalized, such as “private” writings (letters,diaries), graphic novels, or multi-media texts? 250-300 wordabstracts to Prof Kathleen McDonald: km2807@yahoo.com.

June 2006 N e M L ANews 17On-line Learning in Foreign Languages Papers aresolicited addressing different aspects of on-line learning, such asthe integration of wikis, blogs, e-portfolios, collaborations withnative speakers in the target country fostering cross-culturalawareness. Papers reporting on outcomes assessment of on-linecourses or on faculty development initiatives to familiarizedepartments with new concepts and their assessment are alsowelcome. We are particularly interested in hearing from colleagueswho have set up model on-line courses/programs that could bereplicated at other institutions. Please send one page abstractelectronically to Annette Kym, German Department, HunterCollege, CUNY: akym@hunter.cuny.edu.Poetry and Pedagogy: Techniques to TantalizeStudents with the Genre of Poetry For this Poetry Reading andRoundtable, panelists will read their creative work and discuss theinfluence of their creative writing as an inspiration to yourstudents. Topics may include: How did the topic(s) influencestudents? What did you do to introduce your poetry to yourstudents? Has technology influenced your teaching of poetrywriting? How has technology made an impact on your languagechoices and how, in turn, does that affect your students’ writing?What vehicles [Internet, chap books, college/ university studentmagazines, etc.] have you provided for your students to write andunderstand poetry better? Send brief abstract and sample poetryto Annette Magid: a_magid@yahoo.com.Rethinking the Theory Course Given that thepurpose of much contemporary theory has been to open texts tomultiple readings and question both canonicity and univocalcritical methodologies, this panel seeks to explore alternative andinnovative ways to teach the standard undergraduate course intheory. This panel is designed for instructors and curriculumplanners who want to rethink the perameters and possibilities ofthis ubiquitous course. Papers that blend a discussion of thephilosophical issues involved with “teaching theory” withpractical ideas for revisioning the “formula” are especiallywelcomed. Abstracts should be sent via email to Dr. RobinDeRosa: rderosa@plymouth.edu.Teaching Environmental Literatures Roundtable.Sponsored by the Association for the Study of Literature andEnvironment. This roundtable will discuss pedagogical strategiesfor teaching environmental literature and/or the concept of theenvironment as a tool in teaching literature. The session welcomescontributions on teaching all periods and varieties of environmentalliterature, especially literatures that cross national boundariesor address border issues; on ecocomposition, poetry, fiction,nonfiction; interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and issue-orientedapproaches; experimental pedagogies, including field-basedapproaches; and resources for teaching environmental literature.Send 250-500 word proposals by email to Anthony Lioi:lioi@mit.edu.Popular CultureSee also panels listed under:Comparative Literature: Tropes in the Gender Discourse of ModernEast Asian Literature, Film and Other Cultural WorksGay/Lesbian: Post-Millennial Queer Pop Culture and the Constructionof CommunityGerman: 18th Century Ghosts: the spirit of the Past in ModernGerman CultureWomen’s Studies: 30 Years After Susan Sontag’s On Photography: TheViolence of the Photographic Image and Its Legacies / Mommy Lit:Product Placement, “Friendly” Competition, and Gender Prescriptionsfor the Thinking Mother / What’s a Woman to Do: Motheringin a Post-Apocalyptic WorldBaltimore as Backdrop Board-Sponsored. This panelsolicits papers that examine texts set in Baltimore—novels (SaintMaybe); films (Hairspray; Avalon) or television (Homicide; The Wire)–interrogating the meanings associated with this American city.Send abstracts in body of email to Northeast.MLA@gmail.com, with“Baltimore Panel” in subject line.Breaking the Line: The Art of the Lyric Essay CreativeSession. The lyric essay is one of the most demanding forms in thecreative nonfiction genre. It requires the density, shapliness of form,and musicality of language often found only in poetry, yet it alsorequires the author to undertake a meditative journey of discovery,to risk wisdom through reflection as in the traditionalMontaignian essay form. In this creative session, contemporaryessayists will present their work. Please send no more than twoessays (ten pages double spaced total) via email to John Bess:jbess@unm.edu.Cross-Cultural Explorations of Trauma DespiteCathy Caruth’s claim in her landmark collection Trauma:Explorations in Memory that “trauma itself may provide the verylink between cultures,” trauma has been infrequently exploredfrom cross-cultural and non-Western perspectives.This panel seeksto examine the relationship between trauma and culture, toexplore and possibly critique the Eurocentric perspective oftrauma studies, and to investigate the manner in which traumareinvigorates psychoanalysis with the work of cultural critique.Email abstracts to Lisa Hinrichsen of Boston University:lhinrich@bu.edu.The End of Tolerance? As the century began,‘tolerance’ was supposed to enable some ground for a universalmoral commitment. In Europe, the emergence of the EuropeanUnion and the “European Dream” would enable a culture oftolerance and a kindly integration of The Other. A few shortyears later, the almost frantic hopes placed in the promise oftolerance have been frustrated, intolerance is on the march inboth the U.S. and Europe, and tolerance appears to be dead. Does“tolerance” have a future? If so, what shape will it take? Abstractsshould be submitted via email to: Stephen Gallagher:Jeng_steveg@hotmail.com.The End of Tony Soprano?: Exploring the OngoingCultural Impact of HBO’s “The Sopranos” in the 21stCentury This panel seeks papers that analyze specific elementsrepresented in HBO’s “The Sopranos” (ethnic identity, waste,gender, food, race, class etc.), that examine cultural productionsthat the series has spawned or influenced (cookbooks, scholarlyworks, fiction, other films or TV series), or that explore how theseries continues to resonate in American culture or impactsperceptions of Italian Americans in the 21st century. Please send250-500 word abstract (in body of e-mail) to: Paul Galante,Lehigh University English Department: pag2@lehigh.edu.Fairy Tale Visions and (Re)Visions This panel willfocus on contemporary fairy tales as invented or reinvented bycritically acclaimed writers of the 20th century to the present. Iinvite papers that explore contemporary fairy tales in variousforms, including the novel, novella, short story, or poetry. Writersof interest include, but are not limited to, Anne Sexton, AngelaCarter, Gregory Maguire, A.S. Byatt, Philip Pullman, Jane Yolen,Emma Donoghue, and others. Susan R. Bobby, Wesley College:bobbysu@wesley.edu.False Memoirs: The Intersection of Fiction andMemory in Contemporary Short Fiction Creative Session. Oneof the interesting consequences of the recent James Frey Affair isthe recognition of how readily fiction and the memoir intersect,with many writers producing narratives in the mode of thememoir but generated from the point of view of a fictional

18 N e M L ANews June 2006Binyavanga Wainaina and Sharon Brubaker at “ ‘Sunsets andStarvation’: A Debate on Contemporary African Literature”Photo: Nicole Burkartpersona. The purpose of this creative session will be to provideprose fiction writers with an opportunity to read and commentupon the use of the form and conventions of the memoir in theirown writing. Gordon Reynolds, Ferris State University:gordonreynolds@ferris.edu.Food for Thought: Culinary, Literary and CulturalViews of Food in Literature, Film, Theater This panel offers anopportunity to analyze the role food has played and continues toplay in literature, film, theater and other aspects of culture. Focuscan be on visual arts and film, but written literature is alsoappropriate. Interests in the topic of food in culture can beexpanded across genres, disciplines, and time. Food has been asubject of interest and concern to human beings over anextraordinary span of time and food continues to be studied,written about, filmed and enjoyed in a multitude of ways. Sendabstracts to: Annette M. Magid, Erie Community College:a_magid@yahoo.com.Dorothy to Hermione: Representing Girls inChildren’s Fantasy Submissions are solicited on portrayals ofgirls in fantasy novels and popular culture, with a particular focuson their adherence or nonadherence to stereotypical gender roles.We’ve come a long way from Dorothy… recent portrayals rangefrom the relatively passive Susan and Lucy in the Chronicles ofNarnia film adaptation to bookworm Hermione Granger of thenearly-ubiquitous Harry Potter media barrage. Email abstracts toAnastasiaSalter: anastasia@selfloud.net.God and the Graphic Novel The last thirty years havewitnessed a veritable explosion in comics and comics-relatedresearch—in the investigation of virtually all aspects of this oncemarginalizedgenre. And yet, in spite of this fact, one subjectremains conspicuous largely by its absence: that of religiousexperience. Accordingly, this panel invites papers dealing withany aspect of the sacred and its comic book portrayal, including(but not limited to): comics and comparative religion, comicsand proselytization, comics and mystical moments, comic bookencounters between members of differing faiths, and comicreflections on the word/image matrix in religious discourse. Dr.Kelly S. Meyer, The College of Saint Rose: meyerk@strose.edu.H.L. Mencken: The Sage of Baltimore Board-Sponsored. This panels solicits papers on any aspect of the workor influence of H.L. Mencken, with particular interest in hisinvolvement with lampoonery or social darwinism. Sendabstracts to Lisa DeTora, Lafayette College:detoral@lafayette.edu.Literature, Narrative and Medicine Bleak House,Martin Chuzzlewit, Doctor Thorne, The Woman in White,Dracula, Frankenstein, Cancer Ward, Sanctuary, Cider HouseRules, Mrs. Dalloway, The Plague, Mister Monday, The HostileHospital, The Miserable Mill, A Summer to Die, Terms ofEndearment. What do these texts have in common? Each depictsmedicine in action. This panel considers the cultural and socialsignificance of depictions of medical content in belletristicliterature, journalism, and nonfictional narrative. Papers aresought on medical topics in life and literature, including juvenilefiction. Lisa DeTora, Lafayette College: detoral@lafayette.edu.Medicine and Poetry: The Poultice and the PenMuch like the work of interpreting a poem, we also interpret ourbodies, their health, and even their pain. What does poetry offerto the world of medicine, and how does medicine run central tothe task of poetry? How do medicine and poetry have overlappingphilosophical and theoretical concerns, particularly inattending to the etiology—and expression—of illness in thepoem? This panel seeks papers about medicine and poetryaddressing any aspect of health and suffering, illness and recovery,hope and healing. Email 250-500 word abstracts to Clare EmilyClifford no later than September 1, 2006: clifford@uab.edu.Mystery and Detective Fiction This open sessionwelcomes proposals concerning any aspect of mystery anddetective fiction. Please send abstracts or completed papers,preferably as Micrsoft Word attachments to email, with therequisite information as noted in the NEMLA call for papersguidelines to Robert P. Winston at winston@dickinson.edu or bymail to Department of English, Dickinson College, P.O. Box1773, Carlisle, PA 17013-2896.Picture Books and Children’s Comics: Semiotics ofIllustration Papers are sought examining semiotic relations inand between picture books and children’s comics. Papers mayfocus specifically on picture books like Norton Juster and ChrisRashka’s The Hello, Goodbye Window, or on children’s comicslike Art Spiegelman’s Little Lit series. Examinations of differencesin these genres and the relationship of image and text areespecally encouraged. Vanessa Raney: raneyv@juno.comThe Sense of an Ending in Contemporary TelevisionThis panel is invested in a narratological approach tounderstanding the ways in which contemporary televisionresolves itself. Papers will examine how the endings of contemporarytelevision series reflect literary postmodernisms in narrativestructure and design, what they have to say about resolution,closure, a larger structure of meaning. Please 1-2 page abstractssend them via email along with your vitae to Dr. Lisa Perdigao:lperdiga@fit.edu.Stupid Girls, Desperate Housewives, and QueerCharacters: Sexuality in 21st-Century Popular CultureConsidering punk-artist Pink’s song “Stupid Girls,” the populartv sitcom “Desperate Housewives,” the satirical, black comedy“South Park,” and the artistic films Chasing Amy and Rent, thispanel seeks to interrogate the media’s representations of genderand sexuality while theorizing how and why these representationsprove more damaging than liberating. Send abstracts to KristinaFennelly, Lehigh University: krf2@lehigh.edu.Violence, Technology, and the Cold War DomesticRoundtable. Papers are sought on topics including, but notlimited to: domestic violence in Cold War film and television(The Burning Bed, The Tracey Thurman Story, The Godfather);protecting families and households (Shane, The Stepford Wives,Die Hard); images of violence designed to be projected into ColdWar households (“The Lone Ranger,” “Gunsmoke,”“M*A*S*H,” “The Rockford Files”); and Cold-War eratechnology-oriented images of violence for domestic consump-

June 2006 N e M L A News 19tion (“Star Trek,” “Space 1999,” “Battlestar Galactica”). Papersconsidering Cold War images and texts in the context of pre- orpost-Cold War forms are also welcome. Lisa DeTora. LafayetteCollege; detoral@lafayette.edu.Writing for Hire: The Politics Surrounding thePublication of Current News and Literature This panel seekspapers that address how the press has served as a form of protestliterature and/or how protest literature has served as a form ofthe press, broadcasting to an uninformed audience accepted and/or unaccepted philosophy. Please send abstracts of 500 words orless pasted in the body of an email message, or, if attached, in richtext format, to Sandra Staton-Taiwo: sls63@psu.edu.Writing Hunger This panel will explore the multivalentrepresentations of food and hunger in American literature. In“Hunger,” Adrienne Rich wrote: “I choke on the taste of bread inNorth America / but the taste of hunger in North America / ispoisoning me.” Rich suggests the paradoxical relationshipAmerican culture has with food and the symbolic complexity offood or hunger in literary representation. Panel papers mayaddress images of hunger (physical and metaphorical) and/or offood—as commodity item, popular culture, ethnic or nationalsymbol, religious ritual, symbol of disorder (compulsive consumptionor denial), etc.—in American literature. Please email250-500 word abstracts to Kirsten Bartholomew Ortega:kirstenbart@hotmail.com.Professional DevelopmentFaculty/ Student Collaborations in Editing andPublishing Roundtable. Sponsored by MLS. Editors of manyjournals and critical anthologies employ their publications asteaching and learning opportunities for both graduate andundergraduate students. In addition, contributors to thesepublications are submitting faculty/student collaborative work.This MLS roundtable seeks presenters to recount, analyze, andcritique such editing and publishing experiences from bothfaculty and student perspectives. Faculty/ student pairs areespecially encouraged. Among the questions the roundtable willconsider are: What are the challenges to teaching/learningscholarly editing and publishing? Are there limits to faculty/student collaborations? Send brief abstracts to Laurence Roth:roth@susqu.edu.Negotiating the Academic Job Market Roundtable.Sponsored by the Graduate Caucus. The roundtable will focuson the expectations and requirements for securing an academicposition at any tier-level university or college. Graduate studentsand other audience members will have the opportunity to askquestions of interest, including the steps involved in theapplication procedure, how to interview at the MLA and duringon-campus interviews, and when and how to negotiate salaries,etc. Inclusive in intent, the Roundtable will address questionsspecific to tenure-track and adjunct positions. Please e-mailVanessa Raney (raneyv2@southernct.edu) or Gabi Eichmanns(eichegabi@hotmail.com) for more information.Spanish/PortugueseSee also panels listed under:Comparative Literature: Plantation AmericaItalian: Literary Relations between Italy and the Hispanic World:From 1927-PresentAnd Then What Happened? Shaping the History ofPost-Dictatorships The transitional periods of post-dictatorshipsare crucial moments in the history of a given countrybecause certain voices and perspectives will inevitably takeprominence over others. These moments are particularlyrevealing since they reflect the official version of history that ispassed on to new generations. Topics submitted to this panelshould address issues related to how these transitions areportrayed, and how new national identities are constructed inliterature, the media or textbooks. Papers from various perspectivesare welcome, including Discourse Analysis and CulturalStudies. Please email abstracts to Derrin Pinto.Autobiography in 20th Century Spanish LiteratureThis panel accepts papers analyzing the self-representation oftwentieth century writers and its relationship (positive ornegative) to the aesthetic, political and social discourses of theirtime. Send one-page abstracts in Spanish or English to MarieMurphy and Ana Gómez-Pérez; Dept. of Modern Languages andLiteratures; Loyola College in Maryland; 4501 N. Charles St;Baltimore, MD 21210. email: agp@loyola.edu;mmurphy@loyola.edu.Christian and Pre-Christian Myth in SpanishContemporary Theater The study of Christian and Pre-Christian Myth in contemporary Spanish theater promises topresent the works in question in a new light through theirrecontextualization within a mythical context.Salvatore.Poeta@villanova.edu.El Cine Español Contemporáneo del Siglo XXI Masalla de la pantallaEste panel intentara investigar un fenomenomuy reciente en el Cine Espanol Contemporaneo que trata de laapariencia del genero del “documental” en versiones que acusanla problematica socio-politica en la realidad actual. En 2001, seestablecio un premio oficial que reconoce el mejor documentalespanol del ano. De ahi que unos de los mejores “auteurs’espanoles se han lanzado al genero con muy buenos e interesantesresultados. “La pelota vasca” (2003) de Julio Medem nosproporciona un excelente ejemplo. Anita L. Johnson, ColgateUniversity: ajohnson@mail.colgate.edu.Feminine Discourse in Early Modern SpainRepresentation of women in the discourse of Early Modern Spainin writings by and about women: cultural, critical, and literaryauthority; appropriation and authenticity of discourse; socialidentity and identification. Please submit 500 word abstract orcompleted paper to: Joan Cammarata, Modern Languages,Manhattan College, Riverdale, New York 10471;jcammara@aol.com.Matthew Wilson (’06 President) towering over Sharon Brubaker (LocalLiaison), Josie McQuail (outgoing Executive Director) and NilgunAnadolu Okur. Photo: Nicole Burkart

20 N e M L A News June 2006Gender Violence in Spanish Literature Written byWomenThe panel will examine the gendering of violence as it isrepresented in Spanish literature written by women throughoutthe different literary periods. Is violence glorified or opposed?How is it represented in figurative structures such as metaphorand other references? How does the representation of men andwomen appear in the text in different literary traditions? Whatare the cultural significations of violent objects, such as weapons,and other equipment related to violence. María Luisa Guardiola,Swarthmore College: mguardi1@swarthmore.edu.Globalization and Its Discontents in ContemporarySpanish Film This panel invites papers on contemporarySpanish film that examine the positive and negative effects ofglobalization and their impact upon Spanish identity. Theseeffects include unemployment; consumerism; alienation, drugsand violence; sexual liberation juxtaposed by sexual exploitationand repression; and immigration. Papers may focus on specificdirectors, individual films or a particular theme. Please send 400-500 word abstracts via email to Dr. Linda Materna; email:materna@rider.edu.Hispanic and Latino Literature and Art of the EastCoast The city has always been a destination for travelers,immigrants, expatriates, and others in search of adventure, a newlife, a temporary home. The body of Hispanic and Latinoliterature of the East Coast spans a remarkable transatlantic andhemispheric breadth from the nineteenth century to the present,and encompasses a variety of genres and media. This panelexplores Latin American, U. S. Latino, and Spanish works andtopics that cut across national and linguistic borders to addresscommon ground in the East Coast metropolis. E-mail one-pageabstracts in English or Spanish to Catharine Wall, University ofCalifornia, Riverside: cwall1975@earthlink.net.Identifying Acts: The Examination of Self &Others in Contemporary Spanish Theater Since the end of theFranco dictatorship, Spain has undergone an extensive evolutionwith respect to its political, social and cultural identities. Thispanel invites papers on contemporary peninsular plays thatexamine the notion of Spanish identity in the post-Franco periodat the (inter)national, regional and/or individual levels(anycontext). Send 1-page abstracts by email to Susan Berardini:sberardini@pace.edu.Latin American/Latino Cinema: (Re)presentationsof Identity The panel will focus on literary adaptations in LatinAmerican/Latino cinema in the representations of identity withincultural contexts. Identity markers—race, ethnicity, class, gender,sexuality and politics—will be examined to reveal artisticcreativity and/or subversive intent in representative works.Ludmila Kapschutschenko-Schmitt; Department of ForeignLanguages and Literatures; Rider University; 2083 LawrencevilleRd.; Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 Phone/Fax: 609-530-1369;email:schmitt@rider.edu.Latin American Societal Discourse This panelwelcomes papers examining representations of societal conflictand possible resolutions in Latin American contemporaryculture. The roles of women, minorities, political leaders, andother voices in writing and other cultural representations will bestudied by this panel. Send abstracts to Monica Cantero-Exojo,Drew University: mcantero@drew.edu.Masculinities in Cuban and Puerto Rican FictionThis panel will explore masculinities in contemporary Cuban andPuerto Rican fiction. Special attention will be given to issues ofmale bonding, male rivalry as well as the representation ofheterosexuality and homosexuality in recent fiction. ElenaM.Martinez Baruch College (CUNY):Elena_martinez@baruch.cuny.edu.New Readings of Early Modern Spanish andSpanish-American Picaresque Narratives We invite papers onearly modern (1500-1820)Spanish and Spanish-Americanpicaresque narratives that reflect on topics such as individual andcollective identity, gender relations, and social and powerrelations, among others. Please send a 250 word abstract to Prof.Felipe Ruan & Prof. William Clamurro: fruan@ualberta.ca orwclamurr@emporia.edu.Nuevos y viejos exilios: variaciones sobre un mismomotivo Este panel tiene por objeto explorar la representación dela experiencia del exilio (físico y simbólico) en el espacionarrativo Ibérico contemporáneo. Enviar a Palmar Alvarez-Blanco, Carleton College. alvarezblanco@macalester.edu.Premios Nobel Españoles This panel welcomes papersin English or Spanish about the Nobel prize awardees from Spain,their works, and their treatment of the local with a universalreading, as well as their transcending their own cultural identitiesto achieve international recognition. Send abstracts to: JaimeDuran, Ph.D., Temple University, 1114 W. Berks St. Anderson428, Philadelphia PA 19122; email: jduran@temple.edu.Spatial Metaphors and Writing in Latin Americanand Latino/a Works For Latin American and Latino/a authorsin the United States, there is a direct relationship in therepresentation of space and writing. Essays that challenge themainstream and conceptualize spatial metaphors to contest orreject hegemonic powers are welcome. Email one-page abstractsas Word attachments to Kathryn Quinn-Sánchez, GeorgianCourt University: quinn-sanchezk@georgian.edu.Subversive Texts in Latin America This paneladdresses texts that are either themselves subversive in theirattempt to protest or question dictatorial regimes, or whosenarratives address subversive elements under oppressive regimes.Please send abstracts for papers addressing Latin Americanliterature, including the Spanish Caribbean, to Annette H.Levine: alevine@ithaca.edu.Synchronous and Asynchronous On-line Communicationin the Foreign Language Classroom This panelwelcomes papers examining the latest advancement in the use oftechnology in the foreign language classroom, specially the use ofsynchronous and asynchronous on-line communication. Pleasesubmit one-page abstract electronically to Isabel Moreno-Lopez,Goucher College: imoreno@goucher.edu.Transatlantic Women’s Voices in Modern andContemporary Hispanic Theater The panel will provide across Atlantic perspective on women’s dramaturgy in modern andcontemporary Spain and Latin America. It seeks papers thatembrace a variety of interdisciplinary analytic stances to providecomparison of the works of prominent and newly discoveredHispanic female playwrights. It willcontextualize women’s voices inHispanic theater in relation to time,space, gender and ethnicity. DariaCohen, Rider University:dcohen@rider.edu.Poet and feminist scholar Rachel BlauDupless presented from her new bookBlue Studios: Poetry and ItsCultural Work, at the Women’sStudies Reception. Photo: NicoleBurkart

June 2006 N e M L AViolence in Spanish Peninsular Literature Thispanel will broadly consider violence in Spanish Peninsular fiction.From the Inquisition and the persecution of Jews and Muslims tothe contemporary terrorist activities of ETA and “feminine”modes of aggression, proposals should address representations ofviolence as well as the relationship between violence, power,religion, and gender. Please send abstracts to: Maria DiFrancesco:mdifrancesco@ithaca.edu.Women’s StudiesSee also panels listed under:American: Belles, Bitches, and Everything in Between: ConstructingWomen in Literature of the American SouthFilm: Feminist Film and TheoryItalian: Italian Feminisms in (Trans)National Context30 Years After Susan Sontag’s On Photography:The Violence of the Photographic Image and Its Legacies InOn Photography, Susag Sontag addresses the violence inherent tothe photograph: “the modern camera is trying to be a ray gun.”We invite papers that explore the legacies of Sontag’s work onviolence and photography, particularly how literary and cinematicworks of crime and investigation mis/appropriate the mechanismsof photography as aesthetic tools of detection, seduction,violence, and death. We welcome proposals that consider but arenot limited to the following topics: the photograph as evidence;photographic ekphrasis; the camera as fetish; photographythwarting detective narrative; the relationship of still image andmotion pictures. Email to Marcelline Block, Masha Mimran,Princeton University: mblock@princeton.edu ormmimran@princeton.edu.The Act of Shifting Borders in Identity PoliticsGloría Anzaldúa uses the term mestizaje to describe theembodiment of simultaneous identities and the inherentcontradictions for women writers and theorists in belonging tomultiple cultures at the same time. The borders that separatethese identities perpetually change, reflecting the continual shiftthat marks identity politics. How do these borders create acultural identity that transcends the notion of multiple, splitcultures? How do cultural borders affect race, class, gender,nationality and ethnicity? Please send abstracts of approximately250 words to Kimberly Eaton at kimberlyanneaton@yahoo.comvia MS word email attachments.Bring It On: Personal and Political Action inFeminist Literature This panel focuses on the connectionsbetween women authors, personal healing, and the search forglobal justice. What is the relationship between women’spersonal empowerment and their political action, particularly inliterature by women of color in the last half of the 20th and thefirst years of the 21st century? It is a contribution to the growingbody of scholarship on literature by women of color, and relatesto continuing scholarship in the fields of American Literature,Gay/Lesbian literature, Race Studies, Cultural Studies, and globalactivist work. Susannah Bartlow, University at Buffalo:sbartlow@buffalo.edu.Comfort Zones: Conceptions of Place in 20thCentury Women’s Poetry Roundtable. In what ways domodern/post-modern women poets connect to locales as markersof identity? How do they use specific public and/or private spacesas metaphors for freedom, containment, acceptance or alienation?Papers can focus on single poets, dialogic relationships betweenpoets, as well as feminist poetics and pedagogy. What changeswhen we teachwomen poets in introductory literature courses asNews 21opposed to advanced courses in poetry and/or women’s studies?Abstracts by email to Ellen Dolgin, Dominican College ofBlauvelt: ellen.dolgin@dc.edu.Feminist Witchcraft in Literature, Film, and/orSocial Movements This panel welcomes papers from alldisciplines that address feminist reappropriation and reinterpretationof the witch in literature, film, and/or social movements. Itis known that second-wave feminists self-consciously choose thenegative term “witch” as their identification figure. The positiverendition of witches can be traced back to Jacob Grimm andJules Michelet’s revolutionary effort to redeem “the witch.”However, the use of the witch as a feminist double is alsoquestioned, for example, by Diane Purkiss. Please send anabstract of ca. 800 words and a brief CV to Qinna Shen,qinna.shen@yale.edu.The Legacies of the Second Wave Sponsored by theWomen’s Caucus. Feminist activists of the sixties and seventiesused the strategies developed by the civil rights movement andthe New Left to put on the political and public agenda a widerange of previously marginalized issues (such as rape, domesticviolence, pornography, and lesbian rights) that radically transformedcultural and social theory up to the present day. Thispanel seeks to highlight the legacies of the second wave of thewomen’s movement today, whether it is in the academic, popular,mainstream or legal arenas. These legacies may or may not bedesirable ones. Send abstracts to Carine Mardorossian, SUNYBuffalo: cm27@buffalo.eduMommy Lit: Product Placement, “Friendly”Competition, and Gender Prescriptions for the ThinkingMother This panel will explore “mommy lit” and its currentcultural significance. Mommy lit, for our purposes, encompasses“free” PR material given to mothers, magazines, memoir andother nonfiction mother-writing, along with novels aboutmodern mothers. This panel is open to discussions regardingconsumer culture, product placement, consumer culture’s role incompetition between mothers, autotheory about experienceswith these texts and parenting, prescriptions for genderedparenting and gendering children, images of mothering, andsocietal expectations about parenting. Please send a 250 to 500word abstract and a 50 word bio to Nicole Willey:nwilley@kent.edu.The Politics of Humor: Women and Satire in the20th-Century Seeking papers on Women and Humor in the20th-Century, in particular Satire and the use of humor as a formof social protest. Submit proposals to Sabrina Fuchs Abrams atSabrina.Fuchs-Abrams@esc.edu or 64 Leroy Street, Tenafly, NJ07670.Representation of Sex and Sexuality in RecentCaribbean Women’s Writing Since the 1990s, recentAnglophone Caribbean writing has broken the literary mold setby the texts of the 1950s onwards by foregrounding the trope ofsex and sexuality, along with the relational categories of race,class, and gender to give a fuller understanding of Caribbeanreality. There is now a pressing need for critical, scholarly,examination of this new dimension of Caribbean literature. Weseek papers that examine the representation of sex and sexualityas illustrated in the poetry, fiction, and autobiographical work ofcontemporary Women Writers of the Anglophone Caribbean.Send abstracts to Joyce Harte, Borough of Manhattan CC/CUNY: joyce_harte@yahoo.com.The Transatlantic New Woman Roundtable. TheNew Woman phenomenon spread from England to Americathrough variousliterary and cultural channels. We are seeking

22 N e M L ANews June 2006papers for a roundtable that interrogates the relationship betweenthe British and American New Woman in terms of literary andcultural dialogue and/or influence. Possible topics may include:literary dialogues between American and British New Womanfiction, the effect of American systems of class and race on theNew Woman phenomenon, American and British responses towomen’s suffrage, and intersections between the New Womanmovement and broader cultural institutions. Please sendabstracts for 15-minute papers to Cheryl Wilson:Cheryl.Wilson@iup.eduWhat’s a Woman to Do: Mothering in a Post-Apocalyptic World By its cultural definition, motherhood is arole that requires one to act as a caretaker, to provide a safe andsustaining environment, to enable the next generation’s wellbeing.But to live in a post-apocalyptic world suggests that theenvironment has become hostile to life, destroying the possibilityof a future and hope of regeneration. This panel explores howdoes post-1950s fiction present the mother figure within theconditions of a post-apocalyptic world? Potential approaches mayinclude: Ecocritical Readings, Feminist Theory, PsychoanalyticalTheory, and Cultural Studies. Submit a one page abstract with abrief CV to Ilse Schrynemakers, Fordham University:ischrynemakers@hotmail.com.Women’s Emancipation on Stage This panel aims toprovide a look at the ever-changing dynamic of women intheater. This panel will explore the ways in which theater,specifically theater written for, by and about women, has changed- evolved over the past 20 years. Papers dealing with minority/ethnic playwrights are particularly welcome. Email a briefdescription and an abstract to Sharon Brubaker atbrubaksm@drexel.eduTheorySee also panels listed under:American: American Literature, Literary Theory, and ConstitutionalLawFilm: Feminist Film and TheoryCritical Fidelity As scholars, critics, theorists,practitioners in the modern languages, what do we have faith in,keep faith with, remain faithful to? Texts, principles, history,people, culture, institutions, truth, language, rights, discipline,interdisciplinarity, the good, oneself, etc.? Of course “we” aremultiplicitous, indeed conflicted, as are the aspects of fidelity andthe question itself. Is it worth asking, or meaningful, fair,germane, etc.? Abstracts due 9/15/06 to ScottDeShong,spdes@conncoll.edu (preferred) or alternativelyQuinebaug Valley Community College, 742 Upper Maple St.,Danielson CT 06239, USA.Creative WritingSee also panels listed under:Comparative Literature: Multicultural Poetry ReadingPedagogy: Poetry and Pedagogy: Techniques to Tantalize Studentswith the Genre of PoetryPopular Culture: Breaking the Line: The Art of the Lyric Essay /False Memoirs: The Intersection of Fiction and Memory inContemporary Short FictionThe Call for Papers and updated membershipand convention information can be found at thewebsite: ww.nemla.org. Chairs will submittheir finalized panels online by October 1; theNEMLA Board will consider a limited number ofsecond-session requests.Caucus Paper PrizesThe Bromo SeltzerTower in BaltimoreNEMLA’s Caucuses awarded prizes for superioressays presented at the 2005 Convention in Cambridge: Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans Caucus Paper Prize:David Jarroway, “George Cukor and FilmicCollaboration: Subjective Displacement inAmerica’s Postwar Years” The prize is awarded forthe best LGBT-themed presentation given at theNEMLA Convention. Graduate Student Caucus: Katsura Sako, “A.S. Byatt’s ‘Half-Resurrection’ in Possession: ARomance.” The prize is awarded to the best essaypresented by a graduate student Women’s Caucus: Stephanie Harzewski for“A New Bildungsroman: Chick Lit Authors andTheir Character.” This prize is awarded to thebest essay on women authors and/or feministstudies.To be considered for the 2006 Caucusprizes, please submit a full-length essay version of apaper presented at the 2006 convention. For moredetails, visit the webpage for the specific caucus atwww. nemla.org.

June 2006 N e M L ANews 23Summer Fellowship ProgramNEMLA awarded three fellowships for 2006 tomembers for summer research: Laura Murphy, “Irruptions of Memory: TheTransatlantic Slave Trade in the Literature of WestAfrica” Christine Rinne, “Mastering the Maidservant:Dienstmadchen Fantasies in Germany andAustria, 1794-1918” Zoe Trodd, “The Long Juneteenth: NewSlave Narratives in the Global Economy”The NEMLA Summer Fellowship Programis designed to support primarily untenured juniorfaculty, graduate students, and independentscholars. This does not preclude senior facultyfrom applying. The $1,000 Fellowships are intendedto defray the cost of traveling incurred byresearchers in pursuing their work-in-progress overthe summer. The application deadline for Summer2007 awards is January 31, 2007; see website fordetails.MLS: Modern Language StudiesNEMLA members can take pride in the recognitionthat their journal MLS received from theCouncil of Editors of Learned Journals. In selectingMLS as runner-up for the Phoenix Award forSignificant Editorial Achievement, CELJ notedhow the “root & branch makeover” of MLSextends “the notion of what an academic journal isand can do.” In addition to its intense scholarlycommitment, CELJ noted that the essays are now“more lively, topical and diverse,” as well asapplauding the inclusion of translations, poemsand short creative pieces. “All this, set off by arevamped design and layout, seasoned wittilythroughout with what one judge calls ‘courageousgraphics.’”This rebirth has occurred through theenergetic leadership of editor Laurence Roth andthe support of Susquehanna University--both madepossible through the efforts of former NEMLAPresident Laura Niesen de Abruna. MLS invitesyour participation as readers, reviewers andauthors. Submission information is available insideMLS and on the NEMLA website.Annual Book AwardThe NEMLA Book Prize was awarded this year toAnnette Levine of Ithaca College, for her manuscriptCry for Me Argentina:The Performance ofTrauma in the Short Narrative of Aida Bortnik,Griselda Gambaro, and Tuana Mercado.The Northeast Modern Language Association(NeMLA) solicits unpublished book-length manuscriptson American, British, and other modernlanguageliterature and cultural studies and onrelated areas for its annual book award, given forthe best unpublished manuscript by a member ofNEMLA. To be eligible, the manuscript must becomplete and not under consideration by anyother press.Manuscripts should be prepared for blindsubmission, with no personal references in theintroduction, acknowledgments, title page, ortable of contents. Each award includes $100 incash and a recommendation for publication toOhio University Press or Fairleigh DickinsonUniversity Press. Normally two manuscripts areselected for prizes, one in English and one in theother modern languages, but the NEMLA bookcommittee may choose not to make one award orboth in a year. The winners are announced at theannual business meeting, held during NEMLA’sspring convention.For consideration, forward a bound and adisc copy by August 31, 2006 to Elizabeth Abele,Dept. of English, Nassau Community College, 1Education Dr., Garden City, NY 11530. Email anyquestions concerning the award toNortheast.MLA@gmail.com.Present and past MLS editors, Laurence Roth and Michael Kiskis,at the keynote address. Photo: Nicole Burkart

24 N e M L A News June 2006Key Dates2006Aug. 31: Manuscript deadline for Book AwardSept. 15: General deadline for the submission ofabstract/papers for panel calls (individual panelcalls may vary).Oct. 1: Panel chairs must send completed panelforms to Executive Director.Nov. 30: All renewing members should rejoin bythis date, as the membership year for 2007 runs fromDec. 1, 2006-Nov. 30, 2007Dec. 15: Papers for the 2006 Gay and LesbianCaucus Prize and Graduate Student Caucus Prizedue to chairs.N e M L ANewsEditor: Nowell Marshall, University ofCalifornia-RiversideThis newsletter is produced twice annuallyfor members of NeMLA. Updated news andinformation is available at the NeMLA websitewww.nemla.org. To post additional informationor corrections, please contact the webmasters:nemlaweb@gmail.comNortheast Modern Language AssociationElizabeth Abele, Executive DirectorNassau Community College1 Education DriveGarden City, NY 11530RETURN SERVICE REQUESTEDDec. 18: Papers for the 2006 Women’s Caucus Prizedue to chair2007Jan 15: American Antiquarian Society/NEMLAFellowship applications due; see AAS websiteJan. 31: Summer Fellowship Proposals due toSecond Vice PresidentMarch 1-4: Annual Convention in Baltimore,MarylandApril 15: Deadline for Panel Proposals for 2008ConventionMark Your our Calendars! Buffalo: : April 3-6Annette Magid, Local Liaison, and Erie CommunityCollege are already making preparations forthe 2008 Convention. Among the special eventsplanned:– tour of SUNY-Buffalo’s rare book room andFrank Lloyd Wright’s Darwin Martin house (busservice provided by SUNY-Buffalo)–walking tour of downtown Buffalo– lecture at Buffalo-Erie County Library on theiroriginal Twain manuscripts.– Saturday night trip to Niagara Falls.NEMLA members had a great time inBuffalo in 2000. Please plan to join us.Non-Profit Org.U.S. PostagePAIDGarden City, NY11530Permit # 329