Conference Calls for Papers

Page last updated November 20 2011

Posted: November 18 2011

Deadline: 15 January 2012

Canadian and Quebec Literatures in a Global Context
Association for Canadian and Quebec Literatures Annual Conference
May 26-28, 2012
Wilfrid Laurier University and University of Waterloo,
Waterloo, Ontario

La version française suit

In accordance with the theme of Congress 2012, “Crossroads: Scholarship for an Uncertain World,” the Association for Canadian and Quebec Literatures (ACQL) invites papers that consider the ways in which Canadian and Quebec literatures are written, read, theorized, and taught in a global context. The existence of transnational economic, political, and cultural systems, along with the prevalence of new technologies of communication, have created a context in which ongoing issues—such as nationalism, Quebec sovereignty, First Nations self-government, feminism, sexual and civil rights—have had to be resituated. How do literary texts register and contribute to this process? What role do writers play in the redefinition of Canada’s place in a global community? While Quebec literature is emancipating itself from foreign legitimating bodies, mainly the French literary institution, and has acquired an international status, Canadian literature has increasingly found a readership for its works in other parts of the world: how have these processes shaped the ways in which Canadians perceive themselves, and are perceived by others? Such questions are especially pertinent to contemporary life and writing, but it can also be argued that the literatures of Canada and Quebec have long been marked by the kind of awareness of intercultural contact characteristic of a global society. Canadian and Quebec literatures record histories of contact amongst diverse peoples, from the first encounters between First Nations and European colonists, to successive waves of immigration. Canadian and Quebec writers have maintained complex connections with artistic movements based abroad, and have often relied on cross-border and transatlantic publishing networks for the dissemination of their work.

We welcome proposals that explore the ways in which Canadian and Quebec writings have, throughout their histories, responded to the uncertainties and opportunities generated by shifting conceptualizations of Canada’s, and Quebec’s, place in the world.

Possible topics:

The literatures of globalization
Transnational literatures
Canadian and Quebec literatures in translation
The institutionalization of Canadian and Quebec literatures
Canadian and Quebec writing and the international world of letters (book prizes, media coverage, etc.)
The reading / teaching / marketing of Canadian and Quebec literatures outside Canada and Quebec
Frontier writing and cultural liaisons between Canada / Quebec and the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, etc.
Positioning: centre and periphery; globalization and regionalization; urban and rural; here and there
Canadian and Quebec literatures as postcolonial
First Nations writing within a transnational / global context
Transculture and cultures in contact

We also welcome member-organized sessions on topics related to any aspect of Canadian and Quebec literatures. Calls for member-organized sessions should be no more than 200 words. They are due on or before 30 November 2011 and will be posted on the ACQL website.

Please send paper proposals (no more than 300 words) with a short biography and a 50-word abstract in Word or RTF to one of the coordinators listed below by 15 January 2012.

All paper or session proposals can be written in French or English. Those who propose papers or sessions must be members of the ACQL by March 1, 2012. See the ACQL website (www.alcq-acql.ca) for membership and registration information.

Coordinator (English)
Professor Sara Jamieson
Department of English
Carleton University
Dunton Tower 1812
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, ON
K1S 5B6
Telephone: (613) 520-2600 ex. 2431
Fax: (613) 520-3544
e-mail: sara_jamieson@carleton.ca

Coordinator (French)
Professor Lucie Hotte
Department de français
Université d’Ottawa
60 rue Université
Ottawa, ON
K1N 6N5
Telephone: 613-562-5800 poste 1078
Fax: 613-562-6891
e-mail: lhotte@uottawa.ca

Posted: January 20 2011

Deadline: February 1 2012

Interdisciplinary / Multidisciplinary Woolf

University of Saskatchewan

7-10 June 2012 Call for Submissions

Some collaboration has to take place in the mind . . . before the art of creation can be accomplished. Some marriage of opposites has to be consummated. The whole of the mind must lie wide open….

(A Room of One’s Own)

We have come together…to make one thing, not enduring—for what endures?—but seen by many eyes simultaneously.

(The Waves)

This conference invites explorations of Virginia Woolf’s work from a range of different disciplinary perspectives and practices. We welcome proposals on any aspect of Woolf studies, and especially papers or performances that: - respond to Virginia Woolf and her texts from interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary approaches; - respond to the inter- and multidisciplinary work carried out by Virginia Woolf and her circle; and/or - respond to the implications of Virginia Woolf’s work by applying its themes and claims to other disciplinary, institutional, social, or cultural contexts. Proposals may reflect (but should not be limited to) methodologies and knowledge from disciplines such as: Queer Studies, the Digital Humanities, Native Studies, Literary Studies, History, Translation Studies, Art and Art History, Drama, Psychology/ Psychoanalysis, Business Administration, Media and Communications, Music, Political Science, the Study of Sexualities, Postcolonial Theory, Children's Literature and Studies, Editing and Publishing, Creative Writing, Religious Studies, Economics, Film, the Study of Teaching and Learning, Cultural Studies, Sociology, Ecocriticism, Health, Women’s and Gender Studies, Anthropology, Disability Studies, Law…

Submissions from artists, writers, community activists, administrators, “common readers,” independent scholars, teachers, academics, and students are welcomed. For paper proposals, please send a 250-word abstract as a Word attachment. For panel proposals, please submit a 250-word description of each paper to be presented by the three panel participants along with the proposed panel title. Because we will be using a blind submission process, please do not include your name on your proposal. Instead, in your covering e-mail, please include your name(s), institutional affiliation (if any), paper title(s), and contact information.

Proposals and inquiries should be directed to: woolf@arts.usask.ca The deadline for submissions is 1 February 2012.

Posted: August 1 2011

Deadline: September 15 2011

Announcing the 2012 Canadian Literature Symposium

The Worlds of Carol Shields April 27-29 2012

Essayist and fiction writer, playwright and poet, CAROL SHIELDS had an extraordinary literary career, winning, among other prizes, the American Book Critics’ Circle Award, the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, the Governor General’s award for Fiction, and the Pulitzer Prize. The University of Ottawa granted her an MA (1975) and conferred on her the first of her honorary degrees (1995). Proposals are invited for this major conference. All topics are welcome, biographical, literary, and especially new methodologies of reading her many writings. Send electronic or paper proposals by September 15, 2011 to David Staines (dstaines@uottawa.ca) Dept. of English University of Ottawa Ottawa ON K1N 6N5